Mezzanine

| 47 |

Before any of us could say another word, a voice shouted from the street.

"Hey!" A massive guy stood at the end of the alley, his cheeks bright red as he panted from running. Immediately, I recognized him as the bouncer from outside the Black Rose.

What the fuck is going on here? He thought as he looked at Carter, Lola and me. Shit, those are the kids that said they knew the band. I knew I shouldn't have let them in.

Then, his gaze landed on my brother.

"Damien?" he said. Is he hurt? "Are you okay?"

He looked back to me, narrowing his eyes. I'll kick that kid's ass right into the hospital if I need to. I knew he was trouble.

Damien shook his head. "Dave, it's fine," he said. "We're cool."

Dave frowned. Does he...know him? "Are you sure?"

"Yeah," Damien wiped a bead of blood dripping from his cheek. "He's...my brother." His gaze drifted from the bouncer, meeting my eyes instead. "We have some things we've been needing to talk about for a while."

Dave watched us for another few seconds. I tried to calm my rapid breathing as Lola and Carter released their grips on my arms. I needed to show that I was cool—that I wasn't going to attack again the moment Dave left us alone.

After what felt like forever, Dave finally grumbled under his breath and turned and left, his thoughts fading into the distance as he went back to secure the entrance to the Black Rose.

"Shit," Damien finally broke the silence once we were alone. "Jay, I never thought you'd find me. I didn't think..."

"Yeah," I said. "You didn't fucking think, did you?" My breathing quickened, becoming ragged against my sore throat. "You didn't think about what leaving would do to us."

Damien put both hands up in front of him like he was trying to calm a wild animal.

Carter gripped my forearm with one hand, pressing his thumb into my wrist. The physical contact was somehow soothing, like he was grounding me. "It's okay," he whispered. "It's okay."

"We need to talk," Damien said.

"Yeah," I responded. "That's what I was trying to do before you ran the fuck off the moment you saw me in that club."

Damien exhaled heavily as he shoved his fingers back through his wet hair to get it out of his eyes. A few streaks of dark red leaked through the bandage around his hand. It wasn't just a small injury.

Suddenly, I remembered the basement of the burnt down house—all the blood down there on the jagged rim of the hearth—the blood on his necklace.

What the fuck happened to him down there?

"I was startled," Damien said. "Seeing you in that club out of nowhere...it scared me."

I narrowed my eyes and nodded slowly, but I didn't say anything.

"I'm sorry," he finally said. "I'm sorry I ran today and..."

"And last year," I finished his sentence. "When you left us without a word."

Damien bit his lower lip and nodded. "Yeah. And then."

"Why?" I asked. "You broke mom's heart, you know?" Tears burned behind my eyes, but I didn't want to let them out. I didn't want him to see how weak I was. "She cried for weeks, and there was..." nothing I could do to fix her. "She lost her job, you know? We had to move to the middle of fucking nowhere. Sycamore Falls...sound familiar?"