A Wicked Song - Lisa Renee Jones Page 0,83
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 even 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