Page 1 of Of Heartbreak and Harmony
PROLOGUE
Torren
“Where is she?”
Savannah glances up at me from her spot on the couch. She’s got her legs thrown over Levi’s lap with her lyric notebook on the coffee table, and her beat-up acoustic is resting on the cushion beside her. If it weren’t for the fact that she’s still in her on-stage outfit from the show, this would feel like any other night on the road.
“Where is who?”
I have to clench my fists to keep from shaking her. To make her answer me. To make her stop wasting time.
“Callie.” I scan the room quickly. “She was just here. Where is she?”
Mabel is sitting on the floor next to Sav, staring at the ceiling with her headphones on, but when she sees me, her brow furrows and she slips them off. Mabes hasn’t changed out of her outfit either. Jonah is probably still slumped over where I left him, bleeding all over his vintage Nirvana shirt from the jab I landed to his nose.
“She’s not in the room?”
Sav’s voice is laced with panic as she bolts up from the couch and crosses the floor of the hotel suite. My stomach twists with anxiety as I take out my phone and dial her number. I listen to it ring and ring before it goes to voice mail.
Sav swings the door wide to the connecting room and disappearsinside. I know she won’t find Callie in there. I already checked. Instead, I check the bathroom and the other two bedrooms while dialing Callie’s number again.
“Fuck,” Sav says, and I turn to find her staring into a small, sleek designer handbag. “My keys are gone. I think she took my keys.” She drags her eyes to mine and chills race up my spine at the way her face goes ashen. “Why would she leave now? She was out there when?—”
I push past Sav without an answer. I don’t stick around to hear her say anything else. I know what happened out there. I don’t want to recount it.
I storm back into my room and grab my own keys, grateful that I have my car here. Normally, I wouldn’t, but nothing about this situation is normal.
Just before I reach the door, Red steps in front of me and puts his big hand on my shoulder. It doesn’t matter that I’m almost thirty—Red makes me feel like a teenager trying to sneak out after curfew. He might be Sav’s personal security, but he’s become something like a surrogate father to me. To all of us, actually. Papa Red and the band of runaways. I’d laugh at the thought if I wasn’t on the verge of succumbing to my panic.
“Let me go, Red.”
He shakes his head. “Can’t do that, kid.”
“I have to get to Callie. She’s alone. She’s upset. I need to get to her.”
His stern expression doesn’t change, but I think I see a flicker of concern in his eyes.
“You don’t know where she went.”
He speaks slowly and with authority, studying my face as he does. He’s going to shut me down again. He’ll probably bind me to the chair with my own bootlaces in the name of safety. I’ve always appreciated that behavior when it was out of concern for Sav, but now, when I’m the focus, I hate it.
I narrow my eyes and open my mouth to argue, but Sav steps up behind me and cuts me off.
“She’s in my Porsche,” Sav says, her hand reaching past in my periphery, holding something toward Red. “The tracker says she’s heading toward Santa Monica.”
He takes Sav’s phone and peels his eyes off me. My shoulders slumpa little. I didn’t even realize I’d squared off against him. I drop my attention to the phone screen. The security tracker Red put on all of Savannah’s vehicles shows a little red dot heading west on the freeway.
“She’s going home.” My heart sinks, but I steel my resolve. “I’m going, Red. You’ll have to beat me bloody to keep me here.”
“Go with him if you’re worried,” Sav says, but Red shakes his head.
“I’m not leaving you.”
“For Christ’s sake, Red,” Sav says, putting her hands on her hips. “This place is crawling with security. It’s been swept twice already. I’m fine.We’refine. Go with Torren or you’re fired.”
A flicker of humor flashes in Red’s eyes. He knows she’s full of shit. She threatens to fire him at least once a week, and we all know she never would.
Finally, he nods, and I follow as he strides out the door.
