me, Lyric gently wiped at Violet’s bloody mouth. She whimpered at the first graze of the soft material over her abused flesh, and more tears spilled from her eyes. Her father was shaking across the room, and she visibly tried to control herself, but she was too upset.
Too scared.
Once Lyric had her cleaned up, he folded the stained washcloth and then took her hands into his own. “I need you to tell us what happened, Vi.”
“He didn’t believe me,” she whispered.
“Who?” he murmured softly.
“L-Luca,” she stammered, and I realized she was shivering. “I told him…everything. And he thought… Oh God, Ric, he thought I kissed Cannon on purpose.”
“He’s a dumbass,” he said with a shake of his head. “Don’t worry about my idiot brother right now. I’m more interested in how your poor mouth got so torn up.”
Her fingers tightened around Lyric’s. “Cannon,” she said his name and then stopped, shuddering. “We…Shaw and I, we went to a party tonight. Jagger was there, and he was kissing some girl.”
My stomach twisted at the memory, and I pressed a fist to my chest, willing the pain there to disappear. I’d started drinking to get the image of him with that girl out of my head, but all it had done was make the tidal wave of misery pushing against my insides that much more intense.
“Shaw was upset, and she and Cannon got into an argument…” She glanced at me. I knew she was skipping over the stuff she thought I wouldn’t want them to know, protecting me so I wouldn’t get in trouble, but they needed to hear it all.
“Jagger and I kissed last weekend,” I explained, but no one seemed surprised by my announcement. I guess I hadn’t exactly hidden how I felt about Jagger as well as I thought I had. “But tonight, Jags set it up for me to catch him kissing someone else.”
“Dumbass,” Lyric muttered under his breath.
“Cannon showed up, and he and I got into an argument.” I flexed my swollen left hand. “I punched him… And then I got drunk.”
“Aw, Shaw,” Aunt Harper said with a disappointed shake of her head. “Honey…”
“Later, as I was coming out of the bathroom, Cannon cornered me,” Violet took over the story again. “He said…” She gulped, and her hold on Lyric tightened until her knuckles were bloodless. “He said that since Shaw kissed his best friend, he got to kiss hers. He was drunk. He kissed me. I fought against him, Ric, but he was so strong like that, it was scary. And he…” The sob that left her tore at something inside me, and I couldn’t stop myself from wrapping my arms around her, needing to hold on to my best friend. “He hurt me,” she choked out before burying her face in my chest.
“Wait!” Aunt Harper was trying to block Uncle Shane from leaving. “Just take a deep breath. We’ll take care of this, but killing him isn’t the answer.”
“Get out of my way, beautiful,” he seethed.
“Shane, please,” she begged him, pushing at his chest as tears spilled down her pale face. “I’m just as pissed as you are right now, but it’s not our place to deal with him. Let me call Dallas. She’ll handle this better than anyone else. I promise.”
Tears fell faster from her eyes. “I know,” she whispered. “And I want to strangle him. But…please, Shane. Please don’t do this. Let Dallas handle him first.”
“Please, Daddy,” Violet said as she lifted her head. “M-Mom’s right.”
Frustrated, he scrubbed his hands over his face. “Call her,” he gritted out. “Now.”
I bit my lip as she dialed my mom’s number. I wasn’t sure yet what time it was in Knoxville. That part of Tennessee was on East Coast time, and a glance at the clock on the bedside table told me it was 2:13 a.m. Pacific time, which meant it was 5:13 where my parents were.
They’d gone to Knoxville for the weekend to visit my adopted sister, Kenzie, and her husband. Dad adopted Kenzie right before she aged out of the foster care system back when he and Mom were still dating. She’d moved to Knoxville for college and then ended up staying when she got married before I was even born. Her eldest was less than two years younger than me, so it was beyond weird when he called my parents Grams and Grampy.
My uncle Linc and his husband Rhett lived in the same