“No, we don’t.”
Juan turned to the wall and shouted, “They’re going to stay here! Don’t let them follow me.”
Logan’s hands fisted. He’d said he didn’t mind staying here, but hedid. He didn’t like anyone alone near Elena right now. He had no idea how Juan would react to what happened. However, if he followed them, the hunters on the wall would open fire, and he couldn’t risk Asher’s life.
His teeth scraped together, but he didn’t move when Juan walked away to join Elena behind the SUV. When Juan’s hand tightened on his gun, Logan stepped toward them and froze when a gun cocked.
His vision sharpened until all he could see and hear was Juan and Elena. If the man blinked at her wrong, Logan would be on him in an instant.
They spoke in low murmurs to each other. He could hear the words but didn’t understand most of them as they’d switched back to Spanish. Juan didn’t pull his gun, and he didn’t sound or look mad. Instead, he appeared troubled as he studied the wall.
Finally, he nodded, and Elena closed the door. They returned to him and Asher.
“It appears we have a mess on our hands,” Juan said.
“Yes, you do,” Logan said.
“If you’re willing to come back inside, I think we’re going to need help cleaning this up.”
Logan exchanged a look with Asher, who stared at him for a minute before bowing his head. They were putting a lot of trust in Mateo, and his men, to have told the truth about who was involved. They’d gotten lucky when they got away before; they wouldn’t be so fortunate again.
Neither of them was eager to return to that compound, but they couldn’t leave without seeing this through. Even if Asher didn’t go back in there, Logan planned to stay with Elena.
“We’ll help anyway we can,” Logan said as he turned back to Juan.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The next coupleof weeks went by in a strange blur that Elena didn’t fully grasp. It had taken time to sort out the mess with the traitors, but once they did, the murderers were all imprisoned in the compound’s two jail cells.
At her old compound, she couldn’t remember a time when they’d used the jail cells, but now they were crammed full with the twelve men who plotted and succeeded in destroying her father.
She’d gone back to her apartment to retrieve some clothes and called out of her job too many times before they all agreed she couldn’t work there anymore. It didn’t matter; she couldn’t leave her mom alone while all this was happening, and she didn’t want to leave Asher or Logan either. No one was bothering them, and they had become more welcomed at the compound, but she wasn’t going to take any chances.
After that, she returned to her apartment to retrieve what few personal belongings of hers remained. She’d paid another month of rent; when that money ran out, her lease expired, and she would decide what to do with it.
She still had her savings account. She would never be dirt poor, begging, starving, and vulnerable again, but she wasn’t going to deplete those savings on an apartment she wasn’t living in.
She had no intention of staying at the compound for good, but she wasn’t going to rush away and leave her mom, Logan, Asher, and the other hunters to deal with this mess. Besides, she would see her father’s killers brought to justice.
Over the two weeks, while everything was getting sorted out, each morning, Logan would knock on the door of the home she now shared with her mother. She or her mom always opened it to discover him standing there with a food tray for them. He’d quickly learned her preferred breakfast foods were huevos rancheros or the sticky-sweet cinnamon buns always oozing with icing that one of the women at the community kitchen made.
The latter was her favorite as she relished licking the icing from her fingers whenever he brought her one. Her mother preferred coffee and toast, which she always received, while Elena liked the fresh-squeezed juice and espresso.
Before her father died, her mother always made big, delicious breakfasts, but she hadn’t been up for cooking, and Elena had been using the community kitchen for their meals. She wasn’t much of a cook, and she certainly wasn’t in the mood for it.
Logan had picked up on this and started delivering their breakfasts on her second day back in the compound. At first, her mother was not thrilled to have a vampire showing up at their door, but Logan soon charmed her by asking for stories about her dad and sharing stories from his compound. Elena never would have believed it possible, but her mother had come to like the vamp.
So had she.
On the nights when he wasn’t guarding the wall or working somewhere else, he would also bring them dinner or walk with her to the community dining hall. He always sat with them at lunch when there was a break in the ongoing trial for everyone to eat.
When they buried her father, Logan had stood on one side of her while she held her sobbing mother against her other side. He didn’t touch her or speak; he simply stood there, offering his support and a strength she was ashamed to admit she needed.
When he came with their breakfast in the mornings, he would often talk with her mom before coming to her room to talk while she ate. They didn’t discuss what was happening at the compound with her father’s killers.
Instead, they talked about simpler things like their favorite TV shows, books, movies, and music. They discovered they both enjoyed bad horror movies and often talked about their favorite cult classics like theEvil Dead.
She enjoyed the mornings. They were the only bit of normalcy she got throughout her day as the trials for the murderers continued. She supposed it wasn’t normal to have breakfast with a vampire, but it washernormal.
