Page 27 of Hidden

I took my place next to her and grabbed my beard, ready to replicate the excellent skills I had shown her—playing the airguitar on my beard—and clicked for the rest of the band to come take their spots.

Ant was on the drums. We didn’t have drums, but Bee had told him two tables and a snooker cue would work well enough.

Doc was on the piano—which was just Axel’s baby keyboard.

And poor bastard Pivot was on the triangle. The one and only real instrument in this band.

As he got on the stage, I whispered “good luck” to him, chuckling to myself at the way he blanched in return, and nodded my head to Dante to start the music.

“Lads, welcome to the grand debut of thefinestband in town. The talented, the amazing, the—”

“Modest?” Rachel called back.

“Who needs modesty when you possess skills like we do! May I humbly—”

“Oh, now you’re humble?” Jenna laughed.

“Okay, audience participation is neither asked for nor welcome!” I hissed at them. “May I present the fantastically named, Bee and Vee, the finest singers this side of the—”

“Good grief,” Rachel laughed, rolling her eyes.

“Oh, just play the fucking song!” I said, putting on most of my frustration for Bee’s sake, knowing it made her giggle.

As the opening bars ofRing of Firerang out, the club quietened their chatter and turned all eyes on us.

Rachel, Jenna, and Trex pushed their way to the front, ready to do their silly groupie dance routine, and we waited for Bee to sing.

Bee’s mutism was a sore spot for the club. Not because it was there—we didn’t care about that. But because we recognised why it had happened, and the part we all played in destroying her confidence until she took away the one thing she had control over—her voice.

I had made it my personal mission to bring her back out of her shell again. To show her that it was okay to be silly and goofy. Even if she never spoke again, I just wanted that happy, carefree child back.

I wanted the child who ran through this compound like she owned it—because she did. She owned each and every one of us and had done since the day she had been born.

So, as Johnny Cash began his opening line, and Bee shrank away with shyness, I dived in front of her, sinking to my knees, and played the shit out of the guitar on my beard.

“Love,” I belted out, making my voice as deep as I could. “Is a burning thing… eyes on me, sweetheart,” I whispered during the quick moment of instrumental. “Just me and you. Just like we rehearsed.”

She nodded at me, and we both chuckled at Pivot’s ridiculous attempt to bang the triangle in tune.

“And it makes, a fiery ring…”

Out of nowhere, we heard someone attempt to do a trumpet for the music, and Bee’s eyes scanned the crowd, seeing her dad stood behind the bar, a pint glass to his lips as he made the noise.

He gave her a small wink, nodding his head to show her it was okay, and she beamed back at him, grabbing the microphone, “bound, by wild desire,”

Followed by the whole crowd singing, “I fell into a ring of fire.”

The song went more or less smoothly from there on. Bee had her moments of faltering, but with the help of all of us—minus Pivot, who spent the entire song either frowning at the triangle or banging it rapidly—she managed to get through it.

There was one moment where I thought she was going to stop entirely, so I grabbed hold of Ant, planted a kiss on his lips, and then put on a bad French accent—why, I don’t know, but it succeeded in making her laugh.

“Oh, but oui, oui, oui, it bunz, bunz, bunz, ze ring of fiyah, ze ring of fiyah.”

“Get the fuck out of my face,” Ant snapped back, bopping me with the snooker cue.

I dropped to my knees and shuffled over to Bee until my back was pressed against hers. As she sang, “down, down, down,” I encouraged her to fall to the floor and jump back up, taking her eyes away from the crowd, knowing she would be overwhelmed when they all started clapping at the end.

She fell to the floor with me in a fit of giggles, which only increased when Pivot muttered something under his breath and threw the metal stick off the stage, and stomped off.