I open my mouth to defend him and tell him he isn’t my bodyguard, but he wasn’t supposed to be on set, and I don’t particularly want to deal with the fall out so I close it and look away from him, searching for anyone I can use to escape being here with him.
“You owe me for the date,” He growls, “I expect you to pay up.”
“You want money for the date?” I snap at him and pull my wallet out, grabbing a wad of cash from inside before I shove it at him, “Here, have at it.”
But Adrien just chuckles menacingly and lets the bills fall to the floor.
“There’s someone over there I need to see,” I hiss, grabbing my wine from the bar, “I hope I never see you again.”
“We’ll see about that,” He says to my back as I retreat, heading for the small crowd in the corner where my agent is.
I feel his eyes burning into my spine as I cross the room, palms sweating. I’ve never been confrontational, unless it’s Killian of course but it makes me nervous and all I want to do now is leave.
“Daphne,” I touch her shoulder, my hand holding my wine glass so tight it feels as if it may shatter.
“Savannah, darling,” She gives me her,I’m doing businesssmile, “Have you met Christopher yet? He’s the editor in chief at–”
“Lovely to meet you,” I shove my hand out to the guy, not even sparing him a glance. Unsurprisingly he doesn’t shake it, and Daphne looks utterly disgusted at my lack of manners. “I’ve got to go.” I tell her.
“You haven’t even finished your wine,” She scolds lightly, “Here, have a seat, let’s chat.”
She swoops out an arm to show the vacant booth and when everyone piles in, I reluctantly take the seat on the end and bring my glass to my lips, downing the rest of it in one go. I stifle the need to choke on it but manage to force it down, putting my glass back on the table.
“I really need to go,” I whisper to her, giving a fake smile to the couple of guys opposite us who are glancing at us with curiosity.
“It has only been an hour,” She frowns, “We must socialize, market. These events don’t happen often.”
I wonder if she forgets how wildly successful I have been without the need for these get togethers. I sell out shows and people travel from across the world to see my solo performances. We don’t need this.
Well,Idon’t need this.
“I’m sorry, not tonight,” I tell her, pulling out my celland open my thread with Killian.
Me: Ready to go. Are you here?
“Well, I guess I’ll do the work for the both of us,” She complains. I could give her some snide remark, but I don’t and bite my tongue. For the most part, I like Daphne, or I used to at least, but she’s changed over the years into someone I don’t recognize.
“Don’t forget I’m taking time off for the next week at least, don’t book me anything.”
She pouts, “Good night, Savannah.”
I start walking toward the door and glance at my phone. I feel eyes on me the entire time, burning a hole through my spine. My inner alarms are ringing loud, warning me but I don’t turn, I already know who is watching me. He hides behind a mask, but he dropped it pretty quickly when he didn’t get what he wanted from me. Adrien is exactly the type of guy everyone warns you about, only this time they’ve given him fame and fortune and likely believes himself untouchable. He scares me, which is saying something knowing what Killian and the guys do.
Killian hasn’t read my message yet but he’s probably outside waiting. Rain has started to fall lightly, a drizzle that looks like mist under the streetlights, but the road is empty.
Me: Hey, should I grab a cab?
I send the message and then decide to just give him a call. He could have got caught up with something and I have no problem grabbing a taxi home. The phonerings and rings until it goes to voicemail, so I shoot him a message letting him know I’ll meet him back at the house and then walk around the corner to the cab station and hail one down.
The ride home is silent, the rain steadily increasing to a downpour which is thundering against the street by the time we pull up to my house.
I pay the driver and get out, rushing to the door with my keys in hand. A car pulls onto the street just as I step inside and close the door, shutting out the wet.
When another check of my cell reveals Killian still hasn’t messaged back, I shake off my coat and head through to the kitchen, reaching inside the fridge for the open bottle of wine.
Behind me, I hear the door open and the tension I hadn’t realized I was holding loosens from my shoulders.
“In here!” I call, “Do you want some wine?”
