Rocket (Hell's Handlers MC 5)

Maybe he was just projecting, because as she melted into him, he couldn’t imagine a future where he came home and she wasn’t waiting for him with her sweet smile and gentle touch. Nothing helped bandage his battered soul quite like having Chloe in his arms.

But he was a biker. And he would always be a reminder of the hell she endured. How could she possibly love him?

CHAPTER THIRTY

CHLOE SAT MIDWAY up the stairs, her forearms resting on bent knees with her phone between her hands. Despite the fact it’d been a warm day, Chloe had felt chilled since she woke up. The fire crackling away in the great room helped warm the lower level of the house.

Every so often she switched her gaze from the blank phone screen to the closed front door, willing the phone to light or the door to open. She’d been at this back and forth game for upward of an hour. Far longer than necessary since Logan wasn’t expected for at least another fifteen minutes.

The few hours he was home that morning, long before the sun came up, seemed almost a dream at this point. She’d barely gotten to hold him or kiss him before he was out the door again with the woman and child he’d risked his life to save. The only communication she’d received since he drove off was a text an hour ago reporting him and Screw seventy miles out.

God, she missed him these past couple weeks. In a relatively short period of time, he’d come to mean more to her than anything or anyone else in her life. She ached to wake next to him each morning and hardly slept at night alone in his giant bed. More than once, she’d tried to sleep on a couch or in a guest bed, but those attempts were even less successful than the master. At least in Logan’s bed she could smell him and fool her subconscious into thinking he was there in her dreams.

The lock on the door clicked and Chloe shot to her feet as though she were a marathoner and the starting gun had just blasted the race into action. “Logan!” she cried as he came into view and dropped his pack to the ground.

Much as he had in the early hours of day, he appeared battered and bruised. His handsome face actually seemed worse than when she’d last seen him, because he hadn’t slept and had heavy fatigue circles under his eyes.

“Are you really here? For good?” As deeply as she wanted him in her arms, the sight of him seemed to have rendered her immobile. “It’s over? Please tell me I’m not dreaming?”

He stood frozen midway between the door and staircase, his gaze soaking her in the same way hers was him.

“I’m here, baby. It’s over.”

Her eyes fell closed as she breathed out a prayer of thanks. “Stacy and Rose are settled?”

A smile tipped his lips giving his tired face a less severe look, but it disappeared as fast as it came. “They’re in good hands.”

“Good,” she said, disgusted to find herself wringing her hands together. Shit, she wasn’t this nervous the first time she had cuffed him to the motel bed. But everything was different now. She’d been living with him because of a danger that no longer existed. Esposito was out of the picture and Lefty would soon be the devil’s problem. So where did that leave her? Where did that leave them?

“Chloe,” Logan started.

“Wait.” Still rooted to the step, she held up a hand. “Can I say something first?”

Logan nodded.

She fisted the hem of his T-shirt in her hands. Something to keep here from gnawing her nails to the cuticle. “I think you’re amazing, Logan Carrera.”

His eyes widened and he took a step forward.

“No, wait,” she said, hand still out like a stop sign. “I know you have a lot of conflicting feelings about what you have and haven’t done in the past, but the man I see standing before me, the man I know today, is a good man. He’s a man who took an enormous risk to save an innocent woman and child. And don’t try to tell me anyone would have done the same thing because that is complete and utter bullshit. Not only did you prevent them from being killed, you set them up with a new and safe life. You amaze me and I—”

“Can I say something now?” he asked, one eyebrow raised.

She let her hand fall. “Sorry, yes, of course. I’m rambling. I just wanted you to know—”

“I love you, Chloe,” he said, and she almost choked on what she was going to say next.

“Y-you do?” She gaped at him, completely unable to do anything but blink in shock.

“I do.” He wasn’t smiling. In fact, his severe expression seemed even harsher than usual which was a feat in and of itself. A small laugh bubbled up, and she covered her mouth to keep it inside. Of course, Logan would declare his love with a scowl on his face.