Page 132 of Love Me Steadfast
I slip on my glasses and wake up my screen. “The third one is the year Nic Salazar first played at The Limelight. It’s the same year that Boxcar Doves first played too.”
“Okay,” Zach says slowly.
I click on the tab for the year Ari’s band played, searching for theinformation my brain is hungry for, but when I find it, I just blink at the screen.
Could this be it? I tell myself I’m jumping to conclusions. But the pieces are locking in, even as I try to shake them loose.
“The night Tenderhook played at The Limelight, guess who else played? Nic Salazar.”
“I’m still not following,” he says, frustrated.
“Same as the night Boxcar first played. Nic was the main event, remember?”
“Yeah, but?—”
“What if Nic’s the link?” The dull ache at the base of my skull tightens behind my ears.
“Whoa. That’s a bit of a leap.”
“Is it?”
When I talked to Charlotte after Boxcar’s show at Creekside that night, she’d been relieved it was behind them, but she was excited and proud. Happy. The next time I talked to her was more than a day later. Something felt off, but she said she was still exhausted from the show. Those weeks after that felt strained, but then she broke things off, and it all made sense.
Or at least to my broken heart, it did.
But it’s starting to look very different to me now. Especially after yesterday and what Dr. Wilson told me.Whatever happened to her, it was violent, and it got stored as fear in her nervous system.
Could someone have hurt Charlotte that night at Creekside?
I close my eyes, but the headache is rattling my sinuses.
Fuck, fuck, fuck!
The anger thickens so fast and hot inside me that I can’t breathe. I drop the phone and push to standing, then brace against the desk.
Nic Salazar hurt my blackbird. Hurt my sweet, beautiful girl.
Zach’s still rolling, but I’m not listening. I scoop up my phone. “I gotta go.” I end the call before he can protest. I welcome the silence, but it only steels my determination.
I need answers. I need…
Breathe, damn it, or your head is going to explode.
Nic threw that party after the Creekside show. Charlotte went with Emmie and Crosby. Is that when it happened? Nic targets the women he plays gigs with. He may have even groomed them. Befriended them. I know Morgan thought of Nic that way.
My god.
Morgan sold a few of her songs to some bigshot, like…six years ago maybe.
I grip the table and force in another series of breaths. Anger is so tight and thick in my chest it’s going to crack my ribs.
Nic hurt my girl, and I wasn’t there to protect her. I was too focused on fucking football. I press a fist to my lips but the sob rips free. Hot tears sting my eyes. I try to blink them away but they splat on the desk.
My girl was alone when she needed me most.
How can I ever forgive myself?
Is this why she pushed me away? Because I let her down? Because I was too busy chasing my dreams instead of supporting hers?
