26. Rae
26
RAE
L a Mer is shaking. The booth. The floor.
I’m in the middle of my set when a cracking sound from beneath makes me look down.
The stage is splitting between my feet, the gap widening with every thump of the bassline.
I drop to my knees and try to drag the halves back together with sweaty hands.
Instead, a piece of the stage falls into the chasm, and I fall with it.
Alice in Wonderland –style, I fall and fall.
Mischa’s face appears, threatening, and he shoots out a hand to grip my throat. “I’ve got you.”
I can’t breathe.
“I’ve got you.”
Before I pass out, the voice changes.
“Raegan. Love. I’ve got you.”
I force myself back to consciousness. It’s hard to breathe, but I focus every part of my attention on making my lungs expand, and reality comes rushing back.
When I blink my eyes open, Harrison’s over me, expression alert and concerned. We’re in his bedroom at the villa, light filtering in across the floor.
“Bad dream,” he murmurs.
I exhale, wiping a hand over my sweaty forehead. “What makes you say that?”
The sheet is tangled in my legs, and he reaches down to unwrap me. Strong hands linger on my naked calves. In fact, I’m naked everywhere and so is he, but I can’t shake the images behind my eyes.
“Everyone has nightmares before a big gig,” I say, willing my heart to stop racing.
It doesn’t have to be a sign of bad things to come. But the pit in my stomach disagrees.
Harrison tugs me into his lap, his hard body curving around mine. “My biggest regret today is that I can’t watch you.”
I wish he could watch me too. But he’s staying somewhere he can keep an eye on all the happenings tonight, not only me.
“Someone will stream it on social.”
“I can’t get a personal reenactment?” A brow lifts, a smirk playing at his beautiful lips.
Insolent bastard.
“This is your problem. You’ve always thought you should get special treatment because you’re Harrison fucking K?—“
His head drops to my shoulder, running soft, devastating kisses down to my breasts. “Treat me however you want, Raegan.” He looks up at me, and his expression steals my breath. “I’ll come back for more.”
When his mouth claims mine, I meet him.
It’s urgent for reasons I don’t want to name.
My hands stroke down his chest, linger on the scars covering his pec. It doesn’t feel like a childhood prank. It’s a warning. A promise that the man my lover calls his rival will stop at nothing to destroy him.
And after what Eva said… possibly me too.
If my dream comes true and I fall down a hole tonight—if the deal doesn’t go down, or if Mischa learns we’ve helped the police—I could lose this man forever.
Harrison slips between my thighs, fills me with a familiar need I want to memorize. I’m torn between losing myself in this moment and imprinting it on my mind, my body, for fear it will never happen again.
When we separate after, my eyes drift closed. I feel him shift across the bed, reaching for pants.
“We need to get up.” His lips tickle my ear.
“Mmmm.”
He rubs my tattooed wrist, a habit that makes me smile. “When I met you, I tried to treat you like other women. I wanted to buy you gifts. I wanted to show you the world. But you don’t like anything I buy?—“
“I loved the yacht, mostly because it made you sick. Plus the headphones?—“
“As for the world, you’ve already seen it.” His touch skims up my palm.
“But I haven’t seen it with you.” My body is tingling from what we just did, and my heart is full of him. “I want to see where you grew up. Find a beach food truck on every continent and watch you eat from it like it’s got a Michelin star.”
“Hike in cargo shorts at Machu Picchu?” My breath hitches as I blink my eyes open. “Is that on the table?”
He chuckles. “I have a gift for you.” He reaches for the bedside table and pulls out a box.
“More jewelry?”
I open it to find a tiny camera, smaller than my fingernail.
“So you can capture what it feels like to be up there tonight and relive it whenever you want. Because today is about you. And I won’t let you forget it.”
My eyes burn. I love that he sees me, that even if he doesn’t agree with my choice to play, he’ll support me anyway.
“It’s going to work,” I say. “Mischa ordered the robot cameras for La Mer.”
A tight nod. “Sawyer will see what they see, and he’s patched the police into the feed. I’m patched in too.”
Of course he is.
He’ll be watching the stage, but more than that, the hallways and any rooms with public access.
He can’t see inside Mischa’s office, but he wants to ensure I’m as far from harm as possible.
It hits me for the first time, the possibility that I’ve made this harder on him.
I shift onto my elbows, the sheet bunched over my breasts.
“Don’t do anything crazy,” I whisper, and his brows lift. “For me or anyone else. Whatever happens today, promise we’ll still be here.”
He presses his lips to my forehead before pulling away, fastening his pants as he heads for the door.
I spring out of bed. “I mean it. I can’t lose you over this.” My heart rate accelerates, and this time it has nothing to do with the nightmare.
Barney sneaks through the crack and accosts me, delighted to find me running and naked. I go back and grab the sheet off the bed, wrapping it around me as I dodge the dog in pursuit of his owner.
“Hey!” I grab Harrison’s arm halfway down the hall.
His face is a mask of tension when he turns back. “I’m not a good man,” he murmurs. “But I will protect the people I love.”
I run my fingers up his face, thumbs brushing the tight lines around his mouth.
I love you. I feel it in every inch of me, a raw, aching truth that’s been part of me for longer than I knew.
God, if I lose him today…
I shift up on my toes and press my forehead to his. “Let’s get out of here,” I whisper. “Fuck all of this, Harrison. I don’t need La Mer. Let’s just leave.”
His eyes crinkle at the corners. There’s no bloodlust in them now. Only commitment. Responsibility. Devotion.
“There’s a woman—a queen—and her stage is waiting.”
He gently pushes my hands away, and when he starts down the stairs, I feel like the ground has split wide and I’m falling again.
* * *
My costume was intended to be daring.
A black silk tuxedo jacket, custom made for me by a designer in Barcelona. One side has gold threads woven through it. Underneath, I have black silk pants that hug my hips, gather around my ankles. The white vest, once it’s fastened, dips low between my breasts.
At the moment, it’s lower than intended. A button came off, and if I wear it like this, Harrison will start a riot.
I’m straddling a dining room chair and sewing the button back on, a needle in my teeth, when the tiny camera with a battery pack on the table catches my eye. Harrison suggested I stick it to my phone and set that somewhere on the desk in front of me when I mix.
But I can do better.
Five minutes later, I pull the last thread tight. The button is secured once more, the lens on the outside of my vest and the tiny battery secured with thread against the lining.
My phone rings.
Annie.
“Are you excited for your show?” she demands. My friend is a dark shadow, the sun at her back.
I take the needle from my mouth. “Excited doesn’t begin to describe it,” I admit.
There’s a knock at the front door, and Natalia bustles toward it. She shoots me a frown on the way—she doesn’t understand why I wouldn’t let her fix the costume. To be honest, I needed to keep busy.
“We’re about to find out.”
I barely hear Annie’s words over the phone because there’s a squeal from the doorway and my phone at once.
“Fuck.” I drop the vest, the button, and the phone.
“We came to see your show!” Annie cheers.
“Who’s ‘we’?”
Tyler’s behind her with the baby. Plus Beck and Elle.
My shock and joy are overshadowed by dismay. Tonight, something thrilling is going down, but if we do our jobs, something dangerous will follow. “You guys can’t be here.”
“I get it, the club is sold out. I can get us in,” Beck says, smirking.
“As usual, Hollywood misses the point.”
I turn to see Ash jog down the stairs.
“Ash! Tell them they can’t be here.”
He cocks his head at me. “Well, they are.” He cuts a look at my friends. “Quiz: What would stop you from seeing Raegan’s show tonight? Warning from a mysterious oracle?”
Annie shakes her head, Elle snorts, Tyler frowns, and Beck lifts a brow.
“How about plague of locusts? Pestilence? Nothing?” Ash grins, grabbing my shoulder before I shove him off. “Sounds like they’re staying.”