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Briefly, I consider the idea of her healing my brokenness. Or just fitting her shattered pieces alongside mine. But I can’t risk hurting her again. As much as I crave her, as much as I want to own her, seeing her eyes close and her body turn lifeless makes my mind race with reasons I should let her go.
I’m so fucked up.
I’m cursed, and there’s nothing that can change that.
Even though Vera wants to try, I don’t think I could ever bring myself to allow her near me in that way again. Time passes, but I don’t go home. I can’t. The ghost of her touch still burns my skin.
My phone buzzes wildly on the seat beside me. Picking it up, I notice Dax’s name glaring at me from the lit-up screen. I swipe my finger to answer and press the device to my ear.
“What’s up, man?”
“He knows where you are. We’ve tracked him down to a forest. It’s—”
I don’t listen to the rest of his explanation as I twist the key to start the engine. I’m tearing through the streets, trying to get back to the cabin. My heart is thumping like a drumbeat against my ribs, causing my chest to tighten as fear twists in my gut.
My phone buzzes again, but I ignore it. My focus is on getting to Vera. If she’s in danger . . . No, scrap that. I know she’s in fucking danger because my father wouldn’t just walk away and allow her to live her life. She ran from him, and I know he’s going to do something to her. Something far worse than I could imagine.
25
Vera
The cabin is so silent I can’t focus on anything other than my senses pricking, trying to hear if I can make out a rumble of an engine coming this way. But I have a feeling Logan won’t be back for a while. When he walked out, I knew I’d taken it a step too far.
Instead of pushing him, I should’ve waited. I saw the guilt in his expression. Last night was something else. Poignant. My body reacted to my orgasm so powerfully I lost consciousness, and with the tightening of his hand on my throat, I let go. I felt safe for the first time in years. I wish he understood that.
Logan may think he’s dangerous, that he’s someone I need to stay away from, but there’s a part of him that also believes I’m made for him. I need to make him see that I am not afraid. It’s taken me years to come to terms with these needs, and I don’t want him to think I’m a fragile girl.
I’m all grown up, and I know what I want. I think I’ve always known that Logan was mine. Even when I was younger, remembering his face, his eyes, the way he looked down at me when I was so enamored with this boy in a suit who looked like he should grace the pages of a magazine.
The older I got, the more I realized that even though he walked away from me, my heart would find his again. Fairy tales aren’t always filled with rainbows and happily-ever-afters. They’re also drenched in darkness, curses, and bad guys. I’ve learned over time that fiction imitates real life far too often, or perhaps it’s the other way around.
I grab another mug, filling it with steaming coffee before I settle at the counter to read the newspaper from a few days ago. Logan left it out, and I soak up all the information I can. I really should be rummaging around in the cabinets, or even trying to find a way to escape. But I’m not longer here as a prisoner, I’m here because I want to be with him. So, I sit and wait for him to return.
I have to be honest with myself. I don’t want to go back to my old life. Right now, I know I can’t because Logan has changed me in ways I can’t explain. I would never be the girl from the small apartment in the little town of Pine Lake again. And I certainly am not the girl who walked out of Chicago, leaving her father to serve his life sentence in prison.
But I am still the girl who’s afraid of Herbert Oakridge because he’s the only person who can hurt me. If he ever finds out where I am, I doubt I’ll be alive to see the next sunrise.
Sighing, I move to the couch, crossing my legs on the cushions and sipping the still-warm coffee. The bitter taste bursts on my tongue, and I savor the heat coming from the cup. It’s not winter, not even close, but I feel a chill as if a storm is about to hit. Being out in the wilderness is strange when I’m used to being around people.
