Chapter One
“Fuck!” Ryan Callander stared at the paper in his hand, shock ratcheting up the low-grade headache he’d had for the last two hours. Julia wanted a divorce. He concentrated on breathing—in, out, in, out—to stem his escalating panic.
Caleb popped his tousled dark head from a bedroom of the inner-city Auckland apartment they’d shared for the past five years. “What is it, man?” He glanced at Ryan and grimaced at the envelope. “Can’t the mail wait until we’ve had some sleep? This jetlag is kicking my butt.”
God, she couldn’t do this to him. It was a misunderstanding. She’d realize once he explained everything. “No, I have to go out.”
Caleb cursed and disappeared. He reappeared with a black T-shirt in his hands and yanked it over his head. “I’m coming with you.”
“I don’t need a babysitter,” Ryan snapped.
“Your memory is still spotty. What kind of friend would let you loose in the big bad city alone?”
Ryan made a scoffing sound. “It’s Auckland. I remembered the location of our apartment. I can call a cab.”
“But you didn’t recall where the mystery woman lives—the one you kept muttering about in hospital.”
“I’m going to her now.” He’d recalled more about Julia than he’d let on to Caleb, their manager and the rest of the band. The only thing he couldn’t remember was how to contact her—that and her last name. Caleb had told Ryan he didn’t have a serious woman in New Zealand, not one he cared about. Ryan knew different, but the harder he’d tried to remember the more his head had ached.
“And if your mystery woman is a groupie?” Caleb asked, his expression making his opinion clear.French Letters’groupies didn’t warrant midnight visits from the band. “Surely it can wait until we’ve at least caught a few hours of sleep. Besides, Seymour will have a hernia if you out yourself to a groupie. You can’t visit one without full makeup or a mask. Remember the terms of our contract.”
“You can sleep,” Ryan said. “I’m going out now.” He picked up his wallet and phone, both new since the police never recovered the ones stolen from him while the band had been playing in Europe.
“Wait, damn it.” Frustration shimmered in his friend’s voice, but Ryan didn’t slow. Running thumps echoed down the hall. “Fuck, Ryan. I’m coming with you. Give me a chance to put on my boots.”
Ryan slowed. “I’ll hail a cab. If you’re not outside in five minutes, I’m going without you.” A mixture of anxiety and anger pumped through his veins. Julia wasn’t any damn groupie. She’d already seen him without his makeup. His mouth curled to a grin as fragments of memories pushed past the fog in his mind. She’d seen him in a lot less and loved the view.
He checked the street and spied a cab. Hell, luck was with him. It was a sign. He waved, elated when the taxi halted beside him, and spoke to the driver, reading the address off the formal document before jumping into the back of the cab. He glanced back for his friend.
Caleb appeared in the doorway, glimpsed the cab and cursed a blue streak. He increased his pace to a sprint. Breathless, he flung himself into the back seat with Ryan. “I fuckin’ told you to wait.”
“I intended to wait.”
“Didn’t bloody look like it. Where are we going anyway?”
“Parnell.”
“Give me more. Who are we going to see?”
“Julia.” Ryan fell silent, waiting to see if Caleb remembered her.
“Wait, Julia? Not that blonde bird we both banged last summer?” Caleb’s smirk was a toothy one. It made Ryan itch to thump him.
“Watch your mouth.” Ryan concentrated on his clenched fists instead of the urge to beat up his friend. Caleb didn’t understand. If he realized, he wouldn’t talk that way. When Caleb opened his mouth to say something else, Ryan cut him off. “Watch what you say about Julia or I’ll tell your mother on you.”
“What are we? Five years old?” Caleb stared at him in astonishment. “You sound like my sister.”
A sharp pain sliced through his head, and he rubbed it with his fingers.
Caleb’s eyes narrowed. “Is your head hurting again?”
“Yeah.” His anxiety made it throb worse than normal. The doctors said his headaches would tail off after a while. He wished he knew when that would be, ’cause it had been months.
“I’ll help you as much as I can.”
“Yeah, I know.” He and Caleb had been best friends since they were five. It was weird how he recollected everything about Caleb and growing up together. He even remembered the words to their songs, yet his time with Julia remained blank. Those precious snippets of memories had taken weeks to return to him after the mugging, and even now his mind contained frustrating gaps.
The cab slowed and came to a halt outside a new apartment block. He didn’t recognize it, but he and the rest of the band had been in Europe for almost a year, much longer than they’d originally planned. Now that he was here, nerves slid through him. His heart beat a little faster. He paid the driver, grimacing at the faint tremor in his hand.
