Logan (Wild Boys After Dark, #1)(4)

She felt a hand on her arm and jumped, screamed. To her embarrassment, she huddled against the brick wall, her arms pressed close to her chest, hands shielding her face, as if she could become part of the brick wall.

“Shh. It’s okay. I’m not the guy who hurt you.”

The Midwestern-sounding guy from the bar. He was so tall up close, and broad, which made her cringe closer to the wall.

He held his hands up in surrender, still breathing hard from the fight. “I’m not going to hurt you. I saw him follow you out.”

He peered over his shoulder, giving her a second to try to process what had just happened. He’d saved her. Ripped the guy off of her and beat the hell out of him. Blue eyes from the bar. You saved me. This repeated in her head several times as she tried to gain control of her senses and force her brain to function again.

“He’s gone. He’s not going to hurt you anymore.” His tone was confident, and she clung to that confidence like a lifeline. “Are you hurt?”

She didn’t know, couldn’t feel any part of her body. She shook her head, or at least she thought she did. She must have, because relief passed over his face, easing the tension in his jaw.

“I’m going to hold you.” It wasn’t a question. “Just to let you know you’re safe. You’re shaking and probably in shock.” He gathered her in his strong arms, and she bristled, unable to move. “You’re in control. I’ll stop if you want me to, but you’re safe.”

Safe. She didn’t know if she’d ever feel safe again.

He tightened the embrace, pressing a hand to the back of her head and splaying his other hand across the width of her back. “You’re okay. I won’t let anything happen to you. You can tell me to let you go, and I will.”

She didn’t know if she wanted him to let her go. She wanted to believe that she was safe so badly after being away from everyone she knew and hiding for so long. She needed safety, needed someone to turn to, to talk to. Stella didn’t know if it was his words, his confidence, or the way his body cocooned her rather than consumed her. Maybe it was all of those things that allowed tears to finally spill down her cheeks after she’d been brave for months, and her hands to fist in the lapels of his jacket as she accepted his comfort.

“I’m Logan. Logan Wild. Are you sure you’re not hurt?” He leaned back a hair, and she pulled him close again, afraid her legs wouldn’t sustain her.

“It’s okay, sweetheart. I’m not going anywhere,” he assured her as he held her close. She soaked his expensive jacket with her tears. Months of repressed sadness, months of proving her strength beyond what she ever thought possible, flooded out of her.

“Thank you,” was all she could manage.

“Are you sure you’re not hurt? How are you feeling?” he asked again.

It had been months since anyone other than her new boss, Dylan Bad, had cared enough to ask. Her mother would have asked if she’d kept in contact with her. He’d already threatened her mother twice, but her mother had taken out a restraining order, and that seemed to have convinced Kutcher that she was no longer an option for harassment, and he’d returned his focus to Stella. She’d learned the hard way that he knew people. Bad people. People who could trace phone calls and figure out where she was.

Street noises filtered into her ears as the fogginess subsided and her senses returned. She loosened her grip on her savior—Logan. “I think I’m okay.”

He searched her eyes for what seemed like forever. She wondered if he saw the person she used to be somewhere inside her. She was still there; she knew she was. Somewhere buried below the fear and the fatigue, below the false bravado and the harsh exterior she’d had to project in order to survive. Hopefully one day Stella would find a way to become that person again. But for now she had to figure out this man who an hour ago she thought was too dangerous to talk to. And now? Now she didn’t know what to think. He had saved her, comforted her, but Kutcher had been sweet and caring at first, too. Fear needled its way to the surface again, forcing her to push away from Logan.

His brows knitted together. She took a step away, and her back met the bricks again. She winced in pain. It seemed all of her senses had returned, and as she gulped in a lungful of the cool night air, she cataloged the pain in her upper back, wrists, and the back of her head. Great. This was just what she needed.

“You’re hurt.”

“I’m fine. Just shaken.”

His eyes pierced through her lie with ease as he visually assessed her again, reaching a hand behind her head. She dodged his touch, moving to the right and sending a sharp pain down her neck. She blinked back tears that threatened to weaken her resolve.

He held his hands up again in surrender. “I was just checking for a bump on your head. Maybe I should take you to the hospital. You need to report this to the police.”

She shook her head, forgetting about the pain. She winced, and Logan reached a hand toward her, then dropped it, as if he knew she’d pull away. The police would want her real name, and she wasn’t taking any chances. She didn’t know how Kutcher was tracking her, but he was getting out of jail in four days, and she’d done a good job these last few months of living under his radar. There was no way she was going to lead him to her.

“No. No hospitals. No police.”