Chapter 14
Jasmine
“Is what true?” Logan demands with grit, but I don’t answer him. Heck, I don’t even look at him because damn, when we locked eyes after I opened that door, disgust and anger shone back at me.
I can feel his hate, his resentment, and it’s suffocating me that I can feel myself breaking bit by bit. I honestly thought that, after a few weeks of texting with him about coming to see Aisling things would be a little lighter but I didn’t prepare myself for the hate.
I thought I was doing the right thing by all three of us.
I didn’t know how harmful his mama could be, but I knew how harmful mine was.
I grew up with her, I felt her kicks, I heard her threats, and I knew she would have destroyed Logan, destroyed his club and even though I was going to ask Logan for his help, his mama put that last bit of fear into me.
Throughout our relationship, I hid things from him—for his safety, for the club's safety. I can’t let him know how bad my childhood was. Paying for a lawyer I can’t afford is hard enough. If he learns why I ran, I’ll lose Aisling.
“Someone fucking answer me right now!” Logan demands, and Aisling jumps in with a whisper, “Daddy, no-no word…” And I look in time to see him melt at his daughter, kissing her head while Doc’s lips twitch, but my brother just stares at me.
“Every time he came over, and you ran to your room,” he chokes, disbelief and pain shining in his light blue eyes, “the locks on your doors, you ensuring you’re never alone with him, always being on your best behavior so you don’t–”
“Stop Brady,” I whisper, cutting him off before he lets too much out and his shock turns to complete fury that even has me swallowing.
“He tried to –” he cuts himself off and looks at Aisling, who is holding her daddy tight, him being her sole attention, and my brother whispers, “He tried to rape you, Jasmine, and Dad called you a liar!”
I flinch as Logan stiffens, his eyes looking at me sharply as my brother presses, “You were fourteen. Instead of kicking him out, Dad sided with him. Mama…” I flinch again, shaking my head as I enter my apartment hoping he’ll shut up but my brother follows “She locked you up for weeks, Jasmine!”
“Brady!” I snap, my eyes going to Logan, who has followed us inside, his eyes still on me while he holds our daughter.
“Oh, right, let me guess, Tank doesn’t know.” Brady chuckles, and the urge to smack my brother is building if he doesn’t shut the hell up.
“What don’t I know?” Logan demands while Doc mutters, “You didn’t correct him, you’re still a brother,” making Logan scowl while I frown in confusion.
What does he mean by ‘he’s still a brother’?
I look over the man I fell in love with, and my frown deepens as I question, “Logan, where is your cut?” I tilt my head, “You look weird…”
Doc chuckles beside him while Aisling looks between us.
“Don’t change the subject, little sister, you’re living in a dump, and I’m guessing Mama and Bruce are the reason.” He says, then demands, “I’m right, aren’t I?”
“Tell them, sweetheart,” Doc says softly, and my eyes tear up, the pressure mounting as I lock eyes with Logan’s cold ones.
“She’s one of the reasons,” I admit, “Logan’s mama was the other.”
Brady turns, linking his fingers behind his head and I look away, studying my small apartment, its furniture old and worn.
Since they came with the place, I wasn’t really in a position to refuse.
"Buttercup," Logan says softly, in a tone that makes my stupid heart want to believe sounds like love but I know better.
I swallow hard and glance his way. He tilts his head, whispering, “Trust me, please.”
“I do trust you,” I choke, but he shakes his head in denial and states, “No, you don’t –”
“I do,” I instantly cut him off. “I trust you with our daughter. I trusted you with my location and number, even though you brought my brother and yours. I trust you with my heart, my body, my soul. I’ve always trusted you, Logan.
I just didn’t trust you to stay out of everything because of who you are, putting yourself and your club in danger. ”
“Jasmine, tell them sweetheart,” Doc repeats, and I look away for a moment, my eyes going to the pictures, to times I was happy, to times I thought my future was set, that I’d finally get my happily ever after.
I was wrong.
“Mama came after me after I left,” I admit quietly, the room growing tense as I turn around and lock eyes with my brother, “It was the night of the fundraiser for struggling families…”
“I remember, Mama pulled Dad aside and claimed you had to leave because of school work,” Brady states, a scowl on his face.
“I’d already graduated from college, Brady, with honors at that.
I was accepted into law school,” I inform him, and he sucks in a breath, and I look at Logan, our daughter's head leaning on his shoulder, her eyes closed. “I was going to tell you about her that evening, that’s why I messaged you asking if we could talk. I was so scared you wouldn’t be happy, that you’d leave me, but I was adamant I was going to tell you everything, including my upbringing, but then your mama…
I don’t know how she knew I was in the hospital, I don’t know how she knew about me, but she made her threats, and I had to leave. ”
“Mama attacked you, didn’t she?” Brady confirms, and Logan's eyes harden.
“I mouthed off,” I whisper, not breaking eye contact with the man I love.
I explain, “She kept trying to bring up Bruce and me getting married, even tried to make a statement to the press, and I couldn’t take it anymore, so I told her I had a boyfriend, that I lived with him and that we were expecting, and I ensured I told it in front of the town gossip. ”
“Miss Palmer,” Brady mutters, “Mama explained she’d had too much to drink and thought you and Bruce were expecting…”
I still don’t break eye contact with Logan, who has gone deathly still.
“My whole life, if I wasn’t the perfect daughter, if I didn’t eat only salads, or wear the right clothes Mama chose for me to wear, if I wasn’t poised enough, I’d end up in the basement, no blankets, wearing a rag and only allowed bread and water,” I confess, “I even had to use a bucket because I was kept down there for weeks at a time sometimes. But with you by my side, I was no longer scared of her, no longer intimidated and I used the strength you gave me every single day to stand up to her. I walked out with my head held high, ready to leave her behind me and begin our future while praying you wouldn’t leave me, leave our child. ”
“What happened, Jasmine?!” Brady demands.
My chin wobbles, and trying to calm my emotions, I finally look away from Logan and a sleeping Aisling and look at my brother as I admit, “She grabbed my hair from behind, shocking me and pulled me back, and because of the heels she forced me to wear, I fell, and she saw an opportunity. She kicked me several times in the stomach, trying to kill my daughter.”
Brady takes a step back, shaking his head as Doc confirms, “I saw it happen, and your mama ran when I shouted. I didn’t know she was Tank's girl at the time.”
Tank’s girl.
I look down. “She threatened Logan. Yes, I panicked, but while in the hospital, I knew I needed help and was going to confess everything. I wanted to protect myself and our baby so for added protection until I could get in touch with Logan, I made sure the doctors wrote that I miscarried for my daughter’s safety, because I knew Mama would show up at the hospital pretending to be concerned,” I whisper, then look at Logan.
“But then Mama showed up,” he confirms, and I nod sharply.
“I didn’t want to ruin your relationship with her and then over the years, I allowed myself to believe that my mama would destroy your club,” I choke, and he shakes his head.
“This is why we should have spoken about our childhoods, buttercup,” he sighs, “I hate my mother with a passion, way before you and I began dating. She hated that I wasn’t a girl and made sure I knew it before spending years ignoring me until I was fourteen years old and decided I needed to be with her best friend's daughter,” I frown until he emphasizes, “The cougar's daughter,” and I scrunch my nose up in distaste, making him smirk.
Dark blonde hair, light brown eyes, and a trench coat that was slightly open, showing she was naked underneath and her nipples were nearly showing...
Logan was in the doghouse for weeks after that crap, when she showed up demanding I leave her man's house because she'd come to surprise him.
She actually believed I was the cleaner.
“Who’s the cougar?” Brady asks, and I mumble, “A woman like fifty years older than Logan, who he screwed from the age of sixteen until I came along and showed up at our home.”
Our home slips out, but I try not to react to my words, though I don’t miss my brother tensing.
“She’s only twenty years older than me, Jas. Your jealousy is showing,” Logan teases, and my jaw ticks as Brady and Doc try to cover their laughter.
Assholes.
I raise a brow at Logan and confirm, “Okay, so you’re okay with a man coming to your front door in nothing but low-cut jeans demanding that you leave so he can have his way with me?” his jaw ticks, and I smirk this time and retort, “Careful, Logan, your jealousy is showing!”
Okay, should I be sassing him when I deserve his anger? No, not really, but the man has pissed me off.
The woman was a leech, an old one that I wanted to smack.
Brady and Doc laugh while Logan glares my way, but I just shrug and remind him, “You spent nearly a month in the doghouse for her little move.”
“And you spent six years running, keeping my daughter from me, living in this dump, instead of trusting me to keep you both safe.” He snaps, and my stomach sinks as I look away from him and his anger.
The laughing hyenas quieten instantly, and I take a deep breath to try to control the urge to fall to the floor and sob and whisper, “I didn’t want my mama or yours to destroy you and your club, I didn’t want them to hurt our daughter.
I thought I was doing the right thing and I’ve tried my best here and no matter how high the bills get, Aisling always has food in her stomach and clothes on her back so don’t you dare come into my home and call it a dump when I have always put her, you and your club before my own needs. ”
The room grows quiet, realization hitting them just how much I’ve struggled, and I swallow hard as I eye the kitchen counter, well, if you can call it a counter, it’s literally a sink with a draining board and a gas cooker next to it, but my eyes latch onto the letter.
I guess now is a good time to do this, he has hold of Aisling, so he can’t really lose it.
With weak legs and trembling hands, I walk over to the sink, and I grab the letter before turning back to Logan, whose eyes are still on me, still full of anger, and I walk over to him, holding the letter up.
He furrows his brows and takes it, but soon drops it to the floor as if it burned him reading the logo before glaring hard at me.
“You threatened the legal route,” I remind him, causing my brother to suck in a breath while Doc groans. I shrug, “I protected her, I protected you and your club–”
“You didn’t have to protect us, Jasmine!” he snaps loudly, interrupting me, causing Aisling to murmur, making him tense.
“But I did,” I state firmly, “I loved you enough to put your safety and our daughter’s over my happiness, over my safety net that I had with you, the dream I had of working with my uncle.
Because you decided to pay the hospital bills, I’ve managed to find some money to hire a lawyer who has stated you wouldn’t have a case because you weren’t involved for so long, being basically a stranger to our daughter and because of the danger surrounding with your mother. ”
Logan’s nostrils flare while the other two men stay deathly silent.
I didn’t want to do this. I didn’t want to bring up the fact that he hasn’t been involved, but the lawyer said it was the only way.
I won’t lose my daughter.
“Doc!” Logan growls, making me jump, and his brother sigh, “Don’t do this, Lo,” but Logan doesn’t take his eyes off me.
“She’s given me no choice,” Logan states while my brother turns away and walks down the hallway.
What the…?
I go to follow him, not needing him to see how I’ve been sleeping but Doc moves, halting me, and my eyes widen as he takes Aisling, who doesn’t stir, and hands Logan a needle.
Oh hell no!
“Don’t even think about it!” I snap, already seeing what he’s about to fricking do as Doc takes Aisling where Brady went without looking back, but Logan just shrugs.
“As I said, buttercup, you haven’t given me a choice,” he says coldly as he steps towards me, and I take a step back with each step he takes, my eyes on the needle.
“Logan,” I choke with fear.
“You kept my daughter from me, living in this shit, lied to me, fuck, you kept you from me, and I’m taking my family back,” he says quietly and my heart pounds, my eyes staying on the needle but I gasp as I hit the wall before I bolt to the right, hoping to run past him but his arm wraps around my waist, yanking my back to his front and I try to fight him off and get out of his hold as I cry, “Logan, don’t do this,” just as the needle goes into my skin and a cold sensation runs down my neck as my eyes blur.
“I’m not living without you anymore, even if I don’t trust you,” is the last thing I hear as everything goes dark.