Hartstrings: A Jaded Regret Novel (Jaded Regret Series Book 3)

by L. L. Collins

  “I’m not leaving you here with him.”

  Mackenzie shook her head again. “You don’t understand…”

  I pressed the wet washcloth to her face. She grimaced, and my stomach roiled. How dare he. “Help me understand, Mackenzie.”

  “H-he.” She glanced over her shoulder at the table, where the gun sat. And that’s when I saw it. His jacket hung over the chair, the word POLICE in bright yellow block letters across the back.

  Motherfucking great. He was the police.

  “You can’t call them. They won’t do anything.”

  She allowed me to continue to wipe the blood from her face in silence. I carefully examined the cut on her head. “You don’t need stitches.”

  “This time,” she mumbled.

  I regarded him, still passed out on the floor. An emotion I couldn’t quite understand flooded through my system. Before I could stop myself, I opened my mouth to speak. “Come with me, Mackenzie. Let me help you.”

  “There’s no helping me.” Her voice caught as she began crying again. “He’ll always find me. It’s okay, Tanner. You can go. Th-thank you.” She took the washcloth from me and walked over to his still body.

  “What’s his name?”

  She turned back to me, her face pale. “I’m not telling you.”

  “Mackenzie.” I wanted nothing more than to drag her out of here to the safety of my room so I could figure out what to do next, but to do that meant I was no better than the asshole lying on the floor. She had to decide to walk away herself.

  “You can’t get involved,” she whispered. “You have no idea what he’s capable of.”

  “How long have you been together?”

  “Since high school.” Mackenzie sobbed again, putting her hand up to her mouth.

  “Are you married?”

  She shook her head. “No.”

  “Why are you still here?”

  She stared down at him for so long, I wasn’t sure she heard me. “I don’t know.”

  I reached out and touched her face, the bruises becoming more prominent by the second. She flinched, then relaxed. I bit the inside of my cheek in an effort to tame the anger raging through my body. She had been afraid of my touch.

  He’d done that to her.

  I thought back to Ashlyn, the last night I ever saw her when I’d gotten mad and thrown the remote at her. I could’ve become a man like this piece of shit lying on the floor, but I’d stopped myself right there. I had no business being with her, so I ended it.

  I ended the possibility of ever hurting someone I loved.

  “You don’t deserve this.” I didn’t recognize my voice as I fingered her soft hair between my fingers. “Let me help you. My band will help you. You don’t have to live this way anymore.”

  “You…” Mackenzie shook her head, recognition changing her expression into one of utter disbelief. “Holy shit. You’re Tanner Hart.”

  I nodded, not caring at all about who I was at that moment. But if my notoriety would get her to walk away and let me take care of this douche, then I was all for it. So he was a cop. When I was done with him, he’d never be part of law enforcement again, because he’d be on the other side of it.

  “You were here playing today.”

  I nodded again. “Yes. Mackenzie…please. Get your things. Let’s get out of here.”

  “Why do you care?”

  What a loaded question. “I just do. Please.”

  She bit her lip, worrying it between her teeth as she contemplated my offer. Asshole stirred on the ground, groaning as he started coming back to consciousness.

  Mackenzie’s eyes snapped to mine, widening in fear as she realized he woke up. Instinctively, I took over. I grabbed her hand and a small purse I saw on the dresser, pulling her out of the room and to the elevator before she could say a word.

  We rode to the fourth floor without a word being spoken. She peered down the hallway the whole time we walked like she expected him to pop out of the shadows. Hell, that was probably what he did. Laid low until he could pounce on her when she least expected it.

  “You’re safe.” I put the key card in the door and pushed it open, allowing her to go ahead of me.

  She dropped her purse on the table by the door and wrapped her arms around herself. It was then that I noticed her shaking again, her body trembling from head to toe.

  “Mackenzie.” I rubbed my hands on her arms as her cerulean pools of pain stared right through me. I felt her knees give way, and I knelt with her to the floor. Her hands covered her face, muffling her sobs. “You can do this.”

  She shook her head. “You don’t understand. He’ll never let me go, Tanner. Now he’ll be after you. I-I’m sorry. You should let me go back to him. It’ll be fine. He loves me, in his own way.”

  “You aren’t going back there. You’ve let him hit you for the last time. He doesn’t love you, not if he can hurt you like this. And he can try all he wants to come after me. You don’t need to worry about that. Come on, let’s get you cleaned up.”

  I lifted her off the floor, and she allowed me to guide her to the bathroom. I wrapped a towel around her shoulders and started the bathtub. I could feel her gaze on me, but she didn’t say a word as I gathered some shampoo and soap from the shower. Something deep within me wanted to get every trace of blood off her body so that she could start fresh.

  I tested the bath water and then turned to her. “Do you want to get in? I thought I’d help you get the bl—get clean.”

  She worked her lip between her teeth again. Her hands shook as she gripped the edges of the robe she still wore. Dark circles under her eyes highlighted her face, but I still found her breathtakingly beautiful.

  “I can leave the room.” I didn’t want to, but not for the reason I’d normally want to be in a bathtub with a woman.

  Mackenzie gripped my shirt so fast, I jumped. “Don’t leave. Please.” Her voice wavered with unshed tears, and I nodded.

  “I’m right here.”

  She dropped the robe and sank into the hot water, her hand still touching me.

  “Are you in pain?”

  Mackenzie blinked. “Not the kind of pain anyone can fix.”

  I could understand that.

  I took a bathroom cup and filled it with the warm water, slowly running it over her hair until the remnants of blood were gone. She hissed as the water hit the cut on her scalp, but she didn’t tell me to stop. Red and blue marks shaded her face and down her neck. Once her hair was moved out of the way, I could see thumb marks on either side of her throat.

  I leaned closer, my head pounding with the realization that he’d tried to choke her. “Has he ever choked you before tonight?”

  Her hand reached out and touched me again. She nodded her head slightly, and my nostrils flared in anger. He was a complete piece of shit. What did she do to ever deserve something like this?

  “Never again, Mackenzie. Promise me. Let us help you.” She didn’t answer me, but I didn’t expect her to. I had the undeniable urge to call and wake up every single member of Jaded Regret and have them help me with what to do, but I wouldn’t. I would take care of her tonight, and we’d figure it all out tomorrow.

  I had no idea how old she was, but I guessed somewhere around my age—mid to late twenties. She’d said they’d been together since high school. That was a long damn time for someone to be the subject of abuse. Then again, my mom had endured it for over twenty years before relief finally found her.

  I sat back and put some shampoo in my palm, trying to give myself a second to calm down. The only thing keeping me from going back to room 2511 and finishing that asshole off was this broken woman in my tub.

  I put the shampoo on her head carefully, piling her long blond locks on top of her head as I rubbed the soap around. We said nothing as I rinsed her hair and then applied conditioner.

  I grabbed the bar of soap and lathered it with the washcloth. I handed it to Mackenzie, and wordlessly, she washed the remnants of him off
her.

  After she was done, I helped her from the tub, not missing the wince on her face from some body pain she wouldn’t talk about. She had no clothes, so I went in and found a pair of basketball shorts and a T-shirt she could at least be comfortable in until I could get her something.

  “Thank you.” She sat on the side of my bed, drying her hair slowly with the towel. My shirt was like a dress on her slight frame, and the shorts were rolled several times just to stay up, but she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. I saw her bruises and my gut churned with hatred again.

  I wanted to kill him.

  “You don’t have to thank me.” I sat down next to her and dried the back of her hair. She turned her face so we were eye to eye.

  “You don’t know me. You could’ve kept walking down the hall. You didn’t have to get involved. Most people don’t want to get involved.”

  I couldn’t do that. “That’s not me, Mackenzie. I could never leave you there like that.”

  She sniffled. “I have nothing without him.”

  Anger surged so quickly through my body it forced me to stand. I dropped to my knees in front of her and lifted my hands to her face. She flinched again.

  “I’m not going to hurt you.”

  She nodded. “I know. Sorry.”

  “You should never be afraid that someone lifting their hands means they are going to hurt you. Nothing that you do means you deserve being hit. Do you get that?”

  “He’ll kill me if I leave.”

  I shook my head. “No. He won’t.”

  “You don’t know him, Tanner. He has…connections. He could kill me and get away with it. And now you’re involved in this…oh God. He’s probably running through this hotel now with his police badge, looking for me. He’ll have you arrested for assault.”

  “Mackenzie.” I smoothed her hair back from her face and stood. “Take a deep breath. It’s the middle of the night. He can’t go barging around the hotel. You need to rest. We will figure all this out in the morning.”

  She allowed me to lay her back, and I sat on the edge of the bed. Her body still shook involuntarily. She gripped my hand again, her eyes closing in exhaustion.

  “I’m sorry...so sorry.”

  Her breathing evened out, and her lips parted in sleep, her body finally giving up from the overwrought emotions coursing through her. I examined her blond hair against my pillow, her high cheekbones, her dark lashes fanned against her cheeks, her slight nose, her full lips, and I felt a stirring deep inside me.

  The dark marks of the bruises along her face and neck enraged me, but seeing her in my bed, wearing my clothes, her hand gripping onto mine made a different feeling take over.

  Protectiveness.

  He wouldn’t hurt her again.

  Chapter Three

  Tanner

  I blinked open my eyes. I had no idea what woke me. That was when the buzzing of my phone caught my attention. I rolled over and grabbed it, trying to see what the screen said with fuzzy, sleep-deprived eyes.

  Natalie. Oh, fuck. It was barely eight in the morning, and I didn’t remember falling asleep. She’d been waiting for me to show up in her room last night when…

  Mackenzie. I dropped the phone, letting it go to voicemail. I couldn’t deal with Natalie right this second. I sat up, having fallen asleep on the pull out couch, but the bed was empty.

  I sat straight up and scrutinized myself. I still had on the same shorts and shirt I’d changed into after Mackenzie passed out last night.

  Except now she wasn’t there. I glanced over at the table. Her purse was gone.

  “Fuck.” I stood up and paced the room. How had she left and I didn’t notice? Well, it could’ve had to do with the amount of alcohol I’d had last night, plus the little sleep we’d gotten.

  My phone buzzed again. “Nat.” I answered the call like I always did, even if seeing her name again made my stomach clench in nervous anticipation.

  “We need to be at the arena in two hours.” Her voice was normal, the same no-nonsense manager tone I was used to.

  I blew out a breath. “Okay. Got it.” What the hell was I going to do about Mackenzie? We had another show to play tonight, and all I wanted to do was find out where she was. She’d gone back to that asshole, I could bet.

  “We’ll go out the private entrance we came in, so be there waiting.”

  We were in Florida but on the east coast. Our home wasn’t far from here, just across the state on the Gulf side. We’d spend a few days in south Florida before heading out of the state for a few weeks. We’d end our trip with a visit to New York to go to our label and then head back home.

  “I will. Hey—Nat?”

  I heard her suck in a breath. I wanted to shove the whole thing under the rug and not address it, but I had to be around this woman every day of my life. “Yes?”

  “I’m sorry about last night. I passed out in my room.” No need for her to find out about Mackenzie. She’d get the wrong idea. “I had entirely too much to drink.”

  “I get it.” Natalie’s voice was as I suspected—hurt. This was reason number nine million why I shouldn’t get involved with her. “I had a lot to drink, too. I’m sorry I brought it up.”

  “Don’t be sorry.” I slipped shoes on my feet and ran a hand through my hair. I had to find Mackenzie and talk some sense into her.

  “I’ll see you soon.” That was her way of dismissing me, and I guess I couldn’t blame her. I was an ass. I knew this, but somehow she didn’t.

  As soon as I hit the end button on our call, I flung open the hotel door and went straight for the elevator. While waiting for it to get to my floor, I stretched my arms and hands. If asshole wanted a fight, he’d get one.

  I hoped to go to her room and find him, but not her. I hoped she was strong enough to walk away from him and disappear.

  But I doubted it.

  I knew the kind of control he had over her because it was exactly the kind of control my dad had over my mom.

  Had.

  Because she was finally free.

  She’d been free for five years.

  He’d finally done what he threatened all those years ago.

  He’d killed her.

  Now he was paying the price for that, locked up like the animal he was.

  Gone were the expensive suits and cars.

  Gone was my family.

  I was all alone. The way I liked it.

  If I could stop one more person from having the ending my mom had, I would.

  I had to save Mackenzie. From him. And from herself.

  The door opened and I hit the button for floor two. The damn thing moved too slow, spiking my impatience and irritability. I paced back and forth in the small space, clenching and unclenching my fists. When it finally opened, I dashed toward her room.

  I banged on the door, the force of my fist making it shake in the frame. When nothing happened within a few seconds, I beat on it harder. The sound echoed down the empty hallway. My blood rushed through my body, and my breath came out in short spurts. I felt like I’d spent an hour lifting weights at the gym.

  “Mackenzie!” I called through the door. I pressed my ear to the crack, hoping to hear something inside. I didn’t care if I had to rip it from its hinges, nothing would keep me from getting her away from him.

  I heard nothing but the whooshing of the air conditioner.

  Just then I saw a housekeeping cart down the hallway. I jogged to it. A young girl blinked in surprise as she registered me stopping next to her.

  “Do you know if 2511 checked out already?”

  She studied me for a moment too long, her gaze traveling up and down my body. “I can’t tell you anything, sir.”

  “It’s my friend’s room. I left something in there, and I didn’t know if they were still here or not.”

  She considered my lie for a moment before pulling a clipboard off her cart. “2511 checked out hours ago. You can check in lost and found at the front desk because I al
ready cleaned that room this morning.”

  I curbed the urge to punch something, forcing myself to turn and smile at her instead. “Thanks so much for your help.” I eyed her nametag and turned on my charm. “Have a great day, Pamela.”

  She said nothing as I walked away, but I knew she watched me as I made my way back to the elevator. I hit the button repeatedly, needing it to hurry the hell up. They’d checked out hours ago. Fuck. How would I find her now? I had no idea what her last name was, or what his name was at all.

  When the doors opened, and I walked out into the lobby, I made a beeline for the front desk. It was rather empty, the business people having already left for the day and the vacationers not quite up and about yet. Thank God, since I hadn’t thought about calling for my security to follow me around the hotel.

  I stepped up to the desk, waiting for the young girl to glance up from her keyboard. “I’ll be right with you.”

  I nodded, tapping my fingers impatiently on the counter. I studied her dark hair, pulled back into a ponytail at the nape of her neck. She chewed on her lip as she clicked keys. I found her nametag. Stacie.

  I cleared my throat. “Stacie, can you help me for a second?”

  Her gaze lifted to mine and widened, her mouth dropping into a small O. She licked her lips and stepped back from the computer, her hands coming up to smooth her hair.

  “I-I’m sorry. Can I help you?”

  This was great news. She recognized me. I could see it in the way her hands slightly tremored as she twisted them together, and the way her pupils dilated as she stared at me unabashedly. That meant more than likely I could find a way to get her to give me the information I wanted.

  I was sure most of the employees knew we were staying here. Natalie never did anything without making sure everyone was on the up and up and wouldn’t cause a scene. She always chose the most professional hotels with the best security.

  “Yes, I hope you can.” I leaned over the counter slightly, and her gaze immediately zeroed in on the muscles of my arms. I smirked, my mouth quirking up like I knew the women liked. She was young—too young for me, but flirting with her could get me what I needed.