I search his eyes and try to gauge how much I should believe him. Playing it safe, I’d say maybe twenty percent, but the little girl running around with her daddy’s digital camera is fucking giddy.

“Really?”

Christian nods. “Go back to your hotel and keep your phone on you.”

When he steps back, he regains his grin, and I can’t believe I’m putting my faith in a band manager, but I manage a small smile. He slips into the room, and my shoulders slump.

“Don’t sweat it.” Colton nudges me down the hallway. “I’ll set ’em straight for you.”

I give him a doubtful look, wondering how much sway a security guard has over the band, but I decide not to point it out. So instead, I say, “And if neither of you can change their minds?”

He shrugs. “In the slim chance it happens, you got a free trip to Prague. You ever been?”

Following him around the corner, I shake my head. “I’ve never been out of the states until yesterday.”

“Let me guess, you haven’t been anywhere other than the airport, your hotel, and here?”

I don’t answer him, and he chuckles.

“Well then, I guess you’ll have plenty to do.”

We pass the two security guards from when I arrived, and Colton pushes open the exit, the fresh night air hitting me. He holds it open, and his mouth turns up as he shouts over the screams.

“Go sleep in the five-star hotel the label paid for, and tomorrow, download a tourist app or just wander around until you’re lost. Experience the world, Remi Sinner.”

His words still echo in my ears on the car ride back to the hotel. I lean my head against the window, watching the lights of Prague pass by. Wander. It’s exactly what I want to do, but I don’t think I could get lost here if I tried.

It might be my first time in Prague, but the truth is, I know it by heart. That’s exactly where I’ve kept this city since the last time I wandered it—only then it was through a phone screen. And I saw every second of it through someone else’s eyes.

As we pull up to the hotel, I pull out my phone, and after a quick app search, a familiar logo appears on my screen. Then I hit download, and for a second, the air warms.

2

FOSTER

She didn’t even recognize me. Then again, why would I expect her to? It’s not like we’ve met—not really, that is.