Logan
“No shit,” Boone said, throwing his head back in laughter.
“Yup,” Mac replied, a cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth. “Lizzie’s moving here permanently. She’s back in the city now to tie up a few loose ends, but once that’s done, she’s here for good.”
“What made her decide that?” Rhodes asked, lifting his beer to his lips.
Mac shrugged and flicked ash into the tray beside him. “Beats me. I don’t ask questions I don’t want complicated answers to.”
“It’s a good thing she’s moving back, right?” I asked.
“We’ve been doing okay,” Mac said. “Typical brother-sister stuff, arguing over dumb shit, but not like it used to be. She’s trying to get me to meet up with our mom, though.”
Boone winced. “Oof. What do you think?”
“I can imagine you’ve got some things to say to her,” Rhodes added.
Mac gave a dry laugh. “Considering I haven’t seen her since I was, what, eight? I don’t really have much to say.”
We all chuckled at that. Mac was usually unfazed by most things, except when it came to Penny or anyone he loved. He was the kind of guy you wanted in your corner, steady and quiet until he needed to roar. Honestly, all my friends were.
“Speaking of parents,” Boone said, “how are yours?”
“They’re good. Nothing new, really.” I took a sip of my drink. “Mom did pretty well at the competition, qualified for the finals, which was what she wanted.”
“What made you go all the way out there in the first place?” Rhodes asked.
I swallowed, letting the question sit for a second before answering. “It’d been a while. I was on the phone with my mom, and she just… she sounded like she wanted me there.”
Boone and Rhodes nodded in quiet understanding.
None of them knew what really happened. Ellie hadn’t told anyone yet, and it wasn’t my place to speak on it. That story belonged to her. Until she felt ready to share, I’d keep it simple. I didn’t like lying, not to my friends, but for Ellie, I’d do just about anything.
“I think going with you helped her,” Boone said.
That caught me off guard. I leaned forward, elbows on the counter, giving him my full attention. “What do you mean?”
Boone exhaled, removed his cowboy hat, ran a hand through his hair, and then slid the hat back on.
“Coming back here didn’t seem easy for her. She puts on a good front, sure, but I know her. She’s my little sister. And whether she realizes it or not, she’s got a tell.”
I let out a low laugh and shook my head.
“Hell, she thinks I didn’t know she used to shove aces up her sleeve when we played cards as kids. But I saw it. I just let her get away with it.”
“Wait,” I said, squinting at him. “You knew she was cheating?”
“Oh, absolutely,” Boone grinned. “She wasn’t nearly as slick as she thought.”
Her childhood card hustle was the reason I called her Ace. The nickname had stuck and meant more to me than she probably realized.
I glanced over my shoulder, instinct tugging at me, and that’s when I saw her.
Ellie. Talking to someone.
Tall. Broad shoulders. Dark hair.
No. Fucking. Way.
Miles stood in front of Ellie on the dance floor. I could see her lips moving, his head bobbing with a reply, but whatever bullshit he was saying didn’t last long. Because then all I saw was red.
That bastard had the audacity to show up here. At this bar, and try to corner her like it was nothing.
My blood boiled, surging like wildfire beneath my skin, begging for release. My heart thundered with one singular truth: he didn’t belong here.
I didn’t say a word. Just stood mid-conversation and made my way across the bar, one step at a time. The sound around me dulled into static, like someone had hit mute on the world. All I could see was him.
He didn’t get to walk around Faircloud like he belonged, not after what he did.
He didn’t get the privilege of pretending to be sorry.
I reached out and tapped his shoulder.
I saw the slight slump in his back, that twitch of irritation. He rolled his head from side to side, annoyed, before turning around—
My fist flew before he even got a word out, slamming into his jaw with all the force I had. My knuckles cracked against bone, and the contact vibrated up my arm, but I didn’t feel a damn thing. Adrenaline drowned everything else out.
Miles stumbled backward, his hand shooting up to cradle the side of his face. But before he could recover, before he could get out a weak retaliation, I grabbed him by the collar and slammed him down to the ground.
I dropped on top of him, arm cocked and ready to strike again, but two sets of hands yanked me back before I could deliver the second blow. Miles was a lucky son of a bitch because that punch was going to land hard.
I twisted in their grip, fighting to get free.
“Logan!” Boone’s voice rang out.
That’s when I realized it was him and Rhodes holding me back. I barely had time to process that before I caught a glimpse of Mac vaulting the bar, charging straight toward us.
Miles lunged at me, reckless and ready for more, but Mac intercepted him, grabbing him around the chest and dragging him back.
“You stupid fuck!” Miles spit the blood from his mouth before he turned.
“Learn to keep your hands to yourself!” I roared back. “You think touching her made you a man, you piece of shit?”
“Logan, come on,” Rhodes tried to talk me down, his voice low, firm, but I wasn’t done. I growled, still trying to break free.
They spun me around, forcing distance between Miles and me.
Ellie was now in my line of vision.
Frozen.
Her mouth parted in shock, eyes wide, and shimmering with unshed tears. Her body looked stuck in time like she didn’t know how to move or breathe.
And just like that, all the fire inside me dimmed.
“El,” I breathed, still held tight in Boone and Rhodes’s grip.
The group of girls hurried to her side, wrapping her in comfort, creating a barrier around her trembling form. Every eye was fixed on us, on her, on the chaos that had just unfolded.
“Get the fuck out of here,” Mac growled. I turned just in time to see him shoving Miles toward the door. He hurled one more curse at him before slamming it shut so hard the walls shook.
The rage that had taken hold of me—it wasn’t like anything I’d felt before. It wasn’t just anger. It was something else. Something old and deep and buried. Like a wall inside me had cracked wide open.
“That’s enough, you nosy bastards, back to drinking and dancing!” Mac barked, waving the crowd off. He pointed at me. “You. Upstairs. Now.” There was a hard edge in his voice.
I barely got the chance to look at Ellie again before Boone gave me a shove toward the stairs, dragging me up to Mac’s old apartment.
“All right, what the hell was that about?” Boone was the first to speak the second Mac slammed the door shut.
They let go of me, and I moved fast, needing space like I needed air. I paced across the room, ripping my hat from my head and hurling it onto the dining table. It landed with a dull thud, but it wasn’t nearly loud enough to match the noise inside my head.
What the hell was I supposed to say?
My outburst downstairs wasn’t something they could understand—not without knowing everything. And that meant telling them parts of the story that weren’t mine to share.
Mac leaned back against the counter. His tone was clipped, his eyes sharp. “I don’t need a brawl in my bar for stupid shit.”
I lifted my head slowly, jaw locked tight. “It wasn’t because I’m jealous.”
“Oh, shut the hell up,” Boone cut in, waving a hand at me like I was a stubborn toddler. “You were.”
“No. I. Wasn’t.”
“Man, it’s okay,” he added, voice calm now—too calm. “I know you’ve got a thing for my sister.”
Like him saying it out loud would make it easier. Like his blessing was all I needed to calm down right now.
I resumed pacing, needing movement to outrun the frustration building in my chest.
“Yeah, man,” Rhodes chimed in. “Everybody already—”
“When I say this has nothing to do with being jealous of Miles,” I snapped, cutting him off, “I mean it.”
I wasn’t about to let them reduce what happened to some petty jealousy. Because fuck that.
“Then enlighten us,” Rhodes said, pulling out a chair at the table and dropping into it, arms crossed.
“Because that’s what it looked like to me.
You said something about keeping his hands to himself.
Ellie and Miles went on a date, man. He’s obviously going to touch her.
When you don’t say how you feel, you can’t expect to claim her. ”
“He’s a pig!” I shouted, pointing toward the bar as if Miles might still be standing behind that door.
Silence. Blank stares. Confusion.
And that—that—was what pushed me over the edge.
“My comment was more than just about him getting handsy on the date.” I turned to Boone.
“This isn’t the first time he made a scene in the bar.
The last time he came out while we were all here he got in Ellie’s face.
But that isn’t the worst of it. That fucker put his hands on her.
Threw her against the kitchen counter. Screamed in her face.
He was angry that she was rejecting him, trying to put him in the friend zone. ”
The words cracked open something inside me. My voice dropped, but the fury stayed controllable. “That’s the real reason we left. That trip? That was to get her away from him, to give her a moment to clear her head.”
I saw their expressions shift—first disbelief, then understanding, then something far darker.
“She came to my place in tears,” I said, voice thick. “Red marks on her arms. Her back.”
“What?” Boone said. His voice was eerily quiet and his face had drained of all color.
So I told them everything. How she hadn’t known how to say the words. How scared she’d been. How she needed to get away. How I dropped everything to make sure she could.
“She just… needed space.”
They didn’t look at me with pity now. Not with disbelief. No, they looked at me with rage burning behind their eyes, and for the first time, I didn’t feel like I was carrying it alone.
“I’m going to kill him,” Boone said, his voice a low growl.
“Yup,” Mac muttered.