Chapter 44 Logan #2
Closing my eyes for a second, I then look over at Randy, who kneels on the floor. As he clutches his bleeding shoulder, red splotches spread on his stained shirt while Max looms over him, a bloodied hunting knife in his hand.
“Take her,” I force out, waiting for Max to put his arms around Lily before I stalk over to Randy.
He grins up at me, and I am so fucking grateful that Max went for a stab just enough to disarm him, leaving the honor of torturing the bastard to death to me.
“C’mon, no hard feelings. Got her back in mint condition. Good, maybe a dent and a few scratches here and there–” He groans when I ram my boot into his stomach, toppling over.
“You scared our girl,” I snarl as my fingers tangle in his greasy hair, pulling Randy’s skin taut as I yank his head up.
“You touched our girl.” Looking him in the eyes, I bore my knife into his thigh until I hit bone.
Randy screams, but not as loud as I’d like him to. So I pull the knife out, sliding it over the floor toward Max before my punches begin to rain down on Randy’s face.
“You fucking hurt our girl,” I scream, wishing the sound of his bones breaking would reach my ears, but then someone pulls me off of Randy.
“Enough.”
Rockwell’s voice is so far away, and too close at the same time.
A fucking nuisance, because all that goes through my head is taking my fear of losing Lily out on Randy until he’s nothing more than a puddle barely resembling a person.
It’s only when someone removes one of my gloves and my fingers come in contact with soft skin that I stop seeing red.
Lily’s hand rests on top of mine, her cheek wet with tears as some of them roll over my hand, but I’m frozen, unable to wipe them away.
“It’s okay, Logan,” she says, her voice strained. “I’m okay. I promise.”
“You’re going to tell me exactly what he said to you.” I swallow thickly as my gaze keeps landing on the goddamn hand prints on her thighs. “What he fucking did to you.”
Lily shakes her head, stepping closer to block my view and I narrow my eyes at her. “You came before he had a chance to do anything, and that’s all that matters to me.”
She leans against me, tucking her head under my chin while Max strokes over her back. We exchange a look, and I start to relax as I see his eyes are full of relief. The moment doesn’t last long, because Randy begins to move, spitting up globs of blood mixed with a few teeth.
Gently, Rockwell urges me to hand Lily over to Charlie so they can join Sam in the hallway. Sam, who is carrying Ruby and as I see how worried Lily is about her, concerned about everyone else, as if she wasn’t also in such a horrible situation, it breaks my heart a little.
Once everyone but Rockwell, Max, and me is out of the room, Rockwell pulls Randy up until he leans against the wall.
The shit-eating grin won’t disappear from his face, and I wonder if there’s blood surging through his veins at all, or if it’s a concoction of drugs that could take a damn elephant out.
“Who told you where to find them?” Rockwell’s question only pulls a dry laugh from Randy.
“Can smell a good whore over miles,” he says, and it’s Max’s bruising touch that keeps me from kicking his last five teeth out.
“We’re gonna find out.” Max crouches down in front of Randy, pressing his gloved fingers into the stab wound on his thigh. “And we’re going to hunt down every single one of your men, until even the last one is dead.”
“Did you skip the ‘how to negotiate’ lecture, or are you just dumb?” Randy groans, still holding onto his bleeding shoulder as he tries to push Max away with his free hand “Why would I tell you anything? I’m not gonna make it out of here either way.”
“Yeah, but it’s your decision if you want to be dead or alive when I set this building on fire,” Max says as gets up.
“Ah, dumb and nice.” More blood trickles through Randy’s fingers and he lifts his hand, almost entertained as he watches it drip down onto the floor before he lets out a sigh.
“Look, I don’t know an awful lot. Asher’s the brain. I’m the beauty, obviously,” he drawls before he raises his voice, yelling to make sure Lily hears him. “You’ll get over me, princess.”
“You’re wasting time,” Rockwell snarls, nudging Randy’s injured leg with his foot.
“Ain’t got much to tell, so why not take it slow,” he says.
“Asher got a text with the address of the crazy one, probably more stuff than just the address, but to be honest, I didn’t give a shit.
I still had a score to settle with Mr. Holton, so I told some of my men to get ready.
Asher’s guy said he’d pay double if we let the bodies disappear, I just wanted to have a bit of fun with–”
The click of my gun finishes Randy’s sentence prematurely.
“Who sent your brother the address?”
“The goddamn tooth fairy. Fucking shit, I said I don’t care for Asher’s contacts.”
“Fine. Where’s Asher?”
Randy just laughs at Max’s question. More blood leaves his mouth with every hoarse chuckle, and it’s the first time he seems to think about his answer before speaking up.
“Guess he had something better to do.”
“Fucking useless piece of shit,” Max mutters, storming out of the room, followed by Rockwell. “We’ll find him,” he yells over to Randy before he vanishes.
“Tell him to meet me in hell when you do,” Randy screams back, slumping down with a wet cough.
“You won’t have to wait long,” I say, turning my head when there’s movement outside the door.
It’s Charlie, leaning in the doorframe with his balaclava shoved up a bit. He wipes over his mouth with the back of his hand, retching when he sees Randy. Can’t blame him.
“You good?” I ask. Normally, I love being right, but this time, I had really wished my intuition was wrong.
“It was the first time I–” he stammers, unable to finish the sentence. “Please tell me it gets easier.”
“It does, kind of. You’ll grow numb,” I mumble, knowing that this isn’t the answer he wanted to hear.
Randy laughs, and he doesn’t stop even when I aim my gun at him.
“Aren’t you guys a group of little bitches. One who cries for his mommy and three idiots who are incapable of looking after their chicks. I’d have shown them what a real man is–”
The scent of gasoline creeps into my nose as my finger hovers over the trigger, and I’m almost startled when a hand wraps around mine.
“You wanna do it, sweetheart?”
She hesitates, and Randy looks up at us, the grin on his face getting even bigger.
“Got yourself a Mother Theresa, eh?”
Lily huffs. “No. I just don’t think you deserve a quick way out of this. A real man like you sure isn’t afraid of fire.”
“I liked you more when you weren’t talking, princess.”
Wordlessly, Lily turns her back toward Randy.
By the time Rockwell and Max rejoin us, the scent of gasoline is overpowering, intensifying when they empty the last canister inside the old office.
“Let’s go,” Max says, tugging on my arm when I refuse to move.
“What about him?” I point my gun at Randy, who keeps slipping in and out of consciousness.
“He’ll be all nice and crispy in a few.”
Max maneuvers me out of the room, kicking Randy’s gun back toward him. “See, I am the nice one.”
Randy lets out something between a laugh and a cough, and more blood soaks his shirt as he stops applying pressure to his wounded shoulder, doing a finger gun at Max while he tries to pull the pistol closer with his non-injured leg.
Taking Lily’s hand in mine, we all rush to leave the building, and just as we reach the emergency exit, a gunshot rings through the night. Lily exhales deeply, squeezing my hand when Max tosses a burning lighter into the hallway.
Soon, the old factory is engulfed by flames while smaller explosions go off inside the burning ruin. Piece by piece, the roof crumbles down, and Max joins me and Lily, putting his arm around her while he rests his head on my shoulder.
It’s now that I make the decision to wait until tomorrow to share the news about Brady with Lily. Tonight is ours.
Sam is holding a barely conscious Ruby in his arms, and if the bruises on her face are anything to go by, she definitely has a severe concussion. She tries to speak up, growing frustrated when the words won’t come out the way she wants them to.
“The corpses,” she finally manages to say. “Did you check them?”
“Check them for what, darling?”
“Long hair. Beard. Leather jacket. Tall,” Ruby mumbles, hissing as she tries to move her hand to touch her face.
“Peanut, half of them fit your description,” I say, while Sam tries to get her to stay still.
Ruby groans, more pained than annoyed, as she throws her head back against Sam’s chest. It seems as if she remembers something when she looks at the fire and the embers flying through the night.
“Ash,” she mumbles as the wind shifts, making some of them land on her arm.
Holding the back of her head, Sam turns to face Rockwell.
“ER,” Rockwell mouths and Sam nods, setting a quick pace as we walk to our cars.
I keep checking on Charlie, who hasn’t said a single word since our brief conversation earlier, and who slows down every few steps to look back at the burning building. It’s only a matter of time until the dam breaks, and a few minutes later, it does.
As I overhear the whispered but still heated argument between Rockwell and Charlie, I tap Max’s shoulder.
“You should try talking to him.”
If anyone can calm Charlie down right now, it’s Max. Conscience and all that. The captain means well, but he doesn’t get him. He’s too used to all of this, just like Sam and I.
“Are you okay staying with Logan for a moment?” Max asks Lily, checking the cut on her chest with a frown.
“Of course,” she answers, and I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to let go of her hand again.
Max nods before he walks over to Rockwell and Charlie and as Lily and I reach our car, I lean against the door and pull her close.
She snuggles up against me, and weeks ago, I would have pushed her away. It feels like a lifetime ago. Because now, all that seems to matter is feeling her close to me; warm, breathing, and full of life.
“I realized something when I stood face to face with death,” Lily says, tilting her head up to look at me. “Again, by the way. I hope this isn’t going to be a regular occurrence.”
“It won’t be,” I say, brushing a strand of hair out of her face. “I promise.”
“I love you.” Lily doesn’t give me a chance to react, pushing my balaclava up to press her lips against mine. “And if you want to kill me now because I said the big, bad L-word…”
“Never,” I murmur, pulling the mask off before cradling her face. “Lily, I don’t know what I would have done if we lost you.”
She seems to sense the war going on inside me, where my heart is fighting with my head for the right to let the words out.
“You don’t need to say it back,” Lily says as Max joins us.
With a relieved sigh, he tugs the balaclava off of his head, shoving it in the back pocket of his pants.
His hair is a mess so I reach out to fix it, and once I’m done and put my hand around the back of Max’s neck, he thanks me with a bright smile.
One that does crease the corners of his eyes, and just like that, my sunshine came back in the dark of night.
Max gives Lily a kiss on her forehead, taking her hand in his.
“We know what we mean to you,” she says, putting her free hand on my chest. “Because actions speak even louder than words.”