They could do that. They could totally do that.
Chapter Twenty-Four
KNOX
3 Weeks Later
When the bandhit a new city on the tour the whole thing was like a rinse and repeat of the previous town. New faces, same songs. Nothing changed, and everything changed. Through it all, he always wished he was somewhere else with someone else. Wherever Irina was, that’s where he wanted to be.
“You okay, bruh?” Tanner asked, heading for the stage.
He wasn’t. Something was wrong.
Irina didn’t call, didn’t answer, and wasn’t responding to texts.
“I’m fine,” he said, but even he could tell he didn’t mean it.
He bounced on his toes, willing his wife to take a back seat in his brain long enough that he could do his performance and then continue with his panic fest.
“Knox, did Irina ever get in touch?” Courtney asked, stepping beside him, bouncing Harley on her hip. Harley was in her concert gear, which was baby ear protection and a super cute onesie that said,Who’s my daddy?with Bax’s face on the front.
Fuck. “She’s still not answering for you either?”
Courtney shook her head. “No.”
“Are we worried yet?” Knox asked, his hands going to his hips.
“Yes,” Courtney added, nodding.
That one word sat heavy in his stomach.
“On in five,” Hans said, clapping Knox on the back as he strode by.
“Hey.” Knox hurried to keep up with him, pushing through the mass of stagehands and backstage personnel. “Irina’s not answering.”
Hans didn’t even glance over his shoulder as he said, “She’s probably on set. They work late. You know this.”
“No.” Knox moved in front of Hans and stopped, something he never did. “I need you to check in on her, something’s not right.”
“What’s not right is that you aren’t at your keyboard.” Hans widened his stance, and while his give-no-fucks attitude usually didn’t bug Knox, tonight Knox was off kilter.
“Man, you either help me find her or I’m gonna go find her,” Knox said.
“You have fifty thousand fans out there waiting. You’re not going anywhere.” Hans rolled his eyes. “Fine. I’ll find her.”
That’s all he asked. He turned to tell Courtney he’d put Hans on the case when his phone buzzed. He pulled it from his pocket and breathed a huge sigh because the picture he’d taken of Irina over honeymoon bagels filled the screen.
He flicked on the receiver. “Noodle Cup, new compromise, we don’t go all day incommunicado. I’m flipping out over here.”
“Knox?” a woman who was not Irina said.
“Terri?” She’d picked up Irina’s phone enough times, he knew her by name.
“Knox.” Terri stopped. “There’s been… Irina got hurt.”
Everything in his body paused. His blood quit pumping, his neurons stopped firing, his feet wouldn’t move. Terri was mentioning something about an accident and falling and a hospital, but the rushing in his skull wasn’t allowing him to fully grasp all the words.
Alone in a sea of people, he couldn’t make himself move.
