“Raven. Go to the girls,” Kai demanded, and then he was moving.
Jacob had disappeared behind a large piece of machinery.
I needed to get Georgie out of here.
Raven came and sat beside us, her features expressionless, but there was something in her eyes, a look of panic as she kept looking around the warehouse.
“Untie me, Raven.”
She ignored me, and I used a stronger voice. “Raven. Untie me now.”
That got her attention, but she still didn’t make a move to help. Fuck. “Kai will be angry if you don’t untie me and we get hurt. He’ll be angry you’ve lessened our value.”
I turned my back to her so she could untie the rope. I waited for what seemed like forever; then I heard a gunshot echo, and her hands were on my wrists. I was nearly hyperventilating, I was so anxious to get free. I wanted to scream at her to hurry up, but knew it wouldn’t do any good.
Finally, the rope slipped from my sore, raw skin, and I went for Georgie who was moaning and—what the hell?—smiling. Whatever they had given her, she was enjoying. I pulled her up under the armpits and started walking backwards dragging her toward the door.
I was halfway there when I saw him—Logan. I held in my sob, but kept pulling Georgie. He hid behind a conveyor belt, and he had a gun. I didn’t even know Logan knew how to shoot. But he had grown up with Raul, of course he did. I wanted to run to him, throw my arms around him. Cry. Tell him I loved him. I couldn’t do any of that as he shook his head, telling me no.
I glanced behind me and saw Jacob. He had Raven held in front of him and his gun pointed at me. I slowly lowered Georgie to the ground and turned to face him.
Kai appeared to the left of Jacob, he didn’t hold a gun but a knife, and it was held down by his side.
“Let her go.” Kai’s tone was furious. His eyes never left Jacob for a second, even when Raven whimpered as Jacob’s hold tightened.
“In seconds, I can shoot Sculpt’s woman and snap your slave’s neck.”
“Then do it,” Kai said.
I glanced over at Logan, but he was gone. I didn’t look for him. He wouldn’t leave me here. I knew he wouldn’t. No matter what he’d done when his father held a gun to my head, I knew Logan wouldn’t leave me. I trusted him.
Logan had always been my knight.
That’s when I saw Deck to the right of Jacob crouched behind a pile of barrels. He was motioning to Kai. It happened all at once. A gun went off, and I was thrown on the floor beside Georgie, the wind knocked out of me as a large body landed on top.
I smelled him; I felt the familiar length of him, and when I caught my breath, I said his name, “Logan.”
“Stay down.” He was covering my head with his hands, and I could hear the shuffling of feet and voices then the sound of a gun going off again.
I jerked.
Logan suddenly was flipping me over and looking down at me, his hands on either side of my cheeks. “Eme. God, baby.” Deck crouched beside Georgie, and Logan leaned down and kissed me—hard.
“You found us. How’s Georgie?” I asked, clinging to Logan and watching Deck inspect Georgie.
“High. But fine.” Deck held Georgie’s arm outstretched while he ran his finger over what I guessed was the needle mark.
“Heroin,” said Kai’s voice, and I jerked at the sound.
He was standing a few feet away, his arm around Raven’s waist, her head tucked into his chest.
Deck nodded. “Probably better. Georgie would’ve gotten herself killed with that mouth of hers.” Deck stood. “Police will be here shortly. You better go.”
What? Deck was letting Kai go?
“Logan?” I whispered.
Kai untangled Raven from him, and I saw her eyes widen as he pushed her toward us. “You need to stay with them, Raven. Deck will take you home.”
Raven’s face dropped, and paled. She fell to her knees in front of him and grabbed his jeans. “Please. Please take me with you.”
Logan’s arms tightened around me as I watched Kai and Raven, horrified that the girl had the chance to go home, and she was begging Kai to take her with him.
Kai remained motionless as he looked at her. He sighed, and then nodded to Deck who strode over and snagged Raven’s arm, pulling her away. Tears streamed down Raven’s face, but she didn’t make a sound. She looked so devastated that I broke inside for her. This girl was so screwed up that she didn’t want to go home. I felt the tears slip from my eyes, and Logan brushed them away.
Sirens could be heard in the distance.
Kai took one last look at Raven then disappeared into the darkness of the warehouse.
“Logan? I don’t understand.”
Deck looked at me. “Kai was never here. Do understand, Emily. Never here.” Then he was on the phone, Raven at his side and Georgie at his feet. The police burst in with Kite, and Deck talked to the guy in charge, telling him everything. Everything—except not a word was mentioned about Kai.
3 Weeks Later
“Eme, get down here.”
I stared at my name on the document and couldn’t believe he went and did this without even telling me. I hadn’t talked to him about buying my own farm, and yet, he knew. Logan knew what I needed. There was a yellow sticky note on the front of the envelope. It read:
“You’ve worked hard to make the farm a place for horses to heal. And Eme ... for you to repair too. You’ve made it a success. The rent you paid Matt went toward the down payment I made on the farm. I know you’d never be happy to live on my farm, so now it’s yours, and you earned it. You bought it. The farm has always been yours, baby. Now sign the bloody thing, stop arguing with me and promise to come on tour with me.”
I wiped the tears away from my cheeks and laughed. Then I picked up the pen on the vanity and signed the document and put it back in the vanilla envelope.
I took one last look in the mirror, dabbed my lips again, and then took a deep breath and made my way downstairs. My stomach had been tied up in knots for days. Ever since Logan told me his mother was coming to the welcome home party for Kat. My chest was tight; I had a rabble of butterflies dancing in my stomach, and my mouth was dry.
But Kat was finally coming home. She’d been in critical care for days, having lost a large amount of blood. She had bullet fragments extracted from her abdomen and damage to her bowels. The worry was she could die of infection, so she remained for weeks on intravenous antibiotics, under strict hospital observation.
Matt had been in the hospital for five days with superficial wounds to both legs. According to the nurses, he had been a horrible patient, having tried to get out of bed right after surgery in order to get to Kat. They had to keep him sedated for forty-eight hours.
When he was able to go to Kat’s room, Logan and I had been sitting with her. We headed to the door to give him time alone with her, but before the door shut I heard Matt choke on a sob then say to his sister, “You’ve beat all odds before, baby sis. You can do it again.”
Logan and I stayed downtown at Matt’s condo most nights for the first week she was in the hospital. Matt was a wreck and shut down the bar for a week; then had Brett run it ever since. Matt was never far from the hospital and Kat.
Ream lived at the hospital for four straight days, and then when the nurses finally allowed him in to visit Kat—he left without seeing her. No one had seen him since.
And Havoc. She was like me ... a fighter. She fought her way back first from severe abuse and now from being shot. She was recuperating, with attitude, in the stable.
I walked down the stairs to the kitchen. When I saw a woman standing beside Logan in the kitchen, I knew ... I knew instantly that she was warmth and kindness. A dark-haired angel with the softest blue eyes and smooth, white skin. She had a classic beauty about her, subtle and sincere. There wasn’t a hint of my mother in her and a wave of relief swept over me.
She was talking to Logan, her voice calm and quiet as she placed her hand on his chest as if she was saying something meaningful. I noticed she didn’t smile, but I imagined if she did, it would light up her entire face like her son’s. But there was a hint in her eyes, that glow I knew must have taken a long time to get back after living with Raul.
Logan lifted his head and saw me standing at the doorway observing them. “Eme.” He walked over and snagged my hand, pulling me up toward him then stealing a kiss. “You look gorgeous,” he whispered. “You do as I say?”
I wrapped my hand around the back of his neck and pulled him back down to me. “Thank you, Logan. For everything.” I kissed his cheek and he groaned then tightened his hold and kissed me on the lips.
I pulled back. “Your mom is right there.”
“Hmm, and she’ll see that I can’t keep my hands off you.”
“Logan!”
He chuckled.
I glanced over at his mother who was watching us. “Your mother’s gorgeous,” I whispered.
“And excited to meet you.” His hand slid down my back to my ass, and he slapped it inconspicuously. “Smile, Mouse.”
I took a deep inhale. “I want her to like me.”
“She loves you already. Any mother that sees her son as happy as I am loves the woman that does that to him.”
I squeezed his hand. “I love you, Logan.”
That’s all I needed, his brilliant grin lighting up his entire face. When I faced Isabella, she was smiling at us, and that’s when I saw it. Her smile was exactly like his, majestic.
Logan introduced me to his mom, and she immediately pulled me into a hug. There were tears in her eyes when she pulled back. She knew what happened to Logan and I. Well, she didn’t know everything that happened—especially what Logan suffered for months after he’d got me out. As far as his mother knew and anyone else, Logan had stayed and fought for Raul until he finally left to join his band.
“What the fuck? Where’s the guest of honor?” Crisis strode into the house and placed a case of beer on the counter then he came over and kissed Isabella on each cheek. “Hey, you’re mom.”
She blushed, and it was so sweet, I wanted to hug her again. Logan was right; this was what a mother was supposed to be like, warm and kind. Isabella had given more than most women; she gave her son a chance at a better life.
Kite opened the sliding glass door, tongs in hand. “Burgers are on. Where’s Kat?”
“Coming,” I replied. Matt texted me ten minutes ago from the hospital. “They’re about fifteen minutes away.”
The screen door squeaked as it opened. “Hey cupcakes. Whoa, wow, that your mom, Sculpt?” Georgie went straight to Isabella and pulled her into a hug. “I’m Georgie.” She pulled back and smiled. “You’re a real looker. Hot. Damn. Sculpt, what happened to you?”
Logan rolled his eyes and whispered something to his mom who gave a half-smile to Georgie and then turned her attention to Deck who had come in after Georgie. I excused myself to pull Georgie aside.
“Raven?” I couldn’t get the girl out of my head, and I couldn’t imagine what she had to have gone through to get to the point she was at—unable to mentally make decisions on her own, to be so conditioned to do what her master wanted, that she’d even kill someone.