Ravensong (26 page)

Julian rolled his eyes in
disgust. “She probably went out early for a run or
something.”

“
Her bed wasn’t slept in
last night.”

Julian reached in his
pocket for his phone. “I’m sure there’s a logical
explanation.”

“
Then why isn’t she
answering her cell phone?”

Joshua didn’t know what to
do. If he could get Elliot alone, that would be one thing, but the
entire
Avalanche
crew was standing around, obviously concerned about Elena’s
safety. There was no way to explain this without looking like a
lecherous cad.

“
Maybe her phone’s dead,”
offered Michael.

“
Where did she sleep last
night?”

Michael shrugged. Julian
began dialing the main
Avalanche
office. “Did you ask at the desk?”

“
Of course I did. I wanted
to know if anyone had seen her leave.”

“
Hey, Simone, I need you to
pull Elena’s emergency information. Yep. No, everything’s fine
here. No, don’t worry about it. Yeah, I need her parents’ phone
number and her fiance’s. No really, everything’s fine. We just need
to contact them. No, don’t worry. Yeah, that’s right. Just those
two numbers.”

Elliot started pacing.

“
Take this down,” barked
Julian at him and Elliot pulled out his own cell phone.

Robert elbowed Joshua in the side,
snapping his paralysis.

“
3...5...”

“
Elliot?” said
Joshua.

Elliot waved him off.
“3...5...”

“
5...” continued
Julian.

“
Elliot!”

“
Wait a minute, Josh,” he
said, frantically punching numbers into the phone.

“
Elliot, stop!”

Elliot’s head snapped up
and his eyes met Joshua’s.

Joshua briefly closed his
eyes, then fixed them on his friend. “Elena’s fine.”

“
What?”

Joshua glanced around at
the staring crowd. He felt like he was going to be sick. “Elena was
with me last night.”

Julian threw up his hands
and slapped them against his thighs. He snapped his cell phone shut
without saying goodbye. Placing his hands on his hips, he glared at
Joshua, but Joshua could only see the shock, then hurt that played
across his friend’s face.

“
She was with you,” said
Elliot. “With you?”

“
El, I’m sorry.” Joshua
reached out for him, but he batted his hand away.

“
Save it. You made me a
promise.”

“
I know, but if you’ll just
give me a chance.”

Elliot rounded on him,
bristling in fury. “Give you a chance. Ha! I gave you a chance and
look what I got.”

“
El, you don’t
understand.”

“
Oh, I understand, all
right! You stabbed me in the back.”

“
El...”

Elliot gave a sneer of disgust and
turned away, pushing through the crowd and storming off across the
lobby.

Joshua looked down.
The
Avalanche
roadies started dispersing, muttering to each other. One in
particular gave him a virulent look. He felt Robert’s hand on his
shoulder.

“
You are poison,” said
Julian.

Joshua’s gaze lifted to
Julian.

“
Pure poison.” He also
turned and moved away.

Joshua’s eyes shifted to
Michael and Ralph. Both were staring at him in a mixture of worry
and shock. Joshua didn’t know what to say. There was nothing he
could do to make this all right for anyone.

Shaking his head, Michael pushed past
Joshua, bumping him deliberately with his shoulder. Joshua let him
go. There was no point in trying to vindicate himself
now.

* * *

Elena turned as the door
opened. The smile dried on her lips as she saw the expression on
Joshua’s face. He met her eye, then looked away, moving to the bed
and taking a seat. She sat down beside him, knowing instinctively
what had happened.

“
They know,” she said
calmly.

He braced his forearms on
his thighs and stared at his hands. “I’m sorry.”

“
What happened?”

“
Elliot wanted to take you
to breakfast. When you didn’t answer at your room or on your cell,
he pulled the entire band together.”

Elena closed her eyes.

“
You should have seen the
look on his face. I had to stop him. They were getting your
parents’ phone number to tell them you were missing.”

She reached out and wrapped
her arms around him, laying her head against his. “I should have
told Elliot myself.”

“
No, it was my
responsibility. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.”

The cell phone on the night stand
started to vibrate. They turned and stared at it. With a sigh,
Elena rose and retrieved it, pushing open the cover and placing it
against her ear.

Julian’s voice hammered
into her head. “I expect you at the meeting in five minute,” he
commanded.

“
Julian...” she
began.

“
Tell Ravensong his
presence is prohibited.”

“
What?”

The line went dead in her
hand.

Joshua was watching her with narrowed
eyes.

“
He ordered me to the
morning meeting.”

Joshua nodded. “All right.
If he says he’s going to fire you, I’ll tell him I
quit.”

“
Joshua, he said your
presence was prohibited. His words exactly.”

Joshua frowned.
“Prohibited?”

Elena shrugged.

“
Don’t go. I don’t want you
being put up for public humiliation. That’s why he doesn’t want me
there. Forget this crap, Elena. He can’t complete this tour without
you.”

“
I have to go.”

“
Why?”

“
I have to face whatever he
wants to throw at me. I’m not running from someone like Julian. He
doesn’t control my personal life.”

Joshua looked away. “I’m
sorry, Elena. You warned me, but I wouldn’t listen. I’m so sorry
it’s come to this. If I had just listened...”

“
You what? Would you take
back what we have?” She came to the edge of the bed again. “I was
the one who was wrong. I asked you to keep this a secret and it
hurt your friendship with Elliot. I should never have done that. No
job is worth any of this.” She placed her hands on his
shoulders.

He banded her waist with
his arms and looked up at her. “Are you sure? You haven’t gone to
Julian’s meeting yet.”

She smiled at him and
placed her forehead against his. “Nothing he does has any effect on
me anymore. All that matters is how right it feels to be here with
you.” Lowering her head, she kissed him, slanting her mouth to meet
his fully.

He tightened his grip on her, dragging
her onto his lap and deepening the kiss.

Elena drew away with a
laugh. “You’d better stop. I’ve only got about two minutes left
before I get fired.”

“
Mmm,” he said, kissing her
again. “I wouldn’t want to make you late for that.”

* * *

Elena was surprised at how calm she
felt as she entered the conference room. The band was assembled at
the table, but none of them would meet her gaze except for Robert.
He gave her a tight smile. She returned it, her eyes drifting to
Elliot. He was slumped in his chair, a sullen look on his
face.

Julian turned from the refreshment
table, coffee mug in hand, and surveyed her.

Elena decided to take the
offensive. “Listen, Julian, before you begin the meeting, I want
you to know that I view my personal life as off-limits in this job
and I will not stand for any discussion of it.”

“
Fine,” he said. “Take a
seat and let’s get started.”

Elena stared at him. She
wasn’t sure she’d heard him correctly. The other band members also
exchanged surprised looks. Moving forward, Elena pulled out her
chair and sank into it. She had gotten herself all worked up to
confront Julian, but wasn’t sure what to do with her outrage now
that she didn’t need it.

Julian settled his mug on the table,
then folded his hands. He made a production out of looking around
the table. Again the band members exchanged looks. Finally, Julian
blew out his air and leaned back in his seat.

“
Obviously, we’ve come to a
crossroad and we have to make a decision one way or another. I’ve
tried to make this clear to each of you on numerous occasions, but
you haven’t wanted to listen to me. Now we have no choice. I see
two clear paths before us – one leading us back into obscurity and
another leading us to continued success.”

“
No journey is
without its sacrifices and although we don’t wish to be faced with
such choices, sometimes they become unavoidable. You have got to
think of
Avalanche
as a company and make executive decisions about its future
without allowing emotion to cloud your judgment.”

“
What the hell are you
talking about?” snapped Elliot.

Julian reached for his
coffee cup and took a deliberate sip, then replaced it, clasping
his hands together once more. “Ravensong has got to go.”

Elena had been so wrapped
up in her own fate that she hadn’t considered this might be
Julian’s move, but it made sense. Why not attack the object of his
hate when the rest of the band members were angry at him,
especially his staunchest ally, Elliot?

The guitarist immediately lowered his
head and glared at the table. The rest of the band made restless
adjustments in their seats and stared at one another.

“
Hear me out,” said Julian,
rising to his feet. “We’ve known our time with him was limited. It
was only a matter of time before he did something so
self-destructive that we would have to let him go. We’ve all been
afraid of finding him passed out with a needle in his arm or
putting a gun in his mouth.”

When the others gave grunts
of outrage, Julian held up his hands. “I’m just saying what we’ve
all thought. Don’t sit here and tell me it hasn’t crossed each of
your minds.” He leaned on the table. “I’m not saying he hasn’t
brought a lot to this band. I’ll even give him credit for moving us
beyond small gigs to what we are today, but his time is over.
Honestly, he’s a has-been. Hollywood has lost interest and the
music world will follow. You mark my words. He was only interesting
when he was a druggy. Now that he’s apparently clean, he’s
nothing.”

Elena started to protest,
then stopped herself. Joshua didn’t need her to defend him against
Julian. What he needed was for the band to realize what he brought
to them, and they had to do that on their own. She couldn’t bring
them to that understanding.

“
I don’t like where this is
going, Julian,” said Robert. “This is an underhanded attempt to get
rid of someone you personally don’t like.”

“
How so, Bob? Because he’s
not here? He’s not a partner in the band, is he?”

“
I don’t like it because
you know what a scene we just had not an hour before. The band
members are angry at him, but none of them know the real
truth.”

Julian shook his head.
“That’s not what this is about at all. In fact, it is simply the
thing that convinced me something had to be done. Honestly, are you
going to let him dictate to us whether we tour Europe? Are you
going to let him stifle us here in the states? He’s never going to
change. He’s always going to smile in your face, but stab you in
the back the moment you let your guard down.” His eyes fixed on
Elena. “I know you don’t want to discuss your personal life, but I
sure hope you don’t think this will last. It was only a conquest to
show Elliot he could have whatever Elliot wanted. That’s
all.”

Elena’s eyes widened.
Elliot glanced at her, then glared at Julian.

“
That’s not fair,” said
Robert, his shoulders squaring with anger. “You don’t know anything
about it and it isn’t right to make them both believe something
that doesn’t involve you.”

“
It does involve me!”
shouted Julian, slamming his hand on the table. “This is my
livelihood the same as you and I won’t stand around and let some
two-bit junkie ruin it for me.”

“
How has he ruined
anything?” asked Michael.

Julian leaned toward him.
“He refused the European tour...”

“
None of us were too keen
on it either,” said Michael.

“
Well, how do you think
this latest fiasco is going to play out? Do you want the band to
break up over Ravensong’s flavor of the week?”

Michael looked away. Elena knew Julian
had just played into the one fear Michael harbored. He was a
skilled manipulator, that was certain.

“
Do you really believe
we’re anything without him, Julian?” said Ralph. For once his
demeanor was not sarcastic.