Chapter 23
Logan
Watching her go upstairs with that fucking asshole tore me apart.
I thought bringing my roommates tonight would be fun.
Enjoy a new part of my life together. Then when she took me upstairs, I had a renewed hope that what we had might outlive her desire to keep it a secret.
The initiation was unexpected, and it had to be hard for Ava to watch.
But when we all wound up together upstairs, awkward didn’t even describe it.
She probably thought more happened than did, but I literally only kissed the other girl gently on the lips.
Once. That was it.
My feet couldn’t get me to the basement any faster, but it wasn’t fast enough. Ava was already dancing with that dickhead.
Her Tink attitude mixed with drinking was going to really fuck up this night.
“Hey, man, I’ll be back,” I told Sutton. He was one of the guys I was getting to know. One of the guys who also didn’t drink. He’d been talking it up with a bunch of girls while I forced myself to watch the show taking place a few yards away.
“Sure, man,” he said.
There was no way I was letting her do something she was, or we were, going to regret come morning. If I had to drag her out of whatever bedroom she went into, I would.
Scanning the first room, I found it empty. I stood still, listening. Nothing. No sound on this floor at all. I moved to the staircase that went to other bedrooms.
That’s when I heard it. I heard her voice.
I heard the panic.
“Stop,” Ava said.
Jesus Christ, that motherfucker was going to die.
I took two, maybe three, steps at a time, and made it to the top within seconds.
They were at the end of the hall, a dark corner leading into a room.
They stood in the doorway, he was obviously trying to get her inside.
He held her firmly against the wall, her hands restrained by his above her head.
She fought furiously against his hold, to no avail.
His hand was under her shirt, lifting it up.
His hand was on her breast.
His mouth was on her breast.
As she continued to struggle and say no.
The universe spun around me, the stars in my eyes blinding me from what was right in front of me. A rage started in my gut and radiated to my hands, fists at my sides.
“Get off her,” I growled.
He didn’t stop. Only pulled his mouth from her.
“Find your own room, dude.”
“What did you say, motherfucker?”
My deathly words got his attention. He turned to look at me, his eyes wide at whatever he saw.
Ava saw me, the tears in her eyes distracting me for a moment.
She was destroyed.
Then as he backed away, I noticed her skirt was askew as well.
Fuck. Him.
In two long strides, I had him by the throat and against the wall.
“What the fuck, dude?” he pleaded.
Right as my fist landed on his face.
A satisfying crunch from his nose, blood spewing from there and his mouth.
He slumped against the wall, but I gripped him by the shirt, refusing to let him fall to the ground. He wasn’t getting off that easy.
I went in for another punch but felt a small hand on my shoulder.
“Logan…”
Her voice was quiet, but it broke through the chaos in my brain. I threw him to the floor and turned to her, taking her in my arms.
“Are you OK?” I whispered against her head. All she could do was nod.
Then I heard the guy getting up at my feet.
“Ava, go find Becca and Macie now.”
She took off down the stairs while I turned my attention back to the asshole who hurt her. He leaned against the wall, wiping the blood from his nose with the back of his hand, a smug look on his face.
“You’re the new guy, right?”
This guy was not about to talk his way out of what he’d done. I stood, ready to throw another punch if that was the direction this went.
“What the fuck, man. Who do you think you are?” He stood tall as he suddenly felt courageous, but that still kept him a good half foot shorter than me.
“I’m the guy who stopped you from raping that girl.”
He smirked, then laughed.
“You’re kidding, right?” He pushed his way past me, a bit harder than I should’ve let him. “We were all over each other downstairs, man. You don’t know what you’re talking about, she wanted it as much as I did.”
My fists clenched, in and out, itching to take this guy down for good. I couldn’t believe he had the nerve to defend his actions. He started walking away from me. That was when I heard tons of footsteps on the stairs.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I asked. “She wanted it? What part of the word ‘no’ did you not understand? Because I clearly heard her say it to you twice in the time I witnessed what you did.”
There were several other guys from the team who had joined us in the hallway by now, bearing witness to his response. They stood behind him, all staring blankly at me, waiting.
“Well?” I asked. “Why didn’t you stop when she said no?”
He pushed past everyone surrounding him.
“Fuck you, dude, I don’t answer to you.”
One of the guys followed him downstairs while the other two stayed with me. The adrenaline brought on by it all was still surging through me as they came close.
“Guys, I’m in no mood to be told I shouldn’t have laid him out.” I started pushing past them, not happy the guy was now downstairs near Ava without me.
“Hey, man,” the one guy said. That was when I realized it was Sutton. The other guy who stayed with me was Ashton. “Relax. We just don’t want you getting in trouble, no need to do anything further. Best to steer clear of him. We have some other guys taking care of him down there, no worries.”
My breathing slowed a bit, though I was still frantic on the inside. I felt the edges of a panic attack trying to make their way to the forefront. But I fought it, I needed to get the girls safely out of here.
“I need to find my roommates, get Ava home. She’s probably a mess right now.”
I ran down the stairs to find the first floor empty other than my three girls. Becca and Macie surrounded Ava on the couch. Ava attempted to push them away, the stoic brat that she was. But it was going to hit her, and I needed to get her out of here before it did.
“I’m getting the truck, meet me outside in five.”
I grabbed my keys from the kitchen. Parking was tricky at this house, and I had to park a block away. As I pulled up to the house, tons of the guys were milling around outside, the party looking officially over.
This had been my first exposure to the team, and it hadn’t gone the way I’d expected.
Punching a teammate probably didn’t bode well for me getting a position.
My rapid heart rate and sweaty palms indicated I was not doing as good a job as I’d like at quelling my impending anxiety attack.
It didn’t help that as I jumped from my truck, a group of the guys walked my way.
Ashton must be the team captain, because he reached me first, the rest standing behind.
“Hey, Logan, I want to let you know we support you in what went down here tonight. We don’t tolerate his type of behavior.”
All the guys came to me, murmuring words of support.
The heart palpitations slowed. As I looked around, I unclenched my still fisted hands. My ragged breaths became even as my head swiveled between the guys.
“Thank you,” I said. I chose to look at the ground, focusing on a tiny pebble, as I felt the moisture build up in my eyes.
Ashton walked with me as I started for the house. “No worries, man.” We fell in step together as we walked toward the front door. “How the hell did you get so lucky with those roommates?” He laughed. “But seriously, go take care of the tiny one. She’s going to need all of you.”
And that’s exactly what I planned on doing.
Becca and Macie were still upstairs with her; she didn’t want me in the room with them. Which was fine, because if I were, I’d have blown our cover for sure.
I felt the panic rising.
Sitting alone in the dark, knowing she was just upstairs, drove me crazy.
I wanted to see her. To make sure she was alright.
Make sure that douchebag didn’t hurt her.
My hands rubbed along my jeans repeatedly, digging into the material, gripping at my knees.
As I wiped my brow, the sweat soaked the back of my hand.
I checked my watch: almost midnight.
Definitely too late to put a call in to Dr. Jean.
The energy built inside me as I jumped from the couch and paced the room.
Tearing open the refrigerator door, I stared inside but registered nothing as I looked.
I wasn’t hungry. After I slammed it shut, the bottles rattling in the door, I walked to the back window.
The moon was hazy behind some clouds, making it much darker than normal.
I checked the back slider, making sure it was locked. My mind raced.
I decided to head out front. Sitting on the stoop, I took a deep breath of the cold night air, letting it fill my lungs. Keeping it there helped me to calm down. As I let it out slowly, I peered to the side and saw my friend.
The cement statue stood guard, keeping our house safe. And he did it with a smile.
I pulled him from his sunken spot in the earth and dragged him to me. We stared at each other for a bit, and his unwavering grin seemed to be working once again.
“I think it’s time you got a name, little fella,” I told him.
It had to be a strong name for him to be our guardian. I pulled out my phone and searched. So many popped up, names of every culture and descent. One caught my eye because of its English and German background, like me.
Howard.
I could call him Howie.
My head snapped behind me as the door flew open.
“There you are,” Becca said. “I couldn’t find you.” She grabbed a coat and came to sit beside me. We were both quiet, staring at Howie. She flicked a piece of dirt from his bent leg. “He is cute.”
“Yeah, he is,” I agreed. “His name is Howie.”
She giggled.
“What?”
“I like it. Howie, that’s a good, strong name.” She leaned her head on my shoulder. “How ya doin’, big guy?”
I didn’t answer right away, I couldn’t. Because the way I was feeling, and the reasons for it, I couldn’t divulge to her. My hands rubbed at my face, trying to make sense of this entire night.
“I don’t know, to be honest.”
She nodded, assuming she knew how I was truly feeling.
“You did a good thing, Logan.” She picked up Howie and gently placed him back in his designated spot.
As she twisted and turned him into place, she looked at me.
“Ava finally fell asleep. It took Macie and me a while to get her settled, but she calmed down. I think Macie’s going to sleep in her room with her.
I’m sure Ava’ll want to see you in the morning. ”
My hands twisted together as so many emotions rolled through me. I couldn’t decipher what I was feeling.
I didn’t want to wait until morning to see her, but there was no choice now.
What I did know was I should be the one in her bed with her.