That bright, happy expression returned to her face. “You’ll need to tell me what supplies to buy, and I’ll need your number. Where’s your phone?”
Still half-dazed by her unexpected acceptance, Erik pulled his phone from his pocket. As soon as he unlocked it, she snatched it from his hand and began typing away. A moment later, he heard the buzz of her phone coming from wherever she had it tuckedamidst her oversized t-shirt and leggings. Grinning, she handed the device back to him. “There. All set.”
Glancing at the time, she let out a little “Eep,” and jumped to her feet. “I need to go! They’re probably looking for me.” Jogging to the door, she called out, “We’ll talk more later,” adding, “I’m so excited to do this!”
Erik just stared, watching her leave, and half-wondering what the hell just happened.
It was a good thing the background panel Erik was currently working on required little attention to detail, since his mind was nowhere on his work. Instead, he’d gone over his conversation with Chloe again and again, analyzing every word, every look, and that touch…That touch. He could still feel it, as if she’d permanently marked him and he couldn’t find it in him to mind. Something close to hope filled him, and for someone like him, hope was a dangerous thing. Yet no matter how hard he tried to crush it, it kept coming right back.
Chloe Powell wasnotinterested in him romantically.
And maybe if he repeated it a thousand more times, that fuzzy feeling would finally go away.
“Hey, Erik,” Mitch called out, pulling his attention. “Can you –”
Whatever the man was about to say was abruptly cut off by a distant crash, followed by people screaming.
Chloe.
Erik took off like a shot, tearing out of the sets department, down the hallway, then bursting onto the stage, his eyes scanning through the crowd of clustered people, looking for her, and finally finding her. Making his way to her with little care for who he shoved out of his way, he scanned her for injury. Her face was pale, her eyes wide, and she was noticeably trembling as she covered her mouth with her hands. She looked like she was in shock, but otherwise uninjured. Just to be sure, he asked, “Are you okay?”
She nodded.
With Chloe safe, he assessed the situation. Everyone had formed a rough horseshoe around the center of the stage, where shards of glass and broken pieces of metal littered the floor. It looked like one of the large light fixtures had fallen. A woman, one of the dancers, was crying, cradling her arm like it might be broken, while the choreographer comforted her, and a man was unconscious on the floor, bleeding from a gash on his head, while Lattimer knelt over him, attempting to stop the bleeding, his phone tucked between his head and shoulder.
Erik listened, trying to piece together what had happened from the loud buzz of panicked voices.
“He saved her life! If he hadn’t pushed her out of the way…”
“How did it even happen? Are more goingto fall?”
“She could have been killed!Icould have been killed!”
And from one of the stagehands:“I don’t understand. I checked those lights myself.”
Erik looked up at the catwalk suspended over the stage and narrowed his eyes as his instincts tingled. It could have been an accident, something that had been overlooked, but he didn’t think so. He’d run checks on all the staff. There were no new hires, no trainees. The opera house employed an experienced, long-standing crew. This smacked of sabotage, and he didn’t like the timing. Not with Jackson Savoy potentially in the area.
There’d be too many questions if he tried to go up there now to investigate, but he’d be sure to come back tonight, after everyone was gone, to see if he could pick up a scent.
Was Savoy here, even now, watching? It was tempting to go hunting, but his priority was Chloe. He needed to stay by her side and keep her safe.
The faint press of smooth skin against his arm had him snapping his head down to Chloe, who had stepped closer to him, perhaps seeking warmth.
“Are you okay?” he asked again. She was still noticeably shaken.
She looked up at him, a mix of confusion and horror on her lovely face, before her eyes suddenly filled with tears. “It all happened so fast. I heard this like snapping sound, but I didn’t know what it was, and then it just fell, and everyone was screaming, and he… and they…”
Her face crumpled, and she quickly tried to cover it with her hands, but there was no disguising how her shoulders shook as she lost her composure. A thought occurred to him that he should put an arm around her in comfort, but before he could, Daniel Drayton was there, hugging her, cooing soothing words in her ear, and pulling her away from Erik, making him want to snarl.
He would have separated them, forcefully if need be, had Chloe shown any sign of resistance. But she leaned into the embrace, seeming to welcome it, so Erik left her alone, even though it had him growling low in his throat and narrowing his eyes at her co-star with unexpected jealousy.
She wasn’t his to hold, he reminded himself. She was his assignment, his mission; his to protect, but once Jackson Savoy was dealt with, that was it. He couldn’t keep her, and she wouldn’t want someone like him anyway. Chloe Powell was meant for the Daniel Draytons of the world – handsome, talented, outgoing,whole, not someone broken like him. Even if he went ahead with the procedure to fix his face, it wouldn’t fix the damaged soul that lived inside him.
Chapter Six
As the paramedics loadedtheir injured charges into the ambulance, Lattie addressed the group, telling the performers to go home and rest while the stagehands did a thorough inspection of the equipment. Rehearsal would resume tomorrow, unless otherwise notified, but for now, Lattie and the choreographer would be reaching out to the dancers’ emergency contacts before heading to the hospital themselves.
Chloe was still shaking, her hands icy cold as she headed into her dressing room to grab her things. Those poor dancers.
