AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Jonas.” I repeat the name. “That’s Maddoc’s dad?”
Logan nods, then corrects himself. “Was. Jonas was Maddoc’s father. He was killed before Maddoc pulled us together and built the Reapers into what we are today.”
It suddenly hits me that we’ve all lost parents. Maddoc, Logan, Dante, me. And Chloe’s lost two, she just doesn’t know it yet.
It’s a pain that never stops hurting, but maybe it hurts a little less to know it’s shared.
“What happened?” I whisper, absently rubbing at the sudden ache in my chest.
I’m not sure if I’m asking about how Maddoc’s father died or asking Logan to continue his story about Petal, and when he answers me—scanning both sides of the street we’re walking along and carefully checking each alley we pass instead of making eye contact—I can’t tell which direction he’s taking the story in, either.
“Jonas had his fingers in a lot of things,” he says in that quiet, controlled way he has. “He wasn’t the leader Maddoc is, but he managed to build up a loose organization of people he worked with, although none of them truly had each other’s backs. And with all the things he tried to get into, he also managed to piss off quite a few big players in Halston, long before one of them finally took him out.”
I blink. That’s more words than I’ve heard Logan say at once in… ever. But then understanding clicks into place, and I can see it.
Logan doesn’t let anyone in, and it sounds like Maddoc’s father, Jonas, didn’t trust anyone to get close. So of course Logan would have felt comfortable working for him, if “comfortable” is even a word I can use for a traumatized kid trying to survive on the streets.
But somehow, Maddoc changed all that for Logan. He broke through and got Logan to let him in. Logan said Maddoc did it by killing a monster, and I’m suddenly ravenous to know the rest. To know everything.
Before I can ask, Logan leads me into a narrow building with poor lighting. “Shoe Repair” is printed on the weather beaten sign above the door.
Logan shows the man working there Chloe’s picture.
It’s another bust.
When we walk out, I grab Logan’s arm, stopping him before the self-preservation instincts that would have once kept me from grabbing him can kick in.
“What happened with Petal?”
Logan doesn’t lash out, he simply shuts down. It makes my heart pound anyway.
He’s so damn self-contained already that it’s a subtle shift, but I’m paying close enough attention that I see it as clear as day. His body goes unnaturally still and his pale eyes lose all their brightness… but then I see the moment he pushes through that and decides to share some more of himself with me anyway.
I drop my hand, but I still feel connected to him, and it’s a gift I really need right now. A spark of warmth to fight off the cold despair trying to creep over me as we run into dead end after dead end in the endless hunt for my sister.
We start down a different block.
“Jonas was… selfish,” Logan says, hesitating over the last word as if it’s not the one he’s actually looking for. “I mean, he wasn’t like Maddoc is.” He shakes his head with a tiny sound of frustration. “In some ways, he was. Jonas taught Maddoc a lot. But Maddoc is who he is because of their differences just as much as because of what he picked up from Jonas about…” He flicks his hand in a way that makes me feel like he’s taking in the whole city. “All of this.”
I think I understand what he’s trying to say. He means that Maddoc became the man he is because of his father’s example, and that at least some part of that example was Jonas showing Maddoc who hedidn’twant to be.
Selfish. Maybe Logan means self-serving?
Maddoc isn’t that.
He’ll never be that.
“What happened with… the guy Maddoc killed?”
“Come on,” Logan says, turning away abruptly and taking off in another direction. “We need to keep looking for your sister.”
I follow, wondering if he’s changed his mind and decided to shut me out again. But to my surprise, after a moment, he starts talking again.
“Petal shouldn’t have been on the streets. Someone should have been protecting her. But Jonas didn’t care about that. She was small and quiet and couldn’t rat him out. All of that made her useful. She could get in and out of places where no one noticed her, but after the first time he sent her to the monster—”
“You mean the drug dealer you mentioned?”
He nods. “She didn’t want to go back. She couldn’t say why, obviously, but I could tell the fucker had scared her.” He pauses, his voice dropping almost too low to hear. “I could tell he’d… hurt her.”
