I wasn’t sure if she was in shock or just completely overwhelmed, but in that instant, she was a child—a broken and scared child—and she was looking at me like I’d protect her. My chest filled with purpose, and for the first time since my parents’ death, I stepped into that role. It was an almost burning sensation—a fierce need that filled me.

From that moment on, I would kill to protect her.

I would die to protect her.

“You don’t have to do anything,” I reassured her, pulling off her dirty flip flops. It seemed her feet were the only things that had escaped the trauma. “I called Grease and he’s going to send some boys over.”

“No!” she screeched, her entire body tensing. “Nononononono.”

“Why?” I asked firmly, my stomach sinking.

“Not Echo,” she told me beseechingly. “Just not Echo, okay?”

My heart started to race at the implications of her request. Holy hell.

“Why not, baby girl?” I asked quietly, bracing for her answer.

She sniffled quietly for a few minutes before answering.

“I don’t want him to see me like this,” she whispered piteously, her eyes begging me to keep him away.

I wanted to sigh in relief that Echo wasn’t responsible, but I couldn’t. Someone had beaten her so badly that her arm was broken. There was no relief in that.

“He only sees me when I’m pretty,” she whimpered, leaning toward me to get her point across. “He won’t want me anymore. I’ll have nowhere to go.”

Her words were like a punch to the stomach. I wanted to argue, to tell her that he’d seen her getting skinnier and skinnier and it hadn’t seemed to matter. I wanted to tell her that at my birthday party she’d had lipstick on her teeth, and he’d still watched her like she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. Instead, I just shook my head.

“You stay with me,” I told her, squeezing her feet in my hands.

“You’re moving with Grease—”

“You. Stay. With. Me,” I said again, my voice resolute.

She nodded her head, but didn’t say anything as someone started pounding on the door.

“Don’t let him see me!” she whispered frantically, like the men in the hallway could actually hear her over all the noise they were making.

I nodded and stood up, wondering how I was going to keep Echo out of my house. I shouldn’t have assumed that I had any say in the matter.

I looked through the peephole and opened the door to Michael and Echo on my welcome mat.

“Where is she?” Echo asked frantically, crowding me as I refused to budge from the doorway.

“She doesn’t want to see you,” I told him apologetically, wincing when his panicked eyes came to mine. “You need to go.”

His face turned bright red in anger, looking at me in disbelief.

“Callie, I know that you’re looking out for her. I respect the hell outta you for that,” he told me through gritted teeth, very obviously trying to hold his temper. “But that’s my woman in there, and if you don’t move, I don’t care who you are, I’ll knock your ass out.”

I stood there for a moment weighing my options, but I must not have come to a decision fast enough, because soon he was literally picking me up and moving me to the side.

I was happy he hadn’t decided to ‘knock my ass out’.

I raced around the couch after him, anxious to be a barrier for Farrah if she needed it. But I would forever wish I hadn’t.

Because I had a front row seat when he stopped in front of her, frozen.

And I watched as he dropped to his knees and roared in pain and anger.

I wanted to turn away, but the whole thing was like a beautiful train wreck. I couldn’t take my eyes off it.

“Don’t look at me!” Farrah cried, her breath coming in harsh sobs. “Don’t look at me! I’m ugly. Don’t look at me.” Her voice quieted into a whimper as she held her uninjured hand over her face.

Echo made a choking sound and instantly scooted between her legs on the couch, whispering to her gently.

“Baby. You’re always beautiful… I need you to look at me, Farrah.” His voice was rough with tears as he pulled gently at her hand and Farrah dropped it to her lap in defeat. “Aw, baby. Shhhh.”

She was crying in earnest, and the overwhelming sadness on her face had tears rolling down mine.

“I called you,” she choked, searching his eyes. “I called you. Where were you?”

He made a sound like a wounded animal and dropped his head into her lap. Sobbing.

Farrah raised her head and met my eyes, her message clear. I nodded, walked completely out of the house, and sat next to Michael at the top of the stairs.

“I don’t know what to do,” I told him quietly.

He threw his arm around my shoulders and kissed the side of my head. “She’s got her man and yours is on his way. Only thing you can do is wait.”

Chapter 44

Callie

Echo convinced Farrah to go to the hospital, but she refused to let him take her.

I ended up driving her with Michael crammed into the backseat of my car for protection. They didn’t want us going alone, but I didn’t understand why Michael rode with us because I watched Echo ride behind us on his motorcycle the entire way there.

The doctors and nurses tried over and over to get answers from Farrah, but she wasn’t talking. She wouldn’t tell anyone. The scene with her and Echo stayed in my mind, though, and I wondered if he knew more than he was saying—not that I could ask him. I’d lost him in the emergency room parking lot and hadn’t seen him since.