Damsel in Danger (Danger Incorporated Book 1) (16 page)

She let Jason lead her through a labyrinth of tables and people, all of whom seemed to know him. Several times someone yelled out his name or slapped him on the back. She could feel the eyes of the patrons looking her over, probably to decide if she measured up to the other women he’d brought here. Or even if she was attractive enough to be one of the “pretty girls” the neon sign outside had boasted of.

The song ended and the thirsty dancing couples seemed to move as a unit toward the bar, leaving a pathway to a large table near the stage. Jason pulled out a chair for her as three of the men from the band greeted Jason as if he were their long-lost brother. After they’d ribbed him about how long it had been since they’d seen him, he placed his hands on Brinley’s shoulders.

“Guys, I’d like you to meet Brinley Snow. Brinley, this is Floyd Martin, he plays bass. That’s Henry Gatille, he plays drums. The tall one there is Chance Morton, he plays keyboards, and the ugly one bringing the beers is Zeke Dougal. He’s on guitar.”

“I ain’t near as ugly as you,” Zeke laughed and hugged Jason after handing out the longnecks. “Where in the hell you been lately? Sunday nights aren’t the same without you.”

Brinley shook hands with the men who all seemed nice and normal. She’d never known anyone who played in a band but these men seemed just like regular guys. Jason had good taste in friends.

“Getting the business started has been a lot of work.” Jason sat in the chair next to Brinley’s and signaled for the waitress. “You know how it is.”

The pretty blonde server leaned in, her bosom on full display in her low-cut white blouse she’d paired with a skin tight black skirt that showed a great deal of thigh.

“Hey, Jason. We’ve missed you in here.” The waitress’s voice was husky and seductive, and Brinley couldn’t help but stiffen with indignation as the woman licked her lips in invitation.

To Jason.

The man that Brinley was with. Was she invisible or something? Or so ugly no one would believe that she was with a man as sexy as Jason Anderson? Maybe they thought she was some pity date or that he’d lost a bet.

“Nice to see you, Nell.” Jason’s arm settled around her shoulders, pulling her chair closer so she was sitting between his splayed legs while his other hand rested on her bare knee, his breath warm on her neck. “Honey, what do you want to drink?”

“Um, I guess a beer.” She had a feeling this bar didn’t serve too many of the martinis she’d been fond of in Chicago. In fact, she was quite out of place. She’d never been to a place called a honkytonk and it was clear that the waitress wished Brinley wasn’t there at all.

Jason smiled and leaned down so his words were only for her. “Can you do Jake a favor and order something exotic? He’s always complaining that he never gets to make a real cocktail around here. He moved here from New York and had some nightclub there. What did you order in Chicago?”

“A Cosmopolitan,” she admitted, keeping her voice low. “But I’m okay with a beer, Jason.”

“Jake will love it.” Jason chuckled and dropped a kiss on her shoulder, leaving heat in its wake. “Nell, we’ll have a longneck and a Cosmopolitan. Also bring a large cheese pizza and a bucket of hot wings.”

“We just ate.” Brinley eyed Jason’s trim and muscular form in shock. He had to have the metabolism of a bumblebee.

“That was over two hours ago. Besides, you can’t come to Harley’s without trying the pizza and wings. They’re legendary in these parts.”

Zeke raised his bottle with a grin. “The sauce is so hot it’ll put hair on your chest.”

That was the last place she wanted to grow hair. Like most females, she spent more than her share of time ridding herself of hair in the regular places.

“So how do you all know each other?” Brinley asked as Nell sashayed toward the bar, several male admirers in her wake. What Brinley wouldn’t give to be that sexually confident. The woman knew she was beautiful and played it for all it was worth.

“We grew up together,” the man named Chance said. At least she thought it was Chance. The introductions had happened so fast it was all a blur. “And of course we all played on Tremont High’s football team.”

“You were a football player?” Brinley elbowed Jason, who looked more relaxed than she had ever seen him. “What position?”

“He was the pretty boy quarterback,” Zeke snickered before Jason could answer. “We were his offensive line. He’s the reason I can tell when it’s going to rain because my knee hurts.”

“If it hadn’t been for me it would have been for someone else. You could have played quarterback if you wanted to. Everybody got the same chance to try out.”

It didn’t appear that the ribbing bothered Jason in the least. Brinley guessed it wasn’t the first time he’d heard it.

“So did the team do well?” Brinley asked, remembering when her own brother’s high school football team had won the state championships his junior and senior year. It was a big moment in a young man’s life.

Everyone’s face fell except for Chance’s. He threw back his head, laughing at her seemingly innocent question. “We sucked. Really badly. I think our best record was four and four. But that didn’t stop us from having a good time.”

The drinks were slid in front of them, Nell lingering a little longer when she placed the bottle in front of Jason.

“Let me know if you need anything else,” she purred in Jason’s ear before drifting to the next table.

Brinley was getting tired of being ignored. Or disrespected. Either way it wasn’t a classy way for a woman to act around another female. In a million years she would never act like that around a guy with a girl sitting right next to him.

Looking over her shoulder at the waitress, Brinley tightened her grip on Jason’s hand to get his attention.

“Is there some history with you and her that I’m not aware of?”

He gave her an abashed look. “She and I dated for a little while in high school. That’s it, I swear. But she’s like that with everybody, not just me.”

Brinley arched her brow at this man who was looking pretty embarrassed. “Really? She didn’t act like that with me. She didn’t do it with the other guys or the people at that table. I don’t like it when women don’t respect other women. I saw that all the time at my sister’s pageants.”

“Nell knows nothing is going to ever happen between us.” Jason caressed the skin of her bare arm, sending tingles straight to her toes. “She does that to feel better about herself. She’s had a hard time of things. A divorce. But you’re right—it’s not respectful. I guess people around here have just gotten used to it. If you want me to say something to her I will.”

“No.” Brinley shook her head, feeling crappy now that she’d heard more about Nell’s life. “I’m overreacting because of the things I’ve seen. You weren’t disrespectful to me at any point and honestly that’s all I care about.”

“I’ll never do that.” His expression was solemn and truthful. He leaned closer, his words only for her. “This means something to me, honey.”

Her throat tightened and she laid her head on his shoulder, snuggling as close as she could to his warm body. He smelled delicious, a mixture of citrus and spice that made her head spin and her heart pound.

“It means something to me too.”

The other guys got to their feet and lumbered back onto the stage, their first song a cover of one of her favorite Rascal Flatts tunes. For the first time in days Brinley truly relaxed, letting the music carry all her troubles away. At that moment she wasn’t a woman with a murder problem and he wasn’t the ex-cop trying to help her. They were just two people – a man and a woman – having a wonderful time.

The song came to an end and Zeke stepped up to the microphone. “Thank you, everybody. I hope you all can help me tonight. We have a good friend in the audience who sometimes joins in but he might need some convincing. How about we put our hands together and convince Jason Anderson to come up on stage?”

The applause was thunderous. Bar patrons stood, some even on the tables and chairs, clapping, whistling, and calling his name to exhort Jason to hop up on stage. Whether he played an instrument or sang she had no idea, but clearly her date was embarrassed. He’d groaned and then ducked down so he was hiding behind her shoulder.

“Damn that Zeke. He’s always pulling shit like this.”

“Is he serious? Do you really join in?”

The entire crowd looked like it might riot if he didn’t do it, and she couldn’t deny she was bursting with curiosity herself. She wanted to see him up on stage performing.

“Sometimes. We had a band in high school.”

Jason was still hunched over, his elbows on his knees. Brinley looked over her shoulder at the rabid fans screaming for a show.

“If you don’t get up there I doubt we’ll get out of here alive. And I have a lot to live for.”

She’d made a joke but actually she was semi-serious. This crowd wasn’t going to take no for an answer.

“Aww, hell. I’m sorry, honey.” Jason stood and bounded up on stage. Holding his hands up, the crowd quieted down enough for him to speak. “Thanks, everyone. Maybe just one tonight.”

Brinley didn’t know what to expect so when he and the band launched into Todd Rungren’s “Hello, It’s Me” her mouth fell open in shock. Jason’s voice was good. Better than good, it was excellent. He’d been handed another guitar and was playing alongside Zeke and clearly having a ball.

Her boyfriend was a freakin’ rock star.

He looked every inch the part up on stage, a sheen of sweat on his face and neck. Handsome and sinfully sexy in a pair of well-worn jeans and a button down shirt, he belted out the lyrics as if he’d done it a thousand times. For all she knew…he had.

And she was every inch the starry-eyed groupie watching him strut his stuff. She couldn’t tear her gaze away as the band moved into their version of Tim McGraw’s “Real Good Man”. She had to wipe the drool from her chin as Jason gripped the microphone, his cowboy hat casting a shadow over his face under the hot stage lights.

She was caught in his web so securely that when he hopped off the stage and came right up to her, pulling her to her feet and laying a kiss on her lips, she didn’t once protest or even demure. With the raucous crowd screaming and stomping their boots, she allowed the sexiest man she’d ever met to sweep her off her feet.

And then some.

Because when she finally came back to earth, she wasn’t watching from the audience. She was standing at the steps to the stage, right next to him, and he was urging her up the stairs.

“You wanted to take a chance, honey.” Jared was grinning ear to ear. “I’ve heard you sing when you do yard work. You have a great voice.”

“Jason Anderson, you are out of your mind,” she hissed while still trying to smile. Strangely enough with the lights directed at the stage, she couldn’t see past the first row of people. Everyone else was a black mass of sound. “I can’t sing up there.”

“Why not? I promise you’ll feel like you can climb a mountain when you’re done. It isn’t dangerous but you are definitely doing something out of the ordinary. Something remarkable.”

She wanted to be pissed off at him but she wasn’t. After all, she’d said she wanted to get out of her comfort zone. Take chances. Live life to the fullest. But she’d been thinking smaller. Much smaller. Maybe waiting until the day her power bill was due to pay it. Things like that.

“What will everyone think?” Even as the words came out of her mouth she realized how silly she sounded. She’d lived too long in the slot her parents had created for her. She’d worried about what they would think. What her friends would think.

Anyone that would judge her harshly wasn’t someone who cared. This was a chance to be brave and he was holding it out to her on a silver platter. The only question was whether she had the guts to grab it with both hands.

“Everyone is probably too drunk to think anything past how fucking gorgeous you look. But I won’t drag you up there with me if you don’t want to go.”

The crowd was hooting and hollering. The band was smiling and beckoning, and even Jason looked encouraging. She wanted to do it. But she also wanted to crawl back to her chair and stay out of the limelight.

Like her whole life. She’d lived in the shadows of both her brother and sister. It could get cold and dark there. Jason was offering a chance at something else. This was the entire reason she’d moved to Montana.

Brinley placed her hand in his and smiled before she lost her nerve.

“Let’s do this.”

‡

B
rinley soared on
a rush of endorphins. Terrified but resolute, she’d taken her place on stage next to Jason. Chance had asked what song she wanted to sing and she’d opened her mouth but nothing came out even as her heart galloped in her chest and a fresh spate of sweat broke out on the back of her neck. Jason had suggested “Remind Me”, a song originally sung by Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley that she luckily knew the words to. As the band swung into the song Brinley had been standing on two trembling legs, but something in the way Jason looked at her helped her through the first few notes.

Then it was off to the races.

The exultant feeling that suffused every pore of her being as she sang with Jason simply could not be described. Nor could she believe the crash of applause when they finished that hit her like a freight train and shook her out of the dream-like state she’d been drifting in. Jason lifted her up and swung her around jubilantly and she clung to his wide shoulders, already drunk from her scary walk on the wild side.

“You are something else, Brinley Snow.”

Jason’s deep and husky voice reached her ears despite the decibel level in the bar. He led her down the stage stairs and toward the exit with congratulations and well wishes on the way. By the time they hit the door the cooler night air glided over her skin like silk. She lifted her long hair off her neck and smiled up at the man who had taken her farther than anyone else. He’d brought out a side of her she didn’t even know existed.

“Are you mad at me? I never would have dragged you up there. Not in a million years. But I wanted you to feel what it’s like to really walk on the edge.”