Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 75862 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75862 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
She can’t hear me.
Oh, God. She probably doesn’t know I’m looking for her.
“Amalie?” I cry again, running around.
It’s dark where we’re parked, so I can’t see much. I hear a faint moan and spin around, charging in the direction of the sound. Amalie is lying under a street light just outside of the park we’re staying at with our bus. I drop to my knees, tearing all the skin off, and start crying the moment I see her. She’s bloodied, bashed, her hair full of blood. Oh, God. No. What have they done to her?
“Amalie?” I cry. “I’m so sorry. Oh, God. I’m so sorry. I’m going to get help.”
“Help!” I scream out loudly, knowing my phone is back at the bus. “Somebody help!”
Security comes from a caravan around the corner, barreling out and rushing toward me quickly. They skid to a stop when they see Amalie on the ground, bleeding.
“Oh, God!”
Susan. I don’t know where she came from, but she too is running toward us.
“What happened?” she cries.
“I don’t know, I just heard a cry and found her like this, someone call an ambulance!”
Some of my band members have come out of the bus, all of them are talking, asking what’s wrong, asking what happened, but all I can do is hold my friend in my arms, getting covered in her blood, and cry. Cry because I’m a liar. Cry because this is my fault. Cry because dammit, someone hurt the most beautiful girl in the whole wide world.
“It’s going to be okay,” I whisper to my friend. “I promise you, it’s going to be okay.”
She makes a pained sound, one that rips my heart out of my chest.
I’m a terrible human being.
What the hell am I going to do now?
-20-
MAVERICK
I can’t get hold of her.
I’ve been trying all morning, but my calls and messages are going unanswered. We’re chasing up a lead today, so I don’t have the time to go over and track her down. Why the fuck would she be ignoring me? Is she hurt? Worse? My head is spinning with the possibilities, and I’m pacing the hotel room we’re staying in, wondering if I can find the time to find her before we go and finish off these leads.
“You’re pacin’, bro. She’s probably just preparin’ for the show,” Mal says, studying me.
“She never just ignores me. Feel like somethin’ is wrong, deep in my gut I feel it.”
“Sure everything is okay. We don’t have time to go and check on her. Boston and Koda are free, you want me to send them around and report back?”
“That fucker isn’t going anywhere near another fuckin’ woman of mine!” I bark.
Mal stands, eyes hard, body tense. “Speak to me like that again and I swear to fuck, Maverick, I’ll knock you on your fuckin’ ass.”
Dammit.
“Sorry,” I grunt. “But I don’t trust him. Send Koda.”
Mal shakes his head, and I hate the fuckin’ disappointment in his eyes. “Whatever you want.”
He goes outside to make the call, and just as he does my phone rings. It’s an unknown number, so I answer it. “Yeah?”
“Ah, hello, is this Maverick?”
It’s a female voice.
“Yeah it is, who’s this?”
“Susan, Scarlett’s manager.”
My heart fuckin’ leaps into my throat. “She okay? Somethin’ happened?”
“No, we have triple security tonight at her last show, so she’s asked if you can just watch from outside.”
Outside?
That doesn’t sound right. Not at all.
Why is she suddenly having me thrown outside, and refusing my calls, most importantly, refusing to tell me this shit herself?
“Is somethin’ goin’ on with her?”
“No, she’s just tired today. The last show of her tour is always stressful. Everything is fine.”
Fucking liar.
She’s covering for Scarlett. I just don’t know why. But I will fucking find out, once I’m done with this lead, and she’s done with her show, I will track her down and find out why the fuck she has suddenly decided to ignore my messages and act like I don’t exist. I didn’t come down in the last shower of rain, I know when something is wrong, and something is very fucking wrong. Did that ex contact her? Threaten her? Or is she having second thoughts about us? Did someone tell her she has to stay away from me? There has to be a reason.
There’s always a reason.
“No problem,” I grunt. “We’ll be outside.”
“Thank you.”
She hangs up just as Mal comes back in. “Sendin’ Koda over to her now, see if he can see what’s goin’ on. Who was that?”
“Her manager,” I grunt. “Says she doesn’t want us inside tonight, but outside. Scarlett’s request.”
Mal narrows his eyes. “Odd.”
“Very fuckin’ odd.”
“We’ll get to the bottom of it, for now I need you with me for the leads we’re about to chase down. Koda will report in if he sees anythin’. I’m sure she’s fine, Mav. She’s probably just stressin’ about her show.”