Redemption Hills: The Complete Collection

3. Logan

THREE

LOGAN

The engine growled as I accelerated and rounded a sharp curve just on the other side of the gate. She couldn’t have gotten far, but I still felt like I was in a race against…something.

Dread.

Hate.

Possession.

I didn’t know.

I just knew it was straight-up chaos that whipped a tornado of need in my chest.

A toiling that writhed in that cynical pit that festered deep inside me. It seemed no matter how much I had, there was always this thirst for something that was just out of reach.

More, more, more.

I should have known it could never be sated when I’d been fighting for the wrong damned thing.

The bedlam eased a fraction when I saw a flurry of white up ahead, her thick coat glowing in the hazy dome of my headlights, silver heels glinting in the rays as she fumbled down the edge of the road.

Relief pounded through my bloodstream.

Only the sight of her spiked something else, too. A dark pleasure that rattled my bones. A sickening satisfaction that she was there.

I braked hard when I caught up, the car skidding to a stop two feet in front of her. Reaching over the console, I pushed open the passenger door.

“Are you hiding from me?” I couldn’t stop it from riding out.

“Screw you, Logan Lawson.” She could barely get it out, she was panting so hard.

“Get in.” The command gritted from my mouth.

Aster bent over, gasping, the air puffing from her mouth a misty, white vapor.

The temperature on the dash read twenty-eight, and she might have been wearing a white-fur coat, but it only came to her knees, and her feet were bare save for those silver, strappy heels.

I’d gladly lay down another bet there was a frigid draft breezing up beneath that dress.

I had the sudden urge to warm her up.

Fire-agate eyes flashed and flamed as they cut through the night. “I already told you that I’m not going anywhere with you.”

She started to move around the door like she found it fit to keep walking down the deserted road. I eased along, keeping pace with her with the door swung open and hot air blasting from the vents.

“You’re going to freeze.”

Scoffing, she hugged herself tighter. “Like you care, Logan.”

“I take good care of my possessions.”

She sent me a look meant to slay.

Yeah, I was being a prick. After what she’d done? What she’d caused?

Grief glowered like a dark storm from within.

She deserved it.

And I was the twisted fuck that found some sort of satisfaction in her anger. Like maybe I wanted her to feel even an ounce of what she’d put me through.

The loss she’d caused.

But the thought of her finding actual harm out on this deserted road? It had that chaos rounding double time.

“Get in the car, Aster,” I said, keeping my voice as even as possible when I wanted to shout that she was being a fool when she continued to stumble down the road in the freezing cold.

She ignored me.

“If you don’t get in, I’ll do it for you.”

Her head whipped my way. An arrow pierced me in the chest. I hated that she was so goddamn pretty. Hated that I could remember the times when the sight of me had brightened her face with the kind of joy that had felt so real.

Now, she glared at me like I was a monster. It wasn’t far from the truth.

“You wouldn’t dare.”

My brow arched as my car inched down the road. “Wouldn’t I?”

Energy crackled in the chilled air. An old spark I resented still had the audacity to thrive. The kind that burned and seared and left nothing but ash.

She lifted her chin, and her voice shifted, went deep the way it used to do, like she wanted to believe I was someone I was not. “I don’t think you would.”

I rammed on the brake, had the car in park, and was in front of her so fast she nearly tripped. My hands shot out to grip her by the arms to keep her from falling. An avalanche of greed hit me so hard it came close to knocking me from my feet.

Urges slammed me from all sides.

Attraction.

Want.

An old devotion that should have been crushed underfoot.

Clearly, I was the fool.

I gripped her by the chin. “You’d do well not to underestimate me, Aster Rose.”

Without giving her a chance to respond, I scooped her up and tossed her frozen ass over my shoulder.

“Are you kidding me?” she shrieked, her legs kicking in a bid to get free. “Put me down.”

“Nope. Not going to happen.”

She screeched as I tucked her into the front passenger’s seat of my car so she wouldn’t end up an ice block. I yanked the seatbelt across her body and clicked it into place.

“There.” I smiled like I was proud of the great job I’d done.

“Logan.” Ferocity and frustration filled every line of her expression.

I just held that smug smile, shut the door, and rounded the front of the car so I could slip into the driver’s side.

I didn’t dare glance that way as I put the car into drive and gunned it because having her this close promised to do me in.

I ignored the tugging of inevitability. The lure. The draw.

Gravity.

It felt like this moment had been coming for a billion years and there would have been nothing either of us could have done to stop it.

Her breaths were shallow. Short and panted and filling the cabin like an intoxicating dream. Every twitch of her body I felt like a spark.

“What do you want from me, Logan?” Her attention was focused ahead, her fingers clutched together on her lap so tightly her knuckles were white.

“Did you actually think I was going to leave you out there in the snow to fend for yourself?”

I heard the thick swallow that got lodged in her throat. “I can take care of myself.”

“You’d get eaten alive out there.”

“By you.” A ripple of distrust vibrated through her body.

Like I was to blame and not her dumb-as-fuck husband who’d been stupid enough to meet my proposition?

The laughter that ripped from me was low. “There isn’t anything within twenty miles, and you aren’t going to get service. You really want me to dump you on the side of the road? Fine. Be my guest.”

I wouldn’t. But fuck. I could barely handle the hatred that emanated from her. The distrust. The disbelief.

How the fuck did we end up here?

Because I remembered…I remembered.

I roughed my fingers through my hair like it could staunch the roil of agony that was threatening to burst.

She inhaled a sharp breath before she released it in surrender, her teeth gritting when she pressed, “Why would you make that bet?”

Because he was a monster.

Because she no longer shined when she was standing at his side.

Because I still didn’t fucking understand.

I boiled it down to the barest, most basic thing.

“He took what was mine, so I took it back.”

Dejection shook her head. “So that’s how it is to you, too? I’m just a possession? A plaything? A commodity to be bought and stolen? Used how you want? What, are you going to force me?”

Her voice was hard, but a single tear slipped down her cheek.

A shock of rage spiraled down my spine at the thought of someone hurting her. It lined my insides in steel. This feeling like I wanted to gather her up. Protect and hold her. Ease whatever horrible shit had been introduced into her life.

But she was the one who’d chosen it, wasn’t she?

She didn’t fucking wait. Didn’t fight. Destroyed the hope we’d been given.

I had to hold every demand back, the why that screamed from my brain. My hands cinched tight on the steering wheel to stop myself from doing something stupid like reaching out, touching her, and begging her to stay.

It really fucking sucked loving someone you were supposed to hate.

I forced myself to stare out the windshield when I let the bitterness override. “Who said I wanted to fuck you, Aster?”

The words were daggers.

Lies.

Bred of the years that pledged that neither of us knew the other anymore.

Hurt tangled her fingers together like doing it could keep her from coming apart, the words thin wisps of pain. “Then why are you doing this?”

Nonchalance filtered out with my shrug. “Some people need to be taught a lesson.”

Distaste and disbelief filled her scoff. “So that’s why you lured Jarek here…for you to teach him that? A lesson? Do you realize how dangerous that is?”

The headlights ate up the pavement, the forest whipping by in a blur as I flew down the winding road.

“I was as surprised to see him as he was to see me,” I told her, eyeing her for a clue.

Her expression twisted, more of that confusion. Gut told me she didn’t know how Jarek had ended up sitting there any better than I did.

She fidgeted, shifting in hesitation and dread, before the haggard question tremored from her tongue. “Is he dead? I heard a gunshot.”

“Do you want him to be?” It was bait.

Aster flinched before she turned to stare out the passenger window at the slur of snow-laden trees. Her voice was quiet with strain. “He’s my husband. What do you think?”

“Don’t worry, Aster. Your prince is just fine.” My teeth gritted as I spat it, and I floored the accelerator, flying down the winding road.

As if there was any fucking way to leave that fact behind.

I whipped my car into the rounded drive of the hotel on the outskirts of the small city. Severity bound the cab of my car, that energy thick. Every mile that passed had been painful.

Aster sat up higher in her seat. Uncertainty had her gaze darting to every corner. Her nerves scattered like the wind that gusted through the valleys of the mountain.

“What are we doing here?” she wheezed.

I smirked over at her, though it was bitterness that leaked out with the words. “What, did you think that I was taking you to my place? I’ll pass, but thanks.”

Hurt blistered through her expression.

My chest squeezed.

Shit.

I had no goddamn clue how to handle this. How to treat her. How to even look at her without coming unglued.

I came to a quick stop in front of the doorway and jumped out before I apologized.

This was the girl who’d fucking wrecked me. Destroyed the good thing I was trying to build. She didn’t get my sympathy or worry.

I stormed around to her side and ripped open her door. “Let’s go.”

She fumbled out, and I could feel her trying to keep up as I strode directly to the lobby clerk. I grabbed a room while Aster wavered behind, unsure of what the hell was going on.

Join the fucking club, baby.

I didn’t know what had possessed me to make that proposition. Nothing but how good it’d feel to see the shame written on Jarek’s face.

I had his wife, and now I didn’t know what the fuck to do with her.

Keep her.

There my head went, deep diving into dangerous things.

“Here you are, Sir.” The clerk handed me the key to a room at one of the nicest hotels in Redemption Hills. It was situated on the farthest end of downtown, about a mile from my apartment.

It would be a safe place for her to stay until I figured out a plan because I sure as shit wasn’t delivering her back into the hands of that prick. Maybe I should have ended him rather than standing down when Oz had fired the warning shot.

But I knew what putting a man like Jarek Urso into the ground would incite.

A war.

It would endanger my family. My brothers. Their wives. Their kids. I couldn’t go there.

No doubt, my actions from tonight already had me neck deep.

“I have a room.” I pressed my hand to the small of Aster’s back.

She shivered.

I rejected the way it wanted to seep into me and take over.

The way her spirit washed and swam, different but familiar.

I had to stop myself from leaning in and inhaling her warmth.

I guided her to the elevator, pushed the button for the third floor, and swiped the card at the door. It opened to the lapping shadows.

We stepped inside the bated silence.

I could feel every violent beat of her heart. Could taste every ragged breath. Could smell her aura coming off her in waves.

Hyacinth and magnolia leaves.

This decadent, exotic scent that sparked the type of memories I couldn’t bear.

They drilled a hole through the middle of me.

Resentment.

Hurt.

A new obsession that twisted my guts in a tangle of greed.

It was a volatile, dangerous combination.

I felt the impact of it tremble down her spine as she reluctantly stepped inside. She edged deeper into the living area of the hotel room as I let the door drift shut behind us.

My eyes caressed her shape as a fresh round of those memories surged.

The way she used to be a picture of joy.

The way my heart used to beat out of my chest every time she came into a room.

What a fucking injustice that it still did.

Aster was harder than she’d been then, though. Her once soft, round cheeks were now angled and harsh. Her eyes sharpened and telling. She remained petite, small tits and slim waist and full thighs I could get lost in for days.

She lifted her hands out to the sides. “So, what now, Logan? Have you had your fun? Are you finished playing games?”

Distrust burned from her being. I almost wanted to laugh. Who was she kidding?

“Who said I was playing games?”

A scoff ripped from her lungs, though it shook with agony. “That’s all it’s ever been, hasn’t it? A game to you? To see how fast you can make it to the top? Just how powerful you could be? Obviously, you won, Logan. I think you’ve proven your point. Where are the stones, anyway?”

The last was a fiery accusation. One that pierced me like a flaming arrow.

I had her spun and pressed against the closest wall before she could process the movement. My hands rested on either side of her head.

Caging her in.

She trembled, her body hot and lush and too goddamn tempting.

Savage seductress.

She gulped, her pulse pounding so hard I could feel it beating through my blood.

“Is that why you’re here, Aster? You want to know about the stones?”

Those fucking twin stones that had ruined everything. A treasure that could never compensate for the grief they’d caused.

“It looks like they’ve afforded you a wonderful life.” Bitterness flooded out with her words.

She obviously still didn’t have a clue what’d gone down that night since she thought I might possess both.

What bullshit.

“Where are they?” she demanded.

“You think I wanted a bauble? A shiny thing to waste away in a safe? You’re right. Because of you, I’ve been living like a king for all these years. I guess I should thank you.”

The lie slipped so easily from my tongue.

“You sold them. You bastard.”

A smirk cracked my face. “Bastard? You can do better than that, can’t you, Aster?”

After all, she was the slayer of hearts.

“What do you want from me?” Her voice was half-panicked, half a plea, pitched too high from the sultry husk it normally held. “You take me in a bet, force me into your car, and then leave me in a hotel room? What are you going to do, lock me away in here?”

She stared at me in confusion. Like I was the one who’d hurt her.

A breath of condescension left me. “What did you think, Aster? That I was going to sweep you back to my palace and we were going to live happily ever after? You missed that train.”

She blinked in pain. “I don’t understand what you want or what you’re doing.”

My fingertips traced her trembling jaw. I was definitely, definitely playing with fire. The way I wanted to sink in. Forget it all and tell her I didn’t give a fuck about what’d happened in the past.

That would make me the biggest fool of all.

So I found purpose—one thing I could actually control.

“What do you think? I’m going to destroy your husband.” The words slipped out in a vat of subdued darkness.

I’d always intended it. Had thirsted for the moment when I could repay him for what he’d done.

Vengeance the ugliest side of greed.

Agate eyes glowed in the muted light, orbs of molten gold that churned with a concern she shouldn’t feel. Her tongue stroked out to wet her lips before she let go of the ragged words. “You can’t keep me here. He’s going to kill you. If not him, then my father will.”

A sound of indifference puffed from my nose. It seemed my life had always been on the line when it came to her.

I started to pull away. She fisted her hands in the lapels of my jacket.

“Logan,” she begged. “You need to take me back to my hotel. Where Jarek is. You can’t make me stay here.”

A rough chuckle scraped free. “Can’t I?”

She heaved a frantic breath. A billow of old need punched me in the guts.

Fuck.

This was a bad idea. All of it. And I wanted to go deeper.

“You know they’ll come for me. This is a war you don’t want to start.” Her eyes bored into mine like she could bring me to my senses.

Thing was, I already knew that full well. Just having her here put me in her father’s crosshairs.

Aster and I came from dirty families. But hers? Hers was powerful. The veins of the Costa name were carved throughout the country, stretching out to touch the world.

Brutal.

Ruthless.

It was funny how I’d once believed she was nothing like them.

Throat constricting, I pressed both hands to the wall on either side of her head and leaned down to murmur the question at her ear. “Who is it you belong to, Aster?”

I dared her to say it. To admit this bullshit out loud. That she was one of them. Not one with me.

Her chin quivered, and I thought it was regret that poured out with the words. “Not you.”

She gasped when I gripped her by the side and angled back a fraction, words a hiss that I spat at her face. “And your husband is a fool for playing with that truth.”

Pained laughter flitted out. “You’re a fool for trying to prove that he is. Do you have any idea what you’ve incited with that stunt? It was reckless, Logan, reckless, and?—”

My fingers sank deeper into her side. “He never should have sat at that table if he wasn’t willing to see it through.”

“And you’re an asshole for thinking me a plaything to be divvied and shared.” That old ferocity flared in her gaze. The part of her I’d loved most. She’d been sweet and kind and so fucking strong and brave that I’d thought together we could conquer the world.

But it turned out that person hadn’t really existed. She’d succumbed. Let them control her the way they always had. Chose that life over the one I’d offered.

I wondered if she had the first clue how deeply it’d destroyed me.

My hand found the soft curve of her neck before it slipped around to the front of her throat. I squeezed just hard enough to force her to meet my gaze, and my voice dropped to the low cut of a threat. “And if you were mine, I would never share you.”

Agony lashed through her expression, and her tongue swept out to wet her dry lips before she pushed out the words, “But I’m not, am I? No matter what a bet says.”

Her eyes rushed all over my face, taking every intonation in, like I was to blame for that.

I swallowed around the shards of glass that had gathered in my throat. “Is that what you want, Aster? You want me to let you go?”

“Yes.” I wondered if she knew it sounded like a lie.

She’d stood up to him and not a half an hour later, she was succumbing again.

“When are you supposed to leave?”

Her lids pressed closed like she didn’t want to look at me when she answered. “At nine tomorrow morning.”

My chuckle was cruel as I let it spread over her face. That’s what living without her had been.

Cruel.

I stepped back, and a tiny sound whimpered from her lips.

I cocked my head. “Fine, Aster. Be ready at seven. I’ll pick you up and take you there. Just know Jarek’s debt just became greater than he can pay.”