Page 16 of All In
Kacey stared after her admirer, waited until he was out of sight, then tore the napkin into long shreds.
Good.
I let go my fists and my breath and moved toward the bar as Kacey slid off her stool and picked up her guitar. She stumbled, nearly fell. Another guy steadied her, and she flashed him a grateful smile. He leaned to say something in her ear. She shook her head and squeezed through the crowd of people, many of whom grabbed her arm or hand or even reached to hug her.
I followed, my pulse pounding faster with each step that closed the distance between us. She pushed out the front door and stepped into the street. Her hair—not pale white anymore but brassy blond—glowed like a flame under the streetlight, then the door sliced her off.
Fuck.
I pushed through the crowd, now closing in on me like a zipper, and shoved open the door. I looked right and left, up both sides of the street that were lit with ornate, old-fashioned-looking streetlamps.
Gone. Again.
“Fuck me.”
I chose a direction and started off down the sidewalk, thinking it was impossible Kacey could’ve gotten far when she was drunk and lugging a guitar case. Unless she hopped into a waiting cab…
I passed an alley between Bon Bon and a bustling café. Stopped. Backtracked.
She had her back to me, trying to light a cigarette, her guitar case on the ground. I approached slowly, not wanting to freak her out. My pulse jumped in my throat. She was so close. Only five more steps and I could touch her.
I swallowed hard. “Kacey.”
Her thin body jerked, and she slowly turned. Her cigarette and lighter fell out of her hands. Through a veil of stringy blond hair, she stared at me.
“Teddy?”
Her large, beautiful eyes filled with hope. Her dark brows came together, and her mouth tried to smile and collapse into tears at the same time. Relief. She was relieved to see me…and for a split second, the misery that had wrapped itself around me for the last six months loosened.
Then her features hardened. Instead of looking like she was going to fly into my arms, her expression turned murderous, her luminous blue eyes icy.
“You shouldn’t be here, Theodore.” She picked up her guitar case and pushed past me. “Go home.”
CHAPTER
FIVE
My low-heeled boots clopped on the sidewalk as fast I could manage. My guitar case banged my knees, trying to trip me up. I wanted to throw it down, turn around and run to Theo, fly at him and dive into his arms.
You came. You’re here. You found me.
The city was New Orleans, but my drunken eyes only saw Vegas in the days after Jonah’s death. The grief coming out of the past, roiling in my guts, making me more nauseous than liquor. Making me need his arms holding me. Need his chest to cry against as I begged forgiveness.
I’m sorry. You’re horrified to see me like this. I know. Jonah would be too.
That’s when shame hit my veins like a shot of whiskey, and a panic chaser sent me running in the exact opposite direction I wanted to go.
I heard heavy footsteps behind me, a breathless call. “Kacey,wait.”
His hand closed on my upper arm and yanked me to a stop. I yanked back, knowing I couldn’t outrun him, knowing I was kidding myself, but I fought him anyway.
“What are you doing here? How did you find me?”
“Mike called me,” he said. “Mike Budny.”
“Big E,” I muttered. As sloppy a drunk as I was, I’d been obsessively secretive about my past, keeping all details on lockdown. My booze-soaked brain tried to recall what I might’ve told Big E that led him to Theo.
“He’s worried about you,” Theo said, letting go of me and crossing his arms over his broad chest. He wore a black T-shirt and jeans, and the eyes boring into me were whiskey-colored, fiery under the streetlights. “Now I’m worried, too.”
