Chapter 5 #2
But when I hear Logan wrestling around outside the bathroom I halt my descent.
Guilt washes over me rapidly and I force myself to sit up fully the chill of the room wrapping itself around my body.
I've already subjected him to finding me half dead on the side of the road.
I don't want to be the source of any more trauma for him.
Tears well in my eyes and slip down my cheeks.
My sobs are quiet which is surprising given how violent they feel as my whole body shakes.
Living feels like a chore, trying to escape Royce and being on the run for the rest of my life is overwhelming and exhausting to think about.
Even this moment of peace isn’t something I can get comfortable in.
Royce will always rip apart any happiness I can find.
I may have physically escaped him but I’ll never emotionally escape him, he’ll always occupy whatever room I’m in.
Logan
My muscles strain with the effort of walking away from Thea in the bath.
I wasn’t kidding when I said this was the last time she would fucking take a bath alone.
I may have restraint but Ace sure as fuck won’t.
And Law? He may pride himself on his restraint but one look at Thea will have him crumbling.
Whoever she left us for doesn’t deserve her, they either did this to her or allowed it to happen.
Either way, she is ours now and I’m not giving her up.
The three of us broke when we lost her and it’s been a long time coming to fuse us back together…
“What the fuck do you mean she’s gone?” Ace runs his hands through his hair, a wild look taking up residency in his seafoam eyes.
The scent of smoke still clings heavily to his body from the fire he was out on.
I’m not even sure if he told anyone he was leaving given the soot that still decorates his face.
It looks like he walked straight off the front line.
Law braces me, his body against my back as I take a deep breath.
“I mean, she’s fucking gone. I went to your place looking for her and your dad had no idea where or even when she left.
” His fist punches into the wall before I register his movement.
Ace’s rage is like the fires he fights, sometimes its a small spark and other times its a fucking inferno that is ready to decimate the entire world.
Very few people stand up to him when he’s like this, when the flames flicker into his eyes like they are now.
Stepping into his space I press my body into his.
The challenge in my eyes is clear. My own anger over how it all ended with Thea is still simmering under my tattoo covered flesh.
I respected Ace’s choice not to go after her that night but I never should have let him convince me to stay in Seattle when she went silent on us.
“Not a single one of us got here in time.” I say, adding salt to the wounds. “She vanished from us before this Ace, all because you fucked up.”
That seems to break him, those words undoing his control. His hand finds its way around my throat in a punishing grip and he slams me into the drywall behind us. The impact knocks the air from my lungs violently.
From my peripheral I see Law walk towards us. “Let him go Ace.” He says low and controlled. “It’s not his fault.”
But it is my fault. Deep down I know it is. Ace made his choices, but I didn’t have to follow them. I could have fought back and found our girl.
“Back off Law, this isn’t your fight.” Ace growls.
“The fuck it isn’t.” Dark spots speckle in front of my eyes, the lack of oxygen burning through my body, but I don’t miss the way Law’s hand curls around Ace’s tattooed forearm. “You and I both know this is on ALL of us. We left and never came back.”
It’s the truth and we all hate it. Ace releases me, Law looping his arms around my middle as he holds him gently.
Marie’s death was a shock to our system, particularly finding out from my parents who were pissed as hell that we weren’t showing up for the funeral.
My apprenticeship in Seattle nearing its end meant I was at the shop nonstop, booked from morning until late into the night.
Ace getting dragged to California for a late wildfire that turned into a far larger issue.
And then Law wrapping up at the academy.
But none of that would have mattered if we had fucking known what happened. Thea never reached out, Rodger also conveniently never reached out either which was another issue all together. You would think the asshole would have told his only son that his step mother had fucking ODed on drugs.
Coughing, I rub my throat as the air flow moves back through the abused passages. My eyes catch Ace, the apology written all over his soot covered face. “Your dad knows something.” I say, a peace offering if you will.
Ace looks at Law, the two nodding before darkness covers his eyes. “Then let’s go chat with my old man.”
Thea has always been so full of life. From the moment I met her in that willow tree I saw the spark in her that met the very same mischievous spark I have. But it's been a long time and whoever she once was seems to have been swept away. Someone hurt her. And I want to destroy whoever it was.
Glancing at my phone I swipe out of the messages with Ace.
He knows something is up but I can’t bring myself to tell him any of this over the phone.
Not when I know he’s working his other job.
I don’t want to risk his life by distracting him with the knowledge that Thea is here, particularly given I can’t actually provide him with any answers as to where the fuck she’s been.
My mind has gone down every dark path I can think of as to what happened to her over the past year. Every single scenario feels worse than the last one. I’ve never been good with not knowing something and this whole thing makes me feel like my skin is crawling.
I shake my head. Forcing the intrusive thoughts out and refocusing on my phone, navigating my fathers name before hitting call.
“Logan?” The gruff, tired voice of my father makes me wince as I glance towards the clock in the kitchen and realize just how late, or early, it is. In the background I can hear my mom's voice, immediately wide awake. But that’s Tarin Everheart for you, ready at a moment's notice.
“Hey pops.” I say by way of greeting.
“What’s going on?” He asks in a calm steady voice. “Everyone okay?”
“Oh yeah sure, we are all good.” I say hastily.
“But I think we are going fishing and wondering if you could come watch the place.” It’s the code we developed long ago, back when he was in the MC and we had to make sure we had a way to communicate without anyone else understanding.
As a kid I thought it was dumb but the older I got the more I realized just how important something like this could be, it was life or death at times.
I’m not sure why now, of all times, my brain thinks to use it but something in me screams that until I know exactly who or what she is running from I need to be extra cautious.
I hear the sound of blankets rustling and my fathers deep voice telling my mom to go back to bed as he slides free. In the background I distinctly hear my mother curse at him before my father chuckles. “Sorry to wake y’all.” I offer up.
He snorts. “Logan, you never have to apologize. We’d love to watch the place. I won’t be able to make it up to y’all tonight, not with this storm. I can reassess in the morning though.” He says, voice sounding more alert.
“I understand.” I reply automatically. Even if I hate to wait, I need him to look at Thea as soon as possible. Not just because of the fucking drugs but I know she’s hiding something, I had caught glimpses of scars across her body and my mind needs answers.
“Logan? Is Acey home with you yet or are you meeting him at the fishing spot?” My mother’s voice swims through the phone, crisp and clear as always.
I can’t suppress the laugh that comes from me. Only my mother is allowed to call my boyfriend Acey, in fact, the man practically melts for her. But she has that effect on people. “No ma, he’s still out. He’ll meet me there.”
“Have you told Law about your fishing plan?” My father cuts back into the call.
“Yeah, briefly. But he isn’t clear on where we are going yet.
I was hoping he’d make it home tonight so I could fill him in but with the storm, he may be stuck in town.
” I look out our window as I say it, the wind still brutally whipping through the trees that surround us as the rain attempts to drown anything and anyone that is out in it.
The whole time I was forcing Thea to vomit I had been praying to hear his belt hit the table but the hope dwindled and now, I have no doubt he’s stuck at the apartment above the station.
“I’ll bring some cookies along, the kind Law loves.
You let him know.” My eyes roll because this isn’t code, she really intends to bake Law cookies.
She’s always been protective over him. Law’s ma was the first to die, I can still remember the way Thea’s mom and my own had cried.
The sound was heartbreaking, even at such a young age I knew the loss cut them both deep.
And when Marie died? The light in my moms eyes dimmed to the point of no return, the grief dragging her away from us all until my father forced her to come back.
The bathroom door creaks open, my words are sucked clear from me as I see Thea standing in nothing but a towel.
She nervously tucks her hair behind her ear, shifting from foot to foot.
My mouth dries up as I watch the water cascade down her collarbone and disappear to the spot she clutches the towel to her chest.
“Logan?” My fathers voice booms through the room, the phone having dropped away from my ear the moment I saw her.
“Sorry, gotta go. Check in with y'all tomorrow.” I respond, hanging up quickly.
“I’m sorry, my clothes are just still soaked.
..” More than anything I want to rip that towel free of her and worship her body.
Show her she never has to be nervous or worried again.
I want to see what my tattooed hands look like against her pale skin as they roam over her.
I want to watch my fingers disappear into her cunt until she comes apart on them. “Logan?”
I shake my head, chastising myself for the thoughts rolling around in my mind. “Don’t worry about it. You didn’t interrupt, saved me if anything. Pretty sure my mom was about to lay into me.”
She offers me a bright smile and good god if it doesn’t melt me even further because it’s the first true one that she’s given since she got here.
It’s pure, not tainted by whatever is haunting her still.
She’s fucking gorgeous. A goddess standing soaking wet in my towel, in my house and about to be in my clothes.
“I missed your mom.” She says in that same soft voice, shuffling from foot to foot again.
The towel slips a bit and I can see the swell of her breasts a bit clearer.
My gaze travels over her body and I relish in the way she squirms. She’s not unaffected by my attention and I fucking love that. “Clothes?”
“Oh fuck, yeah sorry!” I say, despite not being sorry at all.
Moving slower than I should, I head towards the room across the way, the one door that has remained shut since we moved in without her.
A pang of longing hits me in the heart for a moment, but I force it aside as I grab the oversized Haven Edge Tattoo Shop t-shirt and a pair of soft shorts.
At one time they would have fit her perfectly but now she’ll be swimming in them no doubt.
Thea takes them, disappearing back into the room allowing me to try and get my lust under control.
When she emerges once more I realize I don’t know what I loved more, her in the towel or her with my tattoo shop’s name plastered across her chest. The long shirt brushes just above her knees.
“Damn, Tink you look good with my shop on you.”
Her eyes glitter with something akin to pride. “I’m really happy for you Lo. You always wanted your own shop.”
I step closer to her, drawn in as though I’m a moth to a flame.
Her milky skin is untouched from ink and piercings.
A fresh canvas. I itch with the need to mark her, to ruin her in the best way.
To make sure no one ever fucking mistakes this girl for anything other than ours.
My thumb traces over her exposed collar bone before it trails down her arm. “You gonna let me ink you Tink?”