The Rockers' Babies (The Rocker... Series) by Terri Anne Browning

fear.
    Her eyes were wide, with frightened tears streaming down her cheeks. No one was standing near her as she
    crouched down in the corner, her eyes darting between the closest clown to me that had just popped out of
    a box, to the dummy lying on the ground a few feet from her that was dressed up like a clown with guts
    spilling out of its abdomen, and then to the very real clown in the opposite corner with a funny-looking
    stuffed dog in one hand and a very bloody knife in the other.
    “Dallas.” I breathed her name on a sigh of relief and crossed to her.
    When her eyes finally landed on me she reached her arms out and clutched at me like a scared little girl.
    I pulled her to her feet and she buried her face in my chest, sobbing. “I don’t want to do this anymore.”
    I stroked my hands down her bare back, pressing her closer to me. “It’s not real, baby,” I whispered
    against her ear. “Nothing in this room is real but you and me.”
    “Get me out of here, Ax. Please.” She sobbed harder. “I can’t deal with this… I can’t.”
    Unable to handle the sound of her crying, I lifted her into my arms. The skinny guy was standing right
    behind me and we were alone in the room except for the freaking clowns. Apparently they had stopped the
    groups from entering for the moment. “Where’s the closest exit?” I demanded.
    The skinny guy turned around and I followed him. Dallas wrapped her arms around my neck and
    buried her face in my hair, hiding her eyes from the clowns. The next hall had an exit sign and I pushed through it with Dallas clinging to me and shaking. The slightly cool October night air greeted us and I
    sucked in a deep breath. “You’re safe now, baby.”
    The sobs slowly faded, but she still clung to me as her body shuddered with little hiccups. As badly as I
    had wanted her to hold onto me, I never wanted it to be like this. I stroked her hair back from her face,
    brushing kisses over the top of her head, down her jaw and neck. Anything to distract her from the fear that was still making her tremble.
    “I didn’t know you had a phobia of clowns,” I murmured after we had been sitting there for a while.
    Dallas let out a long breath, letting go of some of the panic that still gripped her. “It’s not something I share with most people. Being scared of clowns is the stupidest fear known to man…”
    “What happened? What made you so scared of them?”
    She scowled. “You would laugh if I told you.”
    “Try me.”
    “I don’t want to talk about it, Ax.” She pushed back from me slightly and my arms tightened
    instinctively. I wasn’t ready to let her go yet.
    “Everyone has stupid fears, baby,” I told her. Mine were crazy and childish. I saw a shrink once and
    only once, because she had told me I had mommy issues. What the fuck did that mean? I was scared to tell
    people I loved them because my mother had refused to tell me she loved me? What-the-fuck-ever!
    “Like what?” She raised a brow at me, daring me to tell her what my fears were.
    “I have a fear of falling,” I told her.
    “No way!” She shook her head, causing her ponytail to brush against my hand still stroking across her
    shoulders. “Falling?”
    Falling in love… But I wasn’t going to tell her that. “Crazy, huh?”
    “Have you ever faced your fear?” she asked, tilting her head to the side to study me in the dim lighting
    from a nearby street lamp and the glow sticks from a group of teenagers walking by.
    “Once,” I nodded. But before I could tell you how I felt, you decided I wasn’t worth your time. I didn’t say it aloud. I should have. I should have told her right then that she was the only girl I had ever really been in love with. “Dallas…”
    “There you two are!” Harper exclaimed as she came around the side of the building with Shane and the
    others right behind her. “Where did you two go? One minute you were behind me and the next you
    disappeared.”
    Dallas’s nails bit