Page 5 of Fast Fury

Abby nodded absently and glanced around, searching for Kai. He was huge, therefore impossible to miss, and if Logan was here performing, he had to be close by. She couldn’t see him though. Defend his title, he’d said. As in, a lip-sync title?

“Hey! Abby!”

She spun around to see a dark-haired man with a bronze complexion waving her down from the edge of the stage. She smiled in greeting. “Zaid, hi.” He’d been there to help Kai move too.

The men all worked for the DEA, but she didn’t know in what capacity. Other than their job was dangerous enough that it had resulted in the team being targeted by theVenenocartel. She wanted to talk to Kai about his work, find out what he really did and why he was gone so often, but he was private about it and she hadn’t wanted to push. Until now, because of the scare with the cartel.

Zaid pushed through the throng of people crowded around the edge of the stage and took her elbow, leaned down so he could talk in her ear and be heard over the music. “You here for the battle?”

“I guess I am.”

“Good. Come on up front with us, so you can see better.”

She gestured beside her. “I’ve got my friend Cindy with me too.”

Zaid smiled at Cindy. “Nice to meet you. Right this way.” He led her by the arm to the front row, where five more huge guys stood drinking beer from the bottle, some solo and others with their arms around a woman. She couldn’t help notice that Zaid had a bottle of water instead.

Once they were in place he bent down to speak next to Abby’s ear again. “Granger’s giving it all he’s got, but I don’t know if it’ll be enough to unseat the king,” he said, shaking his head in amusement as Logan pretended to belt out the chorus. The crowd was totally into it, singing along and cheering, throwing their hands in the air. “You already missed Rodriguez and Colebrook’s duet.”

She blinked at him. “A duet?”

Zaid nodded, a smirk on his face. “It was epic and romantic. We told ‘em to go get a room.”

Laughing, Abby turned her attention back to the stage. Logan stalked from one side of the stage to the other in that iconic tweed cap of the AC/DC front man, gesturing with his arms, holding the dead mic out to the crowd during the chorus in a bid for audience participation. The volume in the room immediately doubled, making the air throb and the floor shake.

Wow. This was way more intense than she’d expected.

The song ended in a flourish of drums and electric guitar. Logan held up both arms then lowered them as he bowed, the crowd whistling and cheering, including Cindy and the rest of Kai’s teammates.

“All right, people, and now it’s time to see what our defending champion has up his sleeve. Please welcome Master Kai to the stage!”

Another raucous cheer went up from the crowd. Two women behind Abby squealed and pushed between her and the bar. Abby exchanged a loaded look with Cindy and bit back a laugh.

But it died in her throat when Kai stepped out of the shadows and onto the stage. The women in front of her screamed and started jumping up and down, waving at him.

Oh my god, he had lip-sync groupies?

Cindy elbowed her sharply in the ribs.

Startled, Abby met her gaze with a scowl. “Ow!”

Cindy jabbed her with a finger this time. “That’sKai?”

Abby nudged her friend back with her elbow for good measure. “Yeah, what of it?”

“You lived across the hall fromthatfor almost two freaking years, and this is the first time I’m meeting him?” Cindy smacked Abby’s arm. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“I don’t know how you never saw him before. And he was taken,” she said over the noise, her gaze sliding back to Kai.But he’s not taken now.Who could blame her for staring?

“Mmm, that is a whole lot of man right there,” Cindy added appreciatively.

Don’t I know it.Six-foot-four of muscular, Pacific Islander hunk lit up by a spotlight, the ray of light highlighting his short black hair and dark caramel skin.

“You’re going down, Maka!” Logan yelled, hands cupped around his mouth where he stood with his teammates at the edge of the stage.

Kai shot him a cocky grin, raised an inky eyebrow. “Lemme show you how it’s done, son.” He raised the mic, then his expression went all serious and he lowered his head. The lights dimmed. Next to her, Zaid raised his phone to video Kai as the music started.

The instant the first iconic notes hit the air, a roar of laughter erupted through the room. Abby laughed along with them as Kai raised his head and began lip-syncing toLet It Go, from Disney’sFrozen.

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