Page 16 of Rescue

“Who’s that?”

“That’s, uh, Haylee Hunt. The singer. For Intrigue. The opener.”

She looks up at me as I ramble on, and I know that she can see everything on my face. To my very great relief, she doesn’t smirk, though her eyes do seem to flash. “Want to go say hi?”

Before I can answer, she’s half dragging me across the room. I’m still trying to catch my breath, still trying to make my brain work. I don’t understand what’s happening to me, why the sight of her has me so worked up. It’s not like I’ve never seen her before. I’ve been following Intrigue ever since we saw them play back in Houston. Hell, it was my idea for them to open for us in Europe. It wasn’t like it was a secret that she was gorgeous. If I needed any reminder of that, I got it a few weeks ago when I saw her in the rehearsal space. I was even more sure of it when I heard her sing.

But none of that prepared me for seeing her now, and I have no idea why she seems so different. The clothes are part of it—she’d been dressed in jeans, Doc Martens, and an unbuttoned faded flannel shirt over a tank top that day at the rehearsal space. About as far from the purple leather dress in front of me as possible. There’s no denying the fact that her body is insane in a dress like that. But it’s not her body that has my palms sweating and my chest feeling tight.

It’s her face, I realize. She’s laughing, and it somehow transforms her. That thing that I saw in her eyes at the rehearsal space, that indefinable but so familiar, broken downsomethingthat I recognized immediately—it’s gone now. She’s laughing with her friend, her eyes bright, face relaxed, whatever secret worry that haunted her forgotten for a moment.

She’s so beautiful.

“Wait,” I tell Daisy, pulling on her hand as I stop dead in my tracks. “Daisy, wait.”

She turns to face me, confused. “What?”

“I… I can’t do this.”

“You can’t go say hi?” She’s smiling, her tone light. She has no idea how close to freaking out I am.

“No.”

The smile immediately vanishes. “Lennon?”

“I just… I just need…” I’m having trouble breathing again, for entirely different reasons this time, and Daisy’s eyes go wide.

“What’s wrong?”

I don’t answer. I don’t know what to say. How can I explain to her that the idea of standing so close to something so beautiful makes me sick to my stomach? She’ll think I’m crazy. Iamcrazy.

“I’m getting Reed,” she says, pulling away.

“No.” The word is loud enough to cause several heads to turn in our direction. “I just… I’m going to go outside.”

“I’m coming with you.”

“Please don’t.” The hurt and worry in her eyes sends a stab of guilt through me, but I’m turning away from her before I can even think of apologizing. I just want to get some air, try to get ahold of myself. Try to swallow the damn lump that’s lodged itself in my throat.

“Lennon!”

I ignore her and push through the crowd. Cash catches my eye from across the room, and I curse under my breath. He’ll follow me. Or Daisy will.Deal with them later, I tell myself.Just get out of this room.

But then Levi is standing in front of me, and I really think I might start screaming. He takes one look at my face and grabs my arm, pulling me through the crowd. We’re probably causing a scene, but I don’t even care. When we reach the lobby, I move to the doors, but Levi tugs on my elbow. “There’s press outside.” Instead he pulls me in the opposite direction to a door marked Staff. He leads me through without knocking, ignoring the stares of the club employees we pass. Down a long hallway, through another set of doors, and we’re finally outside.

It’s just an alley, and a pretty grimy one at that, but the fresh air is exactly what I needed, and I take huge, gulping breaths. Levi stands a few feet away, watching me, silent.

“Sorry,” I finally mumble. “I don’t, uh, know what that was.”

“It’s okay.” He looks away, rubs his face. “You feel better?”

“Yeah. A lot. Uh… thank you.”

Levi shakes his head. “Nothing to thank me for. You… want to talk about it?”

“No. Really, I’m fine.”

He stares at me for a minute, clearly trying to decide if he should believe me. “Cash saw you,” he finally says.