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"That’s bullshit You are supposed to I don’t give a shit what the label says or what they think they can force you to do Whatever it is they think they have over you, I’ll handle it Do you trust me to?"

Slowly, she nodded "We’ll talk about it later For now--"

"Yes, for now, I’ll see Daphne For you" Cade gave Kylie another quick kiss, then turned and headed for the hall that Daphne had disappeared down He noticed that no one in Daphne’s staff volunteered to accompany him as he went, which told hiht have had froone Sad that she should have been on top of the world at the moment and now she had no one who cared for her

The hall was euard at the end of the hall It was obvious which one was Daphne’s door Cade headed toward the door, griave him a carefully blank look as Cade approached

"I’ the obvious "She needs to go up on stage and her assistants are worried she’s going to hurt herself"

"I’mnot supposed to let anyone in," theout his wallet He peeled a few hundreds out of his pocket and held theood rule when she has rabid fans But I’m not a fan I’m a concerned friend So we can do this tays We can either pretend I’ve overpowered you and pushed e that you’ll have a job within that door You just let uard hesitated, then grabbed the crisp bills from Cade’s hand and stuffed theh for this shit, hty-fifty an hour doesn’t cut it when you have to put up with this crap" He shook his head and stepped aside "I’ on a bathroom break"

"Thank you," Cade murmured, and tried Daphne’s door It was locked He knocked as the security guard strolled away "Daphne? Let an to cloud his thoughts What if Kylie was right and she tried to hurt herself? She’d overdosed before in front of hient "Let e There are two thousand fans out there waiting for you"

No response

He considered the door It wasdown of this door Realizing that, he pulled out his wallet and shoved his black card into the doorjaainst the lock They made this stuff look so easy in the movies

Five minutes later, his card was scratched to hell, but the door fell open Cade pushed inside, scanning the rooht red old-fashioned sofa, Daphne’s small form was curled up He headed toward her "Daph?"

No response He sprinted the rest of the way across the room and rolled her onto her back Her eyes were rolled back in her head, three empty pill bottles near her cheek One pill was still stuck to the corner of her mouth, and drool pooled down her face

Fuck Kylie had been right He shoved the pill bottles into his pockets and scooped Daphne’s frail for on, Daphne"

Cade carried her into the backstage area so they could call 911

NINETEEN

Guilt was an extremely unpleasant coency waiting room at the hospital Out of the rest of the staff, only Carer had shown up out of loyalty to Daphne The rest were calling contacts and pulling strings, because as soon as word got out that Daphne Petty’s North American tour was canceled, they’d be out of jobs and it would be time to scramble once more

Cade was quiet, a book in his lap, and he was scribbling notes on a piece of scrap paper She rubbed his shoulder absently, being there for hih, she feltguilty about being here with hiiddy to have hi pumped in an effort to save her life It al off of Daphne’s troubles After all, she was getting the guy, right? And Daphne was gettingher career destroyed

Soht