Bad Boy vs Millionaire (20 page)

I
didn’t get to see Angie much before I was due to leave. She worked literally day and night to get her portfolio ready to hand in. The one time I did see her, she had black rings around her eyes and she bolted down a coffee before running off again.

“
I thrive on stress,” she’d said.

Since
Tamaki wanted to leave as soon as possible, we’d decided I’d go with him and Angie would follow in a few days. I hadn't said anything to Angie about my conversation with Tamaki. How do you tell someone that your fiance thinks they aren't good enough to come to your engagement party? Because that's what it boiled down to. He thought she would be an embarrassment. That kind of made me feel a bit ick. When he'd tried to kiss me after that, I didn't want to return his kiss. It'd made my heart feel a little bit cold.

I
should've been so excited, heading overseas to be the star of a huge party to celebrate my engagement. About to return to a life of luxury with a gorgeous man. That was like a dream. Only I couldn't get into it. I'd pack a few things then wonder if anything exciting was on TV or stop to check my twitter. I had to force myself to get motivated. That bag had to be packed. We were leaving that night. Tamaki had said not to pack much, that we could buy anything we needed when we got there but I didn't want him buying me things, I'd rather have my own things.

The
apartment seemed too small, as though I needed to get out and away from that damn suitcase. Maybe I’d go out for coffee and some lunch. I had plenty of time. I wasn't leaving until later in the night. I had all the time in the world.

Then
the phone rang.

I
thought it must be Angie.

She’d
been calling me a random moments and firing off questions. I thought her brain was getting addled from lack of sleep and overwork. I mean, she wasn’t seriously worried about a Godzilla attack in Tokyo?

“
Hannah, you all packed? I hope you have everything sorted out.”

Dad.
Not Angie.

“
Nearly packed.” I sighed. “I’m glad you called. What do I have to do about the apartment? I’ve never had the landlord’s details.”

“
Huh? They own the building, Han. Why do you think you’re living there rent free? I said I didn't want you living in that horrible old place and Ichiro said he'd sort it out.”

But Dad had only said Tamaki had organised the apartment, he hadn’t said that they owned it.
Why did they keep that from me?

“
So, what's going on?”

Every time Dad called, it seemed it was to pressure me into something.
I remembered when we could just chat about things, and I hadn’t felt as though I had to be guarded about every word I said.

“
Oh, I talked to Frank. It seems like we might have things sorted out soon, might even be able to move back into the house. That'll be great, won't it? And get all the stuff back. I can't believe they swooped in and took it all like that. I really thought you'd be left with enough to live on.”

I
heard him light up a cigarette.

“
Are you going to restart the company? Are you coming home? Can you just walk back in and have everything go back to normal? That seems a bit strange.”

“
Yeah, it's not so easy, Han. I mean reputation is everything and that's… Maybe I'm screwed in that country now. I'm thinking of selling up everything and staying in Asia. Ichiro has a lot of connections. He can get me set up with a nice little deal in China.”

I
don't know why, but that made my heart sink. It somehow didn't seem above board. For once, Dad seemed in a chatty mood though. Maybe I could get some answers without him giving me the brush off.

“
What happened, Dad? How did things go crashing down so fast?” I picked at the cuticle on my thumbnail. My polish had chipped and that annoyed Tamaki.

“
I never did anything illegal, Hannah. Trust me. But I'd overextended myself, got in too deep, then had to borrow from here to cover things over there. That kind of thing. And it's business, you know. Sometimes you have to deal with people who aren't so… well, who might be a bit shady. But they have nothing on me and it's going to be okay.”

That was
the problem. Dad said he’d done nothing wrong but then he’d say they had nothing on him. If he’d done nothing wrong, he’d not have to worry about anyone having any proof. Maybe I didn't want to know more. Who knew how long that shady dealing had gone on? Dad used to take me around with him. Every school holidays I'd be in the office or on site, hanging out at meetings. Then he'd stopped all that, telling me I was too old to go with him; that a teenage girl was a distraction and he didn't like the way the men looked at me.

R
eally, if a teenage girl was a distraction, how would those men be when I took over the company? They'd have to deal with me every day. It just didn't ring true. Maybe stuff had gone on at those meetings he didn't want me to hear.

“
And the band management company?”

He
laughed.

“
I'd forgotten I'd even signed that over to you. It was a bit of a joke really. Some of those guys. Did you ever get in touch with them? We had some fun times back in the day.”

To
be honest, I'd never really gotten in touch with any of the other acts signed to the company. There were a few old timers, who'd had some success years and years ago, but I’d forgotten all about them when I’d taken the company on. After all, Storm were the band with the future.

“
So, why did you sign Storm?”

“
Favour to an old friend.” He paused for a moment and cleared his throat. “I'd forgotten I'd even signed them. Anyway, I’ve got things to do. Must rush. Oh, by the way, do you have some friend coming over with you? Seems Tamaki’s a bit upset about it. You should be careful. Don’t want to muck things up this close.”

I
dropped the phone then kicked it across the room. Screw him and screw Tamaki. That was just too much.

So
, Jack decided to sign the contract and nothing Eric or I said made a difference. He'd just brushed all our arguments away like he'd go through with this no matter what. And he was going through with it like a man goes through with his execution. According to Eric, he'd been a pain in the arse all week too. The slightest thing would send him off and he'd gone home the night before with his knuckles all scraped up, as if he'd punched a wall.

“
What's she doing here?” asked Spud. He met us outside the office and the first thing he did was give me a dirty look.

“
Being a charmer, as usual,” I replied. “I'm here for kicks. And I'm going to kick you if you don't shut up.”

Ha,
that scared him. I'm so hardcore.

“
Yeah, what are you doing here?” said Jack.

“
I'm here to document the moment for the website. Your fans will want to see the exact moment you sell out. It's a big thing.”

He
scowled at me but didn't say anything. It was true. In a way.

“
We can back out still,” said Eric. “It's not too late.”

Jack
scowled even more. His whole forehead was folding in on itself like a piano accordion, he was scowling so hard.

We
got in the elevator.

“
This is our ride to the big time!”

“
Spud, your lame is of totally epic proportions. You are like the Disneyland of lame. The lamest kingdom of them all.”

“
Yeah, well, you won't be saying that when I have chicks queuing around the block to suck my dick.” He sniggered.

“
Seriously, yes, I think I will.” He could be the king of band drummers for all I cared. Some things money can’t buy and lame remover was one of them.

The
lift door opened and we walked into the office to wait for Hipster Chaz to come out and greet us.

Eric
looked as if he had lost his favourite Pokemon card. I'd told him to just refuse to sign but he'd said he couldn't. A band is a democracy and you had to do go with majority rule. Personally, I'm not a fan of majority rule. I'm a fan of Angie rule. That way I never had to do anything I didn't want to do.

Hipster
Chaz greeted us with a huge bottle of champagne in his arms. One of those novelty oversized bottles like they have for the winners at a sporting event. I bet it tasted like shit. I'd much rather have a beer. I mean, who amongst the four of us did he think he was impressing with that? Oh yeah, maybe Spud.

“
Come through,” he said.

I
got out my camera and started taking photos.

“
I'm taking promo shots,” I said. “For the website.”

“
Ah, usually we do our own in-house promotion but I'm not sure what the boss wanted with you guys. Anyway, take a seat and I'll work out the paperwork.”

He
ran off again. That guy must burn a zillion calories in a workday with all the running around he did. It'd be a killer if he actually organised himself.

Then
it struck me. He talked about the boss but we'd never actually met him. Even when Eric and I had checked out their website, all the management details were a bit vague.

When
Hipster Chaz came back, he gave each of the guys a copy of the contract.

“
Wait,” I said. “Before the guys sign, I'd like to know a bit more about the boss. Who is he and why does he want to sign Storm?”

Jack
had the pen in his hand, ready to sign. He paused.

“
The boss, he's a pretty cool guy. I thought you'd met him. He's only just taken over, bought out the whole company for an insane amount of money, then the first thing he did was insist we get you guys on the roster, like it was the most important thing in the world. I figured he must have seen you play and been blown away.”

He
scratched his head again.

“
That's strange indeed.”

I
caught Eric's eye. He seemed to be thinking the same thing as me.

“
So, is the owner a Japanese guy? Called Tamaki?”

“
Ha, you do know him then. I thought so. He was very insistent about this whole thing. I have to call him as soon as you sign up, so we should move things along.”

His
breezy persona totally slipped and he stared at the pen in Jack's hand as though he wanted to move it through the sheer force of his own will.

Jack
sat the pen on the table.

“
What's going on?” He turned to Eric.

“
We're not signing,” I said.

“
Huh? Stop being crazy,” said Spud.

He
picked up the pen while Jack looked at us with a puzzled face. Jack looked as if he knew something was wrong but just couldn’t figure it out. I was already about 10 steps ahead of him.

“
I'm not sure what's going on here but it looks like this is just a ploy to get you away from Hannah. It's as shady as fuck. It’s as shady as a bucket of fucks at a shady fuck convention.”

“
Calm down, man,” said Chaz. “It's all sweet.”

“
We're prawns aren't we? Prawns in your stupid game.” Spud thumped the table.

“
Pawns.” Sheesh, Spud could be dumb sometimes. But at least he’d gotten the main point. My heart raced. I’d worked out the “what” but I couldn’t work out the “why”. I felt like there should be someone with a mask we could rip off who’d fill in all the details like in a Scooby Doo cartoon. But there was only Hipster Chaz and I didn’t think his face would rip off. I could always try though.

“
Whatever,” said Jack. “It's all fishy. He owns the company. He has no interest in our band. He just wants her. I thought he could give her everything I couldn't but he's as bad as her father. That woman is so fucking complicated.”

“
We've got to tell her. We've got to get to the bottom of this.” Eric looked at the others for support. “We can’t sign this contract until we know what’s going on. I mean, it’s only two days until the tour starts and we don’t want to get bogged down in some mess.

“
Hell yeah.” Jack jumped up. “I stepped aside so she could be with him for what…”

What
the hell? So, all that maddeningly stupid behaviour of his had been on purpose? Not only on purpose but with noble and self-sacrificing intentions? All of a sudden, I was fully on Team Jack.

“
Shit, Jack, we have to get to Hannah. We have to stop her before she gets on that plane. Before she disappears from us forever. Who knows what will happen if she’s in their clutches. They are going to do bad things to her. Come on guys, we need to go on Operation: Rescue Hannah.”

I
jumped up and grabbed Jack by the arm. Even if it meant I’d miss out on my trip to Tokyo, it didn’t matter. So long as Hannah could be saved.

“
This is a joke, right. There's a camera somewhere and I'm being punked?” Chaz looked around us. “You people are smoking the crack pipe, right. With your conspiracy theories and the like, and I'm the butt of the joke.”

“
Yeah, you're the butt,” I said. “But this is serious.”

“
Angie, it's not life and death. Hannah's not flying out until later tonight and I doubt Tamaki is actually going to sell her to the white slave trade or anything. She will probably be safe until you get to Tokyo.”

Eric
tried to be the voice of reason but I had chills. I really didn't want her to get on that plane. Anyway, what was the point? If she found out about the plot, she'd totally dump Tamaki so there'd be no need for an engagement party.

“
We have to tell her, Eric. She has to know what she's getting into.”

Chaz drummed his fingers on the table.

“Hey, people, we are here to sign a contract, remember?”

The
hipster was definitely getting worried now. He had a sweat moustache showing through his beard. It made me wonder if he was getting some kind of reward for having us sign up.

“
What do you think, Jack?” Eric asked.

“
I want to find that bastard and get some answers.”

I
held my breath. That was like, wow. He really loved her. You just had to see the look of steely determination on his face. No one was going to keep him from her.

Jack
ripped the contract up into pieces.

“
Let's go,” he said. He put his jacket on and stood up.

Spud
sighed.

“
I knew. The moment I saw her, I knew it. She's trouble. We shoulda walked away from her then.”

Eric
and I followed Jack from the room while Spud lingered in the doorway.

“
Come on, Spud. You just have to deal,” I said, putting my arm around his shoulders to guide him out. He looked broken.

“
Just a minute,” he said.

He
ran back into the room and came out with the oversized champagne bottle.

“
If I'm losing out on everything else, I'm at least taking this.”

He
cradled it in his arms like a baby.

***

Damn Hannah. She wasn't at her apartment when we got there and she wasn't answering her phone. I could actually hear her phone ringing from inside the apartment while I was ringing the doorbell. I hoped she was just asleep and would answer soon but I could hear nothing but that phone. No footsteps, nothing.

“
Wow, this is a fancy place,” Spud said. “Why doesn't she have one of those security entrances where you buzz from downstairs?”

“
She does, it doesn't work,” Jack and I both said at the same time.

I
didn't even know why Spud was still with us. It wasn't as if he had any interest in stopping Hannah from leaving and he was still carrying around that champagne bottle like it was his security blanket.

I
gave up and tried Tamaki's door but that was no use either.

“
Where could she be? Do you have Tamaki's phone number?” Eric asked.

I
shook my head. I’d had no need of his number before. They could be anywhere in the city.

“
I could shimmy up to the balcony and try to get in,” said Spud.

As
much as I'd have liked to see that, I didn't think it'd do much good.

“
The cafe?” Jack said, and I thought that was a good idea. If Hannah wasn't at her apartment, she was usually at the cafe. Or out with Tamaki and that could be anywhere. But even then, she'd take her phone with her. Unless they'd kidnapped her. They'd knocked her out and were going to take her on that plane against her will. That could be it. We definitely had to find her.

We
all piled back into Jack's car and headed for the cafe but it didn't help. Well, it helped in the way that we got coffee.

I
was really getting worried about Hannah. Tamaki had proven he couldn’t be trusted. I mean, maybe, just maybe, he had a good and ethically sound reason for buying the management company and offering Storm that contract but I couldn’t imagine what it was. If he was honest, he’d have told us right from the start.

Still,
if I was worried, Jack looked as if he was about to implode. He walked with his fist clenched and his face hardened. From the look in his eyes, if anyone could find Hannah, it’d be him.