Breaking the Storm (6 page)

“What
the hell is he doing here?” I hissed, trying not to make further eye contact. He was like a dog. Any hint of acknowledgment would be construed as an open invitation to come over and play.

Light
leaned forward on the stage. “Dude is scary persistent.” She gave him a disgusted stare.

I
slapped her arm. “No! He'll come over.”

Light
sighed. “It's too late. Stalker Luke is sauntering this way.”

I
sipped my beer while pretending to be absorbed in the flickering stage lights, trying to ignore the look of obvious interest in his creepy eyes.

Luke
greeted me cheerfully. “What’s up, Storm?”

I
glared at him. I was in no mood to be polite. He was here to start trouble. I saw it in his deranged, beady little eyes. “It's Stormy. Only my friends and family call me Storm.”

He
smiled, making sure to flash his bleached-white teeth at me. “I thought we were friends.” He leaned against the stage, trying to trap my escape with his body.

Light
laughed and stepped back when she saw the look of death in my eyes as I pushed his arm that was preparing to wrap itself around my waist in the most inappropriate way. I cocked my hip, looking him up and down. “Why are you here, Luke?”

This
wasn’t amusing. This was the second time he followed me to one of Knox's gigs. The first time wasn't pretty and ended with Knox backing him into the wall and almost choking him to death with a deadly look in his eyes that I never wanted to see again.

“I
was invited.” He looked over at Kaydee, who waved over at me mockingly. “Kaydee thought I would enjoy the show.”

I
snarled. “Didn’t get enough of an ass kicking last time?” I shoved him. “Go away, Luke. This isn’t your type of crowd. I know how much you despise the working class.”

He
touched my hair. “Knox is playing you, Stormy.” He cut a sidelong look at Kaydee. “They’re still sleeping together. And I’m going to be here to lean on when you find out.”

My
heart thudded. Shit, something in his voice rang true. “You don’t know shit. If you're listening to Kaydee, you're listening to a bad source. Just leave—I don’t know why you’re so fixated on me, but you can forget about it.”

Light’s
eyes clouded with concern. “Step off, Luke. Can’t you see that you’re upsetting her?”

Luke
glared at her. “You know what’s going on, Light. He’s playing her. Why don’t you tell her?” He looked at me with sympathy before storming away.

My
eyes narrowed on Light as she looked away guiltily. “What’s going on, Light?”

“It
doesn’t matter.”

My
hand gripped her with biting intent. “Tell me. Now!”

She
licked her lips with an anxious stare. “I already told you… rumors, just stupid rumors about Knox and Kaydee still being together.”

I
leaned into her face. “And?”

“Luke
called me, saying he saw him kissing her at some club, and it wasn’t a kissing-my-sister or friend kind of kiss.”

I
felt like I was physically being kicked in my stomach over and over again. “And you’re telling me this now?”

“First
of all, Luke is crazy and bitter. Secondly, it’s not serious between you two.”

I
was seething because no matter how many times I lied to myself, in my heart, I wanted what we had to be serious. “That’s beside the point, Light.” I slammed my cup to the ground. I felt like I was about to faint.

Light
bit her bottom lip. “Does it even matter if something is going on between them?”

I
swallowed over the lump of emotions. My heart was screaming over and over that it did matter. But my mind refused to acknowledge the truth for fear of breaking down in a fit of ugly tears. This wasn’t me. I was tough, sloughing off the hard knocks of life like dead skin. But disturbingly, here I was on the verge of tears in public of all places, all because of the stupid fear that Knox was going to hurt my feelings. This was why Credence women never fell in love or got attached. Getting your heart broken just hurt too fucking much.

Light
hugged me tight, whispering in my ear, “I don’t have a good feeling about this. Cut him loose… now.”

I
nodded because I wasn’t feeling warm and fuzzy about this either. This was the fork in the road and I wasn’t built for this type of hurt. It was time for me to pick up my toys and go home.

We
both looked up when a man strode onto the stage, smiling like a game show host. The crowd roared and cheered. “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the New York Battle of the Bands finale. A big thank you to the three major record labels for providing record executives to judge tonight’s Battle of the Bands.” He grandly pointed over to the side of the stage. “And please don't forget that the judges will be taking into consideration the crowd’s response for each band. So after the last band has played, the judging will begin. And this year, we really have a lot of very talented bands waiting to rock for you tonight. Each band is hoping to win top band and the grand prize of a record contract with one the major labels. So let’s rock!” He walked off the stage and the lights dimmed.

I
tried to get excited as I listened to the thumping sounds and vocals of the first band, which was an all-female band. They were good, really good, but still not good enough, in my opinion, to win. By the time the third band played, I was on my way to being totally buzzed on alcohol, so I stopped drinking and just danced like I was starring in a music video. Half an hour later, they announced Knox and his band. I screamed at the top of my lungs, happy to see him perform for the last time. So when he stepped onto the stage with his black denim jeans, black T-shirt, and black leather, studded boots, my heart stopped like it was my first time seeing him. Hands down, there’s nothing hotter than a rocker. Beauty is truly a tattooed front man who is sexy as hell.

He
grabbed the microphone and looked directly at me. “Tonight, we’re performing something new. It's a song that I wrote for the Storm that blew into my life, changing everything about me for the better.” Then he began to sing in that sexy, seething way that made me melt.

“
There was no me before you. You brought me something I didn't think I ever wanted. The roar of the Storm. The thunder. The lightning. And when the clouds rolled in, all I could think about was the Break in the Storm. My Storm. Breaking the Storm.”

I
just stood mesmerized by the emotion in the song. A song that laid open everything he couldn’t relay except through music. Music was his therapy. His journal. His expression. By the time he was finished hitting the last note, I was an emotional mess. I didn’t even realize tears were streaming down my face until I tasted their saltiness on my lips. I dashed my tears away, clapping and screaming so loud that my throat and hands hurt. He had to win.

The
man stepped back onto the stage, looking at the crowd. “All right, time to judge.” The crowd was a rowdy mess when he called out each band’s name. Everyone had his or her favorite, stomping and yelling like crazy. The judges deliberated for nail-biting forever before passing an envelope with the winner to the man on stage. He opened the envelope and smiled. My heart dropped when he didn’t announce Knox’s band as the winner. It was crazy. Light looked at me with shock. The crowd booed the winning band, shouting Knox’s name over and over. The mayhem was deafening. Cups of beer flew onto the stage and security stepped up to stop a near riot.

I
looked at Light. “I’m going backstage.”

She
nodded. “Go. He must be furious. This was his. His was the best band tonight.”

I
pushed through the crowd, making my way backstage. I didn’t know what to say. This was another setback for Knox and his band. I pinned a smile on my face. We had something good and I refused to let fear of the Credence Curse ruin it. I was going to lay my feelings out on the table, give us a fighting chance. I turned the corner feeling lightheaded but relieved to be pulling my big-girl panties up and letting my feelings for him finally be known. I skidded to a stop when I saw Liam stumbling around wickedly drunk.

“Hey
, Liam. Sorry about tonight. You should’ve won.”

He
rubbed his red, blurry eyes. “Yep, the story of our lives.”

I
looked around anxiously. “Where’s Knox?”

He
took another swig from the bottle of alcohol that he was desperately clutching. “The manager’s office.”

“Okay,
thanks.” I moved to walk past him.

Liam
grabbed my arm quickly. “You and Knox… it will never work.”

I
shrugged his hand off, looking at him suspiciously. “Why don't you like me, Liam?”

He
sneered at me before saying, “I can't let you destroy something you don't understand.”

“Whatever
.” I walked away, stopping in front of the door marked
Manager
. I didn’t have a good feeling about this and was about to turn around when I heard urgent whispering. Turning the knob, testing to see if it was locked, I pushed the door open slowly. A sob caught in my throat when I saw Kaydee on her knees between Knox’s long legs.

From
the angle of the red leather couch, I had a full view of her back as her hands worked frantically to unzip his jeans. My knees buckled. I quickly braced myself against the doorjamb. It was like an X-rated movie in slow motion.

“She’ll
never be as good as me,” Kaydee hissed.

My
body trembled with rage. Adrenaline coursed through my body as everything seemed to move in slow motion. My hearing muffled and heart pounded… damn near hyperventilating. Knox grabbed Kaydee’s hands. His voice roared out something that I was too damn pissed off to comprehend. Blinded by rage, I slammed the door open. Knox’s eyes widened with shock. Kaydee looked over at me deviously.

I
was proud of the coldness in my voice when I said, “So sorry for interrupting your consolation prize for losing the B.O.B.” No emotions. That’s what I felt as I watched him push Kaydee away, jumping up to zip up his jeans. This was a fucking hot mess.

“This
is not what it looks like.” He stumbled toward me.

My
stomach cramped as the most sickening awareness sank in. How in the hell did I almost let someone like him into my body? “Really? Because it looks like you were about to get a blow job from a notorious whore.” I cocked my head to the side. “Bye, Knox. Have a good life.” Turning on my heels, I stormed away. The sad part was that he didn’t even try to stop me. I felt stupid and duped. I actually fell for him. I would never allow myself to get close to another man. I steeled my heart, searching through the crowd for Light. It was time to get the fuck out of here.

My
eyes locked on Luke who was leaning against the wall, waiting. I knew he was waiting for me. He strode in my direction, his eyes filled with an
I told you so
gleam.

I
held up my hand in his face. “Not now, Luke. I just want to get out of here.” I looked around desperately for Light and caught sight of Knox marching toward me with a thunderous expression on his face. Something snapped inside of me, mentally short-circuiting all rational thinking, when Luke wrapped his lean arms around me and kissed me. I don’t know whether it was the shock of Knox’s betrayal or plain old spite, but I allowed the momentary intrusion of his tongue before I heard what sounded like a pissed-off animal snarl. Then all hell broke out. Luke's body was snatched away and thrown into the crowd like a bowling ball knocking down pins. The crowd cleared as Luke’s body skated across the floor like blades on ice.

I
was frozen with shock, staring at Knox. He was angry, bordering on feral. I’ve never seen anything quite like it in my life. It took a lot to rattle me, but the expression on his face made my knees almost wobble.

He
looked at me like a deranged man. “You, don't move,” he demanded with barely concealed rage before storming over to Luke and twisting his arm behind his back in a painful-looking angle.

“Don’t
touch her ever. Storm belongs to me,” Knox hissed.

I
watched in horror as Liam and Aiden struggled to pull Knox off a laughing Luke. Finally, when they did, Luke stood up, wiping the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. “You did it to yourself, asshole. Thank you for making my job much easier.”

Knox
lunged at him, but Aiden and Liam grabbed him tight.

Light
ran over to me with wide eyes. “What the hell is going on?”

I
was paralyzed as Knox strode over to me, looking like he was going to strangle me. I turned on my heels, practically running toward the club’s entrance. I was done with this circus. I made it all the way to the sidewalk, breathing in a lungful of spring air, before Knox grabbed me by the shoulder and dragged me around the corner.