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And they paid for it.
Nichole paid for it.
And Adam.
And the families that had lost people in the blast.
All because she’d wanted this man.
She drew back but his hold was firm. He didn’t hurt her, but he wasn’t letting go.
“No more running, Iz. Talk to me. I can see you shutting down.” His face was stony, his eyes grooved with stress and exhaustion.
“Don’t you understand? It’s all because I wanted you too much. That I was blind to everything but having you. I’ve never had this before. This all-consuming love. How is it any less
destructive than hers?”
“God, no.” The horror on his face made her gut twist.
“I gave up everything for you, Logan. My independence, my friends, my business—nothing was more important than being with you.”
He finally let her go and stood. “Is that what you think of us? The sacrifices we made for each other were from a place of obsession?”
A flicker of something dark and ugly made her hunch her shoulders in. “Weren’t they?”
“No. It was because I love you.” His voice was harsh. “What we had—have—was the first pure thing I’ve had since I was a kid. It’s precious.” His jaw muscle flexed. “At least I thought it was.”
Instinct propelled her up and out of her seat, but not quickly enough to catch him as he flew out the back door, the sound of dying leaves crunching in his wake.
Twenty-Four
Logan tripped and slid his way down the hill to the path that looped around the house and out to the rec lodge. His skin was clammy with the emotional seesaw he’d been on. First surprise, then understanding, then the first stirrings of passion, only to end it with a blinding anger he still couldn’t find his way through.
The months that they’d slogged through to find time to see each other in between his work and hers, the nights he’d spent in her arms, the days he’d looked forward to with hope—all of that had been condensed down to an unhealthy obsession in her eyes.
He stalked around the rec room, his abdominal muscles quivering with each seething breath. Maybe some of it was too focused, but only because he knew how rare this thing was between them. That he couldn’t let it go because his life would be empty without her.
And it was reciprocated.
The ultimate difference was that Isabella had felt it too. In every touch, every gesture, every moment—he’d known it.
That explosion had destroyed more than her store. More than the lives lost in the devastation. It had twisted her view on what they had until it was just as disturbing as Aimee’s actions.
Fucked up didn’t even cover that.
He needed to smash something. Anything that could take away the hate and anger. Even thousands of miles away from Aimee and she still destroyed everything in his life.
“Jack?”
Logan’s hands were balled into fists so tight his arms were shaking.
“Are you all right?” Richard stood at the doorway to the lodge.
“Not really,” he managed to say between clenched teeth.
“Only a wife can put that much rage into a man. I’m assuming she’s not bloody?”
Logan’s eyes widened. “Of course not.”
