Page 65 of Thirsty Bodyguard Summer

Melanie Keene’s credential had been used, and a woman matching her photograph was heading for stage access.

I moved Shane behind me and faced the corridor.

Chapter Six

A MEDIA BADGE FLASHEDunder the work lights before I saw the woman wearing it.

She came out of the east corridor in black pants and a loose gray shirt, a camera braced against her ribs and a collapsed monopod gripped in one hand. Her brown hair was pinned off her face. She didn’t hurry. She walked straight toward me like the rest of High Tide Pavilion had emptied for us.

Cassidy’s fingers brushed my wrist once without turning. I shifted with the touch and left her room to move.

Her hand left my skin. I wanted it back for every reason except the one in front of us.

“Melanie Keene, set the monopod on the floor and keep both hands where I can see them.”

Melanie slowed, but she didn’t obey. The camera bumped once against her hip.

“You know who I am.”

“Your credential got you inside,” Cassidy said. “It won’t get you any farther. Put the monopod down.”

Melanie looked past her and fixed on me. “You can still stop this. Tell them you’re canceling.”

“Jesse wrote the songs people cared about,” Melanie said before I could answer. “He made Sunday Drive, and you walked away with the spotlight again.”

Beyond the walls, a distant roar rolled through the pavilion. They still expected a concert, and so did I.

“Jesse has his own career,” I said. “He didn’t send you, and he doesn’t need you doing this for him.”

“You took everything.”

“I lost four years too.” I kept my voice even. “I’m not taking anything from Jesse by singing my own songs.”

Her fingers tightened around the monopod.

Cassidy’s voice stayed calm. “You need to put it down now.”

Melanie’s mouth twisted. “He should be here.”

“Jesse isn’t coming,” I said. “And I’m taking that stage.”

The monopod snapped open in her hands.

Cassidy shifted in front of me.

“Back,” she said.

I moved behind the protected line without arguing.

Melanie swung the monopod toward Cassidy’s head.

Cassidy stepped inside the arc before it could build force. She raised one forearm to deflect the metal shaft while her other hand locked around Melanie’s wrist. The impact cracked through the corridor.

I started forward.

Cassidy turned her shoulder and drove Melanie’s arm downward.

I stopped.