Belle Fury: Manhatten Ten, Book 3 (11 page)

“Belle.” Steven’s beady eyes narrowed even more. “You’d better not be putting us in danger again, because if you are, you can get the fuck out of my studio.”

As much as I wanted to flip him off, I tamped it down. “Whatever happened is over. Do I have Giselle or not?”

“You can audition.”

“Screw you. Want me to call San Francisco?” Their director would take me and double my salary. Unlike Steven, the guy even knew how to smile.

But San Fran wasn’t New York.

Steven’s nose wrinkled. He did not like that. Not at all.

“Act I,” he said at last. “You dance it like before without shattering my mirrors, and the part’s yours.”

Katrina’s arms drooped. “But my contract—”

“Voided if she can do it. No one can touch Belle’s artistry when she’s on her game.”

Damn straight
. With all the mirrors, there was no way she didn’t see my smirk.

“I won’t stay here and be blown up.” She huffed out the room.

“Everybody clear out.” Steven shooed the rest of the dancers. “Be back by five if the building’s not a pile of rubble.”

I rolled my eyes. “Nobody’s in danger. I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t serious.”

“Serious was never your problem.” Steven went to reset the audio.

As the dancers filed out, Aaron retreated to a corner. “I’ll stay.”

“Thanks, Aaron.” My throat tightened and I didn’t really know why. Maybe because no one—except Ryan—ever supported me. It was just me, fighting alone.

The door shut, and I caught a flash of red at the corner of my eye. My heart pounded. Ry—

No. Just a notice taped to the back of the door. I’d have to purge my life of that color or I’d be miserable.

I swung my arms, working my way over to Aaron’s corner. “I’m sorry about—”

“It’s okay.” He patted my arm. “When it happened, I saw the fear in your eyes. I know you didn’t do it on purpose.”

Though people had to be saying that. I’d known they would.

“But until everything went to shit?” Aaron shook his head. “That performance was…exquisite? I don’t want to say perfect. More like…”

“Like a dream.” That’s what it felt like to me.

“Yes.” Aaron closed his eyes. “After you left, I thought I’d never see it again.”

“
Giselle
?” Had he forgotten the part where I exploded everything?

“A transcendent dance.” Aaron’s gaze met mine and I almost stepped away. Whatever was in his eyes—and I couldn’t tell if it was awe or fear—the intensity staggered me.
 

“I’ll…try not to disappoint you.” I’d gotten plenty of praise over the years, but not like that. I’d have to work harder to live up to it.

I warmed up my body part by part, feeling sore and stiff, but the pain would disappear as soon as I was in the zone. When I was all stretched out, Steven hit the speakers. “This better be good.”

God, it was going to be.

The beat caught. I leapt and—what?

The jump was too low. I lifted a hand. “Start it over?”

The music reset. I took a deep breath. Just nerves. Like my first audition. Even more was at stake now.

I leaped, but my body felt like lead.

Why?

I pushed through, into a turn. My toe bent and I fell out of the spin before it started. The steps were burned into my bones, but my toes wouldn’t point, my arms strained, and my muscles wouldn’t carry me like before.

Dread gripped my heart like a fist. Tank had warned me, where no one else could hear.
Those powers have been fueling your dance for years. Are you brave enough to learn from the beginning?

No. Holy God, no.

I’d thought Tank was trying to scare me or spare Jenny. I slowed to a stop and lifted my arms. Even my fingers were sloppy. They looked more like a row of Vienna sausages than dancer’s hands.

I fell to my knees. I was dancing like a six-year-old, but childhood me couldn’t have dreamed how much work it took to go professional. I’d be forty before I clawed my way back to normal, and there was no way my body would put up with that.

Losing dance the first time was bad. This time was soul crushing.

How many times was the universe going to strip me bare and spit me out?

Chapter Ten

Belle

I’d noticed people snapping camera phone pictures as I wandered through the city, but I was in no mood to care. By the time I got to the bridge, it was dark anyway.

I just wanted to be somewhere high, where I could stare across the water and think. The look on Aaron’s face was burned into my brain. He wasn’t as grief-stricken as I was—no one could be—but his
pity
.

He
knew
because every dancer knew. I might as well have gone down tearing every tendon in my knee. The effect was the same.

Done. Over. Finito.

Curtain down.

I schlumped over the railing with no clue what to do with myself. There was choreography. Or I could teach.

But honestly, I sucked at both of those, and what aspiring dancer would want their name attached to mine?
 

I considered jumping—because it made sense to think about it while I was standing on a bridge, depressed out of my mind—but I was too much of a glutton for punishment to do something like that. It was going to be a God-awful process, but I’d find my balance again.

Just not today or tomorrow. That was the scary part. What was I supposed to do until I got my shit back together?

Someone honked loud enough to break me out of my daze. How long had I been here?
 

Another honk made me turn around.

People stood on the other side of the bridge. Some pointed, some held up camera phones. What were they looking…

Me?

There wasn’t much else to see. But how would anyone recognize me in Ryan’s hoodie? I was totally camouflaged—

Oh. Hi, ballet slippers.

Now I didn’t blame them. What kind of coconut walked from Midtown in slippers? As soon as I realized, my feet started to ache. I’d be paying for this one for days.

My onlookers’ attention broke to the news van barreling toward us. It only slowed as it neared me. Like they could stop in the middle of a bridge? They’d bottleneck the traffic.

The van’s door slid open and the cameraman hit the ground running. An anchorwoman popped out after him—struggling a little in heels—but her mic was ready and her makeup was fit for Broadway. “Belle Fury! Can we get a statement? Are you planning to jump?”

Hell. No. And if she thought I was going to, what kind of shitty question was that?

If I wasn’t going into the water, there was only one way to go, and that was away from the journalists. Out of the city. Another news van was already racing closer.

I jogged away, but pain lanced up my legs. Blood soaked my slippers.

I waved at traffic, sticking out my thumb and everything. A big white panel van that might as well have FREE CANDY written on its side pulled over…not that there was anywhere to pull over. There’d be a bridge accident for sure if I didn’t get out fast.

I hopped in and slammed the door. “Go!”

Anywhere but here.

Red Ruin

When Tank knocked at my office door, my eyes opened. “What?”

“Emergency.”
 

I turned my head away, careful not to knock over the half-empty glass of Jack and Coke that rested on my chest. It was a half-empty kind of day. “There’s always an emergency.” If I didn’t leave the couch, it’d get fixed without me.

“Cyclone’s gone.” Tank shut the door, but his voice didn’t stop.
Don’t drink alone. Meeting. Then you’ve got half a dozen boozing buddies.

Gone
? I knew Tank could still hear me.

Way gone. Conference room.
 

That was about the only thing that could get me to swing my legs off the couch. What was that supposed to mean?

I downed the rest of my drink and made my way over. Fucking Cyc. Now was not the time.

The rest of them were already waiting—Tank, Jenny, Angel, Ivory, Panther, Thunder, Steel, Jet and Nil. Rare for the whole crew to get together.
 

“What’s the deal?” I thumped into my seat next to Tank. Angel muttered something in one of her languages.

Panther cracked a smile. “Really?”

“Mermaid.” Tank rubbed his temples.

“Huh?” Either I was missing something, or I’d had more Jack than I remembered.

“He went after a mermaid.” Thunder slipped a note to the middle of the conference table. “Thinks he found his true love at last. Touching letter, really.”

I could’ve told him love wasn’t that easy. “What do we do about it?”

“I have a statement for the press,” Angel said.

“That’s a start.” Tank folded his arms. “But this has been brewing for a while, and Cyclone will be fine on his own. Right now, we need to focus on recruitment.”

Half the table groaned. I kept it in, but was this really a priority right now? “We’re ten with Jenny. This can’t be our priority right now.” Tank could see the bigger picture and all, but how could it matter when Belle was gone?

“She hasn’t agreed to be officially inducted.” Tank shot her a glance. She was probably getting a mental barb, but she rolled her eyes. Tank continued, “Anyway, this is about continuity.”

“Continuing what?” Steel put his forehead on the table. “If I have to look at another one of those prospectives spreadsheets—”

“We need to keep our numbers on the high side,” Tank said. “With everything that’s been happening, we all need as much support as we can get.”

“We already have eleven.” Icicles sprouted from Ivory’s fingers.

Jet’s eyebrows lifted. “By whose math?”

“Belle will be back.” Ivory met my gaze. Hearing her name was like taking a knife to the spleen. I’d really fucked it up this time.

“Let’s not go there,” Tank said. “We need to send someone to the scouting fair this year. Who wants a vacation?”

UCLA was no vacation. We hadn’t sent anyone in years and whoever went would get mobbed.

Tank nodded. “Angel it is.”

She dropped her phone. “What? No, I—” Her eyes glazed. Whatever Tank said to her, she stopped talking.

Jenny raised a hand. “I could just bring Cyclone back. Ten minutes. Maybe twenty if the mermaid’s there when I find him.”
 

“Jenny.” Tank sighed. I’d never heard that before. “We can’t lean on your powers. We shouldn’t lean on any one person’s powers, mine included.”

“Why not?” Only Tank could manage the Ten, and losing Belle just proved it. If he’d been around to help, she might’ve seen the light. Instead, I’d forced her into a corner, and Jenny had given her the escape she wanted. I’d have to buy tickets if I wanted to see her again.

Ruin.
Tank’s voice jabbed into my head.
You didn’t do anything wrong. Stop kicking the shit out of yourself.

You shouldn’t have left
. That was the root of it all. Like I could be in charge. I couldn’t handle my own love life.

“Reading between the lines here,” Thunder interrupted our mental talk, “but this meeting is really for Belle, yes?”

“She left.” I stood, pushing back my chair. Something needed to fill the hollow she’d left. “If that’s all we have to talk about, I have an appointment with some shot glasses.”

“She’ll be—” Ivory started, but Tank cut her off.

“That’s not why we’re here. I want to bring Ruin on as co-leader and run more of our operations through him. Everyone cool with that?”

A chorus of: Cool. Yes. Right on. About time.

“What?” I sat down hard. “
Why
?”

“Because the Ten need to be able to work if Angel and I can’t use our brainpower. Anyone needs to be able to take charge, and you’ve proven that you can.”

“You so sure about that?” I wasn’t.

I am
, Tank continued.
I would’ve asked you first, but you know you would’ve shot me down before you saw how much the team appreciates you.

“You’re a leader, Ru-boy.” Panther pushed back his chair and pulled Ivory up with him. “We’re playing the get-out-of-meeting free card. Nobody be late for the wedding. Or hungover.” He cast a glance at Steel.

“We’d be the worst wedding party ever if we weren’t hungover.” Steel shook his head. “No one’s going to disrespect you like that, Pan.”

“He can do as he likes.” Ivory pulled Pan for the door. “I’ll ice his feet in place if he can’t stand.”

“Damn straight!” Steel grinned.

The hero business was not for the sane.

Chapter Eleven

Belle

It was my first time hitchhiking and I was punch-pleased when the van that picked me up belonged to a salesman instead of a serial killer. Good old Tony was headed home at the end of his night and took me as far as a gas station in Baldwin, Long Island.