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“We’ve got to go.” Dizzy grabs my hand.
The horn emits three more pulses. Rook is trying to get back to us, but the exit is packed with people.
We move toward it, but we’re jostled and shoved and I lose grip on Dizzy’s hand in the confusion.
“Kelsey?” she screams as the horn wails again. But I can’t see her or Willa through the panicked throng.
“This way.” Someone in a bar uniform grabs my hand and rushes me through the back of the bar. There’s another exit up ahead. Once we’re through it, I can run around to the front where Rook is. I’ll only be on my own for a couple of minutes.
What trouble can I possibly find in two minutes?
Oh, right.
13
Riot
Iget that Kelsey’s not talking to me. That she’s pissed. But it’s only been a few days since she was almost abducted by Marco and her not responding to my messages has me feeling deranged.
“You’re distracting me.” Micah looks up from his laptop. So far Sonatina’s ability to hide her tracks has been remarkable. He bows his head, taps a few buttons and... shakes his head. “She must have had someone help her with this. There’s no way...”
Which is fine because he has this little black box that supposedly fucks up any listening devices temporarily.
“Damn it.” I figured out she was steps ahead of me already. But when I’d tried to lure her into a trap at dinner, she’d avoided incriminating herself while still managing to remind me how easily she can hurt Kelsey. As soon as I realized I wasn’t going to get anything out of her I’d feigned coming down with something.
Carmine had ordered me back to the hotel for rest and a cocktail of antivirals and anti-inflammatories. This tour can’t have any setbacks, no matter how petulant daddy’s little princess gets. He even gave me a night off from her, insisting she stay with him.
Now it’s almost three in the morning. Micah has been on his laptop since about one. And everyone else is asleep.
“Will you sit down?” Micah snaps. He takes a breath. “Pacing isn’t going to make her show up any faster. And I need to concentrate.”
“I knew her going out tonight was a bad idea.” I stare at my lit screen and try to will her message into existence. Is she messaging Kodiak? Probably. I grit my teeth. I have no right to be jealous. I might not have had any choice in getting fake engaged to Sonatina—believing Kelsey’s innocence will be enough to protect her isn’t realistic—but I’ve let Kelsey down too many times.
“We needed her out of the way,” Micah says. “And she’s in the best hands. Willa and Dizzy can handle any situation. And she has her bodyguard.”
“I should have gone with them.” What if he’s wrong and they do get separated? What if Rook can’t get to her? Micah spent the entire evening setting up trackers in her stuff—the only reason I went along with girls’ night—but she left before he did any of that. “I should never have agreed to this.”
Not that I could stop her. Kelsey would have done it to spite me if I’d even tried to reason with her. And we did need access to all her things.
My gut keeps churning. Something is wrong. It settles over me like a thick blanket. I need a smoke to calm me down. I retrieve a joint from my tin and head toward the balcony to have it.
A siren wails on the street below.
I light the joint and inhale. There’s no settling this anxiety. It’ll be constant until she walks through the door. All drunken attitude and horny as hell. I just can’t shake that something isn’t right.
It was too soon for her to be out there after facing off with Marco. The bruises haven’t even completely faded. She wakes up in a blind terror more often than not.
What if she gets hurt and needs to go to the hospital and I don’t fucking know? What if she gets so drunk tonight that she needs me to take care of her and I’m not there? What if—
My phone rings and I pounce on the answer button like it’s an oxygen mask and my plane is going down. The joint lands on the floor and I crush it under my boot. “Kelsey?”
“Rook.” The man sounds panicked. There’s a lot of noise. People shouting, crying. Sirens are wailing.
Instinct tells me I can’t wait for him to continue. Running back inside, I grab a couple sets of keys for the motorcycles we keep in one of the tour trailers in case we get a chance to ride. “Where are you?”
“Pepperoni Rock.” It sounds like chaos in the background. “I only walked away for two minutes. She ordered me to make sure Lennon got her ride. She was with the girls. I had my eye on her the whole time.”
Fuck. This is going exactly where I’m worried it’s going. “And?”