Shit! One of the old crew. Time to get out of here.

She fought to get out of the hot, heaving mass, afraid again of being seized, taken, beaten, anything, and ran back to the less populated area. Now the backs of the buildings were almost deserted, everyone having run forward to see where the action was.

‘Jeez,’ she whispered to herself, mopping her brow under the hood.

She put her hands in the front pockets of her hoodie and found something else there, along with her dad’s tenner. Oh. The last time she’d worn this, she’d …

She brought out a key ring with a lone silver key on it. It was the key to the back gate of the youth club, last used when she’d had to take a big delivery of pop and crisps for a disco. When she’d been sacked, nobody had remembered that there were duplicates to all the keys, including this rarely used number.

With trembling hands, she unlocked the padlock and slipped into the yard. A few stragglers noticed and shouted.

‘Look, we can get in the back!’

But she held up a hand, shaking her head vigorously as she re-locked the padlock and darted away to the stores, which were unlocked.

It was a good place to hide. Cool, dark, uninhabited, the little room was stacked with boxes. An old fridge hummed in the corner. Whatever was going on was happening in the main hall – the offices outside in the corridor were probably empty. Perhaps she could sneak in and get a peek at Deano and whatever he was doing.

She opened the door as silently as possible and crept along the passageway. The door at the end, leading to the main hall, was open. She pressed herself against the wall, seeing nothing but camera flashes and the big picture of a dope-smoking rave crocodile one of the kids had painted on the far wall. Not Jason this time.

There was a massive round of applause, then the screech of feedback as somebody tried to gain control of the useless microphone. She’d had endless trouble with that shitty thing when she’d deejayed the youth club discos. Apparently it hadn’t been replaced yet, then.

‘Right … yeah? Is that OK now? Right. Sorry. Good thing the band aren’t here, eh? The feedback would have killed you all by now.’

There was scattered laughter and a whoop.

‘Anyway, looks like we’re sorted now, so hello, Bledburn!’ He shouted the last two words, and his long tail on the ‘burn’ was drowned out by rapturous cheers and whistles.

‘God, I’ve missed you,’ he said, as the noise fell. ‘I’m just starting to wake up to the fact that I’ve spent the last twenty years living without my heart – ’cos I left it here. Thanks for looking after it for me.’

‘Aww’ noises drifted into the corridor. Kayley stuck out her tongue, feeling her gag reflex springing into action. Or was it her bullshit monitor? One of the two. He knew how to play a crowd, even a tough crowd like this.

His words droned into a blur as she looked around her, wondering exactly how she was going to extricate herself from this situation. She had been seen and recognised. No doubt the bush telegraph would have spread around the local crowd by now, and those who were involved with Harville’s little gang would have their eyes peeled and knuckledusters at the ready.

Footsteps came from the back of the hall into the corridor. As quickly as she could, Kayley slipped behind the office door and held her breath. The footsteps

walked past. She heard the fridge door being yanked open – you really did have to yank that thing, Kayley recalled with a shaky smile – and the clink of bottles being taken out. Then the footsteps passed again.

As Kayley popped her head back out, she recognised the back view of the bottle carrier.

‘Mia!’ she mouthed to herself, knowing the bleached blonde head of her old friend turned betrayer anywhere.

She stayed where she was for the remainder of the press conference or meeting or whatever it was, re-tuning to what Deano Diamond was saying.

‘That’s why I was so keen to get involved with this project. It was Jenna’s idea, and I’ll give her full credit for it, but she’s had her hands full since then …’

Pause for laughter and rude remarks from the crowd. Kayley bristled. Cheeky bastard!

‘So, I’m honoured to take up the baton and be the sponsor of Bledburn’s Got Talent. Auditions will be held here over the course of next week, and the final will be filmed, hopefully for television, at Bledburn Civic Centre on the twentieth of September. The footage will be part of the documentary film I’m making, and the winner will get free management from my record label for a minimum of one year. That means gigs, a recording session and promotional work on radio and TV, among other things, possibly up to and including global megastardom. Are you up for it? I know I would have been.’

There was a roar of crowd approval, but Kayley wasn’t inclined to join in.

Sneaky git, she thought. Getting hold of Jenna’s idea and pinching it, so he can take all the glory.

Kayley wondered what Jenna would say when she was told, hoping she wouldn’t have to be the one to break the news. A little pang of regret went through her. This was supposed to be hers and Jenna’s project, a little something for the local youngsters on the estate. Kayley had been looking forward to being involved.

She was so busy wallowing in her regrets that she didn’t realise the meeting was breaking up until loud voices directly outside the office galvanised her into action. Not quickly enough, though, because she was still trying to crawl under the desk when the door was pushed wide and a bemused voice said, ‘Oh. Hello.’

She whacked the top of her head on the underside of the desk.

Tags: Justine Elyot Diamond Trilogy Erotic
Source: readsnovelonline.net