Page 87 of Broken Promises

“I promise.”

I nod and wave to him as he rushes back towards the exit to the parking lot.

“Declan, have you seen Nate?” I turn to see Jo.

“Not since he brought drinks over for us about an hour ago.”

“He’s not organizing the meet and greet like he usually is. I don’t have the list to figure it out.”

That seems odd. I haven’t been to enough shows to know much about Nate, but he seems to always be on top of his job. If someone told me efficiency was his middle name, I would believe them.

“Thank you, Boston! You’re perfect as always. We are Shattered Halo, and we’ll see you soon! Drive safe!” Cal says, ending the show.

I catch Willa when she throws herself into my arms. Kissing her in a way that’s inappropriate in front of our friends.

“We have to go meet the people that paid for a meet and greet, but then I want to do that dressing room fantasy of yours,” Willa whispers in my ear. I groan and kiss her neck.

“Where’s Nate?” Kai asks.

“We can’t find him,” Jo explains. Cal calls over security and asks them to locate Nate.

“Where’s Jon?” I ask, realizing I haven’t seen him in a while either.

Security rushes up, surrounding us all. “We need to lock you and your friends down in one of the dressing rooms while we await police assistance,” the one closest to Cal says.

“Why?” Cal asks him.

“We found Nate, Mr. Griffin. His throat was slit.”

Willa gasps and pushes herself closer to my side. Belle is crying into Kai’s shirt. Poor Maggie and Gideon look shocked and confused. Maverick looks like he wants to throw up.

“Fuck!” I shout. “Let’s go where they want us to. Cal, call Harrison.”

We’re only in the room for a few minutes before the police come in and question us. It must be protocol since the band members were on stage and the rest of us were right next to it and very visible the entire night.

“We’re still questioning the staff, but it looks like he was really only missing for a thirty-minute period before security found his body,” the detective tells us after taking our statements. “Is there anyone else that was with you tonight that isn’t here right now?”

“My friend, Ben. He left maybe two minutes before the end of the show. Someone broke into his house,” I say. The detective nods and takes Ben’s information from me. He hands it off to the other detective that’s been standing there while this one questions us. The second detective takes out her phone and goes into the hallway.

“That’s really easy to confirm since home security companies call the police when alarms go on for too long. They’ll have a timestamp,” the first detective explains.

“Our manager Jon is missing too,” Maverick adds. His brows are furrowed like he’s working hard to figure something out. “He was here when we went out on stage.”

Jo frowns and pulls out her phone. “I’ll call him.” She dials his number and puts it on speaker.

“I can’t talk right now,” Jon says as a greeting.

“Well, you don’t have a choice,” Jo says.

“I have a personal matter I’m dealing with. Unless the stage blew up, I really don’t have time for this.”

“Nate was murdered, and you disappeared,” Jo says, not beating around the bush.

“Well, I’m clearly alive,” Jon says, completely missing the accusation in Jo’s statement.

“You need to report to the Boston Police to give a statement by tomorrow afternoon or they’re going to find you,” Jo says and hangs up on him.

The detective tries to hide his smile, but his lip twitches. The second detective reenters the room, my eyes darting straight to him. I don’t think Ben is a murderer, but I am worried about his break-in, and I haven’t been able to check on him.

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