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“Then the guy on the sex tape. What was his name?”
“I have no idea! But it wasn’t you!” It was true. Kyle was a good deal broader and taller than that guy. Which meant two crazy men had been stalking her.
How many more were there?
It didn’t matter—Julius would stop them all. She was safe with him. Where was he?
Kyle’s stare pierced her, leaving ice around her insides. “I spent ninety days in rehab. You couldn’t even wait ninety days.”
“We were never a couple!”
“But we could have been if you’d waited.”
“You’re wrong!” she spat.
“I went to rehab to get clean for you. I went to rehab so we could be together. Remember our first date? I took you out to that restaurant and bought you ice cream?”
“Yes! Then you decided that I should sleep with you because I owed you for some runny chocolate ice cream in a cup!” She tried to pry her hands apart, but he’d bound them with zip ties, too tight for her to slip free and too strong for her to break.
Julius! I need you!
“You should have slept withme, not that man on the tape. I never would have released that to the public. It would be private, just between me and you. My love…”
“Shut up! I’m not your love. You’re deranged. Everything was a transaction with you.”
His glare darkened. “And now you really owe me. You shot to fame. I was in your band. And you left me behind. Then to insult me further…” He ran his finger down her arm, raising chills in the wake of his touch. “You just run off and marry the first guy to pay attention to you.”
He meant Julius. That ice surrounding her heart pierced it with shards. “What did you do to Julius?”
“I carried your guitar offstage for you every night.”
“So what!”
“You should have waited for me. I’m clean now, but you didn’t wait.”
“Let me go! I hate you, and I’ll never be with you, Kyle. Anyone who could do this to a person belongs in a cell!”
He expelled a sigh that sounded far too light and carefree to ease her worries. Fear blanketed her. How was she going to get out of here? Away from him? And where was the man she needed like the music she played?
ChapterTwenty-One
“Julius.”
He ripped his eyes away from the security camera footage and his glazed vision focused on Jennings standing at his elbow, a cup in hand.
“Take the coffee. You need it.”
He closed his fingers around the cup and hurled it to the parking lot. It spilled over the dark ground.
“I don’t need coffee, goddammit! I need a search party. Lights. Dogs!”
Lark appeared carrying a backpack. She unzipped it and started passing out flashlights to Sentry and as many security guards at the festival as could be spared.
“Search the lot where the musicians park first. If she thought she was meeting me, she’d know I wouldn’t go outside that area!” Julius’s bark of authority sent everyone scattering.
The misery in his tone reflected his pain and despair that he’d missed more than one clue in this case. He could only blame himself. He was so damn distracted by Avalynn and hell-bent on marrying her to save her reputation that now Avalynn was going to pay the price.
Please let us find her. I can’t go on if I don’t.
