For the Love of Music by Marissa Honeycutt

Author:Marissa Honeycutt [Honeycutt, Marissa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Marissa Honeycutt
Published: 2022-11-28T18:30:00+00:00

Thirty

Mark clenched his jaw as he envisioned a forty-year-old Rafael Alvarez yelling and—dare he imagine it—hitting a young girl like Emily. How could anyone be so cruel to such a sweet, talented girl? He knew Rafael. He knew Emily’s—Emma’s—father.

Standing here, holding her . . . How could her father have let that happen?

Hell, he’d played with Rafael many times. He’d admired him since he was a teenager.

Now the thought made him sick.

He supposed Emma might have been lying, but why would she? What would she gain? She’d been trying to keep her distance from him. Or she had been. Until now.

It was both wonderful and horrible to have her in his arms. Horrible because of why. Wonderful, because, if he were honest, he’d wanted to ever since he’d seen her at the Juilliard audition, years ago. Someone who could understand music like he did, something few people were capable of. He’d wanted to ask her out that day, but she had been sixteen at the time, too young to be appropriate. Then she’d disappeared.

“Where did you go?” he asked, half-afraid to hear her answer. “When you left?”

She shuddered. “Nowhere good.”

Oh, he had so many questions he wanted to ask. But he didn’t want to press her. She needed time to get to know him and trust him.

He wanted to hold her and never let go. Protect her from— “Do you work at Café Milan?”

She stiffened and pulled away, staring at him. Her jaw trembled and her eyes filled with tears again. Her shoulders slumped and she closed her eyes. “Yes,” she whispered and winced.

“Why?”

She searched his eyes, brows knit together. “You’re not judging.”

He shook his head. “Why would I judge?”

“Girls who work there have reputations.” She gave a small shrug. “I assume you know what happens there?”

“I’ve heard rumors.” He clenched his jaw at the thought of the place offering food, wine, and prostitutes. But was she at the Café by choice?

“Geoffrey . . . He found me on the streets, in the middle of a rainstorm, and took me in.” She stared at the floor.

“You were living on the streets?”

She gave a bitter laugh. “It was better than where I’d been before.”

Mark’s heart broke at her words. How terrible a place it must have been to think the streets of DC were better than her previous living arrangements?

“I owe him my life,” she whispered, squeezing her eyes shut and shaking her head. “I don’t have a choice.”

“There’s always a choice,” he said, keeping his voice gentle. “I can help you. I can—”

Her eyes widened with fright and she shook her head. “No. No, you can’t. You can’t let anyone know you know . . .” She swallowed. “Please. And you have to call me Emily. Otherwise—”

“Why?”

She swallowed hard. “Please, promise me.”

He hesitated, but relented at the desperation in her eyes. “Okay. I promise.” He hated making a promise like that, but he couldn’t resist her plea. More than anything, he wanted her to trust him.

There had to be something he could do to help without breaking his promise.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.