Page 75 of Keeping My Girl

Our drinks arrive a few minutes later just as an upbeat song begins to play over the speakers. Aria jumps up and grabs my hand. “Let’s dance!” she shouts over the music.

With the liquor coursing through my veins and making me feel bold, I follow her onto the dancefloor. Just her presence alone makes the crowd part like the Red Sea. She’s beautiful, strong, and confident, and I wish I could be like her for even just a minute. She commands the room, all eyes on her, and I just dance beside her in wonderment.

She moves her body to the music, her long, chocolate brown hair swaying to the movement. And when she asks me to join in, I put my arms up in the air and move in sync along with her.

“Hell yeah!” Aria calls out with a big grin.

With the alcohol giving me liquid courage, I dance my heart out, never having felt more alive…and normal. I give in to the music, close my eyes and let it take over my body and soul. It feels so liberating, just being able to drink and dance like a regular twenty-something. So many things people just take for granted. After having been locked away in a cage for most of my life, I’ll never take anything for granted again. And I’ll remember this night for the rest of my life as the first of what I hope are many good times to come.

I open my eyes to turn around to thank Aria for taking me out tonight, but my vision somehow locks on a dark figure on the second floor. Most of him is hidden by the shadows, but his hands and how they grip the handrails in front of him have me paralyzed. Those hands. I would recognize those hands anywhere.

Suddenly, my drink slips out of my hand and splatters onto the dance floor.

“Whoa!” Aria calls out, bumping into me and stealing my attention away from the man. “Okay, you’re cut off!” she jokes. But when she sees my face, she sobers quickly. “What? Selina, what’s wrong?”

I look away from her and back to where I saw the man, but he’s no longer there. “Constantine is here!” I say in a panic. My eyes frantically dart around the second floor, desperate to catch another glimpse to be certain, but I can’t find him again.

“Are you sure it was him?” she demands, grabbing my arm and shaking me.

“Yes! No!” I shake my head, wishing now that I was stone-cold sober. “I’m not a hundred-percent sure, but I think it was him.”

“Shit!” Aria mutters under her breath as she pulls her cell phone from her clutch. “I’m going to call Renato just in case. He’ll know what to do.”

She takes my hand and leads me to the corner of the club. We’re in the shadows, hidden from the neon lights, and I can’t stop searching for him.

“Renato, it’s me,” Aria says into the phone. “Listen, don’t freak out, but we’re at the club.”

“Damn it, Aria! Which club?”I can hear him yelling from the other end of the call.

“Liquid Lounge,” she responds. Renato must have some choice words with her, because she pulls the phone away from her ear and rolls her eyes. “I don’t need your shit right now, Renato. I need your help.” She swallows hard before saying, “Selina thinks she just saw Constantine Carbone here.”

I watch Aria’s face morph from merely concerned into pure panic. Now she knows exactly how I’m feeling.

“He said we need to get out of here. I’ll text the driver to come pick us up. He’s only a few blocks away. Then we can —.”

She never gets to finish that sentence. A loud, deafening boom sounds, and the music suddenly cuts off.

Pop, pop, pop, pop!

I pull Aria down to her knees, sheltering her as the gunfire goes off. The crowd of people erupts into panic, many screaming as they start running for the exits. I push Aria under a table so that we don’t get trampled to death as the shooting continues to explode through the entire club. Dead bodies begin to fall around us until the place looks like something out of a war movie.

“Aria! Aria!”I can hear Renato’s frantic screams from the cell phone, which is now lying on the floor next to our feet.

People are crying, screaming and trying frantically to escape, and anyone that moves is just being mowed down by the gunmen. I hold my hands over my ears, trying to silence the horrific sounds as panic bubbles up inside of my chest.

The gunfire suddenly comes to a stop. Aria looks at me with a wide, unfocused gaze. “We need to get out of here,” she pleads, her voice trembling. I think she’s going into shock.

“Stay low,” I tell her quickly.

We climb out from under the table, and Aria snatches up her phone at the last second, holding it in a vice grip in her hand.

The nearest exit is by the restrooms, and so I pull Aria along towards them.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you!” a deep, familiar voice calls out to me.

My body locks up like a statue, and my feet suddenly freeze to the floor. I can’t even force myself to move, so I yell to Aria, “Go! Get out of here!” She needs to save herself. If Constantine is here, he’s here for me, not her. She needs to get as far away from me as possible if she has any hope of escaping and getting help.

“I’m not leaving you!” she cries, tears streaming down her pretty face as she pulls on my arm.

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