All Night Long Read Online Free PDF Page A

front of the building or there might have been a few fatalities as a result of their exit. On the up side, she got to cling onto Ash, whose plan did appear to be working. As they tore across the car park, she caught intermittent glimpses of the two Black Halo limousines. They were completely surrounded by fans who had crossed the security lines and were making movement nearly impossible. A couple of fans had even climbed onto the roof of the front vehicle.
    ‘I hope you’re stuck there for hours,’ Ash hollered at the front car, which Ginny assumed was carrying Elspeth along with the band’s drummer, Steve Matlock.
    ‘Oi! Less of that,’ Rock Giant chastened him.
    ‘Is it normally like this?’ Ginny asked. She knew Black Halo were huge. They were major international stars, but the mayhem outside resembled Beatlemania at its height, not the aftermath of a present-day rock concert. In her experience, and she’d been to several big gigs, people didn’t get this riled up about catching a glimpse of their favourite star, not when they could spend hours at home stalking them on the Internet, and particularly not en masse like this. Sure there were exceptions, but that only accounted for the compulsory bunch of shivering groupies, not this.
    Ash was contemplating the outside world with a measure of uncertainty too. ‘It’s often crazy,’ he muttered. ‘But not typically this deranged. Mind you, we do normally stick it out until the end of the show, instead of calling it quits a couple of tracks in.’
    He lowered the window and leaned out. ‘Bye, Elspeth.’ He waved at the stranded limo. ‘Stupid bitch.’
    Rock Giant slammed on the brakes, bringing the van to a screeching halt just short of a lamppost. He turned to glare at Ash, who ducked back into the vehicle, looking significantly paler.
    ‘Knock it off with the name-calling or I’ll go park us up beside them.’
    Ash shook himself and seemed to settle comfortably inside his own skin again. ‘Oh, come off it,’ he protested, not appearing remotely contrite. ‘She’s properly screwed us over tonight. She deserves a few names hurled at her. Even you have to accept that.’
    ‘Elspeth isn’t the one who screwed us. Xane’s the one who walked off stage. I can’t believe you’re defending him.’
    Xane had walked off stage! Somehow, by hanging around in their dressing room instead of watching the show, she appeared to have missed something major.
    ‘I’m not defending him. I think he’s a prize dick. I’m just pointing out that Elspeth’s the root cause of this. I know you and her are besties, but even you have to admit she’s a cow on occasion.’
    ‘That is such shit, Ash.’
    ‘Uh, drive!’ Spook demanded. He reached across from the passenger seat and put the van into first. ‘Seriously, this is not fucking funny. If we sit here like lemons, they’re going to be all over us.’ A highly likely prospect, since Ash’s yelling had attracted a certain amount of attention.
    With a discontented snort, Rock Giant slammed down the accelerator pedal again, causing them to shoot off. As far as Ginny could tell, he favoured an all-or-nothing approach to motion. No pootling allowed. Things weren’t helped by the fact that he ramped the volume on the onboard stereo up to ear-splitting levels, and hammered out the drum rhythm against the wheel. She couldn’t understand the lyrics; they appeared to be in a foreign language, although the vocalist’s death growl made it difficult to say for certain. She thought it might be a song about trolls. Hell, she felt as though she was currently hanging with a bunch of them.
    Spook dug a beanie out of the footwell and pulled it down over his ears.
    Their escape apparently guaranteed, Ginny settled back against Ash’s side to endure the rest of the ride. Unfortunately, their triumph at escaping the arena proved extremely short-lived. Even Rock Giant’s expert slaloming skills couldn’t get them past the gridlocked