Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

VAUGHN

S hawn Mendes In My Blood played over the sound system that the techs continued to tweak. Bump in started an hour earlier, but Em had been on the stage working for the past three. Sully had only allowed her a brief fifteen minute break for water and to discuss corrections before he put her back to work.

The song was on repeat and while I actually liked it the first time I’d heard it, I was beginning to question my taste, though I would never get tire?—

“Stop,” Sully bellowed out abruptly and the music cut off as Em slid to a halt. She’d been mid-transition, everything about her flowed. The choreographer’s interruptions grew more frequent and more irritating.

“Is it bad that I’m picturing stabbing him right now?” Freddie asked from where he was kicked back in an audience seat with his feet up on the row in front of him.

“No,” Rome responded in a dry voice. His attention remained riveted on the stage. He’d been closer when they started. Yet, after several of Sully’s interruptions, he’d retreated to join us.

One of us should go supervise the bump in, but none of us moved. Sully was an unknown. Yes, he passed muster on a background check Liam had run. Doc had his friends pull another one, but everything came back green lights.

Still, that could just mean he’d never been caught. Background checks on the uncle never revealed his disgusting and brutal predilections where she was concerned. The only thing that had me holding still and not interrupting was the sharp focus in her expression.

If he was irritating the shit out of her like he was us, it wasn’t on display. We were close enough to hear him when he yelled with all his wild hand gestures. Not close enough to hear everything when he spoke as he did now, quiet and intense.

I couldn’t see his expression, but I could read the focused intensity on Dove’s. Whatever he was saying, she seemed to be absorbing. Sweat soaked through her leotard, and her brow was wet. She’d long since coiled her ponytail up into a bun that crowned her head.

As much muscle as she’d put back on, she was still tiny. The strength she housed in that slender body of hers was a thing of wonder.

“Huh,” Freddie grunted and I refocused my attention to the stage. Sully used a remote to start the music and then he began to move on the stage.

Rome straightened and I leaned forward. He was repeating every step Em had done, only there was something…

“It’s predatory,” Freddie said. “When she dances, she’s not the aggressor…”

That was definitely the difference. Sully was repeating her steps but there was just a serious amount of violence in his movements. At the one minute mark, he cut off the music and faced her again, arms spread like— see?

Head tilted, she put her hands on her hips. Her gaze drifted to us then snapped back to Sully. I had to bite back a smile at the instinct she had to check in with us, but she was right… This wasn’t our decision.

I stretched, the taut skin along the back of my left arm and shoulder where I’d been burned ached. The scars had left ripples in some of the tattoos. I’d fixed most of it, blended it in to hide the distorted skin. Most of my scars were external, and while Em had them—I flashed a look at the inside of her right arm as she raised it while talking to Sully.

The scars left by the bastard who’d cut into her had been deep and vicious. It had damaged muscle and tendon as well as skin. The butchers who sutured it hadn’t done much to mask the damage, if anything, they’d made it worse.

Doc treated the scars and helped her rehab the muscles and the skin trauma. They were never not going to carry the darker marks of that past, so I put feathers along it on each arm. Her wings .

Every single piece of art on her was my work. I soaked in the sight of her as she repeated the steps without the music or emotion. It was more a question, a pause here or a pause there as she looked at Sully. He would replicate a motion, make some alteration, then she would repeat it and change it more.

They walked through the whole thing, making adjustments. For the first time since they started, I saw her wings coming out even as she raised her chin. There were very clear moments where she said no to him. No argument, just no .

The firmness in the response and the snap in her manner made me glad I couldn’t hear the question. Might have made me want to hit him. I used to be the guy with the most even temper, now I pictured rearranging his face for thinking he might upset her.

Even the mental head shake didn’t clear away the image. Violence was not my first choice. Or it didn’t used to be my first choice. The last few months…

The music kicked on abruptly and pulled my attention back to the present and the stage. Em and Sully were both dancing, both snapping arms out, then crossing the stage at speed. Their mirrored motions were sharp, violent, and between one breath and the next, I saw what he’d been going for.

“Wow,” Freddie exhaled.

“Yeah,” I said slowly.

While the choreographer mirrored her steps and followed her across the stage, it wasn’t his steps that held me captivated. Emersyn went from hesitation to action, she controlled that stage and every movement was a deliberate provocation. That was what he’d been wanting her to do. Stop questioning the music and motion, tear it up and just own the stage.

It was erotic as hell and I blew out a slow breath. Sully slowed as she finished the song and ended on a stomp with one hand on her hip and tossing a glance over her shoulder. I adjusted my pants before I shifted to lean against the seats. Soaked in sweat, flushed, and panting—she was absolute fucking perfection.

“We’re going to need more security,” Freddie said abruptly. “Better locks too.”

I got what he was saying and at the same time, it was just one number. A number on the ground. Most of her work was in the air. Still…

“Better,” Sully said when the music cut. “Much better. Walk it off, hydrate, then again. Let’s nail this one down and we’ll start on something new after that.”

I shook my head, then checked my watch before I glanced at Rome. “You got this?” While Freddie had her backstage security down to an art, Rome stuck with her anytime she was out in public as well—particularly if she was on stage.

Every once in a while, one of the chorus dancers decided to make a move and see if they could audition to be her new partner. We’d disabused a couple who’d decided to push it when she turned them down. One guy tried to intimidate her into letting him audition and I removed him from the chorus that week. I sent him out with a wrenched arm, a healthy sense of fear, and some newfound respect following the apology he owed her. He was lucky I didn’t break both of his legs.

“Yes,” Rome said. “Bump in?”

I nodded. “I’d rather watch, but I don’t want there to be anything that slips through the cracks.” I trusted our drivers. I trusted the majority of our crew. Didn’t mean I was willing to let them do everything without my supervision. There were too many opportunities for accidents if the gear had been damaged in transport. I inspected it when we took it down and packed it up. I inspected it again on bump in.

Once we got the primary and secondary sets of silks hung, we’d do a test run. Her weight was negligible, but I didn’t want there to be even a suggestion of possible failure. Minimizing the risks to her let her focus on her performance.

“Remind her to eat,” I said, then lifted my chin to Freddie. “You staying or coming with me?”

It could go either way. He glanced away from where she was doing circuits while downing water to look at me. “Need help?”

“I can do it,” I said.

Freddie grimaced. “Nah, I’ll help.” Then he shot another look at the stage, she and Sully looked like they were debating something. I couldn’t quite read her expression and based on Freddie’s frown, I don’t think he could either. Rome, however, didn’t seem bothered at all.

“We’ll do this as fast as we can. That way, the sooner we’re done, the sooner we can see her again.”

With a grunt, Freddie passed a key to Rome for her dressing room. We weren’t leaving the building but it was better if we all had keys. After Rome pocketed his, Freddie passed another key to me.

We’d just made it to the doors to go out front when the music resumed, Em was in the center of the stage, the kinetic energy seemed to swirl around her and I caught her eye as she looked right toward me and Freddie. We were a little far to be absolutely certain, but I’d bet she just winked at us.

Rather than guess, I just blew her a kiss and savored the smile she wore before her expression went all business.

“You make that shit look so easy,” Freddie said as I shoved the door open and he followed me out into the lobby. We could have gone via the backstage, but I wanted to get a good look at the whole building inside and out.

“Blowing her a kiss?”

“Yeah,” Freddie grumbled and I had to swallow a chuckle at how irked he sounded. “You just—do that shit and she lights up.”

“She lights up for you too,” I reminded him before shoving open the exterior doors and letting the humid air chase away the suggestion of chill from the interior air conditioning. It wasn’t that much of a temperature difference. I pulled out my phone and scrolled for the facilities contact for the theater.

“But I don’t do any of that romantic stuff you guys do.” He trailed behind me, head on a swivel even as he shoved his hands into his pockets.

I cut him a look after I sent the message to have them check their units. She was sweating up there now without a full house audience, and the only difference I could feel between interior and exterior was the amount of humidity. “You do your own thing, Freddie, it’s not a competition.”

Sometimes, we all needed to be reminded of that. Jasper and Liam loved to wind each other up, particularly cause Liam could afford to drown her in gifts. Thing was, Dove didn’t give a damn about the presents. She gave a damn about us and the way we made her feel.

Jasper building her a dance studio or Kel teaching her to drive or even Rome taking her out to paint with him. “She treasures the moments, Freddie,” I reminded him as we headed around the building. “She treasures the things we do with her, not just what we do for her.”

If anything, she didn’t need our money. She had plenty of her own. Granted, the source was someone she wanted nothing to do with, but Liam had taken her inheritance and cleaned it, bit by bit, he was wiping away the blood money and investing it in the things that mattered to her.

Things like Kel’s new mechanic’s shop and rehabbing some of the properties around it.

“I want…” Instead of finishing the thought, he let it drift off as we came around to where the trucks were beginning to back to the loading docks. I paused to glance at him.

“You want?”

“Yeah,” he said with a long sigh. “I do. I just don’t know how to do what you guys do.”

“You don’t,” I said, and at his frown, I shrugged. “You don’t. You be Freddie. That’s who she needs you to be. Who she wants you to be. She doesn’t want us to be anyone else. So just be you.”

“But…” His frown deepened. “What if I want to be more romantic for her?”

I didn’t laugh. In a way, it was funny, but not in a humorous way. Freddie was so goddamn hard on himself. “Freddie, you had yourself committed to a place that tested your sobriety and could have killed you, to be there for her and to get her out. Trust me, you could write the book on romance.”

“It’s not the same thing,” he argued.

“No,” I said. “Maybe not. But you showed her in far more than words, that there is nowhere she can go that you won’t follow to be there for her and you’re willing to go through hell with her. It’s better in some ways. Don’t beat yourself up—that’s my job.” With a light bump of my fist to his shoulder, I left him to chew on that and headed toward the lead tech.

We had a lot to do.