Page 83 of The Beat Match

It read: I Love the Falcon.

His ribs constricted, the feeling burning a hole in his chest. She’d said the words to him once before, but everything was different now. Her love. His love. Her willingness to forgive him his failings and risk vulnerability again. Once they talked and he found out what had driven her to break up with him, he’d do everything in his power to make Annie the happiest she’d ever been. He wouldn’t lose her again, not for any reason.

He checked the music, gestured aggressively for the skinny stagehand to come over. “The girl who was standing on the bar—her name’s Annie. Find her. Get her on stage. Do it now.”

Weston’s fingers worked the mixer. He danced with the crowd, filled with thoughts of Annie, while trying to stay dialed in to his show. Not an easy task. He glanced at Leo’s photograph, thought about how long he’d fought his feelings for his best friend’s little sister, how his friendship with Annie had grown organically alongside his love for her, so many random choices pushing him toward one end goal: Anthea Ward.

Always her. There had never been another option.

“Thank you,” he told Leo. Call him crazy. Foolish. A believer in signs and portents. Someway, somehow, his best friend had played cupid.

* * *

“I won’t jump on the bar again. I swear.” Annie tried to wiggle out of the massive bouncer’s hold. She’d have better luck escaping a straitjacket. “You can’t kick me out. Seriously. I’m not some crazy stalker. I’m…friends with Falcon.”

He smirked at the writing on her shirt. “Sure you are, sweetheart. And I’m best buds with Chris Hemsworth.”

She deflated in his iron grip. Friends didn’t begin to cover what Falcon was to her. She was being dragged away from her center of gravity, each step making her feel untethered.

“If you hurt a hair on her head,” Vivian shouted while trailing them, “I will rain hell on your life.”

“I’ll investigate you,” Sarah added. The bouncer didn’t look scared. He absolutely should.

Annie turned while being half-dragged away. “Stay in here. If I don’t get back in, find Falcon after the show and tell him I’m in a timeout outside.”

The girls got swallowed by the masses.

The bouncer walked Annie outside and deposited her feet firmly on the ground. “You’re out for the count. Don’t let me catch you in there again.”

“Can’t you just get him a message? Tell him Annie’s outside. He’ll be pissed if you kick me out.”

A streetlight glinted off the man’s bald head. His face held as much expression as a rock. “And I have some magic beans to sell ya.”

He lumbered his huge thighs through the entrance, and Annie collapsed against the club’s outside wall. She still couldn’t believe Wes had removed his mask. Boom. Just whipped it off and exposed himself like it was no big deal. Would the reckless move get him fired? Had he already been fired because Duncan had gotten to him before she’d had a chance to tell Wes about the evidence in her apartment? Sarah had dropped off the files just in time for Annie to leave for Wes’s show. She needed to tell him about those files after he performed, and that she loved him as deeply as ever. She wasn’t sure he’d seen her shirt.

That was supposed to be their moment. Her treasured memory with him blown away by her grand gesture, followed by him shouting how much he loved her, too. All she’d accomplished was a G-rated strip show before being dragged off by King Kong.

She eyed the line extending out the door and around the block. A different bouncer was at the entrance. She could sweet talk her way back in. Bat her eyelashes and unleash her feminine wiles. But her yellow T-shirt and jeans weren’t particularly wiley. Maybe he wanted piano lessons.

A skinny kid busted through the entrance, out of breath, scanning the street frantically. When he looked at her, he did a little jump and rushed over. “Annie?”

“Yes…”

“Thank God. Come with me. Falcon wants you on stage.”

She gripped his upper arms. “You’re a life saver, and I’m going to hug you now.”

An awkward hug later, he straightened his black T-shirt. “I’m more of a lackey. That Falcon guy is scary.”

Wes was undeniably intense when you didn’t know him. But she knew him, down to his soft, gooey center.

They pushed their way back into the club.

King Kong stopped them the second he saw her. “What did I tell you, lady?”

She pointed to her savior. “This nice guy was sent by Falcon to bring me on stage. Tell your buddy Chris Hemsworth I say hi and that I prefer his hair short.”

King Kong’s cheeks flushed.