Chapter 44
FORTY-FOUR
THREE DAYS LATER…
“No, come on, I just need to know if she’s okay,” I plead with Hannah, her business partner over the phone.
“I don’t know how she is! I haven’t talked to her since your management said she was exclusively working with you and not to contact her anymore.”
Fucking Louis. I pinch the bridge of my nose and exhale.
“She still owns part of the company,” I reason with Hannah, but she just scoffs.
“I received documentation the day after that email from your management that relinquished her shares of The Social Buzz . It’s officially all mine. She was a hell of a coworker though. I just haven’t heard from her and when I tried emailing her, everything was returned.”
“What? She didn’t…” My words trail as it all clicks. “He really did this,” I whisper.
“What?” Hannah asks but I ignore her.
“Would you please just go to her apartment and check on her? We don’t know where she is and we’re worried.” I’m not above paying this woman if it means I have peace of mind that Melody’s okay.
Hannah sighs heavily on the other end, like I’m asking her to fly across the country for a favor versus checking in on a supposed friend.
“Fine,” Hannah relents. “I’ll go check on her. But if she’s not in her apartment, I’m not going to search for her.”
“Fine.” I grind my teeth and clench my jaw. What a fucking bitch. She hangs up the phone quickly and I shake my head.
This is the kind of person that Mel surrounded herself with when we were gone? Has she ever had anyone who was there for her no matter what?
My heart drops because I get it now. I understand why she believed Louis. My fingers tighten around the phone and I make a vow right here and now.
When we find her, she will always know how much I love her simply for her.
Our masks on, the warm-up music pumps up the crowd while the four of us stand on stage trying to muster up the energy to give a shit about this.
“We have to do something. Her business partner was a bust. Stalking her through social media is getting us nowhere. It’s like she’s disappeared,” I yell down from the scaffolding to Kai.
The guy’s posture tells me he’s just as miserable as we all are; he’s sitting back against the speaker right by the walkup to my little stage like he does not give a damn if people see him.
“Maybe she did,” Kai says, his voice muffled by the mask.
“What?”
“All this has me thinking, maybe she is trying to tell us to leave her alone. Think about it, Adam,” Kai says earnestly, but I can hear how tired he is, as he stands up and turns to look at me.
“Her phone number isn’t working, but only for us.
She’s blocked us on her socials. She’s not answering any messages Reis has tried to send.
We can’t get anyone to go check on her. Maybe…
Maybe she doesn’t want us anymore.” His head drops down, and I can see it.
He thinks we should give up. Not because he wants to, but because he really thinks that it’s what she wants.
I scoff, shaking my head and standing up. I see the tech guy telling me to sit down, pointing at his watch, so I sit back down but yell at Kai.
“Look at me, Kai!” He turns back to me, the neon edges of his mask making the movement slightly sinister when I know that really, underneath he’s dying.
“We’re not giving up. So don’t even think that. We’ll honor her wishes the moment she speaks them, not any sooner on information that we don’t truly have. Got it?” The lights flash overhead and that’s my cue.
“Got it?!” I yell again. I need to hear him say it, because this isn’t over. Melody is ours and we aren’t giving her up.
“Yeah, bro. I got it.” Kai nods, pulling the guitar into position and waiting for my lead in. “Let’s go.”
“Thank you so much and goodnight!” Reis screams into the mic, his voice raspy and hoarse after this show.
Back-to-back shows are fucking brutal, and usually we stress for nothing except the next show.
Everything else is handled and done for us.
But this tour? This tour, we actually had something outside of work that we cared about.
And we found out the person who usually makes tours so easy is a backstabbing, backwater trash, fuck nugget that deserves to go get punched in the dick until it stops working properly.
We all wave to the crowd and walk off stage. The moment we’re out of the crowd’s line of sight, our smiles drop. Life feels like it’s been sucked out of me, like I’m bleeding all over and nothing will staunch it.
“You guys, that was a great show!” Paul praises kindly, holding the tablet that caused all this fuckery in his arm.
Unfortunately, it’s still intact. Kai wanted to smash it to pieces, but Paul convinced us he needed it to run the tour.
Apparently it’s got all our schedules, the lighting cues, the sound system controls, all the PA stuff on it. It’s a bit of a necessity.
I’d gladly buy a new one if I got to take a sledgehammer to the thing that caused me this much pain.
Because taking a sledgehammer to Louis' head would be prison time for sure, and I can’t win Melody back from prison.
“Thanks, Paul,” Kai tips his head up in recognition before walking towards the dressing room. Fuck, he’s deep in his feels.
“Do you need anything from us?” Reis asks, handing the microphone to the tech guy and turning to Paul.
“No, nothing. We’re set for tomorrow. I’ll pick you guys up from the hotel at nine am, then we’ll be off to Edinburgh.
Last stop before the bookend with London.
” he says everything so quickly, his eyebrows rising with intent because he knows exactly how much it means for us to get this tour done with.
We need to get back to her. “Three days. Three days and you’ll be sitting on the plane to Oklahoma. ”
“Thanks, Paul. We appreciate it.” Reis nods, patting Paul on the shoulder and walking off to head to the dressing room as well.
I give him a tight-lipped nod and help Markus walk to the room.
He’s still slightly swaying on his feet.
He’s lucky he’s such a fucking badass guitarist because I don’t know how he gets on the stage every night this high.
“Three days?” Markus asks me, eyes focusing in and out as he looks at me like he’s realizing he can let go just a little.
“Yeah, man. Three days. You have to get your shit together. I know you’re hurting, we all are, but you can’t be doing this. Not if you want her back.”
“She doesn’t care. She had liquor, I have drugs.
But since you so fucking rudely put your nose in my business, I’ll be honest.” Markus rolls his eyes.
“When she was here… I didn’t need this shit.
She made me feel so fucking good, I didn’t need to take anything to escape.
Now she’s gone, and nothing works like it used to. ”
My heart breaks deeper for him. I understand what he’s saying. Maybe not on this kind of a level, but fuck, I get why hes been hitting it harder lately.
“I just need her back. I want her back. Why’d she leave?” He starts groaning as we walk through the hallway.
“She didn’t want to. Remember? Paul said she didn’t want to.” I keep repeating that to myself. Holding onto the memory of Paul saying she was heartbroken. That she didn’t want to leave. That she didn’t choose this.
“Why didn’t she ask us?” he slurs and I swallow hard.
That’s the question, isn’t it? It’s just a little too close to home, like history repeating itself painfully.
“I don’t know, man. We did owe her one, you know.”
“We’re such fucking assholes. All of us. Imagine how she felt in high school.” Markus shakes his head sadly. “I want to go back in time and smack the shit out of myself for just walking away.”
“I know, I know,” I agree, partially because he’s coming down and serious conversations shouldn’t be had right now, but also because the way he’s talking is ripping my heart out.
I push open the door to our dressing room and Reis is standing, pacing with his phone in his hand nervously. Kai’s sitting there, watching him pace, with his hand over his mouth like he’s trying not to say anything.
“Did she message you?” I ask excitedly, before reasoning kicks in. Taking in their expressions, I realize they look like they’ve just stepped in shit and are nervous they’re going to get in trouble. “What is it?”
“I think… I think I’m going to call my mom,” Reis admits, holding up his phone.
Markus laughs at the worst fucking moment. “How would that bitch help us? She hates Melody, always has.”
I cringe at Markus' words, but he’s not wrong. Delivery, though? The delivery is very fucking wrong.
“I know that. But she’s the only person we have in Haven that we haven’t called to try and get eyes on Mel.”
“I don’t know, man.” I scratch the back of my head nervously.
“What do we have to lose?” Kai asks sadly.
“If she’s about to give us a straight answer…
I need to know. I need to know that Melody is in Haven.
If she’s safe. I called our doorman and they haven’t seen her since we left.
That means she never went back to our place.
” Kai pulls at his short blonde hair. “I’ve been going crazy.
Dreaming she’s all alone and out on the street.
Cursing our names and hurting. I… I have to know she’s okay.
” When Kai’s eyes meet mine, I can see the craze, the need, the exhaustion that tells me he really hasn’t been sleeping.
We all stay silent for a moment, but the energy between us is tense.
“Please!” Kai snaps, pushing to his feet aggressively.
“I can’t fucking leave here to go get her myself, so I’m asking to use all the fucking tools at our desposal to find her!
Do it, Reis. Get the information and then lose her number.
” Kai takes Reis' phone out of his hand, opens the contacts, finds Reis' mom and then hands the phone back to him. “This isn’t that hard.”
“Okay,” Reis says, taking a deep breath. “Okay. For Melody.”
“For Melody.” I repeat, nodding in support.
“I… Fuck ,” Reis groans and presses the dial. “Here goes nothing.”