That voice. That incredible voice and the way he played.
The guys who looked as if they’d been plucked right from a magazine.
All the warnings Tamar kept giving me.
“Shit,” I choked barely above a breath. She knew. The whole time, she knew.
More embarrassment flooded my veins, my mind spinning and my heart feeling like it might cave in.
And maybe it was foolish to allow it to affect me this way, because there was no doubt harbored in my mind that Sebastian was hiding something from me, and I’d given him that space because he’d so blatantly asked for it.
But why remained the question.
My eyes dropped closed as I tried to gather myself. Slowly I opened them and just as slowly pushed the enter key.
The page loaded and I was instantly overwhelmed.
On the left was a long list of links, but my eye was immediately drawn to the biography box on the right with the collage of pictures at the very top. His beautiful, rugged face framed in each one.
Hard.
Angry.
Fierce.
I read the bio.
Sebastian Stone is an American musician from Los Angeles, California. Stone is a founding member and lead guitarist and vocalist of Sunder.
Born: November 21, 1988 (Age 26), Los Angeles, CA
Music Groups: Sunder
God, I’d never even heard of them, secluding myself in my own private world—a world I’d established for my daughter, a bubble to keep us protected and safe.
Sebastian Stone had come crashing right through it.
And I hadn’t had the first clue.
I turned to the list of websites and article links running along the left and clicked on the first one—a recent article featured on one of those on-line celebrity sites.
That lump in my throat throbbed as I read through it. It was the kind of article that was snarky and filled with the writer’s own insinuations.
Sunder missing in action?
Just weeks after front man, Sebastian Stone, was arrested on assault charges against a producer with Mylton Records, Sunder announced a cancellation days before what was supposed to be the onset of their world tour kicking off in France.
I call foul.
In a Tweet issued to the world, Sunder blamed scheduling conflicts for the cancellation.
Yet Sunder has fallen off the face of the earth, leaving thousands of fans mourning the loss of their beloved band.
Where oh where art thou, Mr. Stone?
I blinked through the tears that wouldn’t stop falling, reading and rereading the line that told of his arrest. A ball of dread sank into the pit of my stomach.
I’m not a good guy.
He warned me, and I wouldn’t listen.
Shakily, I clicked on the word Sunder that stood out in blue, knowing the link would take me deeper, deeper into the man, and deeper into the guys that along with his brother, he claimed as his only family.
The search repopulated. Immediately an article from a little over a year ago caught my eye, and my pulse sped as I scanned the caption, the horrible words growing my torment, my throat locked as I read what was spilled across the page.
Mark Kennedy, Sunder drummer and founding member, was confirmed dead late Tuesday afternoon of an apparent drug overdose. Kennedy was found in the early morning hours on the band’s tour bus while in Dallas, Texas, as part of their Divided Tour. Rumors of addiction have swirled around the troubled band since front man Sebastian Stone was arrested and served six months of a two-year sentence on charges of heroin possession and theft more than four years ago.
And I knew. And I knew. And I knew.
I hadn’t been able to look away despite how hard Sebastian had worked to push me away.
Just as intensely as he’d worked to draw me near.
The two of us thriving off something that could never truly be.