Free White Hot Christmas: A Heart of Fame Christmas Story by Lexxie Couper Page B

ugly. Nick had lost his temper and Holston had been forcibly removed by the Conservatorium’s security, but not before asking Chloe in a gleeful shout if she screwed anything that came along, just like her old man.
    The bastard was a burr in Nick’s side. A toxic one.
    Damn it.
    So much for trying to jump the queue now.
    Turning, Nick made his way back to the shadowy wall he’d been lurking against and resumed his observation of the melee.
    Holston, thank freaking god, was shoving his way towards the exit queue, no doubt with plans to push his way to the head of the line.
    Nick shoved his hands in his pockets, and waited for the inevitable.
    The inevitable happened. As Nick had known it would.
    Another traveller in the queue protested when Holston attempted to worm his way into the line. Holston snarled something back Nick couldn’t hear from his vigil by the wall, and suddenly the guard who had been standing away from the television crew/sniffer-dog situation near the luggage conveyor belt, was hurrying towards the exit gate.
    Holston spun towards the guard just as the guard reached his side.
    Words were exchanged. The traveller who Holston had tried to cut in front of pointed at Holston and said something.
    Holston affected the most ridiculous I’m-innocent expression ever.
    The guard told him to step out of the line.
    Holton snarled and shook his head, pointing at the passenger. He clutched the strap of his camera bag, more words Nick couldn’t hear spewing from him as his expression turned venomous.
    The guard reached for Holston’s bag.
    All hell broke lose.
    Holston slapped the guard’s hand away and shoved at him.
    The guard staggered back a step and pulled his gun from its holster.
    More guards appeared out of nowhere, bigger and scarier than the one Holston had pushed.
    Holston was slammed to the ground by two of them.
    The camera crew filming the sniffer dog and the wildly protesting man with the bulging suitcase swung their attention towards the fracas.
    So did the guards accompanying the sniffer dog and its handler.
    The camera crew and the guards bolted towards the bellowing Holston and the guards currently hauling him up off the ground in what could only be describe as some kind of shoulder, head lock.
    A low chuckle vibrated deep in Nick’s chest.
    “Couldn’t have happened to a nicer bloke,” he murmured.
    “Agreed,” a deep voice on his right said.
    Nick shot the man standing beside him a quick look, recognition replacing wary uncertainty instantly.
    Curtis Clarkson, ex-captain of the Australian cricket team and the husband of Josh’s best friend, Rhys, gave him a grin. “The bastard has made my life hell more times than I can count.”
    Nick grunted. “Hell yeah. Know that feeling.”
    Curtis chuckled. “Yeah, you’ve had it worse than me, haven’t you?”
    Curtis had been to more than one Blackthorne event at Nick and Lauren’s house in Murriundah. Every time Josh was back in Australia, he and Rhys caught up. If that meant catching up in Nick’s living room, that’s where it happened. Whenever Rhys was in Australia, so was Curtis. The married couple were almost as inseparable as Nick and Lauren.
    Which begged the question, if Curtis was here…
    Nick cast a questioning look at Curtis. “You soloing it?”
    Curtis pulled a face. “Rhys is flying in tomorrow morning. He had a BBC/Manchester United commitment in London he couldn’t get out of. We’re spending Christmas lunch with my family and then grabbing a chopper up to Murriundah in the arvo for dinner with Rhys’s family. You? Where’s Lauren?”
    Nick pulled his own face. “Exactly where I want to be. Home. In Murriundah. Don’t suppose you’ve got that chopper standing by already, do you? If we ever get out of here, that is.”
    Curtis chuckled again. The guy was so laid back Nick wondered how he could have once been considered the most dangerous player on the cricket pitch. “Don’t you normally travel with a bodyguard?