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LOGAN
I’m intimatelyfamiliar with death, and the last slow, rattling breaths Frank Sutton struggles to take reek of it. When they finally stop, Riley’s shoulders slump as if a string has been cut, her body crumpling in on itself.
Silence descends around all four of us like a shroud, and Riley’s face as she stares down at Frank’s body looks… wrong. It’s utterly blank, her eyes almost as flat and lifeless as her father’s are now.
It bothers me.
Then she suddenly explodes, surging to her feet so quickly she slips in the congealing pool of blood that surrounds her, barely catching herself before she falls on her ass.
“You fucker,” she yells as she glares down at her father’s body, her beautiful face twisted with things I can’t name, but that I recognize just as easily as I do death. Ugly, wrenching emotions.
She clenches her fists, her whole body vibrating with them, then suddenly turns away from the remains of the man who failed her, clutching her stomach and retching.
“Princess…” Dante starts, his eyes brimming over with concern.
“Don’t,” Riley croaks, flinging a hand out to stop him when he reaches for her.
He hesitates—not something I’m used to seeing my brother do—then lurches toward her when she suddenly goes from zero to sixty, from trembling in place, racked by hoarse, panting breaths, to completely losing her shit like a wild banshee.
She jerks away from Dante and punches the wall behind her, screaming as she knocks a crooked, framed picture to the floor. She stomps on the glass when it falls, grinding it into the worn carpet, then grabs a ceramic lamp and hurls it across the room, screaming out her pain like it’s shrapnel when it shatters against the far wall.
Dante makes another move toward her, but I get to her first. I don’t know why. I don’t even know how. I honestly didn’t realize I’d even gotten to my feet, and yet here I am.
“Don’t fucking start! Don’t you fucking start, Logan!” Riley wails, her fists beating against me as I pull her tightly against my chest. “I need, he can’t, it’s not,ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
She switches from fists to nails, clawing at me, but I ignore both the words and the long, red scratches she inflicts on me. It’s all just more shrapnel, and I’ve faced far worse.
I lock my arms around her as she struggles. She smells like blood. Like death and fury and sorrow. The emotions pour off her in palpable waves, and I take a deep breath and hold her closer.
I know death.
I know fury and sorrow.
Each is as familiar to me as breathing, and none of them can be fought against, or hurt, or hit… butIcan be. The monster inside me is good for something after all, because it deserves all those things and more, and it pleases something deep in my soul to keep Riley safe within the haven I’m giving her, the restraint of my arms. Safe from all the emotions bursting out of her as she screams out her fury and pain.
She writhes against me wildly, her nails digging bloody gouges in my forearms.
“I won’t let you go,” I promise, dipping my head down to whisper in her ear as I tighten my hold.
She slams her head back, a good defensive move, but I duck in time to dodge it. She immediately pivots and drives her knee into my thigh, twisting and screaming like a hellcat. Crying like her heart has just been ripped in two.
“Shhhh,” I murmur, hugging her against me. It’s instinct, a long-forgotten sound I used to make for someone else.
I rub my cheek against the top of her head and shush her again softly as the emotions drain out of her, a soul-deep exhaustion taking its place. One I’m also familiar with.
“Please,” she finally whispers, her body slumping back against mine. “He can’t be… he never said…Chloe.”
I raise my eyes to meet those of my brothers. We all understand what Riley’s trying to say. Frank didn’t confess what it was he told West Point. We still don’t have a lead on finding Chloe. His death was the final betrayal.
“There’s gotta be something here that will point us in the right direction,” Dante says, his face set in a grim expression that doesn’t look natural on him. “Some clue. Fuckinganything.”
“Then let’s find it,” Maddoc says sharply. Riley’s pain affects him too.
He gives me a hard look, his eyes flicking toward her in a clear command. Hold on to her while they search the place.
I do, but they find nothing.
“Fuck,” Dante spits out once they’ve gone over the entire apartment.
