43
LOGAN
T he thud of loud footsteps came near, drowning out Bloom’s suggestions. Shit. Did my uncle have more men in Smoky Vale who had found us? I wasn’t sure how much fight was left inside me.
I took a step closer to Bloom, bracing for impact as about a dozen men stormed into the warehouse.
Bikers.
They were bikers.
I let out the breath I was holding and allowed the tension in my shoulders to ease off slightly. These weren’t my uncle’s men but ours.
Ours.
I took a peek at Bloom, whose gaze had not shifted from my uncle in his determination to protect me. The bikers were his family. Because of him, they were now mine too. I’d never felt such protection before. Even with my family.
At the head of the line was Bay, his hand fisted in my brother’s shirt collar. My stomach tightened, and a sharp pain filled my chest.
“What took you so long to find me?” Bloom asked.
“Took us a while to drag the truth out of this one after we found him.”
I shook my head. “He’s not involved. Uncle Mickey said…” But what if he lied?
“He might not have been involved, but he knew exactly what was going to happen tonight. He led us here. With some coercion, of course.”
“You led them here?” Uncle Mickey spat. “Emil, you disappoint me.”
“Don’t you fucking dare!” Emil cried. “You never trusted me with your plans, and that’s why you never told me. You lied about what you were doing in Smoky Vale. This was all a ruse to kill Logan.”
“How did you find out?”
“I overheard you talking to Bishop at the party earlier,” Emil said. “Your plan was to kill Logan and his husband when they arrived at the new home you picked out for them, but you had second thoughts about whether Logan would take your offer because he showed no interest in the documents you had sourced for him. When Bloom went missing, you told Bishop to find him before everyone else so you could have the upper hand.”
Hearing Emil’s report of everything only made my heart ache more. “You knew, and you said nothing?” I said.
Emil snarled, baring his gums. “As far as I’m concerned, you are dead to me. I may never pull the trigger that eventually kills you, but I won’t stop anyone else from pulling it.”
“You fucking coward!” Bloom swung the gun at Emil.
“Bloom, no! Don’t.” I grabbed his arm.
“He wanted to see you dead.”
“But he did nothing.”
“Exactly. He did nothing to prevent it.”
“Listen to me, Bloom. He’s the only Agosti left. As long as he goes back to New York, we don’t have to see him again.”
“You want me to let him off the hook?”
“Do it for me. Please.”
Bloom clenched his jaw, his gaze narrowing. He swung the gun back in my uncle’s direction. “And him?”
I expelled a breath loudly. No way could I ask him to spare both their lives. And I didn’t want to either. My uncle had done too much. His obsession with taking over the family business would always be a threat to me and eventually to Emil.
“He’s all yours,” I said hoarsely.
“What do I do with him, then?” Bay jerked Emil forward.
Gritting my teeth against the pain radiating up my arm, I moved closer to my brother until I was standing directly in front of him.
“I know you hate me,” I said softly. “And I can’t say you are wrong. But trust me when I say I don’t want anything to do with the Agosti family business. You tell Father you saw me, and if he truly wants to make amends, he will leave me alone to live my life with the people I choose to be my family. Now go back to New York because the next time we see your face, I’m not sure I can convince him”—I nodded in Bloom’s direction—”to let you walk away.”
“Keegan, you’re an unfeeling bastard for turning your back on your family,” Emil spat. “Fuck you and this godforsaken town. I didn’t want to come here anyway.”
“That’s enough of you.” Bay shoved Emil toward the exit. “You okay handling everything here?”
“Just leave me a ride,” Bloom said. “And send a cleanup crew.”
Bay nodded and yelled for the bikers to head out. I swallowed against the lump in my throat. Uncle Mickey was on his knees, his gaze fixed on his dead lover. He seemed to have accepted his fate.
“Is there anything else you want to say to him?” Bloom asked. He didn’t look at me, his grip remaining firm on the gun.
My uncle looked like a broken and defeated man. Past me would have taken pity on him, but at what cost? I refused to risk Bloom’s life for compassion. Uncle Mickey admitted to wanting me dead. Letting him go would be the biggest mistake of my life.
“A few years ago, I had to change my identity again because my cover was blown and someone tried to kill me,” I said slowly. “Was that you?”
He tilted his head back. “Yes.”
I closed my eyes and inhaled sharply.
“You should wait outside,” Bloom said.
My eyes flew open. “What?”
“You don’t need to see this…this side of me.”
“I already saw this side of you. At the hospital, remember?”
“That was different. We were defending ourselves. He has no weapon. He’s already given up.”
I would never have thought of the difference in both situations. He was right. Killing Uncle Mickey now was not self-defense but an execution. A shaking sensation racked my chest, and an image ran through my mind of Marshal Livingston’s dead body.
I love him for better or worse.
“I’ll stay.”
“Logan, please—”
“I’ve made my decision, Bloom. I have to love all of you, which means this side of you as well.”
He shook his head. “But I don’t want you to look at me as if I’m a monster.”
“A beautiful monster,” Uncle Mickey whispered.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end at my uncle’s words. A beautiful monster . My chest tightened, and an unexpected heat flared in my gut. He was staring at Bloom as though in awe.
It was true, though. Bloom was beautiful. But those words had no business leaving Uncle Mickey’s mouth, not in that tone, not with the dark weight of admiration lacing them. I gritted my teeth. Bloom was mine. Mine to love. Mine, in every sense of the word.
Uncle Mickey didn’t deserve to look at him, admire him, let alone speak about him.
I raised the gun in my hand, my vision narrowing until all I saw was the man who had been like a father to me. Still staring at Bloom’s beauty. Still coveting Bloom. Coveting him so much he hadn’t thought twice about shooting the man he was supposed to love.
My finger tightened on the trigger, and the shot rang out.
The room went still. Bloom flinched, his wide eyes snapping to me as Uncle Mickey’s body jerked, then slumped lifelessly to the floor.
For a moment, the only sound was the echo of the gunshot fading into silence. Bloom opened his mouth, his lips moved, but no words came out.
“You didn’t have to do that,” he finally said, his voice low and trembling. “I was supposed to handle it.”
“And now you don’t have to.”
“I don’t understand. Why would you—”
“He called you beautiful,” I muttered, the words slipping out like a confession.
Seconds stretched into an eternity. The silence hung heavy, pressing down on me, but then Bloom’s lips twitched. A sound bubbled from his chest—a laugh. It started as a soft chuckle but quickly grew into a full-bodied, infectious laugh that shook his shoulders.
“Ah, Logan, you’re unbelievable,” he said between breaths. He cupped the back of my head. His lips crashed into mine, and the world around us fell away. Our mouths moved greedily against each other’s. The taste of him was just as intoxicating as all the other times I’d had him.
“Can’t believe you killed for me,” Bloom muttered against my lips. “And for such a silly reason.”
“Not silly to me.” My hands found his waist, pulling him closer as I lost myself in the feel of him. “I was so worried I would lose you, Bloom. I never want to feel that way again. When I couldn’t find you—”
“It doesn’t matter now.” He nibbled on my bottom lip. “You’re free, Logan. We don’t have to run anymore.”
Groaning, I pressed my lips hard to his once more, then rested my forehead against his. “That reminds me, Crowe knows.”
“Huh?”
“He knows we were gonna leave, and he’s pissed off about it. Just a heads-up. We already had our little row when he punched me in the stomach.”
“Crowe punched you?” Bloom frowned.
“Yeah, but don’t be too hard on him about it. We already knew he would be upset. And then there’s Max…”
Bloom gasped. “Max…is he…?”
“He was still alive when I last spoke to Crowe. I’m not sure what’s happened since.”
“Shit.”
“We should go. Clean up a little, then head to the hospital.”
“Let’s go.”
I grabbed his wrist. “What about the bodies?”
“Don’t worry about it. A crew will take care of them.”
“I see.” Not very different from how my father handled his bodies. I should have felt more concerned. “Let’s go, then.”