Page 21 of Dirty Dancer

Eyes closed, I dropped my chin. Ahead of us in the dark, the curtains rose. The opening number was six minutes long and it involved every single dancer in the production. Men. Women. Me. I would blend in for the first three minutes because we were united.

The music began as the lights came up abruptly. The sharp notes of Beethoven Scherzo by David Garrett required us to hit our marks in unison. We danced as one. Everyone moving in sync until we broke into two groups then we danced in and around each other.

The three minute long piece filled with verve, performed by a man with such musical genius that it was impossible to not move when it was playing. The colors lit us up as we traded places, dancing in between each other, then in rounds.

Every strike, a stomp. Every sweep, a twirl. On the finish of that piece, every member of the chorus hit the stage, dropping in a circle around me as the light narrowed to me alone. The applause rolled through the audience.

David Garrett’s version of Viva La Vida poured out of the speakers. The beautiful strings flooded me and I sent my bowler hat flying as my suit jacket dropped and then I was leaping to catch the black silks that dropped toward me.

From the corner of my eye, I caught Freddie’s wide grin and that made me soar higher than even the music.

This was just the start.

CHAPTER 9

KELLAN

Doc pulled up in his truck out front as I closed down the work bays. The new shop had been bringing in a brisk business. I had three cars in for work right now. Two were waiting on parts, a third was parked out back because it wouldn’t be picked up until the following day.

Currently, I was doing all the work myself. I needed to bring in a new crew but I wasn’t ready for new people in here yet. Liam had popped around a couple of times recently to give me a hand and Jasper had started spending his Saturdays when he was in town helping out.

With Sparrow on the road so much, I liked keeping busy. We’d been working with the locals a lot over the past few months. More businesses were opening, and some of the local kids were volunteering to help clean up empty lots and repaint defaced buildings.

No one touched Rome’s art, but I’d noticed an aspiring artist starting to decorate some of the freshly painted buildings. Thatsaid, Liam and I had a bet on how long it would take Rome to track down the new creative.

I figured it would be three days tops once he was back. Liam said twenty-four hours fromwhenRome noticed. The funny part was if he didn’t notice until he’d been back two days, we both won.

“Hey,” Doc said as he strolled up. He had a light jacket on over his t-shirt and jeans.

His dress code had grown more and more relaxed since he retired from his clinic. While he helped out periodically, particularly on free immunization days, he devoted most of his time to the safe houses he was managing now. An endeavor we all supported.

“Hey,” I greeted him. “Give me ten more minutes, if you don’t mind. I got caught up working on that Mustang GT.”

“That’s an old one,” Doc said as he studied the black and red 1985 classic muscle car.

“Yeah,” I said on the exhale, not quite grinning. “The kid who brought her in said he got her for a song, but he wanted to make sure she would still run and his grandfather would pay for the assessment.”

“You’re in lust, aren’t you?” The soft laughter underscoring his words didn’t offend me in the slightest. I was in lust.

“Probably the second or third sexiest girl I’ve seen in a while,” I told him. The body was a classic, but it was what was under the hood that had me preoccupied.

Shaking his head, Doc chuckled and followed me inside as I closed the last bay. The office area was cleaner, it had new floors, new furniture, and a fresh paint. The kitchen in the back was also decked out in amenities, including an espresso machine.

Sparrow had purchased the property and finished knocking down the burnt out shell of the building that had been left afteran explosion gutted it. The new shop resembled the old in size, and design but that was all on the surface.

The interior had been upgraded across the board. New equipment, new tools—we had to replace most of mine, and I’d brought some of my favorites from the clubhouse. Frankly, as brand new as the shop was and it had that “new” smell to it still, I couldn’t complain. We’d get to the lived in, worked in feel, eventually.

But it was ours. No one was taking it away again and I didn’t work for anyone that wasn’t us. As gifts went, I could still paddle her ass for spending money on me, but she’d just given me that impudent smile and said she was going to do what she wanted to do and I could do whatever I wanted to with the building.

She had a point.

Doc dragged a chair over and settled into it while I moved behind the desk. I had a handful of work orders to review. I was only charging the kid and his grandfather for any parts needed. Labor was totally on me.

Suddenly, Doc’s solo presence registered. “Wasn’t Theo supposed to be with you today?”

The arrival of the sullen, difficult fourteen-year-old had presented its own set of challenges. Milo had traveled with him. We’d met the kid in Prague, briefly. He’d returned to the States with Milo, Lainey and the rest of them. But his stay in New York proved exceptionally short.

The distance between Milo and the newly discovered younger brother couldn’t have been clearer. Nor could the animosity. The kid seemed to relax once he washere, but some tension resumed when he realized Sparrow was not actually here but on the road.

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