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The jab of her accusation hits right in the gut, sinking my stomach and hanging my pounding head on tight shoulders.
“I don’t know who Cedar is, babe, but I’ll help find her.” I offer with a heavy heart and a weight bowing in my shoulders.
“Fuck you mean, you don’t know her? You know enough to piss her off.” I hear her growl back like I’m some kind of kidnapper and she’s Liam Neeson preparing to find me and take me out.
“The tussle with the dark-haired chick is viral, Rex.” Ian cuts in from the front. “Her name was Cedar.”
Oh, fuck.
I’m transported back, as if Cedar is in front of me now, her words bouncing around my skull like stuck lyrics.
You don’t deserve her.
Toxic prick.
The words bring a slow nod of recognition. Cedar wasn’t just someone I found on the road, nor was her friend or whoever she was defending. The numbness that conversation brought forth in me melts away and leaves lumps of guilt building in my throat.
The whole thing was about Aria.
Fucking … fuck.
She’s right.
24
ARIA
The line is silent, but my heart refuses to stop pounding its drums in my ears.
Flexing my fists, I try to release the energy, the emotion, but it sticks in my throat like raw glass.
I’m angry. I’m frustrated. Fucking worried about where the hell my best friend disappeared to.
Mostly … I feel hurt.
I know I shouldn’t. It’s even more evident now that I know he’s a fucking rockstar, with the whole image of babes falling all over them and all. But I can’t help feeling like I deserved to know that and so much more from the fucking beginning.
God, how many people has he been with? Do I even want to know?
I feel the color draining from my face the longer the line sits quiet. I snapped, and I’m not sure I won’t snap again.
Raising a shaking hand to my forehead, I rub my temple in a sad attempt to self-soothe while also doing my fucking best to avoid making eye contact with his fucking twin.
TWIN.
The one I’m not mad at, but looks so much like him I’m near blows. My elbow is awfully close to making his nose match his brother’s.
Lord, help me. Universe send good vibes …. Any fucking thing right now.
“Where the fuck is Cedar, Rex?” I whisper growl through a cupped hand over the phone’s mic. I try to dampen the emotion I feel but my tone suggests I’m not doing a very good job at it.
I hear voices over the line that I can’t make out thanks to the drummer boy in my head and the one next to me tapping his leg as if his bouncing knee wasn’t enough.
“Babe.” That sultry, gravelly, deeply worn voice caresses my eardrums and shoots straight to my panties.
Shit.
“One of the security team escorted her out of Moonman two hours ago. Ian’s radioing for more info now.” He pauses, a scratching sound coming from his end, but continues. “We’ll find her. She was more than ok when I saw her last.” The sincerity in his deep tone, the concern laced in his words, have my shoulders starting to pull away from my temples.
