Velma held her breath. He couldn’t. He wouldn’t. He was her Brek.
“Don’t worry. You’re way prettier than she is. She’s only pretty in the obvious way.” Jase crushed her to the glass as a group pushed past them. “Shit. They need some crowd control out here.”
“The obvious way?” Her body still scrunched up against the window, her gaze focused on the slip of paper Brek held with the bottle of Coors.
Velma couldn’t pull her gaze from Brek’s fingers…the note…the bottle. Would this be her life? Always unable to get ahold of him? Even his family couldn’t reach him. And how much of a chance would she ever have with the band groupies surrounding him all the time?
“You know it doesn’t mean anything if he keeps the number. Nothing. Means nothing,” Jase said with absolutely no conviction.
Brek laughed again and dropped both the bottle and the note on a random table as he followed the guy, skirting behind the back of a booth.
Jase fist-pumped and moved backward as the crowd shifted. “Told you. Never doubted him.”
Velma turned, poking Jase in the chest. “What do you mean? The obvious way?”
“You know, like…she’s got all the fake…you know, I think I’m going to shut up now.” Jase raised his hands in surrender.
Velma shuffled toward the end of the line and slouched against the big blue mailbox. They had already lost their place, and the line had grown another twenty people deep. “There’s no way we’re going to get to him.”
“C’mon, think positive. We could always climb on the roof and break into the club.” Jase stared at the top of the building. “I could hop on that Dumpster, climb up and grab the edge of the window, slide to the side and see if any of them are open. It’ll work.”
“And you could break your neck in the process, which means Brek will lose his best friend and Babushka will hate me. Do you have any money?” She reached for her wallet. She only had a twenty. Darn.
He raised his eyebrows at her. “Uh…yeah. Why?”
“Like, cash? We could slip a hundred dollars to the bouncer and see if that helps our case.” She pulled a handful of change from the depths of her bag. No dollars. Crud.
He shook his head. “Already tried that.”
“When?”
“About the time you were going off on how much you dislike the band. Didn’t work. Do you always carry that many pennies with you?”
“No.” Velma dropped the money back into her purse as a charge went through the air. She glanced back to the windows. The guys from Dimefront took the stage and the crowd outside screamed in response. Velma craned her neck but couldn’t see Brek anymore.
Muscles in her chest tightened. The throng surrounding them shoved each other to get a better view of the band. People pushed all around them…well, her… Where the heck had Jase gone? She glanced back and forth, searching for him.
More bodies pressed her farther from the building, toward the street. She waved her hands over her head and shouted, “Jase?”
She needed to get out of here. The vibe had gone from annoyed-but-waiting to get-the-heck-out-of-my-way dangerous. Holding her purse tight to her side, she headed to cross the street just as a police cruiser bleated a siren. She’d made it to the curb when a rowdy group heaved by her.
Tottering on her heels, she fell hard against one of the cars parked along the street. Crud. That hurt. She rubbed at her hip.
“Velvet?”
Thank goodness.
She closed her eyes, squashed away the sour ache in her chest, and glanced up to Wayne. She flashed back to when they were seven, and she had biffed it on her bike. He’d come to her rescue then, as well.
His arm holding her waist, he helped her across the street to a concrete flower planter in front of an all-night convenience store.
“You okay?” He dusted some nonexistent dirt from her shoulders, holding her a little too close and lingering a teensy bit too long.
She slumped to the edge of the planter, taking care not to crush the azaleas. “I’m fine. I’m just…I’m trying to get to my boyfriend to get him a message.”
“Ah.” He frowned, stepping in front of her. Wayne was generally soft spoken, but he had to raise his voice to be heard over the crowd. His radio crackled on his shoulder. He said something in return.
“You should probably get back to work.” She nodded to another group of people headed up the sidewalk toward the club.
