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My stomach clenches just to hear it, and my hands curl into fists.
I protected Chloe from our father when she was that age, but there had been other shitheads who tried to hurt her over the years. There always were.
And I agree with Logan. They’re all fucking monsters.
“I told Jonas I’d take that job instead,” Logan goes on, “but he told me to stay the fuck out of it. Said if the dealer thought I was getting interested in his business, it would hurt Jonas’s arrangement with him, and I’d be the one to pay for that.” He pauses, then says, “Maddoc overheard us talking.”
“And he did something about it?” I guess aloud when he doesn’t go on. Even though, shit, Maddoc must’ve just been a kid at the time too.
After a moment, Logan nods. “I didn’t expect it. Everyone looks out for themselves out here. I figured that out fast, and Jonas lived and breathed it too. So it was stupid of me to follow Petal the next time he sent her.”
“But you did.”
He nods. “But I did.”
Of course he did. She must have reminded him of the little sister he wasn’t able to save. But he isn’t telling me this story to remind me how fucking shitty the world can be. He brought it up when I asked how he met—
No, not how hemetMaddoc. Why he let Maddoc in.
How they became as close as brothers, like they are now.
My steps slow as I connect the dots.
“Maddoc got to the dealer first,” I breathe.
“He was already there when I showed up,” Logan confirms. “Even before Petal arrived.” And then, for the first time since I met him, he suddenly grins. Teeth bared and lips open wide. It’s a vicious, dangerous, beautiful thing. “Maddoc made that fucker pay for his sins in blood.”
Maddoc did more than that. He cracked through Logan’s shell and showed Logan that he wasn’t alone. He also earned one of the few, guarded places in Logan’s heart with that act.
No wonder their bond is so strong. Logan isn’t incapable of love, but after everything he’s lived through, I can understand why he opens his heart so rarely. Rarely… but completely. He’s totally committed to the bond he has with the two men he’s found worthy of calling his brothers, and I have no doubt at all that he’d both kill and die for them without any hesitation.
Fuck, I’m so screwed.
I already feel something for him, something more than just darkness recognizing darkness, but seeing him in this new light leaves me with a deep yearning for more of him that I’m not sure what to do with.
That I’m not sure what he’llletme do with.
For now, I set it aside to focus on canvassing the city with him and enjoying the fact that he’s decided to share anything at all with me. Especially because it feels like he’s the only one.
Someonehas to have seen Chloe. She must have left a clue somewhere. But by the end of the day, we still haven’t found anything, or anyone who’s willing to admit it.
I rub the center of my chest as we arrive back at the house, an ache there that I can’t seem to shake. It’s getting really fucking hard to stay optimistic when we keep coming up empty, but I refuse to believe anything bad has happened to my sister. I would know. I have to believe that, or else it will drive me crazy.
I don’t know how Logan survived losing his own sister.
And selfishly, I hope I never do.
He hesitates when we reach the front door, blocking my way for a moment. “We’ll find her.”
“I know,” I say, swallowing hard. Hearing it though, having him take the time to say it, just like he took the time to make my coffee this morning, eases the ache in my chest a little. “Thank you.”
For a moment, Logan looks like he’s going to say something else, but then he just nods and turns away, leading the way into the house. Dante and Maddoc are both there, going over some paperwork at the kitchen counter when we walk in.
They look up.
“Anything?” Maddoc asks.
I shake my head, my throat getting tight. Logan starts giving him a more detailed report of the area we checked, and who we talked to, and other random observations I didn’t pick up on while we were out today, but it all still boils down to a whole lot of nothing.
