Page 5 of Hidden Dane
For a second, she was back in his arms, still a teenager, and at the prom instead of here, in this silent nightclub as victims stifled their tears. Dane stood there like an avenging angel that just appeared out of nowhere. She blinked and suddenly he was behind her, pulling her away.
Another man, dark-blond, tall, lean, but also muscular, who wore glasses, stood beside him and easily chased the four men who shot her friends away from the dance floor. They ran into the crowd outside. Without thinking, she latched onto him and said, “Dane.”
He blocked her from the old man as he backed her out of the club, into a back alley. The second the door closed and they were alone, she swallowed. Inside the club, her friends were lying on the ground.
She needed to help them.
Dane held her waist. “Did he get the necklace?”
“No.” She held up the gold necklace he’d given her years ago.
He reached for her palm as he said, “Hand it over.”
Without thinking, she took her necklace back and easily wrapped it around her neck as she said, “I need to get my friends to the hospital.”
The dark night now flashed red and blue as sirens screeched in the air. He hurried her toward a black Bentley parked in the back. “The ambulances are already here. I called before I came for you.”
At least her friends had a chance. She swallowed and hopped in the backseat of his car.
His friend sat with the driver up front. She looked at all three of them and instantly had the sense these men worked together as she worried about her own friends. “Do they know to go inside?”
“Yes. I reported guns fired before it happened.” Dane closed the door behind himself.
The driver took off, fast. Near Dane, she wasn’t so cold and frightened that she’d freak out. Instead she took his familiar hand in hers, and prom night flooded her mind.
At eighteen, after the night where he’d danced with her under the stars, she’d asked him to take her virginity and he’d obliged in that hotel room he’d rented for them.
None of that mattered as the car raced toward the highway. She pulled her hand back and narrowed her gaze. “Why?”
“I had to come back for you.” He leaned closer, sending a familiar thrill through her, and his gaze was on her neck as he said, “I knew they were coming for you.”
She sat back and pushed on his hard muscular chest to get him to give her space. As he followed her unspoken order, she lowered her gaze and said, “Thank you, Dane.” Then she stared directly into his eyes without blinking or looking away. “But why didn’t you call me and tell me not to go out?”
He scratched the back of his neck, flexing his muscles underneath his black shirt. “Would you have listened?”
Her face heated. Would she have obeyed a directive from Dane to stay inside, even for her own good? She was so mad at his desertion all those years ago that she would have gone out to spite him. “Probably not.”
He held her hand to his chest where his beating heart was pressed against her palm. “I need my necklace back, Emily.”
Her fingers brushed against his hard muscles while she took her hand back and shook her head. “Absolutely not.”
“Why are you always so difficult?” They turned toward the airport exit, the Bentley zooming.
There was the boy she remembered. She crossed her legs, not caring her blue dress went higher onto her thighs and fingered the necklace that accented her low cut dress like they were still teenagers and she could tease him without consequences as she asked her most pertinent questions. “Why do you need this so bad? Who are those guys? What’s going on? Where have you been the past ten years?”
He pursed his lips and motioned with his head to the two men in the front seat as they drove to the valet parking of the airport. “I can’t answer that here.”
Right. She wasn’t giving him the necklace. They slowed to a stop and Emily slid out of the car. “Then I’m coming with you.”
“You’re going to the hospital with your friends.” He joined her on the sidewalk.
With Dane, she was her younger self again. She flipped her hair to her side and shrugged as she turned toward the airport. “You’re clearly in trouble. As I said, I’m coming with you.”
“You’re always so difficult.” He fell into sync beside her.
They stepped inside and the cold rush of air conditioning hit her in the face. Goosebumps grew on her body as she bumped into him and more quietly said, “And loyal, which is something you don’t seem to understand.”
“Or want, Emily.” He led her toward the private plane section of the tarmac. She knew the area. Her sister Sophie had married Michael, a self-made billionaire, who had his own planes at his disposal. Michael also happened to be Dane’s father. Dane might have walked away from him, but he clearly still enjoyed the affluent lifestyle both his father’s lived.
