Page 85 of Unleashed By Eden

“Cindy Winters.”

He frowns. “The high school girl? From the cock pump night?”

“Yeah.” I meet his eyes. “I want you to track her down and bring her to the Toronto show. Get her passes, flights. Whatever.”

“Why?” His brows climb. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

“Bullies are only big in your mind because you see them through the lens of being a kid. If Vi sees Cindy as just another pathetic fan . . . I don’t know, I think it might help her.”

Chris rubs along his jawline, thinking. “This is a big swing, Carter. I feel morally obligated to tell you this could blow up in your face. I’m, like, eighty percent sure this backfires.”

“I gotta try,” I tell him. “She needs closure, and she doesn’t even know it. If it goes sideways, I’ll wear it.”

He exhales. “How am I supposed to find her?”

“No clue.” I grip his shoulder. “That’s why you get paid the big bucks. Start in Riverstone, that’s the last place I saw her. She might be gone by now. She could be anywhere.”

“Wonderful,” he replies dryly.

“Thanks, man.”

I give him a chin-lift and back away.

“By the way, that guy is absolutely telling everyone he knows you’re gay,” Chris calls after me.

“Worth it,” I shoot back without slowing, walking backward just long enough to catch him shaking his head. Then I turn and head straight for her.

Violet’s exactly where I left her, except now her face is lit by the glow of her camera monitor, reviewing photos, mouth in a little focused line.

I’d fight every one of her ghosts for her if the world would just line them up.

Chapter twenty-four

Violet

“Psst, Vi.”

I stop mid-step, my head whipping around. Crew are hauling cases with headsets crackling, everyone locked in tunnel vision, preparing for the Toronto show. No one’s looking at me.

I start walking again, convinced I imagined it.

Someone grabs the back of my T-shirt and yanks.

I barely get a breath before I’m dragged into the nearest room, the door shut fast behind us.

“Jesus—” I start. “Carter?”

He’s already in stage gear, looking lethally hot. We’re wedged inside a storage room stacked with cables, cases, and random shit no one’s probably cataloged since the early noughties.

“What the fuck are you doing in here?” I ask, half amused.

He backs me up until my spine hits the door, a devious grin at his mouth.

“I need another hit.”

I blink, not following for a second—

Oh.