*Noah POV
Where is she? I really hope she hasn't decided not to come and meet me, there's so much we need to talk about!
She should have been here 15 minutes ago. Perhaps she misunderstood me and is waiting for me to go and collect her, or maybe she is waiting for me in my room?
I call Jimmie but she isn't in our room with him.
"I'll pop next door and see if she's with Yanni and call you back" he says
"Cheers J"
Five minutes later Jimmie and Yanni appear at my table, without Sydney. Ok.... now I am worried about her, and also myself... these guys will kill me if anything happens to her, they both love her ... shit, Yanni is IN LOVE with her!!
Jimmie fist bumps me as he sits opposite me at the beautifully laid breakfast table.
"What's up Noah, Syd here yet? Why do you need to see her anyway, what's going on?" he asks, Yanni just looking at me with that hard stare he has when angry, worried or tired, arms folded over his chest.... silent. That's when he is scariest!
How the hell do I explain this? I have no idea where to start, and this story, and my part in it is likely to ruin our relationship and probably our careers... well, at least as a group.
"Yanni, does Sydney have her phone with her?" I ask him and he nods, raising his eyebrows and frowning, explaining that he has tried to call her but it is switched off or out of charge.
"What's this all about Noah, should we be worried? After what happened to her here last night she really doesn't need more stress"
"Did you come downstairs in the lift or by foot?" I ask, deliberately glossing over the question and leave the table, beckoning them with my finger suggesting they follow me, which they do, shaking their heads that no, they'd used the lift.
We enter the stairwell and immediately find a room key card on the third stair up. Picking it up and reading the room number my heart falls into my stomach..... it is the room next door to mine..... Yanni and Syds room! I feel like I am about to throw up, and I know I need to explain to the guys what's going on, but I truly don't know how to start.
"Is this your room key Yanni?" Even as I ask I know what the answer is going to be. He replies that it is before grabbing my arm with sheer panic on his face.
"What the fuck is going on Noah? Where is Syd?" He barks aggressively.
Rushing back into the lobby with the boys in tow I head towards reception at pace. "I promise I'll explain, I will, but right now we need to find the security office and see their camera footage of the car park, lobby and stairwell."
Yanni looks fit to kill me, mouth set in a firm line, eyes cold but clearly terrified, Jimmie just looks bewildered and me..... I feel scared, nauseous, guilty, sad, angry... and responsible!
I've made some terrible decisions recently, done things I am not proud of. I have been feeding information about Sydney, and more recently her relationship with Yanni to Harry, her address, where she keeps her spare key and the passcode to open the lockbox that she keeps it in, all passed to him. I thought these tidbits of information would buy me time to tell her about Harry's plan and my involvement before he made a move. All I had to do was keep her away from London.
Let me try to explain!
Harry stole some items from Bens suitcase when he arrived in London to see Lola. A receipt for some leather gloves dated the day before Lolas death and the day after he arrived in the UK. He also took a limited edition ring of only 100 worldwide with serial numbers inside so very identifiable, that actually belongs to me... stolen from me by Mrs T while we were on tour. Her intention to sell it as she's deeply in debt, owing thousands to loan sharks, as well as Ben and Grant. Mrs T has a gambling addiction!
Ben found out she had been stealing from us for months after finding the ring in his mums belongings as he helped her pack for our tour. He was devastated she had done something like that, and there we were believing we were just incredibly careless when we couldn't find our items. He convinced her to give the ring to him to put back while we and his mum were overseas on our final tour, but he decided to wear it first when visiting Lola to try to impress her.
Harry threatened to incriminate me with it, or Ben with the gloves and receipt, unless I convinced Syd to go back to him.
While we were in Syd's house in London the night we offered her the deal I planted an earring of Lolas, and a silk scarf..... the one Harry had used to strangle Lola to death!
He called it leverage, should she refuse him.
Harry DOES want Sydney, more so since their divorce, probably because she no longer wants him..... he says he is bored by the easily available sex with wannabes and sycophantic fans but also worries that his sexual predilections will make it into the public domain if he doesn't have full control over the 'lucky' woman he chooses.
He enjoys a challenge and Sydney always was that, so he relentlessly pursued her from afar, buying off or scaring away anyone he saw as a threat to that goal. Unwilling to let Syd go he has meddled in her professional and romantic life to keep her unhappy and alone in the hope she'll take him back. He knows she isn't going to come back to him of her own volition so has blackmailed me into finally making that happen.
He heard about Syds possible romance with Yanni on the grapevine and questioned me about it. I confirmed they were close, but was reluctant to give him much more than that as by now I had started to realise she was not the monster I had always thought her to be after some of our 'research interviews' where she was supposed to be finding out about me!
I have a talent for phishing, and she is so innocent she never suspected that I was guiding her into revealing things about herself she didn't intend.
Harry is intent on ending things between her and Yanni in any way he can, he knows he is not worthy of her but his ego won't allow her to move on with someone else! He is jealous and furious, and has no concern for her feelings. He wants what he wants, he gets what he wants..... he wants Sydney. He intends to have her.
He is so Arrogant, and powerful!
He knows influential people in every branch of show business, making keeping tabs on Sydney relatively simple, but he hadn't been aware of our plan to take her to Australia as our biographer, I did that on my own. I wanted an opportunity to get to know her, she seemed incapable of what I'd been told she had done.
I planned the whole thing from the start. I had previously done a little research on her and sent it to our shared group email account where I knew the other members would see it, including some of her better works, photos and video clips, knowing that she was 100% Yanni's type and hoping he took the bait. He did!
Yanni did his own research on Syd after seeing mine and saw her image... telling me later how hot she was. He read her paid work and was suitably impressed as I knew he would be. It is eloquent, descriptive, empassioned, informed.... and her fanfiction!! Holy Christ!!! INSANELY HOT!!
One of her fanfiction stories in particular had a description of a very explicit and highly erotic sex scene between Yanni and an innocently provocative, sultry English journalist. He wanted to know if the character was based on Sydney herself?
He had seen her pictures, was aware of her talent as a professional journalist and at my gentle but insidious urging had been requesting opportunities to meet her to offer the biography job as he was so impressed by her abilities.... and he added, if the female lead she describes in her fan fiction is based on herself then WHY THE FUCK DIDNT HER HUSBAND WANT HER??
She's a perfect woman for him!! It is fair to say he was intrigued, interested and attracted... easily influenced.
Exactly what I needed.