One Tiny Secret - By Adam Kunz Page 0,69

Whitman felt as the fumes filled his lungs and he suffocated?”

Terror surges through me at the sinister tone in his voice. My scared eyes meet Parker’s when I see him making his way through the crowd, drinks in hand. I try to scream, but nothing comes out except a high-pitched wheezing sound.

“Hey, what the fuck do you think you’re doing?” I hear Parker yell in our direction, pushing through the mass of people, trying to hurry over to us.

“See you soon, Dani,” the person says close to my ear, then lets me go.

I release a cough as I slump to the floor, trying to catch my breath. I feel someone grab me and I look up to see Parker’s worried face in front of mine.

“I think…that was Unknown,” I choke out between wheezes. Before I have a chance to say anything else, Parker dashes away in hot pursuit.

There’s a break in the music followed by a rowdy reception. The cheers are deafening within this small bar and I worry I might be trampled if I don’t get up soon.

It takes me a minute to realize I’m kneeling in my spilt beer. The cold, wet feeling on my knees causes me to roll back and rest on my calves. As the crowd settles, I notice everyone in my immediate area is staring at me. A couple of people even ask if I’m okay. How exactly am I supposed to answer that when none of them saw what happened?

I pick myself up off the ground, and the instant I make it to my feet, hands grab the sides of my arms.

“Are you all right?” Parker asks, trying to catch his breath.

“Did you catch him?”

“No. The bastard’s fast. I lost him in the alley behind the bar. Wait—Unknown’s definitely a ‘him’?”

“Yeah. At least, the voice sounded like a guy’s.” I pause, looking dejectedly into his eyes. “I thought he was you.”

“Fuck. I’m so sorry, Dani. I should have been with you.” He cups my face in his palms and strokes his thumb across my cheek.

“He had me in his hands,” I whisper and hear my voice shake. Parker wraps his arms around my frame and hugs me close. He doesn’t say anything, but continues to hold me.

“Parker Reed.”

I hear Alex’s voice sound behind us. I can tell by the level of snarkiness in her tone that she’s not happy to see him.

“Hey, Alex,” he replies, but sounds puzzled by the way she said his name. I back away from Parker’s embrace and turn to face her.

“Huh, definitely didn’t see this one coming,” she laughs to herself, but I sense there’s some dissatisfaction behind that statement.

“This isn’t what it looks like,” I respond, and I’m met by Alex’s quirked eyebrow. Her judgmental eyes are quite the ball-breaker.

“Hold on, I’m confused here. What isn’t what it looks like? Because I thought I was just helping a friend who had too much to drink,” Parker replies, sending me a knowing glance.

Alex rolls her eyes, seemingly over the conversation. “Did you guys at least enjoy the show?”

“Yeah, it was great.”

“You didn’t see it, did you?” she asks.

“No, we did. You guys rocked it,” Parker says, but he sounds even less convincing than I did.

“Well, thanks for coming out, anyway.” Alex grabs me in a hug. “You, me, conference later, okay?” she whispers. Then she pulls back, a forced smile on her face. I know she wants to talk about why I’m still messing around with Parker. If only she knew what was really going on.

“Definitely.”

“Parker, always a pleasure,” she states, waving lazily at him with a squinty-eyed smile.

He smirks. “Feeling’s mutual.”

“Riiiight. Well, I’m going to grab a drink with the band. Do you guys want to tag along?”

“I think I’d better get Dani home. She sipped on a few too many of my beers.”

“Yeah, I feel completely blitzed,” I say after sending Parker a quick scowl.

Alex’s eyes dart back and forth between Parker and me. “Riiiight.” She stops on me with a pointed stare. “Conference later.”

I feel the sting of her words like a jellyfish’s tentacle. “Got it.”

“So, that was sufficiently awkward,” Parker comments when he’s sure Alex is not within earshot.

“Yeah, she pretty much hates your guts for what you did to me.”

“Good to know for future interactions.” Turning his attention solely to me, he asks, “Why didn’t you tell her what just happened to you? You can’t keep avoiding that these things are actually happening.”

“I’m not avoiding what’s happening. I just don’t want to put