Redemption Hills: The Complete Collection

6. Logan

SIX

LOGAN

“We’ll see you tonight, yeah?” Trent pressed like he thought I was going to swindle my way out of tonight’s duties as he helped Gage into the backseat of his white Porsche Panamera.

The kiddie wagon.

It cracked me up he drove it half the time considering my oldest brother was the scariest motherfucker I knew.

Covered in tats. Deathly quiet. Sight of him caused grown men to stop in their tracks.

Old MC before he’d left that life behind. Now, he ran Absolution, a club across town.

But I doubted much you could fully purify your blood of those kinds of metals.

Oil and leather and perversion ran through our veins.

Ruthless depravity.

Mine flowed differently, though.

Greed the fix my body craved.

It was funny that I hadn’t given a shit about any of that until having it had become something I needed to prove.

“Dude, come on, have you ever known me to miss a good time?” I grinned.

Trent all but rolled his black eyes. “Yeah, man, I’m sure spending a Saturday night at a kids’ dance performance is exactly what you had in mind.”

I pressed my hand to my heart, all dramatic like. “Trent, you wound me. You know my niece and nephew are my world. Isn’t that right, Gage?” I shouted it a little louder to get Gage in on the antics.

“That’s right, Uncle. Families got to stay together, no matter what,” he hollered back from where he was strapped in his seat, kid cute as fuck as he kicked his little feet.

“See?” I drew that one out.

Trent grunted. “Sure, sure.”

The truth was, Gage was my life. He was the one who’d given me a reason to move. To put one foot in front of the other. A purpose when Trent had needed me to have his back, to stand in and help him raise his son when he and Jud were trying to get their new businesses here in Redemption Hills off the ground.

Holding him for the first time on the day he was born? I could still distinctly remember that moment.

The way it’d felt.

The way something had thawed.

Cracked.

And I’d smiled for the first time in six months.

My teeth gritted as a slew of the memories I’d repressed slammed me from out of nowhere.

I could thank Aster Rose Costa for that.

Girl had fucking crushed me, and now she had me stumbling all over again.

I forced myself to keep the grin plastered to my face as Trent tossed Gage’s backpack to the floorboards.

“Just be sure to leave the rest of the teachers alone, yeah?” Trent razzed as he closed Gage’s door.

“Of course…that is if they can keep their hands off me. Impossible, I know, but I’ll do my best.”

Trent shook his head, though his eyes glinted with amusement. “That ego is going to bite you in the ass one of these days.”

“As long as she’s cute, I don’t mind.”

“For my own sanity, I’ll pretend I didn’t hear you say that.”

Laughter rolled out of me, and I clapped him on the shoulder. “You know you love me.”

“Barely.” He fought a smile.

“I’ll see you tonight,” I promised.

“Seven,” he reiterated.

“Yes, Daddy.” I winked.

Since the dude had basically raised me, doing the best he could even though he was nothing but a kid himself, trying to keep me out of the clutches of our piece-of-shit father, I doubted much that he’d ever stop looking at me like I was five.

I didn’t think there would have been a thing either he or Jud could have done to stop that spiral, though, the fact our father had manipulated each of us into who he wanted us to be.

Our father had been the president of a brutal MC back in LA.

Iron Owls.

The club had been steeped thick in every sort of crime, and before they could even drive, Trent and Jud had been seeded deep.

Roots getting tangled in ugliness.

They’d tried to protect me from it—from the hooks that sank in and drained out innocence and life before it filled it back up with death and immorality. I figured they’d been so wrapped up in surviving, it was easy for me to slip into the debased, even before I’d realized it myself.

“Later, man. Be good.” Trent gave me a jut of his chin as he moved to the driver’s side of his car.

“Always,” I said as I backed away.

I couldn’t help the twinge of guilt over what had gone down last night. He would flip if he knew my vices. If he knew the thirst that could never be quenched.

It was the one sin I’d never let go.

It was who I was. Who I’d been bred to be. The numbers came easy. Manipulating them came easier.

Because I’d never again allow anyone to own me. Control me. Would never allow anyone to look at me as less than because I would be the one to dominate.

But I’d always done it in ways that it wouldn’t blow back on my family.

I wasn’t sure that was the case this time.

They pulled from the curb, and I watched them disappear down the road. The second they were gone, that antsy feeling was back full force. The sense that something was off.

No doubt, it was the traces of Aster Rose that clawed under my skin and made me feel like I was coming unhinged.

How many times had I had to stop myself from going back there? From trying to convince her that she belonged with me?

But I’d never forget what she’d said that night.

The look in her eyes.

“I hate you.”

I’d known she meant it.

That it was all for naught.

A goddamn waste.

And here I’d let her come in and stir up my life again. Let her feed the vengeance.

It felt like I held two fistfuls of white-hot coals in the palms of my hands.

The sick, twisted truth that I wanted to hurt Jarek Urso.

That I’d wanted to keep her like some kind of aberrant prize.

Or maybe I’d just wanted to torture myself.

Turning on my heel, I moved back up Main Street. I drained the rest of my coffee and tossed the cup into a bin, working my way toward my office that was half a block up from my apartment since I needed to check in on a couple accounts.

No rest for the weary.

I tried to clear all thoughts of her from my being. To pretend last night had only been a wicked dream.

Instead, I needed to focus on what I’d been given.

Gage.

Trent and Jud’s joy at finding the good life.

Their amazing wives and kids.

It was all we’d ever wanted for each other, and I’d done my best to find my own satisfaction in that.

Not to mention what I’d worked to become. The power I’d gained so no one could look at me like I was garbage again.

Still, I itched.

I sensed the crawl of something unfathomable at the base of my neck, whispering in my ear and tickling down my spine.

I glanced behind me into the mass of bodies that were out to enjoy Saturday morning.

A puff of frustrated air gushed from my nose.

I was losing it.

I pushed the key into the lock of the office building and let myself into the quiet, stilled space. I walked past my office manager’s desk and into my office at the back.

I tossed my keys and my phone onto the black, metal desk, and I moved around to the chair and sank into the soft leather. I breathed out a sigh of irritation.

That was the second before every bit of oxygen was suddenly sucked from the room when the door opened.

I sat back in my chair and forced myself not to shoot to my feet when I saw her standing in the doorway.

Disheveled.

Gorgeous.

Hopeful.

The sight of her stopped my heart in my chest.

My teeth gnashed as a fist of greed tightened my stomach.

It felt like I got smashed in the face all over again.

There she was in that same black, slinky dress, one that I was sure would be emblazoned in my mind for the rest of my life. That white coat tucked tight around her. Not to mention she appeared five feet taller in those silver heels.

For a flash, every dark place in my mind went light.

There was something that had shifted since she’d gotten out of my car earlier. Something that had rearranged in those agate eyes. Determination and heat fired from the depths.

It plundered all logic.

Because I was slammed with a swell of relief.

Because she shouldn’t be here.

Because she needed to go.

Last night had been a mistake. I’d been playing with the type of fire that should have long since been put out. Seeing Gage’s sweet little face had only reiterated that.

I couldn’t drag my family into that type of sordid mess.

I couldn’t seek the revenge I thirsted for so desperately.

I couldn’t touch her.

No matter how fucking bad I wanted to.

Aster stared down at me with her chin lifted the slightest bit. That fierce bravery wobbling with the fear written underneath.

I set my elbow on the arm of my chair and rested my temple on my fingers like I was bored to death while the buzz of energy nearly lit me in flames.

“What are you doing here, Aster? Aren’t you supposed to be on a plane to LA right now?”

“You won me, didn’t you?”

I almost choked. Instead, I forced out an incredulous chuckle. “Honestly, I never took you as the type of woman who could be bought.”

Her face paled in a regret so stark I thought she might sink to her knees. One that made me want to hurtle over the desk to get to her.

She seemed to gather it, to reclaim that ferocity, and she strode forward and sat down on one of the chairs that faced my desk. “I have a proposition for you.”

“Really?” I asked, completely droll while my spirit screamed.

What the hell was she doing?

She blanched and shook and seemed to have to force out the word. “Yes.”

Old spite flooded out with my response. “And why would I ever do you a favor?”

Hurt trembled her mouth. “I’d hoped it would be mutually beneficial.”

Send her packing.

Send her packing.

I sat forward and asked, “How so?”

Her honeyed voice shifted to a plea. “You get to shame Jarek, and I have a place to stay.”

“A place to stay?” My brow cocked in disbelief.

“Yes. Let me stay here, with you.” Her fingers curled into her bag, her throat bobbing as she swallowed.

“You want to stay with me?”

Her tongue stroked out to wet her lips. “I can’t go back there, Logan.”

Ironic, considering she’d chosen him over me. Considering that was the life she’d wanted.

The truth that I would never be good enough.

Old rage I’d carried for too many years pushed me to standing, and I stalked around to the front of the desk.

The air shivered as I moved to stand in front of her.

She sat back like she could protect herself from the proximity while I rested on the edge of the desk.

Attraction blazed.

A connection neither of us had been able to resist.

Something I’d felt once in my life and thought I’d never experience again.

And there it was, sparked back to life by this girl who was my one true threat.

Her breaths were hollow, and her eyes whispered over me like I was the one thing she’d been missing.

My dick hardened at the sight.

A haze of lust permeated the room.

Like a fool, I reached out and took her by the chin, my thumb tracing that mouth that could drive a decent man to depravity.

I wasn’t exactly a decent man.

“You should go home, Aster. It’s where you belong.” It was laced with a warning.

“I never belonged there. You know that.” Her words were soft snares.

Pain banged through my being. “Don’t fucking lie to me.”

Her eyes dropped closed, and her chest heaved as she looked away for a moment before she looked back at me. “I need a place to stay, Logan. I can’t go back there. I can’t.”

Rage burned through my spirit. For her. At the thought of what put this desperation on her face.

I couldn’t trust it.

I’d seen it before.

Had fallen for it before.

If my father had been a master-manipulator, she’d been the queen.

My voice dropped to a growl. “You want to stay with me? When I hate you?” It was true. I hated her. Hated her for how much I still loved her.

That she still held the power to fuck me up.

She pinned the fakest smile on her face, like this was a win-win. “You won me, Logan. Let’s show him what that means. What he gambled with. When my father realizes what Jarek has done? What he’s been doing? He’ll set me free.”

She sat forward a fraction. “I think Jarek has turned, Logan. I know it.” On a ragged breath, she touched her chest. “I know it. I just have to find a way to prove it, and I need a place to stay while I do.”

“And when they come for me? Like you said?”

“I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen. My father…he owes me this.” Her knee was bouncing so hard I knew she was trying to convince herself.

“What does he owe you?”

Crestfallen hope singed her expression. “A chance.”

Without giving her a warning, I dragged her to her feet, spun her around, and pressed her back to the desk.

I pinned her to the hard, unforgiving metal.

Shock filled her gasp, and those fire-agate eyes flashed with flames that could sear me through.

She’d ruin me.

She’d ruin me.

I already felt myself coming apart.

I couldn’t let her go there. Couldn’t let her get under my skin.

Still, the words wheezed from my lungs when I bit them out. “How can I trust you?”

She stared up at me, dark chocolate hair spread out on my desk. Her face so goddamn pretty she made my chest feel like it was going to cave.

Her heart ran at an erratic, frenzied rhythm. Her spirit a wail. “I give you my word.”

My eyes squeezed tight.

Her word? She’d given me a million of them.

Promises that had slayed.

I needed to toss her lying ass out onto the street. Let her fend for herself because there was no time in history when she’d actually needed me. Still, the question gritted out, “What do I get out of it?”

“Anything you want. Everything I have.” I saw the flash of grief before she squeezed her eyes closed, as if she were searching around in herself for resolve. For a way to take it back.

Because I think we both knew this wasn’t going to end well for either of us.

Then her lids fluttered open, and I had to stop myself from falling all the way down into their hidden depths.

I shifted to plant my hands on either side of her head, and I angled down, so close our lips nearly touched. The words were quiet threats. “And what if I don’t want anything you have?”

Her hand curled in my shirt, a plea, poison, I didn’t know, I just knew I could feel her sinking her nails right back into my soul. She lifted herself an inch and brought us chest to chest.

“You said you loved me once. If it was true? If it was real? Then do this one thing for me. Let Jarek’s debt become mine, and I will be the one who makes him pay.”

Like a fool, I eased lower, let my fingers toy with the necklace around her throat as the flames lapped and leapt and consumed. The demand was out before I could stop myself. “My rules, Aster.”

She stalled for a moment before she offered me a wary nod. “Okay.”