“Well, it’s not always this rowdy,” Ridley yelled back. “But Kay was really nervous about performing today. Things have been tense. The other girls don’t want the group to break up.”
“Why are they breaking up, anyway?”
“Because Jackson thinks Kay will do better on her own. She’s really the one carrying the group.” Suddenly Ridley stopped talking and grabbed Mara’s arm. “Oh my god. What the hell is he doing?” She started pulling Mara backward.
“Where are we going?”
When someone else screamed, Mara clutched Ridley’s arm. She wasn’t much of a concert-goer, so she wasn’t sure what was normal. It was actually kind of strange that she didn’t enjoy them more. She loved parties and concerts were like parties on steroids.
But this was just a little too much for her senses to handle.
“I’ve learned a few things lately. When something weird starts going down, you don’t hang around to watch. There’s a guy who just jumped onstage from the ceiling.”
Mara tried to look over her shoulder as they pushed through the crowd. Matt had come out onstage and was dragging Kaylee to the other side. Then she saw the man come up behind him.
“Matt, look out!” She knew it was useless, there was no way he could hear her over the crowd. But she had to warn him.
“Wait! We have to go back. That man is attacking Matt.” She fought against her friend’s hold, but Ridley tightened her grip and pulled her through the crowd. Mara saw Matt fighting the man and then suddenly they both fell to the ground.
“Ridley, please wait,” she sobbed. The sound of gunshots rang out and the people started screaming and pushing. Tears streamed over her cheeks as she struggled. Ridley wrapped her arms around her and forced her toward the exit.
“Eli and the others are trained to deal with this. We aren’t. Your brother would never forgive you if you got hurt trying to help him when he doesn’t need help.”
Once they were out of the main stage area, they ran past the bar toward the exits. Just as they pushed outside into the cool night air, Mara heard sirens.
“See, help is on the way. Let’s go across the street so we aren’t in the way.”
She followed Ridley to the parking lot across the street where they promptly sat on the curb to catch their breath. Mara pulled out her phone and dialed Penny. Her fingers shook so badly that she could barely bring up the number. All she could see was Matt falling.
“What are you doing?” Ridley asked. They watched as several police cars and a fire engine pulled up outside the theater.
“I have to let Penny know what’s going on. Those guys were attacking Matt. What if he’s hurt? She’ll need time to get here.” Mara broke down into tears and Ridley pulled her into a hug.
“It’s all going to be okay. I know it is.” But she didn’t sound any more confident than Mara felt. She’d seen Matt go down, too.
And they hadn’t seen him get back up.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
PENNY HATED DOING patient reviews. There were a stack of case files on her desk that she needed to get through, and she’d only done one all evening.
One. Freaking. Review.
She sighed. If she was being honest, it wasn’t really the case file reviews making her miserable. She hated everything right now. Matt had only been gone for a week and it felt like an eternity. She hadn’t been sleeping well at all, despite the fact that they stayed up all night talking on the phone like teenagers.
She loved him and she was going to tell him. There was no time frame for loving someone. He made her happy. When she envisioned her future, she couldn’t imagine it without Matt.
That was love.
Her cell phone rang and she grabbed at it eagerly. When she saw the number, she stopped. It was Mara.
“Hello?”
“Penny!” Mara’s voice was a cross between a scream and a cry.
Penny stood, the papers on her desk slipping off and scattering to the floor. “Mara? Are you okay?”
A soft sob came over the line. “We’re at the club where Divine is playing their last show. I don’t know what happened.” She dissolved into tears again. Everything she said after that was lost in a jumble of tearful sounds.
“Wait, Mara, slow down. Who’s hurt? Are you hurt?”
“No,” she wailed. “It’s Matt.”
Penny stopped breathing. “What happened to Matt? Where is he?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know what’s happening. I saw him onstage and there was this man and I saw him fall.”
Penny gripped the phone and pressed it closer to her ear, trying to hear. Mara was incomprehensible at this point. There was a loud shuffling sound and then an unfamiliar voice was on the line. “Hello, Penny?”
“Yes, I’m here. Who is this?” Penny plugged her other ear with her finger so she could hear.
“It’s Ridley Alexander. We met briefly at Mara and Matt’s birthday party. I’m so sorry I have to tell you this over the phone, but something happened at the show. There was a guy who jumped on stage and went after the singers. Some crazed fan, I guess. Mara says she saw Matt get pushed down and didn’t see him get back up. We heard gunshots after that, but we couldn’t see who was shooting.”
Penny heard a soft moaning sound and didn’t realize at first that it came from her. She held a hand over her mouth. Matt was facing some lunatic and she had no idea whether he was safe or not. Her every nightmare come to life.