Page 21 of Silver Edge
“And if he doesn’t?”
“My friend back there is gonna take you both down.” I tilted my head at Hawaiian behind the bar.
The skater placed a hand with scabbed over knuckles on each of my thighs. “What’s that fat bastard going to do?” His fingers slid over my jeans. My insides twisted like a half-pike gone wrong.
Falcon talons locked on to my hips and squeezed. Tremors made my legs and arms shake. I was sandwiched between them. Knit Cap hovered in front, while his sidekick continued to dig his nails into my skin, nails that I wanted to peel from their beds.
I resisted the urge to tell him exactly that, opting for reason instead. “Listen, you’re wasted. I can smell tequila and punk ass on your breath. Do us both a favor and walk away before this gets messy.”
His hands moved from my thighs to my shoulders and I feared I’d scream at the invasion. His touch felt like a volcano, erupting my blood until it poured out into my system. My body shook faster than a headbanger on speed.
“Aw, I think she wants me. I’ll wait for you outside after your shift and show you what you’ve been missing.” He slid his hand to the back of my neck and tried to tug me closer.
I rocked away. “No. No. No.”
His touch invaded me. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. The entire venue spun. I balled up my fist and slammed it into his face then grabbed the hand that still held my neck and twisted it backward until he sat on his knees on the ground.
“Stop. Let me go!” Knit Cap screamed.
His friend’s hands connected with my chest and launched me back. I stumbled but recovered and thrust my foot into his groin. He cupped himself then fell to the floor, moaning.
I extinguished the immediate threat, but my synapses continued to fire in rapid succession. My hands found Knit Cap’s throat. I fought the scream rising from a dark place inside me, one where I’d hidden all my secrets. Secrets that threatened to land me in a psych ward for the rest of my life. My body shook to the point my movements blended.Thumpafterthumpdrowned out all other noise around me.
Drake’s face appeared in front of mine. His lips moved, but I heard nothing. With a strong grip, he pried my hand from my victim’s throat and I stumbled away.
The vibration in my ears tempered and I realized I didn’t hear any music.
Drake lifted the one skater by his shirt off the floor. Hawaiian lifted the other guy. “Let me. It’s my job to take out the trash.”
I wrung my hands, trying to still the shaking. Spinning in all directions, I saw face after face staring back at me. The band remained onstage, holding their instruments, glaring down at me as if I were the devil rising up from the shadows. Then I spotted Drake. His eyes narrowed, brows knit together. I’d seen that look countless times before. Always right before someone called me Scary Scarlet or tossed me from a foster home. I skittered backward, knocking into people.
Eyes, hundreds of them, bored into me with vicious power, searching, accusing. I twisted and turned, shoving through the crowd. I willed the terror from my body. A wave of electricity still spiked from my big toenail to the top of my head with each step. Fire erupted on my skin and my lungs squished the air into tight pockets that I thought would rupture inside me.
Chapter Ten
The darkness of the warehouse storage room provided some shelter from the world, but not enough. I curled into myself and swayed from side to side.Not again. Not again. Not again.
I hummed a song, a song from my childhood, one my mother used to sing. After several minutes, I was able to sing a single line. “Girls just want to have fun.”
The bolts of nervous energy subsided to slivers, and air gushed into my lungs. Each breath provided a little more comfort until I managed to rest my forehead on my knees. Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes, and I blinked them into submission.
I need you, Ton.If only I had a phone. He was the only one besides my mother who could calm me after an attack. Of course, if I called he would be at my side in a matter of hours. He was a saint.
The longer I sat alone rocking, the more I was glad I didn’t have a cell phone. Ton was a crutch, a great person who needed to move on, who needed to stop taking care of me. Calling him would ruin everything I had accomplished so far. My freakish behavior had no doubt just cost me the first job I was ever excited about, not to mention the benefit of eye candy on a daily basis.
If I was honest with myself, Drake was more than just sex on a stick. There was a softness to him. Not a wimpy kind of softness. A man with compassion kind of softness. I couldn’t identify what it was, but all I knew is he could touch me without sending me into a sensory coma.
After an hour of contemplating my options, I relaxed against my pillow of T-shirts and my hoodie. The darkness surrounded me in a comforting cocoon, allowing me to hide and mend. I would never return to Bands, but perhaps I would find something else. I couldn’t give up. There had to be something.
“Mother, I’ll make you proud,” I whispered into the darkness, imagining her sitting by my bed singing to me.
Bang. Shuffle.
“Scarlet?” Drake called from below.
He found me? How?
I silently returned to my wall, pulling my knees into my chest and holding my breath.
