"Ah, so you're leaving us, then?"

Oops. "I haven't told Luca yet, so-"

"My lips are sealed."

"Thank you." I study his face, seeing nothing but gentleness there. I regret not taking the time to know him more. "And thank you for speaking up for Teagan... I wondered, actually, what did you say to her before the concert that second night in Virginia? I haven't seen her happier in ages."

"Nothing much," he replies with a shrug, but his warm brown eyes are twinkling. "Just the truth. That the entire world is at her fingertips if she'll only reach out to take it."

"Well, it's possible I fell in love with you a little bit right here," I say.

He grins. "You're sweet, but you'll have to take that one up with Tisha. And I'm not in the market for a black eye from Luca."

I giggle, because I can't picture anyone wanting to give Norris a black eye, but a second later I'm struck in the shoulder, hard, and my laughter falls away. Polly. Shoving past me. "Excuse me," she says, nastily.

"Down girl," Norris warns her.

"Hey," I say, trying to smile, ignoring the smarting in my shoulder and the annoyed expression across her face. I'm only here one more night. Might as well try to make peace. "Glad you found the bottle of wine from your dad."

"What?"

"The wine... From the other night?"

Her brows lock in a puzzled expression, and then widen. "Oh. Right. Great. Whatever." She wipes her nose, turning from me and heading into one of the rooms with the door shut.

I follow her. Norris calls after me, but I don't turn around. Something in my gut tells me if I go after her, I'll find Luca.

Something in my gut tells me I might not like what she'll lead me to.

I catch the door before it's shut completely and walk in, almost tripping over Polly, who's taken a seat right beside the doorway.

And Luca.

Oh, Luca.

He's sitting on the edge of a bed, with a brunette in his lap. The same brunette who looked like she wanted to eat him up a few weeks ago in Nashville. There are other people, too, but I barely register them. Has the girl in his lap been traveling with the tour the whole time? "Uh..."

He shoves the brunette off so fast, she almost falls. "Hey, babe. What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question." There's a flicker of hurt somewhere in my chest, but it's small enough to smother. A part of me isn't surprised at all.

A redheaded guy to the side of me sniffles and smirks my way. And Luca's eyes are wide, panicked. But I keep my cool. So what there was a girl straddling his lap a moment ago? I mean, okay, I care. But I'm leaving, so whatever. I'll play it cool. I can do this. I want one more night and I'm still taking it. I'm not going home without at least one good after-party story to hang onto.

"What do you want?" Polly's scowling at me.

"Chill, Polly." Luca glares in her direction. "Come in, babe."

There's only one free seat. A chair with a white binder on it. Striding with confidence I don't feel, I slide the binder to the ground and take a seat.

"Cassie, what the fuck!" Luca's on his feet, rushing toward me, stopping just short of where I sit. "Don't move."

I'm so shocked I don't think I could move if I tried.

Everyone's staring at me, horrified. I glance from face to face. "What?"

And there's a mad dash, suddenly, of people at my feet, scooping their hands across the carpet.

"You just threw an entire eight ball of blow on a white carpet," Polly snarls, on her hands and knees.

It takes a moment to understand what she's saying. The binder. My gaze shifts to the binder on the floor. The white binder.

The girl who was on Luca's lap is raking her nails over the fabric at my feet and rubbing her finger over her teeth.

It's almost like watching a movie, if disjointed and through a kaleidoscope. I shake my head to make sense of it, but then I wish I hadn't.

Blow.

Cocaine.

Luca's been in here, with a girl on his lap, doing lines of fucking cocaine. Lines I didn't notice because they blended into color of the binder-and because I wasn't looking for them-that I've just dumped all over the floor.

"Oh my God. You asshole." I shove him as hard as I can and step clumsily over the people around my feet, racing for the door.

I push my way through the crowded main room and make it all the way out to the hall past security and halfway back to Luca's suite before he catches up to me, grabbing my arm and spinning me around to face him. "Slow down, Cassie."

"That girl, Luca? Really? Is this... Is this what you've been doing while I just wait for you every night in your hotel room?" My chest is tight. Fury burns with blue-tipped fire in my veins.

He has the decency to flush, at least. But he ruins it with, "It's not that big of a deal."

"It is to me."

"How does it even affect you? You're not around to see it. Wait a second-you didn't think you were my girlfriend, did you?"

"I don't give a shit about that other girl." It's not even a lie, not anymore, not now. "My brother died of a drug overdose, you complete prick."

This brings him up short. "I didn't know that."

"Yeah. Well. Now you do."

"It's not like I have a problem, Cassie. I'm sorry about your brother, but not everybody overdoses."

His words knock the wind from me. "Could you be any more insensitive?"

"Could you?" His mouth twists into a cruel expression.

"What?"

"Pretending to be asleep last night. Lying about that guy in the lobby. I know he's not from North Carolina. I recognize him from BackBar..." He pauses, but again I can't find the words to respond and now he's sneering. "You're leaving. It's obvious. And you haven't even had the courtesy to tell me. And you call me an asshole on top of it?"

"I'm sorry I hadn't told you yet about leaving. I should have, but I only just decided. And I... I wanted one more night." There. I've apologized. "But you... God. You are a sellout."

"Oh, what? Because I got rich from performing with my band? I'm doing what I love. That's not selling out. If I hated it but did it just to make money, that'd be selling out. There's a difference. And if you-"

"No." I cut off his clearly rehearsed little speech. "I don't give the first shit about your music. Luca..." My lips are trembling and I think I'm about to cry. Not because I'm sad, though. Because I'm pissed. "You're the poster boy for anti-drug America. What the hell are you doing?"

"Nothing that concerns you anymore." He crosses his arms. Uncrosses them. Runs a hand through his hair. I think he's having a hard time focusing. I bet it's from, you know, snorting fucking drugs up his nose.

My instincts were right about this guy from the start, before I even met him. How the hell did I let myself get so swept away by someone like this?

I was blinded by that stupid desperation to escape my own life. That's how.

And...fine. I was blinded by the fact that a freaking rock star wanted me.

Damn it.

"What about your girlfriend?" I ask.

"What girlfriend?"

"The one who had the drug problem?" The one who made me feel a connection to him, that he'd had someone so important in his life get messed up with drugs the way my brother did.

His eyes widen and he freezes, just for a split second, like he's caught in a trap-and then he shrugs.

"Oh my God-you made her up." I am fuming. I'm not sure I've ever been so mad. And then I realize something else and my anger skyrockets even higher. "That bottle of wine Polly was looking for? It wasn't really that, was it?"

"No." At least this time he has the grace to look a little guilty.

I'm just...completely shocked. And remembering... All the times he was so jittery. Bouncing on his toes. Wanting to work out. Unable to sit still. "I'm an idiot."

He steps toward me. "Cass-"

"No." I glare at him. "Don't you dare come any closer."

"I told you the truth at first. I told you it was good money." He says it so nonchalantly, like it's no big thing, and I want to freaking murder him.

I think back to our conversation-when he joked about it being for the money-and I feel completely sick to my stomach. "No," I say. "That wasn't telling me the truth. You tried to slide it past me."

"I guess we see it from different perspectives."

"Do you know how many kids look up to you? And your face is on all those posters... It's all a lie."

"So what?" He shrugs again, this time completely unconcerned. "They think I'm clean so they stay clean. Who cares if reality's a little bit different?"

"You're unbelievable." There's nothing else I can say to make him understand if he doesn't already. "I'm getting my own room tonight. I'll talk to you in the morning. When you're sober."

"Cassie-wait." He yanks me against his chest and for the first time, I'm completely grossed out by it. I push his shoulders so hard he falls back a few steps. But it doesn't deter him. "Let's do it. One more night. Let me have you one more time. You already said you wanted it."

"It's Cassidy," I say. "And you've got to be fucking kidding me."

I leave him there, in the hallway. He doesn't bother following me, thank God.

Let him go back into the party. Back to the girl. Back to the drugs. I'm done. I'm so, so done.

I'd go home right now if I could. But it's the middle of the night. So I throw my things together and beg a new room out of the front desk, the cheapest one they have. It still eats the rest of my savings. So that's just fucking awesome. Now I'll have to ask Luca to set me up with a ride home.

Great.

But screw it. I'm angry enough to let him. All this time, he's been a lying, drug-using asshole. He can buy my way home.

Except when I wake up the next morning, that lying, drug-using asshole is gone. The entire tour is. They left me here.

He left me here.

No goodbye. No apology. Nothing.

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me."

It's pretty much the only sentence I've used so far today.

First, when I discovered the tour was gone, that Luca left me without even saying goodbye.

And now, when I try to rent a car online, using the hotel's only available slow-as-shit computer, and discover my dad finally cut off his credit card.

I'm stranded. I drop into a seat in the middle of the hotel lobby, running a hand through the tangles of my hair.

I have no money.

I have no Luca-not that I want him. Ugh.

I have nothing to get me through the day.

And of course now my stomach's rumbling.

Shit.

I call Teagan, but she doesn't answer.

I almost call Vera, but then I remember she left last night for the beach with Jared.

Shit. Shit.