Chapter 54
fifty-four
LOGAN
Driving to Blair’s has never taken so long.
“Dude, you’re rocking the whole SUV,” Ryder teases from the passenger seat as we idle at a red light. “It won’t get us there any faster.”
“Whatever.” I roll my eyes but grin a moment later when the light turns green.
“Is this nervous energy, or are you just that excited?”
“Both? I don’t know, man. I’m scared shitless, but I also can’t wait for them to spend their first official night in my place. Our place. You know?”
Ryder nods. “I do. That’s how I felt when Lex moved in.”
The rookie and I have more in common than I would have thought.
We’ve both found family in the Rogues, both fallen in love with badass, intelligent women, and we’ve both moved those women in because of some perceived threat that makes the idea of them living apart from us unbearable.
For Ryder and Lexi, it was the overwhelming amount of press that came along with the public spectacle her dad made of her, which led to him being fired as our head coach.
She was being approached by fans and journalists alike often enough that her apartment no longer felt safe.
“How do you do it?”
“What?” he asks, turning to give me his full attention.
“Not fuck it up.”
Ryder chuckles at that. “Oh, I fuck up sometimes. It’s not about never fucking up, it’s about how you deal with things when you do.”
“What if I don’t deal well with things?” It’s not like I have any good role models in that department. Except for my teammates.
“You do the best you can. You talk to each other. You listen. Listening is the key, man. You admit when you fuck up and when you don’t know how to make it better.
” He reaches over and gives my shoulder a squeeze as I turn onto Blair’s street.
“You put in the time and the effort like you do on the ice. And you remember that she could do better than you and act accordingly.”
That makes me laugh. “Is that what you tell yourself about Lexi?”
“Hell, yeah. I’m not dumb. I know that woman could do better than me, but for some reason, I’m the one she chose. I just need to make sure I don’t give her reasons to stop choosing me.”
“Pretty wise for a rookie.”
“Not a rookie anymore.”
Grinning, I pull into Blair’s parking lot and find a spot. “I guess not.”
Hopping out of the SUV, Ryder and I start walking to the front of Blair’s building as Griffin and Maddox pull in.
We give them a nod, and normally I’d wait for them, but I’m so anxious to get to my girl, I keep walking.
Ryder’s at my side when we come upon a crowd at the side of the building.
A group of eight to ten people form a semicircle around something on the sidewalk.
There’s shouting and people talk over each other as a handful of bystanders crouch around something.
“What’s going on?” Ryder wonders aloud.
I want to tell him it doesn’t matter, because Blair and Reed are waiting for us, but something tugs me toward the crowd. Some insistent curiosity has me pushing through the outer edge of bystanders. I turn to a man in a puffy blue coat. “What’s going on?”
“Someone hit the poor bastard over the head with a baseball bat,” the man says, pointing to a wooden bat a few feet away.
My stomach twists. “Someone was attacked?”
I don’t wait for an answer. I push through the rest of the crowd, Ryder at my side, and stop dead when my gaze falls on the unconscious man with a bloody wound on the back of his head.
“Kai?”
No.
No, no, no.
“Kai?” Ryder’s eyes are huge when he turns and meets mine. “As in Reed’s bodyguard, Kai?”
There’s one terrible moment when time seems to stop. When the world halts its spinning, and I’m suspended in a static-filled state of denial.
It’s not him. It’s someone who looks like him. It can’t be Kai. Because that means that Reed and Blair…
“Blair,” I choke out, turning to grip Ryder’s coat. “Reed.”
Nothing else needs to be said. I turn to Maddox and Griffin as they walk up and hope they can interpret what I’m about to say. “She’s here.”
“What?” Maddox frowns as he takes in my expression.
“The stalker. She’s here.”
“Fuck,” Griffin curses.
“Fire!” someone screams on the sidewalk.
The world starts spinning again, but this time, it’s moving too fast. So fast, it feels like I’m moving in slow motion as I turn to the voice screaming fire.
A panicked woman races out of Blair’s building, a toddler clutched to her chest. “There’s a fire on the second floor.”
And that’s when the fire alarms start blaring in the building and white emergency lights begin flashing.
“No.” Helplessly, I look to my friends. “No.”
And then I’m running.
“Dude, wait!” Griffin’s voice trails after me. It’s full of the same panic coursing like acid through my veins. It fizzes and sizzles, urging me to move faster.
I need to get to them. Now.
A fire.
They must be so scared.
People stream past me, and I’m shoving and pushing against a panicked tide.
The acrid scent of smoke is faint, but unmistakable, as I struggle to climb the stairs to the second floor.
My friends are at my back, barking orders at the shrieking residents.
Telling them to get out of the building. To get out of our way.
I ignore it all. I don’t feel the elbows that dig into my side as I’m jostled by fleeing residents. I don’t feel the brush of bodies shoving me against the wall. I don’t feel anything at all, outside of the pulsing fear infecting every inch of my being.
“Wait!” a high-pitched voice screams. Then there are hands grabbing at me. “Don’t go up there. It’s not safe.”
I turn to the woman clinging to me, hoping to find my girlfriend’s familiar face. But even as I entertain the momentary thought, I know it’s not her. The voice is too high-pitched. Grating.
“Please, Logan.”
That shocks my brain online. Everything narrows down to her face. Her vaguely familiar face.
Blonde hair, blue eyes, full lips, and a slightly upturned nose. There’s something disingenuous about the worry in her eyes.
“You.”
Her lips curl into a pleased smile. “I knew you’d remember me.”
“You’re the girl from Chasers. The one who asked me for salt.”
The smile melts into a frown. “That’s all?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I want to shake her. I want to throw her against the wall and demand answers. But I also don’t give a shit who she is. Because Blair and Reed are in danger. They could be hurt. Trapped.
And I need to get to them. Now.
I move to push past her, but she grabs my arm with alarming strength.
“You really don’t remember me? After everything, after all I lost, you don’t remember me?” There’s a darkness, an emptiness in her eyes that makes my skin crawl. A lack where her humanity should be.
“I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about, and I don’t give a shit. My girlfriend and her brother are up there.”
“You won’t be able to save them,” she says. Matter-of-fact. Like she’s announcing that there’s rain in the forecast when the sky is dark with swollen clouds.
“The fuck did you just say?” Maddox growls.
“I don’t want to see you hurt.” The blonde clings to my shoulders.
Deep revulsion rolls through me. “You’re her. The crazy bitch who threatened my family.” I want to scream. I want to rage. But first, I need to get to them. I turn to my guys and lock eyes with them. “Someone needs to hold this bitch. I’m going to get Blair and Reed.”
There’s a shout from the base of the stairs, and a moment later, Kai stands in front of the woman who’s been threatening my family.
There’s blood gleaming on the back of his head and anger in his eyes.
And when she panics and tries to bolt around him, he reaches out and grips her arm hard enough to have her yelping. Then he slams her against the wall.
“In my back pocket,” he says to Maddox. “There’s a set of cuffs. Get them for me. The rest of you, go.”
I don’t wait to make sure Kai gets the bitch in cuffs. As soon as she’s out of my way, I’m pushing through the now-thinning stream of residents and racing to Blair and Reed’s door.
It’s closed but not locked, and I cover my hand with the sleeve of my coat in case the knob is hot, then push it open.
Thick, cloying smoke fills the apartment. My eyes burn as it spills out around me, and the guys and I cover our noses and mouths with our coats as we step into Hell.
Fire has almost completely consumed the kitchen. Hissing, spitting flames climb the wall above the stove. Something burns on one of the lit burners.
That bitch set fire to their apartment.
Frantically, my eyes sweep the apartment, looking for Blair and Reed, but I don’t see them.
“Fuck,” Maddox growls, catching up with us.
“Blair!” I push farther into the familiar apartment, tears blurring my vision. Both from the smoke and my panic. “Reed!”
“Check every room and closet,” Griffin shouts. “Be careful.”
Ryder nods, and so does Maddox. Then we split up, calling out for the love of my life and the kid I consider a little brother.
“Logan?” Her voice is faint and muffled, but when I hear it, I let out a sob. “Help, please!”
“Over here,” I scream at the guys, rushing toward Reed’s room.
With every passing moment, the smoke grows thicker, visibility drops, and my lungs burn. We have to get them out of here. And quick.
I turn the knob to Reed’s room, but it doesn’t give. “Blair, it’s me. Unlock the door!”
“We’re trying,” she shouts. Her voice is high-pitched and sharp with panic. “Hurry, Reed, we have to hurry.”
The knob turns, the lock disengaging, but when I push against the door, it still doesn’t give. “Blair? Is something in front of the door?”
She sobs. “Come on, Reed. Pull!”
I turn the knob and push again, but it still meets resistance, barely budging an inch. Ready to crawl out of my skin, I look at my teammates for help.
“They must have barricaded the door,” Madds says. “Tell her to keep pulling on whatever it is, and we’ll push.”