Assured (Soul Serenade #2)(59)

Keeping one arm around her, holding her to me, the other soothingly strokes her hair. I let her cry, hold her while she falls apart. Logan sits beside me, her hand on Stacy’s leg. Kace stands beside Logan with his hand on her shoulder, offering support. None of us says a word; we just let her get it all out. I kiss the top of her head over and over again. Sending up silent prayers that whatever this is, she knows that I’m here, that I want to be nowhere else but where she is.

Her cries soften and she’s no longer shaking. Gavin and Tristan came in about fifteen minutes ago. One look at my girl and Tristan told the guards, “No one gets in or out,” shut the door, and locked it. They’ve been leaning against the counter ever since.

“Baby,” I whisper. “Please talk to me.” I’m pleading, but I don’t f*cking care. I’m scared out of my mind. “What happened?”

“Oh, my God,” she breathes and jumps up from my lap.

I reach out to grab her arm, to stop her, and she flinches while yelping in pain.

What?

I jump to my feet. “I barely touched you,” I state the obvious.

“No. No, no, no, no, no,” she repeats over and over again.

I know she’s not doing drugs; I would notice that. Tears are again flowing, faster than ever, coating her now red and blotchy cheeks. I gently take her hand in mine and pull up the sleeve of her T-shirt.

Bruises.

Fucking dark, black and purple bruises. I drop to my knees and study her arm. Fingerprints. It looks like motherf*cking fingerprints on her skin.

Squeezing my eyes closed, I suck in a deep breath. I need to keep my head about me; she’s already scared out of her damn mind.

“Baby, what happened?” My voice is so gruff that I barely recognize it.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

Sorry? “Stacy, I need you to tell me what happened.”

“Stacy?” Logan’s crying too.

“Stace babe, who did this to you?” Gavin asks.

“I’m sorry.” She buries her face in her hands.

Standing, I pick her up again and carry us to the couch on shaking legs. I need to hold her. I need to have her keep me rooted or I might just kill a motherf*cker. I still will, as soon as I know she’s okay and I find out who put his hands on her.

I pull her as close to me as I can get her, bury my face in her neck, and breathe her in.

“Cole,” she sobs.

I have to know who did this. I have to fix it. My girl is broken, and it feels like a knife to the gut.

“Baby, I need you to tell me. Whatever it is, you don’t need to be sorry. I just need you to tell me,” I beg her.

“We’re all here, Stacy. Nothing is going to happen,” Logan soothes her.

“I . . . I was trying to protect you. He said he would ruin the band.”

Finally! She’s talking. Now I just need to keep my cool until she finishes her story.

“Who did, Stacy? Who did this to you?”

“I lied. I’m so sorry I lied. Please, I can’t lose you.”

That loud noise? That was my heart breaking open for her. For the anguish she’s feeling. I feel it too.

“Start at the beginning, beautiful. I’m not going anywhere.” I tighten my arms around her to reinforce my words.

“Wilson, he caught me in the hall last night when I went to the bar,” she begins her story.

With every word, my anger rises. If she were not a crying mess in my arms, I would have already been out looking for that bastard. He touched her, her soft skin that I’ve traced with my lips. Her thighs, the ones that hold me tight every f*cking time I slide home, deep inside her.

He’s a f*cking dead man.

The earlier conversation with him after the show now makes sense.

“He said that if I told you, he would end the band. I didn’t want to lie to you, I swear, I didn’t. Cole, you have to believe me. I couldn’t be the reason you four lost everything you’ve worked for.”

Again, I bury my face in her neck. I can’t speak through the emotion clogging my throat. This entire time, she did this for me. She let him get away with putting his hands on her, these marks on her, because she was protecting me.

She f*cking owns me.

“Never,” I mumble the words. “You will never lose me,” I assure her. “I need you to tell me you understand what I’m telling you. I need to know that you understand that I’m not me without you.”

“I love you,” she cries.

Not gonna lie, I can feel the burn behind my eyes. Yep, he’s a dead man. I stand and set her on the couch, looking over at Tristan and Gavin. “I need one of you to stay here with her, and one of you to help me hide the f*cking body.”

“Cole! No.” Stacy stands and grabs my arm. “You can’t! I need you here.”

“Stacy, babe, he has to pay for what he did to you.” Stepping back, I gently push both of her sleeves up her arms. “Look,” I croak out. “Look at his mark on you. I can’t let him get away with that.”

“Cole,” Kacen warns.

“You stay with your wife.” I turn to Tristan and Gavin. “Which one of you is staying and which one of you is digging?”

“C-man, there’s another way,” Tristan says.