“I’m doing better than I have been in a long time. They can’t keep pumping this medicine in me. Don’t you see that it only kills the real me, subdues her so she won’t put up a fight. But Mommy’s back, sweetie. And she’s gonna protect her babies.”
“Is that what you were doing that day?” Logan asks, his words cutting through the air. “Protecting us?”
I think about the horror he described. Her sadistic attempt at familicide—the perpetration of a truly sick act, and that’s coming from a Lorde.
The tense lines on Clara’s face soften. “I’m not going to let you win, Ian,” she tells Logan, as if he were his father, suggesting how much her boundaries between the past and present have blurred. “If I can’t have you, neither can Old Terror.”
Something in my periphery draws my attention—across the hallway, Krychek’s creeping toward the door, gun tucked close to his chest.
“He can’t have you,” Clara says, cocking the gun.
Logan rushes in front of me.
“Logan! Don’t!” I call out.
“Get out of the way, Ian.”
“It’s Logan. And I love him, Mom.”
Something in her gaze shifts, a darkness moving through her, the same darkness I’ve seen in Logan. “Guess you’ve made your choice.”
Krychek draws nearer, and there’s only one thought on my mind—I must protect Wrath and Logan at all costs. This is what I signed up for when I agreed to marry him. I wasn’t taking lightly my duty to protect him. They’re my blood, and I’m theirs.
And it’s like God himself has, in a split second, gifted me an opportunity, not just to save Logan from Clara, but from the predicament I’ve trapped him in. He doesn’t have to spend his life suffering without love. We’ve signed the papers, and Krychek will witness the event, tell everyone what happened, and because of our marriage, Logan will remain blood and inherit the protection his family sought.
All she needs is a moment to shoot me, and that will give Krychek time to take her out. Truly, Clara has given me the answer I’ve desperately wanted. The only chance for her son to have happiness. The only chance he has to be free of this monster who captured him.
I shove Logan aside, rushing toward Clara, who smirks. “I knew you were in there, Old Terror,” she says before the sound of the gunshot erupts.
I’m in a daze as everything slows. There’s another gunshot before her body twists and contorts. Just as I figured, I gave Krychek the time and distraction he needed for a shot.
Clara fires another round toward the ceiling, assuring me he nailed her.
Most importantly, that Logan is safe.
The room spins, and I’m on the ground in no time, with Logan on his knees at my side.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” he says, his words sounding muffled. “Killian, you’re gonna be okay. It’s gonna be fine.”
His concern is all over his face, and I know better. He gazes down at me with those beautiful blue eyes, those eyes that remind me why I took these final steps. Because this man who holds me is so special, so incredible, he deserves a world of joy I couldn’t give him. I’ve never felt an emotion this profound, never known it could feel this incredible to care for someone other than biological family.
I am a monster, but maybe I was more capable of love than I realized.
It’s so exciting that I want to share this with him, want him to know that it was all for him.
“Logan,” I say, but I’m slipping.
As I fade, I feel the crushing weight of knowing he’ll never know the truth, hating that someone as amazing as him will find love again and that it won’t be with me.
35
LOGAN
Chaos.
Panic.
Dread.
