Page 27 of Trouble
So between the first and second period, while Sara and Lennox are busy chatting with a donor, I sneak out the suite’s door and head to the concession stand. My shoes stick to the floor as I walk, and the concourse smells like fried food, stale beer, and sugar, yet I can’t help but smile like I’m meandering down the streets in Paris.
Bolts fans push past me, and not a single one stops to notice me. Because hello, why would anyone with celebrity status like mine willingly fight through a throng of people to fetch their own goodies?
Because they can.
Excitement courses through me, making my steps lighter. Like I’mgetting away with a crime. It’s absurd, I know, but truly, this simple act is renewing me, pouring life back into me.
When the concession stand comes into view, I’ve almost convinced myself that I’ve gotten away with it. I’ve almost completely bought the lie I’ve told myself—that I’m safe here—when a hand grasps my arm roughly, and I’m slammed against a wall. Before I can react, another hand covers my mouth, and the eyes of the one person I never wanted to see again look down at me.
“You’ve been a very bad girl.”
Track 5
NATURALLY
CHAPTER 14
Declan
My phone ringsas I weave my way through the swarms of people in the concourse, ignoring the stench of sweat and fried food hanging in the air.
“Chief Everhart.”
“Declan, it’s Lake Hall.”
“Hi, Lake. Everything okay?” I ask distractedly while I search the crowd for the short brunette I lost sight of a moment ago.
“Mel’s cousin just called. She’s been blowing up Mel’s phone, but she can’t get ahold of her.”
The tension in Lake’s tone leaves me uneasy. “What did she say?”
“She accidentally spilled to her mother, who told Mel’s mother, who must have told Mel’s brother?—”
“Lake,” I grit out.
“She thinks Mel’s ex is in Boston at the game. Can you get ahold of Cade? Tell them to assign someone to stick with her at all times? Her ex is seriously deranged, and I can’t reach her to warn her.”
“I’m on it.”
“You’reon it? Oh my god, please tell me you’re on your way there. I knew you weren’t going to let her leave without following her.”
I hang up the phone without responding.
No one needs to know the many reasons as to why I’m here in Boston. How the fire this week fucked with my head. How Lily’s words affected me more than I’d like to admit. How Cade’s taunt—or offer, however you want to look at it—has kept my brain working overtime.
No, the most obvious reason that I’m here is because I’m a control freak. Of course I wouldn’t let Melina out of my sight. Regardless of how badly she doesn’t want to believe she’s in danger, she is, and because she’s fucking trouble, she needs to believe she has at least a modicum of freedom.
Rather than locking Melina in her room like I was tempted to do, I followed her, and now here I am, walking through a fucking throng of people because I lost sight of her for half a damn second.
God, the woman drives me fucking crazy. She’s not even mine, and yet I can’t stand the thought of losing her. If anything happens to her…
Breathe, she’s going to be okay. She’s probably in the?—
The sound of a slap rings out over the din, instantly putting me on alert. A sickening sense of dread twists in my gut as I pull up short and do a one-eighty, searching for the source of the noise.
“You think you can leave me?” a man hisses. “You think you can parade around like a little slut and leaveme?”
Melina’s there, only a few feet away, pushed up against the wall, her cheeks stained with tears, one an angry red. The man looming over her has her gripped by the neck.