Star Crossed (Starlight #3) (21 page)

Chapter 26

Jenny forces me back inside the house and into a large living room.

‘
Sit,’ she barks, pointing at a comfortable looking sofa.

I do as ordered, thinking this whole thing seems so surreal. I guess this must be Jenny’s actual house. The sofa set is the ordinary domestic kind. Certainly not the kind of place you’d expect to be held at gunpoint.

‘So,’ continues Jenny, levelling the gun at me. ‘You had more ingenuity than I gave you credit for.’

She narrows her eyes at me.

‘I didn’t think you had it in you,’ she adds. ‘A little sappy girl like you. I never thought you’d even try to escape.’

Jenny’s voice has completely shed its Australian accent now. She sounds like a Londoner. In fact she sounds very similar to Keisha. I guess that’s why I mistook the female voice for one of the Scandelous girls when I was first brought here.

Jenny’s gun is still pointed directly at my head.

‘
I
never
understood,’ she continues bitterly, ‘why the public seems to love you so much. A little mouse like you. Not like my girls. They have some spark about them.’

Wait. Her girls?

Suddenly it’s all falling into place.

My mind is whirring, fitting it all together. The way the man fast-forwarded Scandelous’s video when he showed me the recording. The girls had no family to encourage them. Just friends.

I’m staring at Jenny now. Because it all seems so obvious. The family resemblance. They all wear so much make-up it helps to hide their true features. But now I see it I don’t know how I missed it.

Asha
, Keisha, Shawna and Jenny Grogan. They’re related. Closely related.

‘
Scandelous,’ I say, feeling sure of my theory. ‘You’re their mother.’

Jenny’s mouth twists in an evil smile.

‘Very clever,’ she says. ‘Not that it will do you any good. I worked for years to get my girls recognised for their talent. And now they’re so near to making it, I’m not taking any chances.’

I’m thinking it through now.

‘It had to be someone closely involved in the show,’ I say, working it out aloud.

‘
You tried to rig the telephone vote,’ I continue, remembering the vote rigging of the first rounds. ‘And you gave my contract to the network men.’

‘That’s right,’ says Jenny. ‘And I would have done a lot worse besides. Only my girls are soft-hearted. They didn’t want any harm to come to you. I had to hide what I was doing from them.’

Jenny
frowns.

‘
That’s the only thing I never managed to teach my girls properly,’ she says, shaking her head. ‘Sure they’ve got the voices. But to win in this game, you need a killer instinct. Otherwise you’ll get left on the trash heap.’

More things
are seeming to fit together.

‘
Did it happen to you?’ I ask tentatively. ‘Were you a singer once?’

Jenny turns to me and her eyes are like fire.

‘I still am a singer,’ she growls. ‘A good singer. But I’m too old. I missed my chance. I’m not going to see the same thing happen to my girls.’

I shake my head, reeling at it all.

So Jenny Grogan is Scandelous’s mother. They managed to keep it hidden all this time. I’m guessing Jenny probably also pulled some strings to get her triplets into the show.

‘
You don’t have to do this,’ I say. ‘Scandelous are talented. They can make it without your help.’

I’m hoping to appeal to her human side. But it seems I’ve said exactly the wrong thing.

‘You stupid little girl,’ rages Jenny, her voice rising. ‘You don’t understand
anything
. Talent gets you
nowhere
. Not without help. Unless you have the right people on your side, this industry will chew you up and spit you out.’

I bite my lip as she rages.

‘And now you,’ Jenny continues, ‘have messed everything up.’

‘
I’m sorry,’ I say, trying to sound meek.

‘
Oh you can’t even begin to imagine the problems you’ve caused,’ says Jenny. ‘It should have been easy. No-one would have got hurt. You would have been held until Sunday. Then Deven and Keisha would have been crowned joint winners.’

What?

Jenny smiles at my confusion.

‘
That’s right,’ she says. ‘I’ve been coaching Deven right from the start. Telling him how things are. Giving him pointers on how to get to the top.’

She smiles
again.

‘
It’s all been engineered,’ Jenny says, sounding proud of herself. ‘The romance of the year. It’s the perfect press story. After Deven got tired of boring little Summer, he teamed up with Keisha. They’re the couple everyone will be watching.’

My eyes are wide in amazement. It never occurred to me that anyone would be so manipulative.
This goes deep.

‘
Deven will be very useful for getting publicity for Scandelous,’ Jenny continues. ‘Particularly since you’ll be out of the picture.’

She
purses her lips at this last part.

‘
It wasn’t part of my plan to kill you,’ she adds. ‘But I can’t help that you escaped. You should have stayed locked up like a good girl.’

My blood turns to ice.

She means to kill me?

Jenny shakes her head.

‘You’ve caused me problems from the start,’ she continues. ‘So I suppose it’s only fitting that this will be the last problem you ever cause me. The problem of how to dispose of your body.’

Chapter 27

As Jenny trains the gun squarely at my head I am frozen to the spot. Every sense is on high alert, but I can’t look away from the revolver. One thought keeps playing over and over in my mind.

Jenny is actually going to kill me.

A few minutes ago I would never have believed it. But now there’s no doubt in my mind. The expression on her mad-twisted face convinces me Jenny has completely lost it.

She’s gone
crazy. This is how I’m going to die.

I can see it so clearly. She’s going to shoot me, right here in her own lounge.

I stare back at her, putting steel into my gaze. I want her to see, that I’m not afraid. She might hate me but I’m not going to die in terror of her.

Jenny looks back and for a moment she wavers. As though something in my expression has made her think twice.

Then she clicks back the catch of the gun.

Everything seems to play out in slow motion.
And there’s a loud bang.

In the next few seconds, all hell breaks loose. Jenny twists to the side, wheeling around. Then a dark shape plunges towards her.

Suddenly men are piling through into the lounge.

It takes me a few full seconds to realise that Jenny’s gun never went off. The bang I heard was the door crashing open.

And then I see my saviour.

Adam!

Adam is heading the surge for me, grappling Jenny to the ground and disarming her.

In a moment he’s at my side.

‘Summer!’ he gasps. His hands clutch both sides of my face. ‘Are you all right? Summer, speak to me.’

‘
I…’ I open my mouth, completely disoriented by everything. ‘I’m ok,’ I say, marvelling at the truth of it. After everything that’s happened, I can hardly believe I’ve come out of this unscathed.

This is all the reassurance Adam needs. He kisses me full on the lips. Then he’s staring into my eyes again.

‘You’re sure? You’re sure you’re ok?’

I nod again.

Adam lifts me up and turns distractedly to the men.

‘
Restrain that woman,’ he says pointing to Jenny. ‘And sweep the house.’

Adam turns to me again.

‘We’ve got the man who kidnapped you,’ he says. ‘Was there anyone else involved?’

I shake my head slowly.

‘I don’t think so.’ I can hardly take it all in. ‘I think it was just Jenny.’

Even as I’m saying the words it sounds so bizarre. I trusted Jenny. Sure she came off as a hard-ass. But she was always the one making sure things got done. I guess she just took that a few levels too far.

I twist in Adam’s arms to see Jenny being restrained by two men. Her face is contorted horribly with rage.

‘
Any mother would have done the same,’ she hisses. ‘My conscience is clear.’

Adam glares at her.

‘I doubt your fellow prisoners will feel the same,’ he says. ‘Kidnap. Attempted murder. I think your triplets are better off without you.’

Jenny’s face falls at this last part. As though some of her madness has fallen away. And a tiny sane part has just registered what she’s actually done.

‘Let’s get you out of here,’ says Adam, turning back to me. He carries me through the lounge and out the front door of the house.

My eyes widen to see an army of police vehicles and other cars arranged outside. Policemen are everywhere.

‘It was a sting operation,’ explains Adam carrying me past the chaos.

‘
The police knew?’ I ask.

‘
With a little help from me,’ says Adam with a dark smile. ‘Never mind all that,’ he adds putting me down. ‘Are you really all right?’

He examines me carefully, holding up my hands.

‘You’ve cut yourself,’ he chides. ‘And this gash looks nasty,’ he adds, touching my hip gently.

I wince at the contact.
‘A few bruises is all,’ I say. ‘It’s nothing. I think my dress got the worst of it.’

I say this last part with a smile and Adam kisses me again, laughing into my mouth.

‘Summer Evans,’ he murmurs between kisses. ‘Only you could joke at a time like this.’

‘
So you worked it out,’ I say. ‘Did you get my message? The necklace?’

As an answer, Adam reaches in his pocket and draws out the Saint
Cecelia pendant.

‘
You mean this?’ he asks, his voice turning serious.

I grab it back gratefully.

‘I never wanted to take it off,’ I say in a rush. ‘They threatened my nephew. It was all I could think of… To convince you I was serious. But in the last moment I realised I could get a message to you. I wasn’t sure it would work.’

Adam’s expression is grim.

‘It nearly didn’t,’ he says. He doesn’t need to say more. His face tells it all.

‘
I’m sorry,’ I whisper, desperately shamed at the pain I’ve caused him. ‘You know I would never…’

‘
I know that now,’ says Adam, reaching to help me fasten the pendant back around my neck. ‘I didn’t know that at first.’

‘
You thought I was freaked by the commitment?’ I guess.

He nods.
‘And my suggestion of marriage,’ he admits. ‘I figured I’d done too much too soon. I’d lost you.’

Again that terrible pained expression.

‘No,’ I reassure him, pulling him close. ‘Never. You must know that, never.’

Adam smiles a little.

‘But I had my doubts,’ he says. ‘When I saw you’d damaged the necklace. I got to thinking.’

I smile wider.

‘I hoped you’d work it out,’ I say. ‘But I couldn’t be sure. I figured you might believe that I wasn’t ready for commitment. But you’d never believe…’

‘
That you’d damage this necklace,’ finishes Adam. ‘You’re right. I didn’t.’

He smiles a little.
‘Took me a while to work it out though,’ he says. ‘I was one step away from downing a bottle of whisky and letting the show go on without me.’

He touches the necklace lightly, at the point
where it’s curved from my damaging it.

‘
I’ll buy you a new one,’ he promises.

‘
No!’ I clutch it to me possessively. ‘Never. I want this one.’

Adam laughs and kisses me.

‘So how did you work it out?’ I ask. ‘Where I was being held?’

‘
Once I knew for sure you’d been kidnapped, I was like a man possessed,’ he says. ‘I figured you wouldn’t have let just anyone lead you away. It had to be someone you trusted. We pulled the security tapes on the parking lot and saw you get into a Sing-Win car. So I knew it had to be someone involved in the show.’

‘
And you suspected Jenny?’ I ask.

‘
Not at first,’ admits Adam. ‘Jenny has been around a long time. I guess she played the long game. But I had my men do a profile check on every single crew and cast member. They worked around the clock. And some details came to light on Jenny. That she wasn’t Australian. And she was mother to a set of triplets.’

‘
So you figured she was Scandelous’s mother?’

‘
Yeah, it seemed to make sense. We had Jenny’s home address and I figured that’s where she’d hold you. She’s not exactly part of the criminal classes. So I guessed she wouldn’t have access to some kidnap lair.’

I’m shaking my head, still trying to come to terms with it all.

‘What do you think twisted her?’ I say. ‘Jenny seemed so… ordinary.’

Adam shrugs.
‘Her background check suggested she’d worked for ten years to be a singer,’ he says. ‘She thought she’d got her big break. But then she got pregnant by a record company boss. He left her holding the babies and the record company dropped her in favour of a younger singer. I guess she was holding that bitterness all the time she was a mother.’

‘
So she trained her girls to take her place,’ I say.

‘
Looks that way.’ Adam is looking at me more keenly now. ‘We can talk about this later,’ he says. ‘I think we should get you to a hospital. Have you checked out.’

‘
What day is it?’ I ask, suddenly aware that I have no concept of time.

Adam frowns.

‘It’s Saturday,’ he says.

‘
Then I can still appear on the show?’ I say.

Adam’s face widens in amazement.

‘You’re joking right?’ he says. ‘There’s no way I’m letting you appear on the show. Summer you’ve just been kidnapped. You’re covered in blood and bruises…’

‘
And I don’t want Jenny Grogan to win,’ I say cutting him off. ‘She might have lost her big break. But I won’t let her ruin mine.’

Adam looks like he’s about to contradict me, so I keep talking.

‘I’ve just got a few cuts and bruises,’ I say. ‘Let me do this.’

‘
Summer,’ says Adam gently, ‘there’s no costuming for you. There’s been no set.’

‘
Doesn’t matter,’ I say. ‘The song doesn’t need it.’

I’m playing it through in my head. It’s a simple song. Pure. I don’t need anything fancy.

‘I’m not sure you realise how much you’ve been through,’ says Adam.

‘
I do,’ I insist. ‘That’s exactly why I need to perform.’

‘
You don’t need to prove anything to anyone,’ says Adam.

‘
No,’ I agree, ‘Not to anyone. To myself. I need to prove that this hasn’t stopped me.’

The expression on
Adam’s face suggests he understands that.

‘
Ok,’ he says.

I grin and he holds up a warning finger.

‘If,’ he adds, ‘you let me take you to the hospital now. If they clear you for injuries then you can sing tonight. If they say you need rest, you can’t. No arguments.’

‘
Ok,’ I agree, beaming at him. ‘No arguments.’