“Thanks, Jack. See ya.” Roscoe tipped his head. “Let’s go find B.”
My heart raced as we walked away from the security line and along the edge of the crowd. I felt like I’d gotten away with something. I wasn’t in trouble. I was going to the festival!
And then his last sentence sank in.Let’s go find B.
“Wait, did your friend send me the ticket?” I shouted to be heard over the crowd and the unknown band playing. “I thought—”
“You gotta talk to B about that. We’ll be there in a sec!”
But the further we walked from the crowd and stage, the closer we got to the huge white tents near the water.
And the closer we got to where my step-monsters no doubt lurked.
“Whoa!” I shouted, waving my arms. “I’m not going in there.”
“What?” Roscoe turned around with a frown. “Why not?”
Yeah, I wasn’t getting into the dynamics of my screwed-up family with this stranger, no matter how nice he was. “Doesn’t matter. Thanks for the help getting in, but I can get around on my own. Thanks.”
I turned to go, but his hand latched onto my arm, holding me in place.
“What are you doing?” I tried to pull away. “Let me go!”
“Just…you need to talk to him. Wait one minute.”
Oh hell no.
Fear knotted my stomach and had my scalp tingling with that not so nice sensation of foreboding. “I don’t know this man! I don’t know this man! I don’t know this man!”
Roscoe cursed under his breath, and a few security guys in the VIP area spun around and headed in our direction.
“I don’t know this man!” I pulled against his hold on me. “I don’t know this man!”
He let me go to wave at the incoming security guards, and I took off running. I had to get away. Anywhere that was not here.
Only a few feet later, I slammed into someone.
“Oof.” I stutter stepped back, and then I was surrounded by more security than I could’ve imagined was at the whole festival, let alone this one corner of it.
And they were all looking at me.
“Are you okay, miss?”
“Do you need to go to the medical tent?”
“Would you like to press charges?”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” The mystery person I’d slammed into waved his hands. “I think there’s been a misunderstanding.”
“Is she with you, Mister B—”
“Yes,” the mystery guy answered.
“No.” I shook my head in stunned disbelief. “I don’t know this guy.”
All the security guards turned to me with wide eyes.
“I swear I don’t know him.” I gestured at the stranger standing next to me with his thin hoodie up, covering most of his face. “I literally just ran into him. And that other guy—”
