‘Jade, calm down. Let me handle it.’ I’m thinking I need to break in. I have the strength to do it, being imbued with rather strong devil muscles, but it’s not particularly something I want to do with all these people watching.
Then both of us hear it. A whimper.
Jade inhales sharply. ‘Rach?’
‘Keep talking to her,’ I suggest.
‘Rach? It’s me, Jade. Are you hurt? Can you open the door?’
There’s a long pause.
Then the door clicks open, and Rach stands there, white-faced.
‘I didn’t mean to,’ she whispers.
That doesn’t sound good. I poke my head into the room and see Tommy lying on the ground by the bed, out cold. His head is bleeding. I stare at him wordlessly.
Shit. This timeline is out of control. That wasn’t meant to happen. Rach and Tommy hook up, and then they spend the restof the night dancing downstairs, a little Jade forming in Rach’s belly.
I need to do some damage control.
‘Nothing to see here, folks. It’s all good. We’re just going to have a little chat with Tommy,’ I say to the bystanders. I yank Ash and Jade into the room and quickly lock the door.
Jade gasps when she sees Tommy sprawled on the carpet. She spins to Rach. ‘Oh my god. What did you do?’
Rach’s lip wobbles. ‘W-we were fooling around, and he wanted to have sex. But it was moving too fast, and I panicked. I kicked him in the nuts like you showed me. Then he fell off the bed and hit his head on the nightstand. He didn’t seem to be breathing, and I was too scared to come out in case I go to p-p-p-prison.’
Ash glares at Jade. ‘Why did you show her how to kick guys in the nuts?’
She shrugs. ‘It was a self-defence move I taught her and Kiki before the concert. Lucky I did!’
Jade grasps Rach’s shoulders. ‘You did really well, Rach. The important thing is that you didn’t have sex with Tommy.’
Rach doesn’t say anything.
Jade shakes her. ‘Rach! Tell me you didn’t have sex with Tommy?’
But Rach is too distraught to answer. She’s shivering, and her eyes keep sliding to Tommy.
‘Leave her alone,’ Ash says. ‘Can’t you see she’s upset?’ He puts his arm around Rach, and she sobs into his shoulder.
I kneel and check Tommy’s pulse. There’s a faint flutter.
‘Good news. He’s not dead,’ I say.
Rach moans, ‘Oh, thank God!’
‘I’ll call an ambulance,’ says Jade and starts reaching into her back pocket but then remembers she’s in the 1980s. ‘Dammit, the one time I need a mobile!’ she mutters.
I nod at the gold push-button phone on the nightstand while I move Tommy’s limbs into the recovery position. ‘Use that. Hurry. We need to go.’
Jade looks at Tommy. ‘Shouldn’t we wait for the ambulance...?’
‘We can’t for ... reasons,’ I say vaguely, not wanting to scare her. But Diego will be hanging around like a bad smell if Tommy starts fading. Lucifer prizes pop star souls highly. I suppose if Tommy does cark it, at least Jade will have someone else to hang out with in hell apart from me ...
As if she gleans what I’m thinking, Jade kneels and touches his arm. ‘Bye, Dad,’ she whispers. ‘We might meet again. Or not...’
‘Jade, come on!’ I hiss, opening the door, and she stumbles to her feet.