Sierra buries herself in my arms and breathes into my chest. The rhythm of her breathing changes, and I can tell she’s crying.

“What happened?” I try to pull her face away to see if she’s hurt. “Baby, look at me.”

I’m so on edge, I want to punch something just to make her pain go away. She clearly doesn’t want to talk yet, so I pull her over to the shop. She won’t leave my side, keeping her face hidden as we shuffle past the lobby toward the back.

Murph is with a client, but he sends me a concerned glance as we pass.

When I finally get her to the bathroom in the back, I manage to get her to splash her face with cool water. It seems to calm her enough to be able to look into my eyes. She no longer has that glossy stare, like she’s looking through me.

“Please talk to me,” I whisper, brushing away the hair that’s stuck to the sweat on her face.

“It was this guy, someone I met. He found me on the beach. Told me you owe him money, that you have to pay…or…or…I don’t know.”

I can feel the seething rage boil under my skin, and I’m already in a mood to kill a motherfucker.

“I didn’t want to let him get under my skin. I hate that he scares me, but, Logan, he scared me,” she starts to sob so I pull her into a hug again.

My vision is gone. I only see red.

“Did you catch his name?” I ask.

She sniffles and pulls away to mutter, “Hale.”

Fuck.

“I think he was on something. He just looked weird,” she mumbles into my shirt.

“You’re safe now,” I say, my lips against her head, but I can’t help but wonder if she is. What did I think was going to happen? He needed a bargaining chip against me, and he found one.

“I didn’t tell him anything, Logan. I tried to get out of there as fast as possible.”

My heart breaks into a million little pieces hearing her cry to me like this. Like she thought I would be mad at her. Like anything she could have done would warrant some little shit on the beach to treat her like this.

Fuck, I’m going to jail. Once I leave her here with Murph, I’m going to find that little fuck somehow, and I’m going to beat the snot out of him in front of everyone. And I’ll be in jail.

Then prison, because I’m still on probation.

But it will be so fucking worth it.

“Are you okay? Do you want me to take you home?” I look at her face again.

“No,” she bursts out quickly.

Then, she looks up at me with an expression of terror. “Logan, don’t do anything. I don’t want you getting hurt. Just let it go.”

The moment grows silent as she watches me, looking for any sign that I won’t do anything crazy.