Dance for Me (Fenbrook Academy #1) - New Adult Romance (27 page)
Read Dance for Me (Fenbrook Academy #1) - New Adult Romance Online
Authors: Helena Newbury
Carol tensed, about to shout something, but then her eyes narrowed. As Neil got out and walked towards us, we saw the missile, wedged diagonally into the space behind the Aston’s front seats. “It’s finished?” Carol asked, suddenly breathless. “I can take it right now?”
“It’s finished,” Darrell told her. Then he looked at me. “But you aren’t taking it.”
A massive, four-wheeled loader roared up, with two vicious-looking forks pointing straight out in front. Everyone looked from it to the car, and Carol had time to draw in a single, strangled breath before the forks stabbed straight through the car’s body and out the other side.
“
Are you insane?”
Carol’s voice shook.
“That’s my—
”
“Sabre gave it to me.” Darrell reminded her. “I let you have it because I thought I owed you. But you’ve been using me from the start.”
The loader heaved the car into the air and rolled forward. A few pieces of the Aston fell to the ground—a door mirror, a license plate—as if it was bleeding. Now everyone turned to look at where the loader was heading: the car crusher.
“You can’t,” Carol said, her face deathly pale. “Darrell, we’ve got buyers for the missile. You can’t—” She started forward, but Neil clapped a firm hand on her shoulder.
“You shouldn’t be worrying about the missile.” Darrell was speaking to Carol, but looking at me. “In the trunk there’s a bag. In the bag is every hard drive from every one of my computers. Everything I’ve ever made for you, for the last four years.”
The loader dumped the car into the crusher and reversed away. A man—from his girth, Big Earl—stood ready at the crusher controls.
Carol spun to face Darrell. “That’s your
work!
That’s your
life’s work!”
Darrell took a deep breath. “That’s not the life I want anymore.” He looked at me. “Lift your hands above your head.”
“What?” Everything was happening so fast.
“Lift your hands above your head.” Darrell indicated the crusher. “It’s the signal.”
“
Don’t!”
Carol’s voice was like ice. She stepped in front of me, but somehow, despite her designer clothes and her perfect hair, I wasn’t intimidated anymore.
I thought of the countless hours Darrell must have spent in that workshop. “Are you sure?”
He walked over and kissed me, his warm lips feeling so right on mine that I thought I was going to melt into the ground. He clutched me to him, one arm around my waist as with the other he stroked my pinned-back hair. After a second, I remembered to lift my arms above my head. I was too busy kissing him to see the car crushed, but I heard the tortured groan of metal and the popping as the windows broke. The most satisfying sound was Carol’s utter, shocked silence as she realized she’d been beaten. When we finally broke the kiss, she was still staring at the crusher.
“What did you do to him?” she said at last, her voice raw and savage.
I gazed at Darrell. “I inspired him,” I told her proudly.
As we walked back to the van, we kept casting little glances at each other. The wind was blowing his hair and he kept grinning every time he looked at me—and I knew I was doing the same. He was free. I didn’t have to share him anymore, didn’t have to see him eaten up from the inside by his rage. God knows we both still needed healing, but we’d taken the first steps. I felt whole, for the first time in six years.
We climbed into the van. I had my whole life ahead of me. My man, my friends, my career—
I suddenly looked at the clock on the dashboard. Twenty to two. I sat back in my seat and laughed.
Darrell climbed into the driver’s seat. “What?”
I shook my head. “Nothing. Doesn’t matter. I just—I had a call back today for the audition. The one you first saw me at.”
“Well? Let’s go!”
I smiled sadly at him. “It’s back in the city and it starts in twenty minutes.”
He looked over his shoulder at his bike, strapped down in the back of the van. “I can get you there in ten.”
***
Three minutes later, I was clinging to Darrell’s back as we roared around a corner, leaning so far over that my knees felt like they were brushing the highway. Neil had lent me his helmet and I’d kept on his leather jacket, but otherwise I was still in my ballet outfit. If I’d dared to lift my face from between Darrell’s shoulders, I would have seen people giving us some very odd looks.
We whipped around an 18-wheeler, missing an oncoming SUV by scant inches. I wanted to scream, but I wasn’t sure if it was in exhilaration or terror.
***
I burst through the door of the audition room and saw Sharon Barkell do a double take. I’d taken off the helmet, but I was still wearing a biker jacket and my pointe shoes were stained brown with mud.
“Is everything...are you alright?” she asked.
I walked to the center of the room. “Everything’s just fine,” I told her, beaming. Darrell crept in and I tossed him the helmet and jacket. He took a seat at the back, just like the first time.
I wasn’t kidding myself. We both had a long way to go, and I knew that when the adrenaline wore off there would be more pain as we healed. But knowing that we’d face that together, it seemed possible. Anything seemed possible.
“Okay,” said Sharon. “Same thing as last time, but with a little more lightness. Give me a second.” She fiddled with her laptop, cueing up the music.
I looked across at Darrell. He’d done his part, but lifting the guilt from me was still only the first step. The next one I had to take on my own.
For the first time in a long, long time, I let go of everything. I let go of the feeling of the still-fresh cuts on my thigh. I let go of the feeling of my legs, aching from the punishment I’d given them on the bike. I even let go of Darrell—for a little while—and trusted that he’d be there when I needed him. As the music started, I allowed myself to just...
be,
stepping out with nothing to cling onto and accepting the memories for what they were. For once, I wasn’t dancing to block something out or to punish myself. I was dancing for the sheer simple joy of it and there was nothing so good in the world.
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Helena
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