I hate it when she treats us like children. “I’ll try not to sneeze in their Cristal.”
“Stop it,” she says, irritated. Then she starts laughing like I said the funniest thing ever. It takes me a moment to realize the fake laugher is meant to draw attention to us.
For the next twenty minutes, Ronni introduces me to a dozen people with whom I have nothing in common. She doesn’t leave my side the entire time, her arm laced tightly around my elbow.
I lean in and say, “For someone who doesn’t want me to look spoken for, you sure are keeping me close.”
She throws her head back and laughs again, putting on a show.
Somebody shoot me. She’s even more fake than I gave her credit for.
A man takes her aside, and I finally get a chance to duck away. I stand on the balcony, watching the people below, scanning the crowd for Bria and the guys. She’s near the bar, surrounded by three men. I look for Jeremy or one of the others, but nobody is with her. One of the men hands her a drink. She takes a sip.
I hurry downstairs and across the floor until I reach her. I take her drink and put it on the bar. “Come with me.” The back hallway is quiet and dimly lit.
She smiles wryly. “Here?”
“Bria, what are you doing?” I ask sternly.
She’s confused by my question. She looks out at the crowd and back at me. “I’m mingling, like Ronni told us.”
“You took a drink from a stranger.”
“I was standing at the bar.”
“But your back was to it. He got the drink from the bartender and handed it to you. He could have slipped something into it.”
She looks concerned. “Did he?”
“No, but he could have.”
She slumps against the wall. “Crew, four band members and Jeremy are looking out for me. Nobody is going to drug me.”
“There are five hundred people in this club. How long do you think it would take for the five of us to notice you’re gone? Ten minutes? Five? By that time, you’re in the back of someone’s car.”
She touches my cheek. “You’re going a little overboard. I can take care of myself.”
“I’m going back out there with you.”
“Ronni’s not going to like that very much.”
“Screw Ronni. Maybe I’ll stick my tongue down your throat on the dance floor.”
She looks at me seductively. “You want to stick your tongue down my throat?”
I brush her hair behind her ear. “I want to stick my tongue in a lot of places.”
She exhales slowly. “How long do we have to stay here?”
“There you are,” Ronni says, coming around the corner. “You ran off. We’re not finished.”
I motion to Bria. “I think it’s her turn. You did say you wanted us all to meet them, right?”
Ronni’s expression sours. “You work the floor down here. Brianna, follow me and try to look sophisticated.”
Bria follows her, but mimes someone tightening a noose around her neck behind Ronni’s back.
I smile. Because, holy shit, I really like this girl.
Chapter Thirty-three
Bria
The limo pulls up in front of my place. Ronni’s eyes are glued to the window. “You live here?” She looks up and down the street. “God, it’s hideous.”
Crew says sarcastically, “Yet you keep spending our money on frivolous things, like limos.”
“Well, it’s obviously needed,” Ronni says. “We sure as hell don’t want people thinking you live in squalor.”
I’m tired of her condescension, but I decided long ago not to let it get to me. “Bye, guys. Great set tonight.”
Crew gets out after me. Before he closes the door, I hear Ronni say, “That hair.”
“Don’t listen to her,” Crew says. “Your hair is incredible. She’s just jealous.”
“Yeah, right,” I say, stumbling.
He catches me. “Whoa. You okay?”
I smile. “I am now.”
“You’re drunk.”
“Maybe a little, and so are you. How could we not be, with all the drinks pushed our way?”
He laughs. “A lot of expensive drinks.”
I unlock the door. “I haven’t had champagne like that since I was on the road with White Poison.”
“Maybe you should get used to it.”
“Do you think people really get used to drinking bottles of two-hundred-dollar champagne?”
“Did Adam?”
“Oh yeah.”
“That’s not going to be us, Bria.”
“I hope not.” We go into my tiny apartment, and it’s like I’m seeing it for the first time. “It will be strange to go from this to that, don’t you think? If it happens.”
He captures me, tugging me to him. “It’ll happen. We were good tonight.”
I wiggle against him. “Really good, and you were amazing.”