Redemption Hills: The Complete Collection

37. Aster

THIRTY-SEVEN

ASTER

“Merry Christmas.” Logan gazed over at me where we lie on our sides facing the other. Our hearts were slowed and steadied, and a peace unlike anything I’d ever known had seeped deep into my spirit.

“I never thought I would get the chance to share one with you.”

He took my hand and pressed the back of it to his lips. “You get the rest of mine, Aster. The birthdays and the holidays and the celebrations. You get the days that will never make history and the ones that we will remember every detail of for the rest of our lives. You get every day.”

“That’s good because I’m going to require every single one.” My smile was tender, and Logan grinned, emotion cresting his brow.

We relished in it for the longest time before I brought what we kept trying to keep at the back of our minds into the forefront. “What are we going to do, Logan? I have one more week before my father expects me to return to Los Angeles.”

He inhaled a shaky breath. “We won’t let that happen.”

“We need a plan. I’m going to get in touch with my sister and see if she has made any progress, but I’m not sure we can continue to rely on that.”

Jarek hadn’t shown his face since the altercation in the alley. But I could feel his dark presence looming over the city.

Watching.

Lurking.

Waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.

“No. We can’t.” Logan kept kissing over the back of my hand in a soothing manner, even while the ferocity flashed through his face. “I spoke with Jud and Trent last night. Jud has an old connection who’s familiar with the Russian families. He’s going to make contact with him to see if we can find any ties to Jarek.”

Worry and hope flooded my bloodstream. “I don’t want to involve your family, Logan.”

He wound an arm around my back and pulled me flush, his voice turning to grit. “They’re your family now, Aster. Yours. And this family fights for each other.”

Emotion surged. Love and adoration and this lingering fear I would never shake. “Is it wrong I find so much joy in that?”

Those green eyes flashed, though this morning, the stony depths were transparent. “This joy is ours, Aster. It’s ours.”

Then he placed the softest kiss on my lips.

I nearly hit the ceiling when my phone started ringing, and I jerked around to the nightstand to see who was calling.

Panic clawed through my chest. “It’s my father.”

Logan slipped his palm to my cheek. “Don’t be afraid, Aster. You stood up for yourself and came here. Now it’s time for you to see it through.”

My nerves rattled, and I did my best to swallow it down, nodding at him once before I shifted, removed the phone from the charger, and snuck out into the kitchen area.

My voice was held when I answered, “Merry Christmas, Papa.”

“Mia vita, Merry Christmas.”

His affection filled my spirit. My love for him real even though he’d caused so much pain and grief.

“It truly is, Papa. It’s the first one where I felt whole and right since before I can remember.”

Or maybe I never had.

A heavy sigh pilfered through the line. “Please tell me you haven’t allowed your whimsical fantasies to delude you, Aster Rose. It’s time you come home, where you belong, and leave this foolishness behind.”

My mind spun with how to handle this best.

“No. Not yet. I’m so close to finding them, Papa. I’ve earned his trust.” My voice dropped even lower with that. I felt like a fraud saying it, and not because I held any guilt over lying to my father. “I need more time, and you promised me thirty days.”

“We miss you here.”

My laughter was close to disbelieving. “I’m not sure how you can miss something that doesn’t truly exist.”

There, I was a shell.

Numb.

A caricature with a false smile.

“You know everything, every choice I’ve ever made, is because of my love for you.”

The sad thing was I thought he might believe it.

“No, Papa. Every choice you ever made was for you because you believed in a lie that was passed down from generation to generation that proclaimed that was the way it was supposed to be. It was wrong. Horrible. A crime. And I will no longer pretend like it’s not.”

“Aster.” His voice was aghast. Low and filled with a warning.

“It’s the truth, Papa. And you know it. It’s time you came to accept it.”

I ended the call before giving him a chance to respond, and the air squeezed from my lungs in spastic quakes.

I was shocked at what I’d said.

Shocked by the truth that I was going to stand behind it.

An overwhelming presence emerged over me from behind. Stark intensity. Mind-bending beauty. Logan wrapped his arms around my waist, and he pressed his nose into my hair until it was sweeping the sensitive spot at the nape of my neck. “Aster. Little Star. My light. My destination. I’m so fucking proud of you.”

I pressed my hands over his that were splayed over my stomach. “Together.”

“Together,” he rumbled back.

And I knew…knew everything would be all right.