“Avery?” a familiar voice asks, walking toward me. “What on earth have you done to Sidney?” Peter Ferro, uh Granz, walks toward me quickly. I lower myself and hang my legs off the side of the stage. The room tips a little bit and I blink hard. Peter seems tense, and in that moment he reminds me of Sean. Damn, it’s late. When is Sean going to get here?

“Nothing,” I reply. “She asked about stripping, so we’ve been dancing.” I grin broadly at him. “Ask her to show you what she can do with the pole.”

Sidney giggles and nearly doubles over. Peter looks up at her. “Is she drunk?” Peter’s head snaps back toward Trystan with a pissed off glare and he could easily double as Sean in that moment.

Trystan is fanning Mel, trying to get her to wake up. “Don’t look at me. They’re the ones that swallowed.”

All of a sudden, Sidney starts laughing. It’s way too loud, and she realizes that no one else thought the line was dirty, so she slaps her hands over her mouth and cuts off the sound. Peter rubs the heels of his hands over his eyes and sighs.

I feel sheepish. “I’m sorry, Peter.”

“It’s not your fault.” He smiles up at his bride-to-be. “Come on, cupcake. Let’s take you home.”

Peter holds up a hand, and Sidney walks over to the edge of the stage. The way she looks at him is the perfect combination of lust and adoration. The emotion is so raw, so intense, that I avert my eyes and look at the floor. Peter’s wearing saddle shoes, black on brown, and vintage from the look of them. She sits next to me, and then Peter reaches up for her. She slips into his arms and he holds her like that, and walks to the door, whispering things that make Sidney giggle softly.

My head tilts to the side and I’m repressing the urge to say, awh.

There’s a sweet smile on my face as the rest of the people come into view. One guy is tall and built, with dark hair, and bright green eyes. There’s a wicked grin on his face as his eyes travel over my body. “Hey, stripper girl. I have some ones. Wanna have a fun time?” The guy that’s with him slaps Green Eyes in the back of the head. “What?”

“Sean will kill you.” As the man steps toward me, I see the resemblance. The dark Ferro hair and bright blue eyes, the lopsided grin, and perfectly smooth skin. He looks like a younger version of Sean. “I’m Jonathan Ferro. This asshole is my cousin, Bryan.” He jabs his thumb at him. There’s a girl behind him wearing a blazer and a blanket and not much else. She won’t meet my gaze.

“I’m Avery Stanz. I’m—”

“She’s my fiancée.” Sean’s voice booms from the back of the room. No one heard him come in, but everyone turns to look at him.

CHAPTER 9

I slip off the stage and rush at him, darting around empty chairs and tables. The strain on his face is horrible. I can’t imagine what he’s been through tonight, what horrors came flashing to the front of his mind. Without a word, I fling my arms around his neck while the others gasp and whisper.

I kiss his cheek and plaster my palms to the sides of his face, forcing him to turn his tired eyes on me. “Are you all right? What happened?”

There are dark circles under his eyes and the tension in his neck and shoulders makes his body feel like stone. Leaning in close to my ear, he whispers, “Not now.” I stay there like that for a second, and then peel myself off of him even though every urge I have says to hang on tight and never let go.

Sean walks past me and glares at his brother. “Well?”

Jon steps up to him. Damn they look alike, but Jonathan doesn’t have the fine lines etched into his face. “Sean, this isn’t your concern.”

“I see. So, you’re going to piss away your future. Good plan.”

Jonathan stiffens and gets in Sean’s face. “Since when do you care?”

Sean laughs, but it sounds more like Jonathan shoved a stake through his heart. Sean doesn’t reply this time. Instead, he shakes his head and turns away, taking me by the hand and leading me backstage. He yells over his shoulder, “Your decisions are as abysmal as the company you keep.”

Someone yells something back, but their words don’t carry. Sean’s jaw is locked tight and he’s barely breathing. Once we’re back in the dressing rooms, he sits me down in a chair, kneels in front of me, and looks me over. “Are you hurt?”

Placing my hands on his shoulders, I shake my head. “I’m fine. Are you all right? What happened? I was so worried about you.”

“Did they mistreat you?”

At first I’m not sure who he means, but then I guess he’s talking about Trystan, Jonathan, and Bryan. Touching his hand, I smile at him. “No, of course not. Trystan was actually very nice to me, so was your brother—both of them.”

“Pete was here?”

I nod. “So was Sidney. I’m fine, Sean. Mel’s fine, except for the passing out part.”

“Is she drunk?”

“Nah, she’s got the hots for Trystan.” I laugh once and smile at him, pushing a lock of dark hair away from his eyes. “He talked to her and she fainted.”

That makes him grimace. “Seriously?”

“Yeah, apparently she’s got a weakness.”

Sean nods thoughtfully and then looks up at me. Our eyes lock and I can’t help but notice the massive amount of worry in his. “Thank God that’s her only weakness.”

“What do you mean?”

“I have to tell you something.” His voice sounds like he doesn’t want to tell me at all. “The police know the woman found in my room was a call girl, and that she was killed with a knife—one stab in her side, and then another, fatal, slash across her throat.” Sean’s voice is so still and devoid of emotion. I know what he’s trying to tell me, what he means, but I don’t want to admit it.

Shaking my head slowly, tears form in my eyes. “No, she couldn’t have—she didn’t…”

“She did, baby.” My breath catches in my throat and I lean into his shoulder as the tears start to fall. “Mel killed that woman and we need to find out why.”

CHAPTER 10

Sean and I stay like that for what seems like hours. His hands run down the back of my head and smoothes my hair as he whispers soothing words into my ear. At first I’m not sure why I’m crying, but then the images float through my mind and I know. After everything Mel’s been through—after fighting tooth and nail to climb out of the slum she grew up in, getting that scholarship, selling her body to pay the bills—it was all for nothing. She’s back where she started. If the cops catch her, there’s no way they’re going to call it self-defense, not with the wounds Mel inflicted. The thought makes me cringe even more. What would make her so frightened that she’d respond that way? She had to realize that she was giving up everything the moment she drew the blade across the woman’s throat. I close my eyes and hold onto Sean tighter.

“Do they think you did it?” I ask the question that I’ve been dreading. Everyone hates him, even his own family seems to have a distaste for Sean, but I can’t see why. Jonathan stormed off, but from the look of things Sean was trying to help him, the same way he helped Peter. Why can’t Jonathan see that?

There are more things at play in the Ferro family than I can see, issues that lay far beneath the surface. Even Peter, who for all practical purposes seems normal, is far from it. What the hell happened to them?

Sean’s chest rises and falls in a steady motion as he holds me close. His voice is soft and strained. He kisses the top of my head. “You don’t need to worry about me.”

Fuck. “So they didn’t clear you? They think you’re a suspect?” Pulling back, I look up into his tired eyes. “How? You were with me the entire time.” Sean presses his eyes closed and steps away, turning his back to me as if he’s trying to hide the fact that he’s losing his composure. “Sean, talk to me.” I reach for his shoulder and touch it gently.

He doesn’t shake me off, but he doesn’t turn. Sean runs his hands over his face and speaks softly, making sure no one else could possibly hear. “I’m not a suspect, not yet, but close enough and it’s because of Amanda.”

A chill runs through me and settles in my stomach. The sensation is so horrible that I want to cry and I know that it’s only a fraction of the emotion surging through Sean. I don’t wait for him to look at me. Instead, I step around and look into his face. There’s a glassy sheen on his eyes and he evades my gaze.

I say what I know, the thing that no one else realizes and the one thing that Sean is desperate to forget. “You’re a good man, Sean. No matter what they say, no matter what they see.” I touch his cheek and smile warmly at him. “You hide it so well that even you forget at times.”

He touches my hand, smoothing his fingers over the back of it. “You scare me more than anything I’ve ever encountered, and at the same time, I love you for it. You see through me, Avery Stanz, down to my mangled soul, and you stay. Every time, you stay.” Sean’s voice is uncharacteristically soft and he closes his eyes for a moment, and presses my hand more firmly to his cheek.

I don’t worry about shattering the moment this time. I’m sure of myself—and even more certain of us. I know what he needs, but I can’t give it to him here, so I take his hands and pull him to a clearing backstage. Sean follows without protest. When I stop, I take his hands and slip them around my waist and place my hands around his neck.

We dance slowly, saying nothing, until Sean bows his head and rests it on my shoulder. We stay like that for a long time, occasionally stepping as if we’re still dancing. It doesn’t escape me that Sean is letting me comfort him. He’s given up control for the moment and is relying on me to hold him together. This is so unlike him that it worries me. I don’t know if he’s growing emotionally or falling apart. Sometimes those things look identical.