Why can’t he just go away like everyone else with a soft brush-off? Time to ditch this guy as quickly as I can.
Before I can say anything, Zoe does a wide-eyed clueless look and says, “Are you really with the band?”
His eyes shift briefly to her and he nods.
“How?” she asks in overinflated excitement.
He frowns. “How what?”
“How are you with them? Marriage or domestic partnership? Or are you their bitch?”
I laugh—rapid zinger from Zoe so unexpected.
I adjust in my seat and stare through the glass. “We’re talking and I’d appreciate it if you gave us our space.”
He grins. “You’re drinking. Have one drink with me. I’m sure if we talked I could convince you to come to the set tomorrow.”
I ignore him and make a show of checking the time on my phone. Crap. It’s after midnight. Chrissie wanted me home by one, which is so lame.
“Let’s go, Zoe. I really need to hit it.”
Zoe finishes her mineral water and nods.
“You didn’t give me your name,” Lucky says quickly.
I smile. “That’s right. I didn’t.”
He starts fishing through his pocket. “Let me give you my card.”
I don’t take it. “No. Really, not interested.”
We start making our way toward the stairs and, fudge, he’s close behind.
Zoe leans in to me. “That jerk is stalking us,” she whispers, annoyed. “I don’t want him following me out to my car and getting my plates or something. You know if he’s a creeper he can find us that way.”
I roll my eyes. “He’s not stalking us. He’s not going to get your plates. I’m sure of it. But if he follows us to the door, I’ll get a bouncer to bounce him away from us.”
Her eyes widen. “How can you be sure?”
I pause at the bottom of the stairs and jut my chin toward the landing above. “Because he’s already running his I’m with the band, let me put you in a video game on another girl.”
Zoe turns and then she crinkles her nose. “What a slimeball. And definitely not very selective. She looks like—”
“Caroline,” we finish in unison.
We laugh and turns toward the exit.
Oh crap.
We can’t even get to the doors.
A solid wall of bodies blocks the path to the exit as they crowd near a booth between me and the only way out of here. What the hell is going on? There’s a noticeable stir above the deafening noise of the band. I wonder who’s sitting there. It’s after midnight. It’s an elite rockers’ club. It must be someone with how electrified the chemistry of the room is.
Crud, they’re in my way.
Great. Freaking great.
“Oh crap, how do we get out of here?” Zoe says anxiously.
I frown. “Maybe we can get around it by going through the dance floor. You lead. I’ll follow. I’ll keep a lookout for the creeper.”
“No, you lead. I’ll follow. You’re the better dancer,” Zoe teases and then makes a face.
I start making my way through the bouncing throng of people moving in time with the thumping bassline and shifting in and out of focus in the flashing lights. I take two steps forward and then spring back to avoid getting hit. I see a narrow space to cut through. Good, nearly out of here. It’s swallowed up before I can get there.
I’m knocked several steps off my feet by a flurry of limbs, I stumble, and then turn. Crap. What happened to Zoe? I ease up on my tiptoes trying to see above the crowd. God, where’d she go? Nope, can’t see her.
I try to move toward the stairs and the bodies push me back the other way. I scan the crowd. I’ll never spot her in this.
I feel a hand on my hip…thank God…then it moves to my butt cheeks…oh no…and I whirl. Fuck, it’s the creeper. How did he get next to me on the dance floor? He grasps my hips and starts moving his body into me.
“Get your hands off me,” I scream, trying to break free, but he’s suddenly all hands, clutching and pulling and holding me against him.
I try to escape, but he’s repulsively strong and pulls me full-body against him, flattening me against his parts and giving me the feel of him with his moves. The feel of him is nauseating.
“I have a boyfriend, you asshole!”
He flattens his hands on my behind and lifts me up against him. Yuck. Enough. I lift my heel from the ground, ready to impale his foot with my Jimmy Choo, then all the bodies start to move so rapidly I can’t keep up.
“Get lost. Now. Before I decide to help you leave,” a low, raspy voice snaps, somehow heard above the thundering music. “I’m taking you home. Now.”
I’m released so abruptly the world spins and my mind can’t keep up with the shifting patterns in front of me. “Fuck off,” I scream at the creeper.
Lucky skedaddles away.
Breathing heavily to steady myself, all at once I become aware of a sudden unnatural hush surrounding me.
Then I see what everyone is staring at.
My thoughts race off in a dozen directions.
Oh fuck, that’s Alan.
Did he really just save me from the creeper?
I was doing fine on my own.
Those black eyes start burning in to me and my body covers in prickles. Damn, he’s pissed. I didn’t scream fuck off at him, but by his expression I can tell he thinks I did and he is furious.
This is freaking humiliating. Reality smacks me in the face with sudden clarity. I just created a scene in the middle of a packed club with Alan Manzone. Yep, there are already cell phones out catching this Kodak moment on video.
I want to drop through the floor.
This is going to be awful.
“Does your mother know you’re here?” he snaps.
Nervously, I babble the first words in my head. “Does my mother know you’re here? Better question.”
OK, that was a little funny. Not even a smile. Shit!
He gives me the stare. “Do you have a car?”
Why is he studying me that way? Oh great, he thinks I’m drunk. Nope, not doing this concerned friend of the family routine. You want to act like my father, admit you are my father.
“Zoe drove. I’ve had my keys taken away for two weeks. Thanks for telling my mom about me borrowing your car the other morning.”
He rudely lets amusement show in his eyes.
“Borrowing? Interesting choice of words. And I didn’t say a word to your mother. I said I wouldn’t and I didn’t.”
Another lie. My temper explodes. “Bullshit. I don’t believe anything you say.”
“We are leaving. Now. I’m taking you home.”
He tries to guide me toward the exit and I stand rooted in place. “I’m not leaving without talking to Zoe.”
“You can text her from the car,” he says coldly.
Shit. I can’t disappear and leave without her. That’s like an unwritten girl rule. She’s my best friend and she’ll hate me forever.
“Why do you have to always ruin everything?” I say dramatically, hoping he’ll relent.
His face remains impassive. Somehow he forces me out of the club without ever putting a hand on me, and we’re on the front sidewalk before I know how we got there and Zoe is in the freaking club without me.
He gives his ticket to the valet.
I whirl on him. “You don’t have any right to tell me where I can go or what I can do.”
“That’s enough, Kaley. You’re embarrassing us both.”
“Fuck, you are such an asshole. Don’t you get it? You just embarrassed me in there.”
“The only one to create a scene tonight was you, Kaley. And there is no way in hell I was going to leave you in a place like that alone. Do you even have a clue what could happen to you, drunk, in a place like that?”
“Place like what? Someplace you’d go? Zoe and I like to hit clubs. Dance. Even Mom wouldn’t freak out about that. We don’t do anything. You’re being ridiculous.”
“Then I’ll ask your mother when I get you home, and if I’m wrong, I will apologize.”