Page 68 of Rebel Romeo

“Yeah. I’ll lock the door behind you. But, Jill… he knows where you live. I doubt he’s going to give up.”

“Give up on what?” she snorts. “We weren’t anything. I have no claim over him. No right to feel this anger. Up until the other night, I was with Curt. I just need to go home and lick my wounds and then tomorrow I can pretend everything is fine.”

“Do you want to pretend everything is fine?”

“I…” Her words fade as she presses her lips together and swallows the next thought down. “I don’t really have a choice, do I?”

“Two minutes,” Maggie accounces again.

Shit. “If I’m not on the stage in a hundred and twenty seconds they’re going to dock my pay again.”

“Go. I’ll see you tonight,” Jill says, opening the door. “Bring wine.”

I lock it behind her and run to the stage, making it in the nick of time. Everyone is already standing there, Addison in the wings, ready to take my place.

Holden’s brows lift as he takes in my state. Chest heaving, panting, a little sweaty and a lot out of breath. “Everything okay?”

“Um. Yeah.” My eyes dart to Nolan, who won’t even look at me. His gaze is focused on his feet. “There are donuts set up in the uh, in the swing green room. Jill brought them.”

Uneasy, I lift my gaze to meet Missy’s from where she sits in the audience glaring at me. I’m unsure what to do about the situation I walked in on. Tell Holden? Keep it to myself? All I know is we have to get through this rehearsal first, then I’ll figure it out later.

“She didn’t say hi?”

“Huh?”

“Jill,” Holden says. “She didn’t come say hi to me.”

“Oh. Um. Well, you weren’t around and she had to… run.” I lick my lips and glance at Nolan who finally glances up from his feet, eyeing me carefully.

“I see,” Holden says and circles around Nolan and me with calculated steps.

Shit. He knows me too well. He knows when I’m lying. Or at the very least when I’m hiding something. “Maggie,” Holden calls out. “Why don’t you take Ellis and Addison to get measured with Brandon.”

Maggie looks understandably taken aback by the schedule shift. But to her credit, she makes a few notes on her iPad, then shuffles our understudies backstage. Holden waits until they’re gone… and it’s only the four of us left in the theater. Me, Holden, Nolan, Missy… and the big fucking elephant in the room taking up all the oxygen.

Holden bends down, clicking the floor microphone to the off position so that the monitors don’t broadcast the next words out of his mouth to the entire theater, including everyone backstage. Then, he turns to face me and Nolan. “What’s going on here?”

“What?” I ask quickly.

“What are you talking about?” Nolan asks at the same time.

We couldn’t look any guiltier than if our hands were covered in spray paint in front of a graffitied wall.

“The energy between you two has completely shifted,” Holden says. His voice is calm, but I hear the storm brewing beneath the surface. Like the eye of a hurricane, he’s deceptively mellow, tricking you into stepping foot outside before the deadly swirling storm whisks you away.

“Katie and I are fine,” Nolan says. And I have to hand it to him, he’s believable.

Meanwhile, sweat is dotting my pores.

“Fine, huh?” Holden continues the calm interrogation and with even, rhythmic footsteps, proceeds with circling us. A lion stalking his kill. A tornado picking up speed. I have no doubt that when he attacks, it’ll be swift and deadly.

“No fight between you two?”

I shake my head. “Nope. No fight.” Yet.

“No lovers quarrel?”

“We’re just friends, Holden,” Nolan says. “Not sure how many times we can say that before you’ll believe us.”

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