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