I tried not to flush, considering I was standing there in nothing but that tee that hit me mid-thigh.
“Looks like he’s lucky to have you, too.” She winked at that before she moved to a hidden pantry at the right end of the kitchen and came out with a broom and dustpan.
“I’m thinkingluckyis not the way he would describe it.”
She chuckled low. “That boy wouldn’t know what’s good for him if it knocked him upside the head, which I have half a mind to do most of the time.”
“I guess he’s not the only one you have to pick up messes after around here. If you can just hand me the broom, I can do it.”
“Nonsense. What’s your name, sweetheart? I think you and I are gonna be friends.”
“Aster.”
She froze at that, a wash of curiosity coming from her as she stopped to peer closer at my face.
A bout of nerves had me shifting on my feet, and I dropped my chin in a rush of insecurity.
Why was she looking at me like that?
“What the hell is going on in here?”
I jumped again when a deep voice hit the air, and I landed just to the left. A piece of broken glass pierced me on the bottom of my right heel.
A shriek tore from my mouth. Forcing myself not to move, I squeezed my eyes closed and gripped the counter behind me as if it could ground me.
I hated that Jarek wasn’t here, and he still had me on edge.
The problem was, I knew firsthand the types of atrocities he inflicted, and as much as I wanted to cling to my father’s promise, I would never forget the nineteen-year-old girl who’d lain bloody and weeping at his feet.
When I felt the movement, my lids peeled open, Logan a tether that widened my sight as he strode deeper into the apartment, dropping the bags he held on his way.
“Are you injured?” he grated through clenched teeth as he rounded the island. Some kind of venomous worry twisted his expression into hardened anxiety.
“I’m fine,” I forced out. That gaze dragged over me like hot stones, narrowing on the shirt I wore before it went traipsing the rest of the way down my legs.
“You don’t look so fine to me. I thought I told you not to get into any trouble while I was away?” There was the tweak of that tease at the end of his words.
Exasperation huffed from my chest. “I didn’t realize water counted.”
Gretchen tsked and waved the broom at him. “Are you just going to stand there staring? Where are your manners, young man?”
He pasted on the brightest smile I’d ever seen. All teeth. “What manners are you speaking of?”
She grunted at him in playful disappointment. “The ones your momma would have wanted you to have.”
“Well, excuse me,” he mumbled.
“Don’t give me thatexcuse mebit until you get over there and help this poor little thing who is bleeding to death in your kitchen.”
She waved an exaggerated hand my direction.
Logan rolled his eyes. “Bleeding to death? Hardly.”
Still, he took a step my way and murmured, “Don’t move.”
It stole air. Stole reason.
I pressed myself deeper into the counter like it might protect me from the power of it.