“If we hit our goal tonight,” Chris says, “you owe me nothing.”
“I need food if that’s going to happen.”
“I figured,” Chris says, “You were eyeing the waiters like you could eat an arm.” He greets me and motions us toward Sara, who is still guarding the chocolate fountain.
Kace’s arm slides around me and we join Sara as she finishes off a cake pop. “I couldn’t help myself,” she says. “You should try one of all of them. They’re so good and,” she gives me a once over, “you, Aria, look lovely.” She sets her plate down on a table.
She herself is in a red dress that hugs her figure to her knees. “And you look stunning.”
“Thank you,” she says and her eyes catch on my bracelet. “Oh wow. That’s stunning.” She captures my hand and flattens it on hers to view my wrist. “I love it.”
“Kace gave it to me.”
“He did good.” She eyes Kace. “You did good.” She glances at Chris. “It reminds me of the daisies in some of the regions of Italy.” Her attention returns to me. “I loved the daisies there. Have you seen them?”
Reflexively, I pull my hand back and hug myself. Kace’s hand splays on my back and he leans in and whispers, “Easy, baby. We have a small circle. They’re in it.”
In other words, he trusts them and the truth is that I’m already regretting my reaction. I like Sara and I feel nothing negative with Chris.
Concern etches Sara’s brow. “Did I say something wrong? If so, please accept my apology.”
“No,” I say quickly, my arms uncurling, body language relaxing. “I’m the one who is sorry. It was a knee-jerk reaction to something from my past.”
“I certainly have a few hotspots myself,” Sara assures me, reaching over and giving my hand a tiny squeeze.
It’s a warm moment, a bonding moment, one that new friends, who are becoming real friends, experience. Or so I’ve seen on TV. This is new to me. All of it is new to me.
A waiter appears and Kace grabs two more finger sandwiches, all the waiter has left. “Damn,” he mumbles, “I’m never getting properly fed.”
“I’ll handle it,” Sara says, flagging down a waiter, and in about two minutes she’s back. “They’re bringing the two stars of the night special plates, pronto.”
“You’re the rock star,” I say, already feeling myself easing back into the evening and out of the past.
“I’m the supporting cast and I like it that way.” She pushes to her toes and kisses Chris’s cheek before she moves toward me. “Let’s give them a minute.”
She means she wants a minute with me, but I’m remarkably okay with that. I don’t believe Sara will pressure me for information. As if she’s read my mind, once we’re at a small standing table, that’s exactly what she says, “No pressure. No questions. I just want you to know that if you need to talk, I’m a safe zone. Completely safe.”
“I believe you.” And also, remarkably, I do. Maybe it’s Kace’s trust. Maybe it’s a feeling. But I do believe they’re safe. I do believe my reaction was knee-jerk.
“Good,” she says. “So just know that if you need to talk, even in circles, I’m here.”
I don’t know what happens, but my mouth opens, and then words just spew out. “I’m Aria Stradivari, perhaps now the last living Stradivari. My ancestor created the Stradivarius instruments Kace favors. My brother is missing. People, there are always these unknown people, who are hunting the secret to the instruments’ creation. Kace has Walker protecting me and someone named Kayden Wilkens helping us from some underground organization.”
She grabs my hand. “Okay, breathe. Thank you for trusting me and wow. Just wow, but how amazing you and Kace would end up finding each other. You are obviously where you belong.”
“I’m hunted. He’ll be hunted because of me.”
“He can handle it. It takes powerful people to fight powerful people. He’s powerful. I know. I’ve lived that and I’ve seen it as truth. As for Kayden, his wife, Ella, is my best friend. They saved our lives and honestly, she saved me from being raped. They’re badasses, honorable, and dangerous to the wrong people, which means the bad guys.”
“Raped?”
“Yes, well, that was me trusting you. That’s between us. It’s a long story that I’ll tell you sometime over chocolate, but the bottom line is that Ella is always being hunted. As her only family, and we are sisters in our hearts, I am family, and I am always a potential target.”
“How do you live like that?”
“You’re asking me that?”
“I did it alone. You have Chris. You’re always in the open and high profile.”
“And guarded. We keep security. Chris worries. I choose not to. I don’t function well that way and neither does he. He just needs that control. And just for the record, Crystal and Mark have been through some similar stuff, too. They’re in your city. I swear to you that you can trust them.”
“I feel that. I like Crystal.”
“And Mark?” she asks.
“He’s,” I hesitate, and settle on, “hard.”
“He is,” she agrees, “but Mark’s guarded because of his past. He takes time to get to know and appreciate. Oh and I hear you’re living with Kace.”
I smile. “Yes. I am. It’s pretty wonderful.”
“I’d have known if Kace hadn’t told Chris. I could see the love blossoming between you.”
My brows shoot up. “He told Chris?”
“Yes. They talk. Before Kace, Chris only talked to me. Now they talk. I’m thankful they found each other.”
“I’m actually really not surprised,” I say, this knowledge giving new depth to Kace’s reference to them being a part of our circle. “They have a lot of weird coincidences in their pasts,” I add.
“They do and for that reason, I’m going to give you some last words of advice because we might not see each other until Paris. Because of Chris and Kace talking, I know you know a lot about Kace and I know you know there are things you don’t yet know.”
“He’s afraid to tell me.”
“But he’s told you that, and that matters. Because, like Chris, some things in their background make them hate themselves. You have to love him when he can’t love himself.”
“I haven’t told him I love him. We haven’t said those words. Almost, I think.”
“You will,” she says confidently. “You absolutely will, but no matter how much you love each other when his past comes out, and it will, expect him to push you away. That’s survival. That’s fear of rejection. You have to pull him back. You have to fight for him. At some point, this conversation is going to feel like foreshadowing. Fate has brought you to us. You are where you belong. Don’t let him forget that.”
Kace steps behind me, his body warm, his hands possessively on my waist, his lips to my ear. “See?” he murmurs softly. “Everyone knows you’re where you belong.”
I reach back and touch his face, and while I agree that I’m where I belong, fate isn’t all that’s at play. Kace doesn’t believe that any more than I do and right now, I really wish we could make all the other stuff just go away. Sara and I share a look of friendship and then I twist around in Kace’s arms to face him. “Mark and Crystal want us in the back in fifteen minutes,” he says, his hand laying on my lower back, a warm, even possessive, touch. “Let’s work the crowd on our way there” he adds, lowering his voice. “How did that go with Sara?”
“I kind of love her already. I told her, Kace.”
Surprise flits across his face. “And?”
“And a lot of things we can talk about later, but she’s friends with Kayden and his wife, Ella. I do think they can help.”
“Sounds like I owe Sara a thank you. You seem more relaxed.”
“I am,” I say, only now realizing that it’s true. I flatten my hand on his chest. “And you, sir, have a show to perform and crowd to work.” I slide my arm around his and we begin the mi
ngling and Kace is an easy, sought after target but it’s all pretty wonderful. We slip into a good time chatting with people and I don’t miss how Kace introduces me to everyone and is always touching me. He has a way of making me feel like that princess for sure, even with a few gorgeous movie stars that have me just a tiny bit starstruck.
We’re almost to the door that leads to the ultimate performance room when to my shock, Alexander, decked out in a tuxedo, steps in front of us. “I thought I was going to miss the start of the night,” he says.
Kace’s fingers flex on my back and I can I feel the undercurrent of his anger. “What are you doing here, Alexander?” he asks, his voice low, even, but there is a whip beneath the surface that I do not miss.
“I bought tickets to all of your events,” Alexander says. “Important people seem to find you. It’s a good place to be.” He eyes me. “Like Aria. She’s important enough to claim your arm.” His gaze flicks back to Kace. “Did you tell her about Maggie?”
“Stop,” Kace warns.
“That’s a no.” He looks at me. “He ruined her.”
“Stop, Alexander,” Kace warns again. “Now.” That one word is low but no less lethal.
Alexander does not stop. “He’s the reason she’s dead,” he continues. “He wanted her dead. He wouldn’t stop until she was dead. She killed herself. That’s how humiliated she was after he was through with her.”
Kace does what I never believed he’d do. He steps toward Alexander and instinctively, I place myself between them, my back to Alexander, my hands pressed to Kace’s chest. “He’s not worth it,” I say softly, for his ears only. “The charity matters. He does not.”
But he’s not looking at me. His stare is locked on Alexander and I can feel the moment his anger recoils, replaced swiftly by something quieter, darker, and far more dangerous. “There’s a price to pay, Alexander,” Kace says, his voice a blade that promises to draw blood. “One you’ve escaped far too long.”
A guard appears by our sides. “Is there a problem, Mr. August?”
Kace eyes the guard. “Remove this man. Now.” He says nothing more. He rotates and starts walking away, and he does so without me.
I whirl on Alexander. “How dare you do this on a night he performs.”
“You needed to know. This organization needs to know the hypocrisy that is Kace August.”
I eye the guard. “Get him out of here. Kace just told you he wants him out of here.” I rotate back to Alexander and I don’t think. I slap him hard on the face. His head jerks with the force, but he just laughs. I give him my back and run toward the door to the performance room, just as Kace disappears to the other side.
I’m there just after him, my hand on the knob, when Sara catches my arm. “What’s going on?”
“Get Chris. Kace needs him. Your foreshadowing is tonight. Alexander, I don’t know if you know who is—”
“I do. He’s here?”
“He is and he just told me a lot of things in front of Kace. Bad things. Things that had no business here in this room tonight.”
She pales. “Oh God. Yes. I’ll get Chris.” She rushes away.
I enter the performance room and the stage and seating area are empty. Kace is missing. I run toward a door by the stage and exit to find a huge hall on the other side, and a guard by the door. “Where did Kace go?”
He bristles with the demand. “Who are you?”
I try to explain, but he refuses to let me go after Kace without a certain kind of security pass. I end up arguing with him until finally, Sara saves me.
“They gave you the wrong card,” she says, handing me a different pass and when I hold it up, the guard finally, begrudgingly concedes and says, “He’s in his dressing room. North Hall.”
Sara points me in the right direction and we start walking. “Chris is with a big donor,” she explains. “He can’t shut him down right now, but they perform in fifteen minutes. You need to get to Kace before he goes on stage.”
“I don’t know how he’s going to perform,” I say. “You don’t know how upset he was.”
“He won’t let the charity or Chris down. He’ll perform.” She opens another door that is like a giant room with dressing room doors. She points to a door that has Kace’s name on it. “Good luck.” She disappears back into the main hall.
I hurry to Kace’s door and I don’t knock. I just enter. I find him standing in the center of the room doing nothing. Just standing there, his handsome face all hard lines, his eyes wrought with shadows. I shut the door behind me and lean against it.
“Kace—”
“I told you to run,” he says. “You didn’t listen.”
The door I just shut opens behind me and one of Kace’s band members, Marvin, pokes his head in. “We need you on stage, Kace.” He must sense my presence because he peeks around the door and eyes me. “Oh hey, Aria.”
“Hi,” I say. “He’ll be right there.”
“Yes, but Mark—”
“We need a minute, Marvin” I insist and my voice is as fierce as I have ever heard it. “Okay?”
Marvin grimaces. “Right. Yeah. Okay.” He mumbles a, “Woman,” comment and then disappears. The door shuts and Kace walks toward me or maybe the door. I step in front of it again. He leans on it, hands on either side of me, but he doesn’t touch me.
“I need a violin in my hands right now, Aria.” His voice is low, taut, vibrating. “I need you to understand that.”
“Yes, I—” My hand presses to his chest. “Kace, I—”
“Aria, listen to what I am saying to you. I need a violin in my hands right now if I’m going to be able to perform.”
“Yes. Yes, okay.” It hurts, it hurts so much, but I step aside and without any hesitation, he leaves.
I follow him out of the door and Sara’s waiting on me in the hallway. “Well?”
I give a grim shake of my head. “He won’t talk to me.”
“You have to make him.”
“He has to perform.”
“He needs to go on that stage knowing you aren’t leaving.” She snags my hand and leads me to another long hallway like the one behind the stage at Riptide. “He’ll come back here before he performs.”
“Thank you. Can Chris talk to him?”
“He’s still working on that massive donation. He’s trying to get free.” She leaves and I’m left alone in the hallway.
And so, I pace and pace and wait. When finally, the band returns to the hallway, Kace isn’t there. “Where is he?” I ask Marvin.
“He said he needed a few minutes alone.”
My heart sinks. He must think I’m back in his dressing room and when I’m not there, he’ll think I left. I run down the hallway and burst into the larger hall, to run to the dressing room area. Once I’m in Kace’s room, he’s not there. I text him: Where are you?
I don’t wait for an answer. I exit the room and a guard swears he’s in yet another room with water and refreshments. I go there. He’s not there and I’m losing my mind. I give up the hunt and head back to the hallway behind the stage. Thank God, he’s there with his band and crew, but no one is near him. They seem to know he needs to be left alone. He’s facing the wall, his hands on the hard surface, head low. “Five minutes,” someone says over an intercom. “Kace and Chris, you have seven.”
I can’t spot Chris anywhere near, but the rest of the band and crew exit to the performance room. Kace doesn’t move, but I know he knows I’m here. I slide under Kace’s arm, between him and the wall. “Kace.” My hand is back on his chest, his thundering heart beneath my palm.
His stare is heavy-lidded, expression as taut as his tone. “What are you doing, Aria?”
“Getting ready to watch you perform.” And then I dare to confess, “I just want you to know that I love you, Kace. I love you.”
His reaction is instant, visceral. He cups my head, tilts my face to his. “Do not say that to me when you don’t ev
en know who I am.” His voice vibrates, his teeth clenched.
“I do know. I know you.”
“No,” he says. “You don’t. So don’t say that to me now. It’s not real.”
In thirty seconds, his words have ripped at the very fabric of our relationship and did all they could to shred it. They cut. They cut deep, and suddenly Chris is at our sides, his hand on Kace’s back. “We have to go on, man. I’m sorry I wasn’t here sooner, but Alexander is gone.”
Kace releases me and turns to him. “I’m going to need to change the lineup tonight. We’re going dark.”
“Throw it at me, man. I’ll go there with you.”
There’s a knock on the door. “That means lights out,” Chris says. “We have to go.”
Chris opens the door and exits and Kace follows. He’s gone. And I’m alone. So very alone.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
I stare at the door and then at the bracelet Kace gave me and all of Sara’s words tumble through my mind, play in my head. She told me he’d push me away. She told me I’d have to fight for him. And she was right. As if I’ve willed her presence, she opens the door and catches my hand. “We need to take our seats. You need to be there for him. He’ll know. It will matter. Come.”
I nod and hurry forward and out into the dark room where an usher with a flashlight helps us to our seats in the front row. Dramatic lights start flickering and my heart starts to race. The audience's excitement expands in the room. The sound of a violin touches everyone’s ears, teasing us all, before the lights come on. Kace is center stage. He commands that stage. He begins to play dark, heavy music, Black Sabbath at one point, AC/DC’s “Back in Black.” The more classical but sinister “Dark Waltz.” But it’s all beautifully dark. All of his anger, his passion, his pain come through that instrument and flows to Chris’s paintbrush. Chris paints a storyboard of a hurricane-brushed night in San Francisco with haunting images of people rushing through the streets, fighting the force of wind. I watch and listen in wonder as does everyone else. I now know how Kace performed the night his parents died. I need a violin in my hands right now. I need you to understand that. The violin is how he grieved and survived. When the performance is over he and Chris claim their seats with me and Sara. Kace sits next to me but he doesn’t touch me. I touch him though. I take his hand and it’s not until the bid on the violin goes ridiculously high that his hand closes around mine. The three paintings Chris created are next and the bids go nuts, once again. As soon as Chris’s auctions are over, Kace stands and takes me with him, heading for the door.
A Wicked Song Page 20