Her Forbidden Hero

  “Just spoke to their manager. They’ll clear out within a half hour,” he said. “Thank you for your patience tonight, everyone.”

  Relief flooded Alyssa as she placed the dirties in a bin and joined the group.

  “You can close down in here. Marco closed the bar. Who wants the green room tonight? I’ll throw in a little extra, given the hour.”

  Eric looked her way but she shook her head. She’d had enough of the green room for today. Plus, Marco was waiting for her. Eric finally agreed to do it.

  “Okay, then,” Pete said. “Alyssa, you and Tori are done for the night. The guys will handle the rest.”

  Butterflies took flight in her stomach at the realization she’d have to talk to Marco now. The question about her phone returned, adding worry to the anticipation suddenly flooding her system. Maybe it was in her car. If she didn’t find it, she was going to be distracted over it the whole time they were talking. Please don’t let me have lost it. If she did, she wouldn’t be able to replace it any time soon, and being cut off from Brady would kill her. She’d definitely had it on the way home from DC, because she’d listened to music.

  Alyssa turned in to the lounge, ready to tell Marco she needed a few minutes to search for her phone, but he wasn’t in there. She retrieved her keys from her locker and left to check her car.

  The night air was still and thunder rumbled in the distance. At the side of the lot, the band’s tour bus idled, crew members coming in and out of the stage doors with equipment. Two of the band members came out as she reached her car, and lingered by the door to the bus before getting on.

  Finally! She couldn’t say she was sad to see them go.

  Alyssa unlocked her car and searched the front seat. Her heart sank. Seats. Floor. Center console. Her phone wasn’t anywhere. She opened the back door and leaned way down to look under the driver’s seat. There! Between the console and the side of her seat. Oh, thank God. She fished it out of the tight spot and pushed herself up.

  She turned and crashed into somebody. Her heart flew into her throat.

  “No, stay there. That was working for me.”

  Trent. Are you kidding me? “Excuse me,” Alyssa said with none of the friendly tone she’d mustered earlier.

  He braced one hand on the car’s roof over her shoulder, boxing her in between his body and the open passenger door. His other hand curled behind her head and grabbed tightly onto her ponytail. The next thing Alyssa knew, her mouth was full of his tongue and the stale taste of cigarettes and alcohol.

  After a moment of stunned shock, Alyssa shoved at his chest, breaking the kiss and fumbling her phone. It dropped to the ground. “What the hell?” Her heart hammered against her sternum and ice crawled over her skin.

  “Come on,” he said, grabbing her wrists in his hands and holding them against her chest. He shoved her back and the car’s frame jammed into her neck, stealing her breath. He pressed his body into hers and smeared a sloppy kiss onto her cheek when she turned her face away. He tugged her wrists in warning. “Come on.”

  Adrenaline made her feel like she was vibrating. “Get the fuck off me,” she rasped, yanking at her hands.

  His grip tightened and he ground his erection into her hip. “What a dirty mouth. I’m going to love feeling it on my dick.” He leaned down and sucked on her neck.

  Annoyance and alarm morphed into rage. She was not helpless. And she was not going to be this asshole’s victim. Three years of self-defense classes kicked in. He was too close to get in a knee lift, so she relaxed her arms and felt his grip loosen. She linked her fingers together and leaned slightly into him.

  “Yeah,” he moaned, taking a half step back to get a better shot at her lips.

  Seizing her moment, Alyssa screamed and stomped down on his foot as hard as she could.

  He jolted back. “Ow! You bitch.”

  Using his surprise, she leaned away and yanked her arms out of his hands. She stumbled backward against the car, but she was free.

  Trent glared at her and lunged.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Why had she left without him?

  Disappointment coursed through Marco’s veins. Pete had asked for his help with something and he’d learned the band had finally gone. Looking everywhere for Alyssa, he stopped in the green room and Eric told him he’d seen her leave ten minutes before.

  He dialed her number as he headed to the parking lot. He had to make things right. It was eating him up inside. His call went straight to voice mail. “Alyssa. Where are you? I thought we were going to talk. Call me, okay?” He sighed and barged through the exit in frustration.

  The door had no more than clicked shut behind him when a noise like a scuffle caught his attention. He scanned the lot.

  And his vision went red with rage.

  He took off at a sprint, his target some piece of shit who was all over his Alyssa. She stomped on his foot and shoved him off with a scream, but the man came right back at her.

  A strange pride roared through Marco as she slammed the heel of her palm into his chin, whipping his head back. The guy staggered but clearly wasn’t taking no for an answer.

  Marco developed tunnel vision as his hand cranked down on the guy’s shoulder and whipped him around. His right fist cocked back and exploded forward, busting open the man’s cheekbone on impact. The scumbag stumbled before crashing onto his back.

  Marco was on him in an instant. Voices sounded in the distance as he wailed on the asshole who had dared touch the woman he loved. Jesus, what would’ve happened if he’d come out five or ten minutes later?

  “Marco! Stop! Come on, Marco!” A thick arm wrapped around his neck and jerked him back. Marco swung. “He’s down, man. He’s down,” said the voice.

  Marco’s heart was a wild thing in his chest. His gaze scanned for Alyssa, but he couldn’t find her in the crowd of spectators. When had all these people gotten here? “He…he…Alyssa.”

  “She’s here. She’s okay.” Marco pulled free and whirled to find Van holding his hands out. He pointed. “She’s right there.”

  Marco’s gaze followed the man’s hand.

  Alyssa.

  She was sitting sideways in the backseat of her car, her legs pulled up, her face ashen and drawn.

  Marco went to his knees in front of her, his hands cupping her trembling face. “Hey. Shh. It’s okay. It’s over.” Shit, had his heart ever beat this fast?

  She nodded and pressed her hand over her mouth like she was trying to hold in her emotions, then she dropped it and released a halting breath. “N-not…help…l-less…,” she stuttered, and then she lost the battle against restraint. A sob ripped out of her. She curled forward and buried her face in her knees.

  Her words tore into Marco’s heart.

  He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her face into the crook of his neck. “I know you’re not. Not at all. Shh. I’m so sorry.” He whispered the words into her ear over and over as guilt squeezed his gut and his imagination ran rabid with thoughts of what had happened before he’d gotten there. He hugged Alyssa tighter and fought the urge to look over every inch of her skin to prove she was all right.

  She sat back and scrubbed at her cheeks. Long strands of her hair hung loose around her face, like it had been pulled free of her ponytail. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

  Marco’s hands slid to her thighs and he frowned. “What for?”

  “Your shirt.” Her breath hitched. “I got makeup on it.”

  He shook his head and looked her over. “Did he hurt you?”

  Her gaze dropped to her lap. “Nothing I couldn’t handle.”

  Marco’s chest went tight. He knew how goddamned much she could take—he’d seen that firsthand when they were kids. “Alyssa, don’t do that—”

  “Just my wrists and neck,” she whispered.

  Pete leaned in over Marco’s shoulder. “Hey, kid. How you doing?”

  “I’m okay.”

  “Cops and ambulance are on their
way, okay? Sit tight. We’ll get this taken care of.” Pete released a long breath. “I’m sorry, Alyssa.”

  Her eyes went wide. “I don’t need an ambulance.” She turned to Marco. “I…I can’t…”

  He grasped her hand. “We’ll work it all out. Just let them look you over, okay? Just start there.”

  She glanced between them. “I don’t want to cause trouble for you, Pete.”

  “Now, stop right there, young lady. This place is like my home. And you guys are all my kids—no matter how old you are. No one comes into my house and hurts my family. I don’t care who they are. You understand?”

  Alyssa’s breath shuddered and she nodded, her whole body trembling under Marco’s touch. His own adrenaline letdown wasn’t as marked, but it was still there. Jesus. He just wanted to wrap her in his arms and never let go.

  Pete patted Marco on his shoulder and leaned down to his ear. “You did good, son. Thank you for getting here in time.”

  Marco’s throat went tight. He gave a single nod but kept his eyes on Alyssa.

  When Pete walked away, Marco pushed up onto his knees, bringing his gaze level with hers. He slid his hands behind her neck and massaged.

  She winced and groaned.

  “Dammit, sorry.” He jerked away, rage boiling the blood in his veins.

  She caught him by the wrists. “It’s okay.” Her eyes went glassy again. “I…I need you.”

  The words wrapped around Marco’s heart and made it expand inside his chest. He knew what it cost her to say that, especially after what he’d said last week. And he didn’t think his self-loathing could get any worse. Marco leaned his forehead against hers and stroked her hair. “You have me. God, Alyssa. I thought…” He swallowed hard, unable to give voice to the scenarios creating the stuff of new nightmares in his mind.

  Her hands fisted in his shirt, dragging him closer. She didn’t cry; she simply leaned into him, on him, and it felt so goddamn right. Somehow, all the things that had seemed so complicated between them faded away in the shadow of the night’s events.

  Red lights flashed against the trees. A single warning siren sounded as the ambulance came down the side driveway to the back lot. Blue lights followed. The emergency vehicles stopped close to where roughly fifteen people stood in clusters around Alyssa’s car.

  Marco glanced over his shoulder to see Pete approach the first responders. Several car lengths away, the band manager paced and talked furiously on his phone, every once in a while barking something at the piece of shit who had assaulted Alyssa. The rest of the band huddled nearby.

  Alyssa released a deep breath, reclaiming Marco’s attention. He leaned in. “You did nothing wrong here. Okay? The cops are going to want you to tell them what happened. Just be straightforward. And the EMTs just want to make sure you’re all right.”

  “Okay,” she whispered.

  Marco stood and held out a hand to her. “You good to stand up?”

  She grasped his hand and rose.

  Marco pulled her into his arms and closed his eyes when she melted into him.

  “Sir? Ma’am?”

  Marco hated to let go of her for even an instant, but he stepped back and made room for the EMTs. “I’ll be right here.”

  She followed the medics to the back of their rig.

  Someone stepped up beside him. “Sir, I need to ask you a few questions.”

  Marco forced his gaze to the officer standing at his side. “Of course.”

  Every one of the thirty minutes he was separated from Alyssa made Marco’s heart hurt and his gut squeeze. His arms ached for the feel of her. What if he’d been too late?

  He forced the question from his mind and stood watch from a distance as two cops questioned Alyssa, who was sitting on the back of the open ambulance with a blanket around her shoulders. From there, she appeared calm and confident as she answered the officers’ questions, but he knew her well enough to read the set of her shoulders and the dull cast of her eyes.

  Van stepped up beside him. “You okay?”

  Marco met the guy’s serious gaze. “Shit, I don’t know.”

  The other man looked at him for a long moment. “You realize how deep she’s into you, right?”

  A thousand answers, some flippant, some indignant, flew through Marco’s mind. He settled on good old-fashioned honesty and gave a single nod.

  Van’s eyes narrowed and his lips pressed into a line. Marco got the message, even though the other man never voiced it. Be good to her. Do right by her. Don’t be the pissed-off, closed-down asshole you are to the rest of us—not with her.

  Marco turned back to find Alyssa pushing the blanket off her shoulders and rising.

  He crossed the lot to her, unable to stay away for one more second.

  …

  Alyssa had never felt more lost and alone than she did standing there in the middle of that crowded parking lot.

  She couldn’t stop shivering. Her body ached. Humiliation and a bone-deep exhaustion weighed her down. The smell of Trent’s aftershave and the phantom grip of his hands were all over her skin.

  “Alyssa?”

  She turned toward the voice and found Eric standing off to the side of the ambulance.

  “Hey,” she said, not quite able to make eye contact.

  “I grabbed these for you.” He held out her cell phone and car keys.

  She hadn’t even realized she’d lost them. “Oh. Thank you.” She slipped the phone in her pocket and looped the key ring around her finger.

  Eric shifted his feet and cleared his throat. “Um. Are you o—”

  “Yeah.” She waved him off, not up to telling the truth or putting on a happy face.

  An emotion she couldn’t identify burned in his eyes. “I could drive you home.”

  “That’s okay. Thanks, though.” She forced what she hoped resembled a smile onto her lips.

  A big hand settled against the small of her back. She knew who it was without looking, both needing Marco’s touch and hating that need. She was grateful beyond belief that he’d shown up when he did, but she didn’t want to play the damsel in distress to his white knight. No doubt all this night had done was reaffirm her helplessness to him.

  “Everything go all right?” Marco asked, his breath brushing against her ear.

  “Yeah. All done.”

  “Let me know if I can do anything?” Eric asked.

  “Yeah. Night.”

  Marco pulled her into his arms and, though Alyssa knew she shouldn’t get used to his comfort or the reassurance of his strong body, she sank into him, as if he could carry the burden of this day for her.

  He kissed her hair. “Come home with me.”

  Numbness made it hard to analyze his words. She didn’t know whether to be pleased that he wanted her to come home with him or upset that it was because he thought she needed his help. “I shouldn’t,” she answered.

  He pulled back but not away. “I want you to come home with me.”

  She searched his face, still unable to read the emotion behind the words. “I’m okay.”

  “I’m glad to hear it. But I’d still like to take care of you.” He released a shaky breath. “I need to take care of you. Not because you can’t do it, but because I need…Aly, I need to touch you and see you and prove to myself in a thousand other ways that you’re okay, that you’re still here with me. That I didn’t lose you tonight.”

  Alyssa’s heart skipped at the desperation in Marco’s voice. It was the only thing that convinced her his desire didn’t stem from obligation. She searched his eyes, seeing the pleading there, too. “Okay.”

  He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and walked her to lock up her car.

  “Oh, I don’t have my purse.”

  Marco squeezed her hand. “You don’t need it for anything tonight. I’ll get it for you tomorrow.”

  Despite her exhaustion, her eyelids remained wide open during the ride to his house. She followed him inside, refusing to let her brain remember what h
ad happened her last morning there.

  “Want something to drink?” he asked, guiding her into the kitchen.

  “Just some water.” He poured her a glass and handed it to her. She took a long sip, but it wasn’t enough to remove Trent’s taste from her mouth. The clock on the microwave revealed it was nearly three a.m., but a sudden urge rocked through her. “I want to take a shower.”

  He frowned, watching her. “Of course. You know where everything is?”

  “Yeah.”

  “My house is yours, Alyssa. Make yourself at home.”

  She turned and fled from the room and the words she knew she was reading too much into. She was too emotional, too tired, too needy to trust her judgment where Marco was concerned.

  She fell back against the closed bathroom door and released a long breath. The night’s slimy fingers crawled over her skin. Alyssa marched to the shower and wrenched the knob to hot. She couldn’t get her clothes off fast enough. The shirt went into the garbage. The bra hit the floor. She tugged at the zipper to her jeans, a cry breaking free when it stuck. She yanked them down over her hips, the rough denim scraping her skin, and kicked them away. She tore her panties off last.

  By the time she stepped into the shower, the water had warmed and her tears flowed. She grabbed the bar of soap and scrubbed it over every inch of her skin until she felt raw. As she worked to clean the hurt and fear and panic away, small whimpers and cries burst free until she couldn’t hold them back any longer.

  Sobs ripped out of her throat, the release of the suffocating pressure taking her to her knees on the shower floor. She mustered just enough energy to shift positions, pulling her legs out from under her and curling around her knees. The shower rained down on her. She cried for what might have happened. She cried for all she wanted with Marco but would never have. She cried for the little girl inside who hadn’t been able to fight back the way the woman did tonight.

  A constant knocking broke through her grief. Alyssa lifted her head.

  “Alyssa? Please answer me. Are you okay?” More knocking.

  She opened her mouth, but her throat was so tight around the tears.

  “Damn it, Aly. I’m coming in.”