Chapter 25 – Logan
Twenty-Five
LOGAN
I’m not sure what wakes me, if it’s Dozer moving around, if it’s the weight of Nalia’s body pressed down the side of mine that feels so foreign, yet so fucking familiar at the same time.
Or if it’s the fact that I forgot to turn on the fan over the bed, something I do every night before I fall asleep, but forgot in my exhaustion after fucking Nalia, in the shower, in the kitchen, and in bed again before we both passed out.
Glancing at the clock, I see that it’s a little after midnight, which is way too early for me to be awake.
Rolling towards Nalia, I curl her into my front and close my eyes, only to have them spring open when I hear a thwack sound against my bedroom window. Holding my breath, I listen carefully and swear I hear voices coming from outside.
What the fuck?
Carefully sliding away from her, I get out of bed and walk to the window in my room that overlooks the front yard and draw back the curtain just enough to look outside.
With the streetlight so far away and only my front porch light on, the yard is dark, so it takes a second for me to register what it is I’m seeing.
The trees out front with streamers of toilet paper, and the shit wrapped around the bushes, in the flowerbeds, and strewn across the yard.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I bite out, letting the curtain fall back into place.
“What’s wrong?” Nalia asks in a sleepy voice, and I can just make out the silhouette of her shadow as she sits up in bed.
“Nothing, baby, stay here.” I grab my sweats from the chair in the corner of the room and put them on, then grab my bat leaning against the wall next to the door.
Carrying it with me I head down the hall, though the kitchen and living room, then stop at the panel on the wall and type in the code for the alarm system near the front door while I slip on my shoes.
When it clears, I open the door and step out on the porch.
“Oh shit, RUN!” A kid shouts, and six shadows all dressed in black from head to toe take off in different directions through the dark. I consider the idea of going after them but decide to let them go when I see the two expensive looking bikes lying on the ground at the end of my driveway.
“Logan.” Turning, I find Nalia standing at the mouth of the hallway with her arms wrapped around her middle, her body draped in my tee. “What happened?”
“Some kids toilet-papered the yard.”
“What?” She walks towards me and looks out the front door, her eyes going wide. “Oh my god.”
“Yeah,” I mutter, stepping outside.
“Where are you going?”
“They left their bikes, I’m going to put them in the garage and call the cops, hopefully they can use them to track the kids down.”
“Give me a second and I’ll come out with you.”
“Baby, just stay inside.”
“Yeah, right.” She starts to turn around and stumbles over Dozer, who is crowding her. Righting herself, she leans down to rub the top of his head, then looks back at me. “Give me just a second.”
Jesus, she’s cute.
Smiling, I watch her disappear out of sight, only to come back less than two minutes later wearing her jeans and carrying a shirt that she holds out to me.
“Thanks, baby.” I take it from her and put it on, then step outside, feeling the crunch of something under my foot. Looking down my jaw goes hard, then that annoyance in my gut turns to anger when I look back at the house and see the front marked with egg splatter.
“Do you think it was Matthew and his friends?” she asks, looking at the trees and bushes in the front of the house that are covered with toilet paper, the white strips of it blowing in the breeze.
“I wouldn’t be surprised.” We walk down the sidewalk to the driveway.
When we get to the end of the road, I look in both directions.
Without a doubt the boys are close enough to see the house and probably freaking out because they know they left their bikes behind and they can’t come back without me catching them.
Grabbing one, I start rolling it towards the house, and Nalia lifts the other one, rolling it along with me.
Reaching the garage door, I plug in the code, and it slides open.
After placing both bikes inside, I take her hand and walk her to the door, hitting the button for the garage sending it closed then lead her into the house.
Taking her down the hall to the bedroom, I flip on the lamp, then grab my cell from the side of the bed and take a seat.
I call the non-emergency line for the police department, and request an officer come over so that I can file a report and they can pick up the bikes the kids left behind.
After the dispatcher tells me an officer is in route, I end the call.
“An officer will be here in just a few minutes.” I get to my feet, then I lean down, planting my fist in the bed at Nalia’s hip. “Why don’t you go back to bed?”
“I’m not going to leave you to deal with this on your own.”
“There is nothing to deal with, baby. When they get here, they’ll take a report, pick up the bikes, and leave. I’m not dealing with the yard tonight; I’ll get that shit sorted in the morning.” I get closer and touch my lips to hers. “Just get back in bed, and when I’m done, I’ll join you.”
“Logan.”
“Nalia, it’s late, you don’t need to deal with this.”
“Neither do you, but here we are,” she mutters, and I hold her stare until she pulls her gaze from mine and sighs. “Fine, I’ll stay.”
“Thank you.” I kiss her once more, then go to my closet and grab a hoodie. When I walk back out, her jeans are on the end of the bed, and she’s under the covers with her back to the headboard. “Be right back.”
After I get her nod, I tell Dozer to stay and listen to him groan before he walks back over to his bed.
Stepping out the front door, a minute later, a cruiser is pulling up, so I walk down to the end of the driveway to meet the two officers who get out.
I spend a few minutes talking to the two of them and letting them know who I suspect is responsible while they take a few pictures, then I help them load the bikes into the trunk.
When I get back inside and walk into the bedroom, Nalia is exactly like I left her, sitting up in bed with her phone.
“What did they say?”
“Nothing much. They took a report, wrote down who I told them I thought might be responsible, then they took the bikes and got some photos. They said they’ll go over to Matthew’s house in the morning,” I get undressed down to my sweats then slide into bed next to her.
“If it was Matthew, maybe the cops showing up at his place will scare him into not being a little prick.”
“Maybe.” I reach over for the lamp, flipping it off, then curl her into my side.
She settles against me with her arm across my abs and lifts her thigh to rest on top of mine.
I grit my teeth. Last evening, I took full advantage of having her alone, and the last two times I fucked her, I was not gentle.
I’m sure she’s sore, and I need to give her a break.
“Are you tired?” she asks softly while I feel her fingers against my skin twitch.
“No.”
“Me either.” She slides her body up mine and straddles my lap. All my good intentions go right out the fucking window when I move my hands up her thighs and slide them back to her ass, finding her bare.
* * *
Standing in the middle of the front yard, I watch Harlen carry a trash bag to the back of his truck and toss it in the back, adding it to the pile there.
Unbeknownst to me, last night while I was dealing with the officers who showed up at the house to document the damage done, Nalia had sent out a text to her family, and by eight this morning, they were here to help clean up.
Her dad showed up with donuts, her sister Willow, her husband Clay, and their son with bagels, her sister Harmony, and her husband Harlen and their girls with a fruit platter and coffee, and her brothers Bax, Talon, and Sage with their wives and kids.
It's taken all of us working together about two hours to get everything cleaned up after spending a good amount of time in the kitchen hanging out before even getting to work.
Without them all chipping in, I would have been cleaning up the mess for days, especially after getting up this morning and seeing that there was way more damage done than I realized last night in the dark.
Not only had they toilet papered the yard and tossed eggs at the house, they had also trampled the flower beds and pulled shit out of the garden.
“I think that’s as good as it’s going to get, until you can use a pressure washer,” Nico tells me as he walks up with the hose he was using to spray down the outside of the house. The white brick was stained with yellow spots, along with a few of the windows where the kids had tossed eggs.
“I got one at the shop, I’ll bring it home tomorrow and some cleaning liquid” I take the hose from him and start walking it to the garage where the hook up is. “I really appreciate you guys stepping in to help get this all cleaned up.”
“Nalia was pretty adamant that she didn’t want the kids coming home to see what happened.”
Of course, she was, which is why her mom stayed behind at the house with Zuri and her nephew Nash.
“That’s the last of the trash.” Bax passes a bag of garbage to Sage, who walks it over to the back of Harlen’s truck, tossing it in with the rest.
“Thanks, man.”
“Glad we could help,” Bax says as Harlen walks up to join us. “I’m going to go get my wife; we still have some stuff to do around the house before we head over for the barbecue.”
“I’m going to do the same,” Harlen tells us as Sage and Talon join us, along with Clay, who has his son on his hip.
“I owe you all a beer.”
“We’ll have one this afternoon,” Nico says, patting my back, and Harlen gives him an odd look. “What?”
“Just wondering what the fuck is going on,” Harlen tells him with a frown.
“Pardon?” Nico asks him.
“You’re cool with this guy after what?” Harlen looks at me. “A few weeks? Clay and I had to walk through fire for god knows how long before you accepted us.”
“Christ,” Nico mutters. “Can’t you see that I’m getting too old for the bullshit? I just want to be on the beach with my wife. The sooner I know all my girls are in good hands, the sooner I can make that dream a reality.”
“Well, that’s not sexist at all.” We all turn and find that the girls have made their way outside with the kids in tow. “I can take care of myself,” Willow tells her father, placing her hands on her hips. “I didn’t need Clay to come along and take care of me.”
“Seriously, Dad.” Harmony shakes her head, giving him a disappointed look.
I glance over at Nalia and see that she’s holding one of Harmony’s girls, with a frown on her face as she looks at her dad.
“No one said that you girls are not capable of taking care of yourselves,” Nico states, looking through his daughters.
“What I will say is I rest a little easier knowing that you have someone you can lean on when I’m not around, and eventually when I die I’ll go knowing that you’ll be taken care of. ”
Just like that all of their frown’s dissolve and they all walk over to their dad wrapping him in a group hug. “You’re not going anywhere for a long, long time,” Harmony says quietly while Nalia and Willow whisper their agreement.
“Jesus, he’s good,” Clay mumbles, and I chuckle along with the rest of the guys.