“I want to see my fucking wife!”
A middle-aged man threw himself at the security staff blocking the entrance. His face was beet-red, breathing labored as he backed up and charged the men again.
“What’s happening here?” I asked, stepping up behind them.
The dark-skinned man on my left gave me a quick grin and a wink. Heat crawled up my throat as I noticed how attractive he was, especially when he told me, “Nothing to worry about, Miss King. We’re just keeping the peace,” as he blocked yet another attempt at entry from the irate man outside.
Maybe I could take some time to myself after I sorted this out and scratch the itch I needed to deal with.
“What’s your name?”
“Byron.” The way his lips stretched into a toothy smile told me everything I needed to know. He was on board with whatever I had planned.
Hell yeah, I needed a win.
But first…
“Okay, Byron. Let him in. He’s going to behave so he can get what he wants. Right?” I glared at the man who had definitely been beside the woman Harvey was currentlyentertaining. I hoped they were almost done because the night had finally started to look up.
Byron gave me a dubious look while his partner glanced between us. When I made no move to back down, they let the slightly subdued husband through.
“Thank you,” I told them, reaching for the man’s arm to guide him toward the green room.
At that moment, Harvey and the woman who was quickly becoming the bane of my existence spilled out of a nearby closet.
Fuck. My. Life.
The man beside me let out a roar, and pain exploded through my face as he threw me off and charged my lead guitarist. Harvey stepped in front of the woman, some latent chivalry rearing its head in the face of this new threat. I clapped a hand to my mouth, something warm and sticky running through my fingers as Byron magically appeared between the two men.
“Chill out, my dude,” he said, holding a hand out toward the husband.
The woman, safely sheltered behind Harvey’s bulk, fluffed her hair.
“We’re through, Hank. I don’t know why you bothered to come back here. I’m with Harvey now.”
“What the fuck?”
If my nose weren’t throbbing in time to my heartbeat, the look on Harvey’s face would have been priceless. He took a step aside, as though he could belatedly convey he wasn’t, in fact, allied with the woman in any way.
Idiot.
“You can take her now. We’re done.”
I slapped my hand against my forehead, wincing at the impact as Hank roared and tried to charge again.
“Harvey, get the fuck in the green room before I learn guitar and take your place in the band, so I don’t have to deal with your shit anymore.”
He blinked at me for a moment, like he had no idea where the hostility had come from, before giving the woman’s arm a squeeze and walking away like he hadn’t just screwed up the rest of my night.
My head throbbed as Byron looked toward me, silently asking what I wanted to do next.
“Hank, come with me. Byron, could you organize a lift home for the…her?”
I was a girl’s girl most days, but I just couldn’t with that woman anymore. The potential sweat session with a hot security guard disappeared before my eyes as he guided her away, and I watched all the bluster drain out of Hank.
“Why doesn’t she want me anymore?” he asked, his voice thickening with tears.
Fuuuuuuck.
