“You wouldn’t listen to me,” Lyric told me in a hard voice. “So, I grabbed Violet, and we flew out here last night to show you.”
My thumb skimmed over her bottom lip. “Who hurt you?”
“Cannon,” Lyric answered for her. “He was drunk and pissed at Shaw over something that happened earlier. So, he took it out on Violet.”
“You said…” I stopped and cleared my throat of the lump that was filling it. “You said you were drinking, and it just happened.”
Violet swallowed hard and pulled back from me. “It was what you wanted to hear,” she said with a shrug.
“No,” I whispered, already shaking my head. “It killed me, thinking…” My knees felt weak.
“Shaw kissed Jagger, so Cannon thought it was only fair that he should get to kiss me. In his drunk mind, he thought it would make them even.” She shuddered and wrapped her arms around herself. “I didn’t want him to kiss me. But he was drinking and I fought him, and he…hurt me.”
“When I showed up at Uncle Shane’s, he didn’t want to let me in, but I told him something was going on with Violet. She called you and you were worried, so you sent me.” Lyric hugged Violet to his side, as if he needed to feel her so he didn’t lose his mind. “He let me in, and we found Violet huddled on her bedroom floor crying. She told us everything, and things got ugly after that. I’ve never seen Uncle Shane lose it like that. Luckily, Aunt Harper was there, or he would have probably murdered that little shithead then and there.”
“Tell me he’s dead, Ric,” I commanded. “Tell me he’s dead for doing this to her.”
“He’s still breathing,” he told me, regret thick in his voice. “But after his parents got done with him, I’m fairly sure he was wishing he wasn’t.”
“Not good enough. I want that little fucker in the ground.” I scrubbed my hands through my hair and started pacing in front of them. “He touched her without permission, and he hurt her. He—”
“Luca.”
Something in Violet’s voice had my blood turning cold. Holding my breath, I stopped in front of her. She stepped forward and pulled my shirt down, her gaze zeroing in on something on my neck. “What the hell is this?”
I touched my neck. “What?” A sick feeling was turning my gut to lead.
“This,” she whispered, her eyes glued to the same spot. “What. Is. This?”
“For fuck’s sake,” Lyric muttered. “What did you do, brother?”
“Nothing,” I denied, pulling my shirt back into place. “It’s probably a bruise from yesterday’s game.”
“That’s not a fucking bruise,” Violet said, her voice turning just as emotionless as it had Friday night on the phone. “That’s… Oh God. What did you do? Who…?”
“Hey, Luca baby.”
My eyes closed at the sound of Megan’s voice, and I could feel my life slipping through my fingers.
Arms that I knew weren’t Violet’s wrapped around me. “I had so much fun last night, babe. But I probably won’t be walking right for days after that anaconda in your pants went at me all night long.” She touched her fingers to my neck. “Ah, look at that love bite. I got you good. Sorry. Hope your girlfriend doesn’t find out…” She broke off as if just realizing Violet was standing there. “Ah hell. Sorry. I didn’t realize.”
A strangled, pain-filled cry came from Violet, and I forced my eyes open. Our gazes locked, and it took everything in me not to fall to my knees at her feet. Tears filled her purple eyes, but she held them back with Herculean force. “You slept with her last night?”
Megan giggled. “Oh, honey. Sleep was the last thing that happened last night.” She patted me on the cheek. “Well, I have to go. I’ll call you later, Luca baby. Once the girlfriend leaves, we can hook up again.”
Violet took a step back from me, disgust twisting her beautiful face. “Why?” she whispered.
I reached for her. “It meant nothing. Less than nothing. I…” She slapped at my hands before they could touch her. “I got wasted and things went too far, and I…”
“You still haven’t grown up,” she said with a humorless laugh as the first tear spilled down her pale face. “You thought I cheated with Cannon by kissing him. So you decided to one-up me and have sex with someone else.”
“It wasn’t like that.”
But it was exactly like that. She was right. That was what I’d been thinking while I’d drunkenly fucked Megan.
It was only in the stark brightness of day that I’d realized how badly I’d messed up.
But Violet shouldn’t have found out. If she hadn’t flown out to see me, she never would have known. I could have taken this mistake to my grave. I wouldn’t have been standing there watching my life—the life I had dreamed of having with Violet—flash before my eyes.