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With the music dwindling down and the applause roaring louder, I knew this was my chance.
She watched me hurry to the side, desperate to reach the backstage area. Any second now, she’d go to the rear rooms, and I damn well would find her. I had to. Pushing and shoving my way toward where the two tall bouncers blocked the way, I tucked my head low and wove through the crowd as they stood and gave a standing ovation.
I didn’t care that they scowled as I passed by. I disregarded the complaints about my forceful run to the side.
I had to reach her.
Looking up at the stage, I tracked how far she moved. Where she was. She was following her colleagues, but when she glanced down as she spotted me heading for the backstage access, she cringed and pushed to hurry faster.
“Mia!” I shouted up at her on the stage. She couldn’t hear me. Not over the music. Not with the crowd’s applause. Catcalls, shouts, claps, and whistles drowned out everything else.
“Mia!” I called out to her one last time before I turned, facing the bouncers as I neared them.
“Hey, man.”
They both held up their hands. “No access.”
“I have to?—”
“No.”
A drunk stumbled closer, seeming to be in the mood to pick a fight with them. “Hey, be nice, yo.”
“Get back,” one of the security guards said.
I couldn’t. I was determined to see her. “I just?—”
The drunk slurred something and took a swing at the other guard.
While they were preoccupied, I slipped past them, running to search for Mia.
“Mia!” I shouted after her, spotting her up ahead in a narrow hallway.
Behind me, other guards rushed up to capture me, all yelling that I couldn’t be back here.
“Mia!”
Strong hands wrapped around my arms, and I was dragged away just as Mia slipped through a door in the back.
22
MIA
“Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God.” I paced in the small dressing room.
Yesterday, I was surprised to see Owen back here. Gina led him here, and he said he wouldn’t tell Henry that I was the mystery dancer he sought out before. I believed him, that he’d keep his word.
Seeing Henry in the crowd proved how stupid I was to have believed him, though.
I shook my head, chanting more of the same “oh, my God” between panted breaths. I’d never run off the stage so quickly in my life, and still, he’d almost reached me back here.
“Babe?” Gina knocked once before walking in. “You here?”
I nodded, wrenching off my mask as I paced. I hadn’t even taken my shoes off yet. That was how desperate I was to hide.
All I ever did with Henry was hide. I hid my feelings from him. I hid my secret about my past. My second job. But not my love. I’d taken a chance to let him see how much I cared for him, and he’d ruined that too.
“Damn, is there a ruckus out there. Some drunk tried to rush back here.” Gina shut the door, frowning.