Page 87 of Carte

I didn’t care.

I loved it.

Looking out to the sea of people, swaying to my music, stomping their feet to the rhythm, and singing my words back to me was the greatest high.

Still, in the back of my mind stood the fact that they still hadn’t found Cassie.

Was she even here? Or has she slipped out and planned to do something else to me? Something more terrifying than watching me every second without me even knowing. Something more dangerous.

I was doing my best to keep my fear at bay, but my hands still shook a little.

The fact that I could see Carter prowling through the crowd near the stage, looking into face after face, helped.

Just knowing he was here, doing everything he could to keep me safe, helping me to do what I loved doing, helped to soothe my fried nerves.

“And now, I have something special for you tonight,” I murmured into the mic, my eyes on Carter as he walked down back to the stage. “I wrote this song for a man that holds my heart in his hands.”

At that Carter’s head whipped up, his eyes coming to mine, there was a fire burning in them, I could see even from a distance.

God, I felt warm all over just looking at him.

“A man who’s the best man I ever knew. A man who has given me silence I didn’t know I craved.”

The fans started clapping and cheering.

I broke eye contact with Carter for a second to motion the roadie to give me his guitar, and then looked back at the man I loved.

“This one, this one is for you Carter Ryan. You were the silence I didn’t know I needed.”

A blinding smile graced his lips, full of promises and dreams for our future.

A man came to stand before him, pulling his attention to me.

I could see him frown, his eyes jerking to me, then back to the man.

As I struck the cords, the lights went off.

Something was wrong.

“Carter,” I yelled, but he couldn’t hear me. The power was off.

I tried to turn, tried to run to Reid, but something firm struck me in my ribs, and stayed there.

“It’s time for you to come with me. Come with me or your lover boy dies,” the words were hissed into my ear, a hand grabbed my elbow. And then I was pulled to the left wing of the stage into complete and utter darkness.

Chapter Twenty Four

Carter

The sight of Harley’s fear and betrayal of her associate, of her new friend still flashed in my mind. I raced down the corridors, going from man to man, on my way to the entrance to warn them to look out for Cassie Shaw.

This had to end tonight.

I was positive she was hiding somewhere around here, just waiting for her moment to do… I didn’t want to even think about what she was planning to do.

My phone rang and I pulled it out from my pocket.

“Talk to me,” I said.