Following Me (19 page)

DARKNESS HADN’T YET fallen on the
Chicago summer evening.  The weather was muggy after the series of storms that
had dotted the horizon the past week.  When Devon had visited the Navy Pier
earlier in the week, waves had been crashing so hard that she had been forced
to leave.  Thankfully, the rain was holding off for now as she teetered down
the street in her impractical high heels and form-fitting dress.

The club was supposedly just
around the block, but Devon wasn’t familiar with this neighborhood.  She wished
she had taken Garrett’s offer and went with him and Hadley when they left a
little later, but things were at a standstill with Hadley.  She wasn’t giving
any ground, and anytime Devon had tried to push, Hadley would close off
completely.  Devon was hoping that tonight would be a good starting point to
rebuild their relationship.

She double-checked the GPS on her
phone to make sure she was going in the right direction.  She took the next
right and then found what she was looking for about halfway down the street. 
It was kind of a small, seedy-looking place.  The only indication that it was a
club was the unlit sign that read
Open Mic
Tonight.

As she walked into the place, she
immediately felt overdressed.  No one had told her what to wear for this, and
she was too used to the music clubs back home.  She always used to dress up to
watch performances.  Sometimes, even big names would show up out of nowhere to
drink and play their favorite tunes.  Devon didn’t think this was that kind of
place.

Devon paid the cover charge and
walked into the main seating area.  When she entered, eyes followed her around
the bar, and she immediately became self-conscious.  She didn’t think she
looked that great tonight, but the men here appeared ready to eat her alive. 
It was a discomforting sort of feeling, especially since Garrett and Hadley
wouldn’t be here for a little while.  She scanned the crowd, hoping to see
someone she knew.

The room was set up in a
flat-tiered fashion with four to eight tables on each tier that formed a
semi-circle around a small stage.  A single microphone and a beat-up wooden
chair were the focal point.  A black curtain hung against the back wall as the
only decoration.  The room was dimly lit and clouded with smoke.

Devon craned her neck, looking
around.  She knew other people from work were supposed to be here.  Most of
them didn’t like her because she was the new girl, but it would be better to
sit with them than to sit alone.  She was pretty sure she recognized someone
when she felt a hand grab her ass.  She squeaked in surprise and whipped around
faster than she probably should have in her heels.

“Whoa there, honey,” the man
said, eyeing her like he wanted to find out how many licks it took to get to
the center of a Tootsie Pop.

Devon glared at the man, and he
smirked.

“You lookin’ for a place to sit? 
I’ve got a place right here,” he said, patting his lap.  His friends roared
with laughter while the guy just continued to look her up and down.

“No, thanks,” she said and
turned.

The man reached out and grabbed
her arm, and Devon froze.

“Where you think you’re goin’,
baby?”

This wasn’t good.  Devon could
tell what would happen next.  This guy was already belligerently drunk even if
it was early in the evening.  The room was dark, and no one was going to
interfere.  It felt just like one of her dreams.

Wake up!  Wake up!  Wake up!
she yelled in her head.

But she wasn’t waking up, and
usually by this point, she was in that stupid bedroom with that stupid white
bed, face-planting into the stupid soft comforter.

The guy was just holding her
arm.  However sinister he appeared, this was not like her dream.  This was
reality, and she had to face it.

Devon tried breathing in and out
to keep from hyperventilating as she turned back toward the guy.  “Let me go,”
she said softer than she would have liked.

“Oh, come on,” he said, tugging
her closer to him.

“Is there a problem?” Brennan
asked, materializing out of thin air.

Devon released her breath as the
guy loosened his grip on her arm.

“No concern of yours,” the guy
said.

“Mind letting my friend go, so we
can get to our seats?” Brennan asked, raising his eyebrows.

The guy carelessly flung her arm
back at her, and Devon immediately took a step away from him.  She massaged her
arm where he had gripped her.  Her mind was racing.

That terrible voice from her
dream spoke into her mind then. 
“You thought you were safe, but you’ll
never be safe.”

“Come on, Devon.”  Brennan
ushered her in front of him without pulling his gaze away from the guy.

She could tell Brennan didn’t
trust the guy not to swing on him or worse.

Devon had been approached by
these kinds of guys before, and they were all the same.  She tried to push the
incident aside, but it kept creeping up on her. 
Was she a walking target
for these idiots?  Did people just find it funny to mess with her?
  She
must have looked as bad as she felt because Brennan pulled her up short.

“Hey, are you alright?” he asked.

She wondered how many times he
had asked her that question and how many times she had denied anything was
wrong.  It had been at least a dozen times a week since they had started
working together.

This time, she didn’t have to
pretend.  She wasn’t okay.  The guy who had grabbed her was two or three times her
size.  He could have easily overpowered her, and he knew it.  She had seen the
flash in eyes that said he had all the power.  He was reveling in her
helplessness, and that was scariest of all.

“No,” she finally said, shaking
her head.  “I don’t particularly like being manhandled.”

“I don’t think many people do,”
he said.

When a group walked past them,
Brennan placed his hand on the small of her back, moving her to the side.  Her
body warmed at his touch, and she tried to push aside her growing attraction to
him.  She had spent too much time with him at work, and she didn’t need this
right now.

“Thanks for getting me out of
there,” she said softly.

“Thanks for answering my
question,” he replied with a smile unlike any she had ever seen from him.

Her cheeks heated, and she looked
away.

“And for coming to my gig.”

She cleared her throat.  “You’ve
been telling me about it for weeks.  How could I miss it?”

“You’re sneaky.  I thought you
would find a way.”

“I’m not sneaky,” she said
defensively.

“You’re proving me wrong,” he
said, nudging her forward.  “Amy and Hannah are over here.  We couldn’t get
anyone else out of work.”

“Sounds good.”

“Do you know if Hadley and
Garrett are going to show?” he asked, glancing at her apprehensively.

“I think so.  Garrett told me
they planned to,” she told him, wondering if she had said too much.

“Still not really talking to
Hadley?” he asked intuitively.

Yep, she had said too much.

“Oh look, I see Amy,” Devon said,
ducking out from under his arm.

“About you answering questions,”
Brennan muttered as he followed her.

Amy and Hannah seemed to be deep
in discussion about something when Brennan and Devon walked up, but the women
welcomed them to the table.  Devon took a seat next to Amy, and Brennan sat
next to Devon.  She didn’t know when Hadley and Garrett would show up, so she
was left with just Brennan’s company.

When she realized Amy and Hannah
were going to continue ignoring her, Devon turned to Brennan.  “So, what are
you singing tonight?”

“I’ve opted for originals.”

“You write your own lyrics?” she
asked, surprised.

He hadn’t mentioned that part. 
It made her want to pull out her notebook.  With how busy she had been, she
hadn’t had a chance to open it recently.  It made her heart hurt to think about
the last time she had written anything.  Lyrics had always come so naturally to
her.  It was likely due to her parents’ profession even if she didn’t like to
admit it.  She still carried the notebook everywhere with her, but writing had
fallen to the wayside since she had taken the job at Jenn’s.

Brennan shrugged, like it wasn’t
a big deal.  “Some.  They’re not great, but I’ve been particularly inspired
recently.”

“That’s good,” she said, finding
she actually wanted to contribute to this conversation.  “I like when I feel
like that…most of the time.”

“Me, too,” he said, looking her
straight in the eyes.

“Sometimes, it’s like ripping my
heart out and writing with the blood.”  She clutched her chest.

“Sometimes, it’s like that,” he
agreed.  “And other times, it’s like the sun only shines for you, every breath
of oxygen was designed for you to breathe, and life has a new purpose.”

Devon swallowed and nodded. 
“Yeah,” she whispered.  “Sometimes, it’s like that, too.”

“But I like either as long as
someone feels the music.”

A pause followed in the
conversation.  Devon didn’t know exactly what to say.  When her phone vibrated
in her purse, it kept her from saying anything.  She pulled it out and stared
down at the message. 
Reid.
  He had only sent a message to her once
since she had supposedly left for Paris.  Her heart sped up. 
What if she
got caught?  How would she respond?

Taking a deep breath, she pulled
up the text.

I know you won’t get this
message for another month, but I’ve been missing you here.  I wish I could get
in contact with you because I have free time.  Paris for a week sounds like a
dream.  Paris with you sounds even better.  Call me as soon as you land, so I
know you’re safe.

As Devon finished reading the
message, her hands continued to shake even though she knew she hadn’t been
caught.  She closed her eyes and then opened them slowly. In a split-second
decision, she deleted the text from her phone.  She didn’t know what had come
over her, but she couldn’t have his words staring at her, making her feel
guilty, for another second.

Since she had left, she had
received three or four emails a week from him.  She hadn’t answered any of
them.  He was probably starting to wonder why she wouldn’t even answer emails,
but she didn’t care. 
What could she say anyway?

“Anything interesting?” Brennan
asked, leaning over to her side.

She closed her phone quickly and
looked up at him.  She hadn’t realized how close he was until that moment. 
Devon wet her lips as she gazed into the depths of his eyes.  His pupils were
especially dilated tonight.  She didn’t know if it was from the lack of light
in the room or if he had smoked pot before arriving.  He didn’t smell like it. 
Actually, he smelled great. 
How had she never noticed that?

He cocked a lazy smile at her,
like he could read her thoughts.  Maybe he could.  He just stared right back at
her, exploring her face in ways that made her feel even guiltier for deleting
Reid’s text message.

The more she was around Brennan,
the more she noticed him, and that was a slippery slope. 
Had he always been
this good-looking?  Had she just not noticed before because she had been
blinded by Reid and all the problems she was working through?  Or was it more
than just his appearance?
  After all, he hadn’t changed his looks.  It was
just
him.
 It was something about him that she just got.  It was
something a person could only experience.  Now that she was staring at him, she
couldn’t fathom not noticing.

If she had thought coming to this
show would at all dampen her rising desire for the man sitting in front of her,
she was wrong. 
Dead wrong.

“No, nothing interesting,” she
said, finally pulling her eyes away from him.

Devon was saved from further
conversation when the lights began flickering to draw attention.  A woman in a
black dress walked onto the stage with more confidence than Devon could muster
and took the microphone in her hand with a smile.  She announced the start of
the club’s open mic night, resulting in a boisterous round of applause.  While
she talked, she strutted back and forth across the small stage like she owned
it.  A few men let out catcalls.  Devon hoped that didn’t continue and that it
was only because the woman was clearly an MC of sorts.

Suddenly, the lights shut off,
casting the entire bar into darkness.  Devon looked around in confusion even
though she couldn’t make out anything at all.  She didn’t particularly like the
dark, not after all her nightmares.  She hesitantly began to rise, but then
Brennan’s hand found hers in the dark, stilling her.  Devon could feel Brennan
staring at her even though she couldn’t see him, but this seemed to settle her
rather than unnerve her.