15
Logan
“Lia,” I murmur, trying to keep the panic out of my voice. “Lia, don’t you remember me?”
She blinks, not answering, but I can tell she has no idea. I’ve lost her.
Fuck!
“Baby, shh. It’s okay. I’m going to fix you.” I squeeze her to me, my heart racing so fast I think I’m going to be sick. “I’m going to take care of you.”
Her body is slack in my arms… until it isn’t. She tenses all over.
“Lia, it’s me. Who am I? Who do you belong to?”
“Let go of me. Let go of me!”
She squirms out of my hold, then desperately writhes around the mattress like a maniac. She fights her bonds, the metal cuffs digging into her wrists. I quickly untie my belt from her leg, but she barely notices, continuing to flail helplessly.
“Shh…”
“Let go of me! You need to free me! I’m not a prisoner! I’m not a fucking prisoner!”
“Lia, you’ll hurt yourself.”
I straddle her, holding her arms down to keep her from fighting the cuffs and injuring herself. Angry red lines zigzag over her wrists, and drops of blood form. I lean down to kiss her, and she bites my lip.
“Fuck! Lia!”
“Let go of me,” she growls. “I’m not a prisoner. I don’t want to be a prisoner!”
“Hey. You’re not a prisoner,” I lie to her. “You’re free. Everything’s okay. Just take it easy.”
“No,” she gasps. “No, no, no.” She squeezes her eyes shut. “You’re going to take her. My Jane. Please don’t take my Jane. Please let me keep her.”
“Shh.” I stroke the side of her face, trying to calm her. “It’s okay, baby. I’m not here to take Jane. Tell me about Jane.”
I hunch over her, lying my face next to hers, continuing to stroke her. The panic in my chest eases just a bit when I feel her relax.
“She’s… my… baby!”
“Yes, I know she is,” I soothe. “What happened to her, Lia? Do you remember?”
She’s entirely relaxed now, staring at me with those large green eyes of hers. Green eyes that don’t recognize me.
But at least she’s calm.
“They took her,” she murmurs. “They took her away from me. The black holes.”
“Yes.” I don’t dare to kiss her again, but I nestle my head in the crook of her neck, remembering how it felt like all those years ago, when I’d hunted my little captive down, and then let my guard down just long enough to bury my face against her shoulder and breathe her in. “The bikers. The Puicin Gang.”
Suddenly, she’s back to thrashing. I have to hold her arms down. “Shh. It’s okay, Lia. I’m trying to help. What about the Puicin Gang?”
At last she calms down again, but this time, I can tell it’s not because she’s relaxed. She’s exhausted, and she knows how helpless she is. She’s given up.
“They took my Jane,” she breathes.
“Yes, baby. But why?”
Her eyes squeeze shut as if she’s remembering something painful. And then she lets out, “Payment.”
“Payment?”
“A debt. Papa had a debt. They took her because he couldn’t pay it!”
“Okay.” I lie down fully next to her, continuing to massage her, both because I see it calms her, and because I need to touch her. “Do you know what kind of a debt it was?”
She starts to thrash again, crying out.
“Shh! Lia! It’s okay!”
“I want to be free! I don’t want to be a prisoner! Let me go! I don’t want them to come back! Don’t let them take me!”
“Okay, okay. Okay, Lia.” Panic grips at my throat again. “Okay. No one’s taking you. I promise. I’m here now. I’m Logan, remember? Don’t be scared. I’m going to protect you. It’s Logan.” By now tears are springing to my own eyes. “I’m right here.”
“L-logan…” She pauses as if the name means something to her. “Logan…” She repeats it slowly, as if it awakens distant memories. “No. Impossible. Logan isn’t here. Logan can never be here again. Logan… abandoned me.”
“I didn’t. I’m right here.” I can’t help it; I need to hold her. I need to prove to her I am here. I didn’t abandon her. I came back.
I uncuff her wrists and ankle, and then pull her into my lap. I make her straddle me, then wrap my arms around her, hugging her.
“It’s okay, Lia. I’m here. I love you.”
She cuddles closer to me, and my heartbeat steadies. Could her memory have returned? Could she—
“Don’t move.”
Her voice is suddenly steely hard, and I feel the tip of something just as hard against my chest.
I inch back, and realize she took advantage of her position in my arms to grab the gun from my back pocket. Shit.
“Lia.”
“Don’t move.” Her voice is still as hard, as emotionless as before. “Don’t move, or it’ll hurt.”
“Okay…”
“I’m going to shoot you in the chest. Right there.” She edges backward until she’s standing up, naked from the waist down, her shirt still pulled up over her breasts. “But first, you’re going to tell me what you did with my Jane.”
“Lia…”
“Don’t say my name!” Her voice comes out high-pitched and unnatural. “Don’t say my name, or I’ll shoot right away! Where’s Jane? What did you do to Jane?”
“Lia, I didn’t do anything to her.” I stand up, flinching as the barrel of the gun follows me and her finger finds the trigger. “But I can tell you where she is. Why don’t you be a good girl and put that gun down?”
She shakes her head. “You’re trying to keep me here. But I’m not a prisoner. I’ve been a prisoner all my life. But not anymore. I’m going to kill you.”
“Right. Okay.”
I hear the soft, distant sound of the front door opening, and beads of sweat pearl at my temples. I don’t care so much about dying. But I don’t want to die at my girl’s hands. Or leave this Earth, knowing she could go after our daughter next. “Okay, Lia. Let me fix this. How can I fix it?”
“You can’t.” Her voice is harsher than ever. “I’m going to kill you. Tell me where my Jane is, or I’ll make it hurt.”
“Fuck…”
“You have three seconds. Three…”
“She’s back in the States,” I tell her, trying hard not to think of the rest of that story. “The Puicin Gang took her back to the States.”
“Two…”
“I don’t know why,” I add. “I promise you, Lia, I don’t know.”
“One…”
“But I’ll help you find out. Let me help you find out.”
“Liar!”
She points the gun at me, her finger against the trigger. I barely have time to take in her glazed-over expression before I see her finger pull it, slowly, very slowly.
Or maybe she’s not being slow at all. Maybe it’s shock that’s making everything happen in slow-motion.
At the same time, or maybe a fraction of a second before, the door swings open, and a large, hoodie-clad shape crosses the room at lightning speed. Then comes the sound of a thunderous explosion, and I fall to my knees in surprise. But I’m not hit.
For once, she hasn’t injured me.
And then I hear the sound of a strangled scream.
“Piper!”
I turn around slowly, and my body grows cold when I see my daughter fall to the ground, unconscious. Then there’s a crack as a fist makes contact with skin, and when I turn back around, I see Lia keel over.
In a daze, I stand up, trying to make sense of what just happened.
Of my two girls, lifeless on the floor.