Interception (Finnegan Brothers Book 4) Read Free

traced my fingers along the wet glass and pulled on a handle. Locked of course. I gazed up at the marquee and saw Anything Goes was the next show and it didn’t start for another two weeks. Then I remembered that there was a back entrance. I couldn't avoid the puddles as I walked through the dark alley to the back door which was always left slightly ajar. I slipped into the darkness and had to count my steps to remember where a small flight of stairs were. I had done it a hundred times with Blake, it felt so lonely doing it by myself. I tried to shake off the chill of the water on my skin. I hoped I could make the loneliness dissipate as well.
    As I reached stage left I saw that all the stage lights were on. I could just see the tip of the grandbaby piano sitting in the corner of the orchestra pit. I had to touch it. As I started to cross the stage a woman approached me from the opposite side. If I remembered correctly she was the owner.
    “Oh my dear! Were you out in this storm?”
    I suddenly realized how cold I was, my teeth started to chatter. “Yes ma'am. I went for a run.”
    She cocked her head to the side and studied me closely. “You're the piano player.”
    I wrapped my arms around myself, “I was.”
    The wrinkles around her eyes told me she was still giving me the once over. “I think you still are.”
    She walked past me to stage left where I had just come from. I could hear her heels clicking on the hard wooden surface of the stage. She came back and wrapped a towel around my shoulders. “You need to warm up child. Those fingers have been resting a long time.”
    I nodded, my teeth still clinking together unwillingly from the cold. “Yes ma'am.”
    She took her finger and put it underneath my chin lifting my eyes up to hers. They were cool gray color and the wrinkles around them told me of her years of wisdom of show business. “You still play.”
    I pulled back, “Not for years.”
    One side of her mouth lifted up in a smile, “He still thinks you play. Every time it rains like this he comes.”
    I was shocked, “Who comes?”
    She turned away and began walking off stage right, “You'll see.”
    I wanted to chase after her and ask her more questions about Blake, about how long he had been coming here or when the last time was. But instead I was drawn to the piano. It was like an addiction, and I needed more.
    I walked over to the side of the stage and walked down the stairs into the orchestra pit. I pulled the towel tighter around me as I sat on the bench and let my hands find their place on the keys. I only pressed a few at first, trying to remind my hands of how it felt to play. But they didn't need any reminding. Within seconds I found myself playing one of Bach's most famous concertos. And as the towel fell from around my shoulders I let my fingers work out their frustrations that they had held in them for so many years. My body blamed me for what my heart hadn't allowed myself to do. I was meant to play. It was as easy as breathing, and I never should've stopped.
    I played as the emotions and disappointment of the past three years pushed out of me. I had done this to myself. As I played my tears fell onto the ivories. It was like I had found an old friend after years of being apart, but the conversation flowed so easily between us.
    I felt a presence behind me and I spun around hoping to see Blake standing on the stage with that old blanket. But when I turned the stage was empty. I stared into the shadows behind the curtains but the movement could have been from the wind coming from outside. Or the owner could be lurking listening to my music. It would have been a beautiful moment had this been where Blake and I reconnected but life didn’t always work that way. Right before I sat back down to continue playing I swore I saw the curtains move behind the stage but when I shielded my eyes from the bright lights of the stage to get a better view I couldn't see anyone behind them. It wasn't my mind