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Chapter One

Thein his ears as Ford Vincent headed through the winding halls at the back of the stadium he’d just played in Tempe, Arizona Nearly seventy-five thousand people had been in the audience tonight and he’d given everything he had to theht on the road, dozens of wo, “I love you, Ford!” and “I’ll do anything to be with you tonight!”

Despite his security staff doing their best to keep things froainst any part of his body they could reach as soon as he stepped out of the building It would be easiest to keep his head down and push through the crowd, but disrespecting his fans had never sat ith Ford Even if they often went over the line of his personal space

This hat he’d alanted, he reraphs For people to love him For people to appreciate him And he’d succeeded beyond his wildest dreams

So then why did it all feel so hollow?

Ford was nearly through the crohen a fresh wave of wonaled to his security staff to clear the way for hiot onto his bus

Natasha Lawrence was sitting in the dining booth with her co up, she said, “Pretty rowdy bunch out there tonight, aren’t they? Go take your shower and then I’ve got a couple of things I’d like to show you”

She was one of the most respected documentary filmmakers in the business, and after the past couple ofwith her, Ford not only appreciated her skill and talent, but also her utter faithfulness to her husband and fa , he’d come to believe that kind of devotion was very, very rare The only ht up for was her husband After years as a sex sy around a wohtest bit inclined to whip off her bra and throw it at him

A minute later, he let out a breath of relief as he stood under the hot spray His post-shoas his only real e Other rockers needed woe He could have any one of these woers in her direction But the“friends” had stopped being any fun long before he hit thirty Not to ot old really quick

Especially when he always, inevitably, compared those wo up with

He rinsed the shampoo and soap from his hair and body, then let the ater run over hi off the shower After shaking the water out of his hair, he opened the door and reached for a towel hanging fro off, he yanked on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt

“We got soht,” Natasha told him as he slid into the booth and she clicked Play on one of the s on her computer screen “Really colorful crowd, and,” she added with a grin, “the music didn’t suck, either”

“Arizona is always good,” he agreed

But despite the enthusias hiic used to be there all the tie, now he had to work harder and harder every night to light off those sparks So like he hadn’t quite earned the encores

Natasha slid a couple bottles of water over to hi swig to replace the sweat he’d lost tearing across the stage with his guitar andhis next stadiuiven that it usually took Ford a couple of hours to coet in sos like this one

“As you know, I’ve been collecting video clips froes of your career taken by news cameras and people’s personal devices” She shut down the video ith tonight’s show playing and opened a new one that had obviously been filh-end camera “While the quality of some of these clips isn’t spectacular, a few of theh that I can easily make quick cuts in and out of the affected”

Initially, Ford hadn’t been interested in a film made about hi in the sandbox of the rock-and-roll playground with Jagger and Bowie having earned their places on the swings—but also because he had no interest whatsoever in strangers digging into his past Only when Natasha had made it clear that she was only interested in his music, and the powerful way it affected people around the world, did he consent to allow her to begin fil his tour Of course, he also had final approval over anything that went into the fil but impressed hat Natasha had shown him—not only clips fro engineers, but also interesting discussions with music therapists who used his music to help heal their patients

“This recording is fro a small club in Seattle as a preview for your firstthe gig I found soht this was one of the , and I’d like to knohat you think of it”

Five years ago?

Seattle?

Ford’s grip tightened on the neater bottle he’d been about to open as she clicked Play

Holy hell, there she was

The cae to play his first song before panning back fro crazy His fans danced, sang along, and hollered out praise, but one wo all of them

In her little silver dress, with blond hair falling over her shoulders and an expression of pure sensual pleasure on her face as she let his music wash over her, the cameraman clearly couldn’t pull his lens away from the woman

Ford hadn’t been able to drag his gaze away from her, either When the camera zoomed out to frame both Ford and the crowd, the moment when he and Mia Sullivan first looked into each other’s eyes for the first tiht on film

And it was utterly electric

Everything came back to him in such a rush—the amazement that a woman could be that beautiful, the shock that soer to see so much honest emotion in her eyes, the way every inch of her silky hair, soft skin, and luscious curves was pure sensuality—that Ford nearly reached for the computer screen Only the belated realization that Natasha was carefully watching him held him back

“You were aht, Ford”

Natasha was right That night in Seattle had been one of the best shows he’d ever played Because for the first time ever, he’d played for ers

He’d played for Mia

Natasha paused playback, and before he could get his brain to work to tell her to stop, she opened another sht of her screen “I also wanted you to check out this backstage clip”

Every ain and he guessed correctly at what he was about to see: Mia being brought backstage Frolimpse of her in the audience, Ford had been desperate to meet her, to touch herto claim her as his

If the sparks between thee and she’d been in the audience, flames nearly shot from the screen as they approached each other in the less backstage rooreet with the press

As Ford took Mia’s hand in his in the video, Natasha paused it “Do you remember her?”