Page 73 of Off Balance

The security guard assesses me, and only then does it occur to me how familiar he is. It's the guy I knocked out in the first round of my one and only visit to an underground fight club.

"Er, sorry about that," I say, gesturing to the eye that's still sporting some color. Then, as if a lightbulb goes off, his face brightens.

"I knew you looked familiar," he says, coming in for a handshake, then pulling me in for a bro hug. "Did you know there was a bunch of talk after you left that a pro was in the basement with us that night? I wondered if it was?—"

"Dom?" Of course Dwayne joins us now, of all moments. "Intermission is almost over. What's this about?" He up-nods the overly excited looking security guard.

"I was just introducing myself to Nash here," I say, gesturing to the security guard, who, thank goodness, has a name tag. I turn back to Nash and hold out my hand again. "It's nice to meet you, I'm?—"

"Domenick fuckin' Connor. I can't believe—" He catches the look I'm throwing at him and gives me a wink that couldn't have been more obvious if he tried. "It's just real nice to meet you."

"Sorry to interrupt the fan meeting, but my son?" Cora interjects, and I could kiss her. I don't think being rude to the guy is going to keep me in his good graces.

"Right, you wanted to see Mr. Stevens. Backstage is a bit chaotic right now. Mr. Alistar asked me to tell you he's busy getting ready for the next half of the show, and that you can see him afterwards at the meet and greet."

"Does he know who was asking?"

Nash nods. "Yeah, Renee told him Mr. Steven’s mom and some big guy—I guess that's you—were here and Mr. Alistar didn't look too pleased."

"I bet he didn't,” I mutter.

The lights start blinking to announce intermission is over, and I slump. Maybe the next half won't be as painful, or at least we'll be that much closer to the end, and I can have him in my arms again.

Just as we're walking away, there's a commotion from backstage that's loud enough to be heard where we are. Nash jumps up andexcuses himself, running back to see if he's needed. I throw a quick look at Cora and Dwayne.

"Fuck it."

I run behind the ropes, following quickly in Nash's footsteps.

Nash comes to a dead stop when we get to the backstage staging area, and I nearly run into him. He shoots me a wide-eyed look, probably knowing he'll get in trouble for letting me get back here. I feel a little bad about that, but not bad enough not to follow my gut.

Backstage is chaos. It seems the whole company is gathered, and someone is yelling. A girl is yelling, "You did this!" over and over. As I move cautiously closer, I see one of the men in the company holding the young female lead—Daphne, I think her name is—by the waist, pulling her back from whatever the commotion is.

I hear a groan that sends a sliver of fear and rage down my spine. Pushing through the crowd, I find Cameron lying flat on the ground. His eyes are closed, and he looks half conscious. Alistar stands over him, monologuing some bullshit about taking better care of themselves as dancers and not turning to drugs and alcohol when the stress of stardom gets to them. In answer to that, Cam's chest lurches, and he vomits. Everyone jumps back from him, making sounds of shock and disgust.I lurch forward to turn Cameron on his side so he doesn't choke, looking at them all with rage burning so hot inside me I think I might pop a blood vessel.

Nash steps forward with a towel, and I accept it gratefully.

"Cam, baby. I'm here. Wake up. I need you to wake up and talk to me, okay?"

Once I'm not glaring at him, Alistar finds his voice again.

"Are you responsible for letting this trash in here? I told you, under no circumstances was this man or anyone else associated with him allowed back here!"

"Why?" I demand, snapping my head back up to stare daggers at the sorry excuse for a man. "So you can let him choke to death on his own vomit? So he doesn't tell everyone what a shady sack of shit you are?"

"How dare you? This is my establishment, and I'm an esteemed member of the community. You're nothing more than a filthy, disgusting old man taking advantage of his nephew. It's probably your fault he got involved with drugs and alcohol in the first place. To drown out the shame of being violated by a washed-up failure."

Alistar sticks his nose in the air, effectively dismissing me while I gather Cam in my arms and stand. He directs the understudies to take their places, because they're already behind schedule and the show must go on,blah blah blah…

Getting Cameron to the hospital and getting him help is my only priority. I'll take care of Alistar later.

As I take the last steps through the crowd still gawking at us, I come face to face with Dwayne and Cora. Their faces are ashen with worry. Cora has eyes only for her son, rushing forward to run her hand through his hair. But Dwayne is staring at me. Hard.

"What have you done?"

"We don't have time for this right now, Dwayne. We need to get Cam to a hospital."

That seems to break him out of the moment, and he nods. "Take him through the employee entrance at the back. I'll meet you with the car." I nod and turn on my heel, almost running into Nash on my way out.

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