Page 90 of Heart of a Rebel

The knife digs against the skin of my neck, and I feel it slice through the surface, wetness slicking the blade.

When I told Adrian I wanted whatever time we had left, I didn’t think it would be one night, but I bury the tears that want to spring in my eyes because Cyrus doesn’t deserve them.

“I loved you.” Cyrus holds the blade firmly against me, and I’m not sure what’s more terrifying, the fact that he thinks it’s love, or that it’s past tense. “After that night, I was willing to wait for you until the time was right. I was willing to let you have your career as long as you played by the rules and were a good girl. And for years you listened. You knew what I wanted. But then you ran to him.”

Him?

My face must show my confusion because Cyrus smirks.

“You think I could allow you to stay at his house without any retaliation?” Cyrus sneers and I realize he’s talking about Adrian.

The pieces start clicking into place. Five years of silence before the roses started. Five years of no word from him. It wasn’t that he’d given up. He was watching, waiting. I’d been alone, never dating anyone after the mental torture he put me through. But when I stayed at Adrian’s house to record our last album, he assumed things had changed.

“I wasn’t sure then, so I sent you presents to remind you.” He reaches out and drags his cold fingers along my shoulder. “I know how much you enjoy flowers.”

I open my mouth to speak, but his grip tightening on the knife stops me.

“I wasn’t sure, but then you had to flaunt it like a little slut right in front of my face.” His eyes are empty. An abyss. Oblivion. He leans in close. “For that, my love, you’re going to pay.”

32

Adrian

Ibangmyfiston Sebastian’s door once before I throw it open.

“Sebastian,” I yell, feeling myself getting more unhinged by the moment.

“Adrian?” It takes a minute while I hear him stumbling to the front of the bus.

Him and Cassie must have made quick work after the show ended because he saunters out in a pair of undone jeans and nothing else. A grin stretches his face until he sees mine, and I must look as murderous as I feel because his whole posture stiffens.

“Adrian, what’s wrong?” He buttons his pants, looking around me.

“Tell me you’ve heard from her.”

“Who—” His eyes widen as he cuts off his own question. “Eloise? What happened?”

“Fuck.” I rake my hands through my hair and punch the nearest surface, which doesn’t do much to the solid countertop, but makes my knuckles throb as much as my temples. I knew she wouldn’t be here, but after searching her bus and every other place I could think of off the top of my head, I had to check. Hoping, that by dumb luck she was hanging out with her brother, and I was worrying for no reason.

Sebastian grabs my shoulder and turns me to face him. “Where’s my sister?”

“I don’t know.” The words have to be forced out because I’m not ready to admit it. “She left right after the show and didn’t take her security with her.”

“Why would she do that?”

I just stare at him because there are no words. No answers. Just fucking darkness where light should be. Emptiness where Eloise should be at my side.

“What’s going on?” Cassie pops out of the back of the bus and even the sight of her doesn’t soften Sebastian’s expression. She walks over to him and wraps her hands around his arm.

My phone pings, but when I look down at it, it’s a non-update from security.

Nothing yet.

Fuck, how can someone just disappear? There were hundreds of people around after the show and it’s like none of them saw anything. I’m not even confident she’s still at the venue with the number of cars and buses that have been going in and out.

“Anything?”

“No.” I tuck my phone into my pocket. “But I’ve got to get back out there. I’m not standing around staring at a fucking wall waiting for these idiots to find her.”

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