Logan Kade (Fallen Crest High 5.5)

Delray slammed the door shut behind him, but his boss had Taylor’s door open.

I reached for her and yelled, “Don’t look at him!”

She grabbed my arm as the guy caught her leg and started to pull her out. He was yelling over his shoulder, “Get back here! It was these guys! No one’s down there!”

“Fuck!” someone yelled.

Delray lunged forward, and I shouted at him, “Don’t you say her name!”

He bit down on whatever he’d been about to say. I punched the guy manhandling Taylor as hard as I could. His head whipped back, but he didn’t let go of her. His face twisted in an ugly snarl. His assholes were coming back, and they were coming fast.

I punched him again, but he still didn’t let go.

Then Mason appeared behind him and ripped him away. The guy fell to the ground. Mason whacked the guy with the bat in his hand, and he fell unconscious.

“Get in!” I yelled at him.

He jumped in Taylor’s seat, covering her with his body, and I hit the gas.

HERE. SAFE. MINE.

LOGAN

I took a crazy path to be sure we weren’t followed, but I drove us to the house. We all trooped inside, and Sam, who’d been lying on the couch in the living room, jerked upright.

“Holy shit. What happened to you guys?” Her nose wrinkled. “And why do you smell like fire? Is that what I’m smelling?”

Mason went over and dropped a light kiss on her forehead. He brushed a hand down her face, tucking her hair behind her ear. “We’re fine, and kinda.” He straightened and gave me a look. “Logan went back to his roots.”

My insides were roaring, but I grinned. “Hey, any time I can set a car on fire, I’m all for it.”

Sam didn’t seem to think this was funny. A worried look came into her eyes. She looked to Taylor and Delray, her gaze lingering the longest on Taylor. Then she sighed and pointed upstairs. “Nate got home a second ago. He rushed upstairs. I asked him what was wrong, and he said something about needing a second bat.” She looked up toward Mason. “Did you guys fight someone?”

Mason laughed and sat next to her, pulling her to rest against his chest. His arm dangled over her shoulder, their hands laced together. “Only one guy, and it was to get him off of Taylor.”

Taylor let out a shaky laugh, sinking down into one of the other chairs. “Thanks for that, by the way.”

This was awkward. The entire scene. Moments like these, after a fight, I was the joker. That was what I did. Nate was usually cursing, and Mason planned how to make things right, but he was holding off this time. This was my girl, and my problem. As if sensing my thoughts, my brother lifted his head and motioned to the back. I nodded. We needed to talk, then maybe I’d take my anger out on Delray.

“Hey.” I touched Taylor’s shoulder. “Mason and I are going to talk in the back, okay?”

Delray stood up. “I should be there.” His face was locked down. There was no readable expression, but his voice was low and foreboding.

My anger flared at him. “You.” I growled. “That was your boss back there?”

His eyes grew wary, but he nodded. “Yeah. Rankin. That’s his name. He kinda runs a lot of the crime around here.”

“So, he’s a fucking crime boss?” I wanted to interrogate the shit out of this weasel, but Delray looked ready to piss himself and we had to regroup first. I pointed to the chair in the corner. “You sit your ass down and don’t move a fucking muscle.”

We’d ridden home mostly in silence, but the tension was brewing. I wanted to explode now, and I was damn near ready to let loose. I took a step toward him, but a hand touched my arm, and I swung around to see Mason.

He took a step back. “We can deal with him in a minute. Let’s talk first.”

Fuuuuck. I wanted to pound something or someone, but I nodded and let out a ragged sigh. I turned to follow Mason to his bedroom, and my eyes caught and held Taylor’s for a moment. The pain I saw there pulled more of the anger from me. I seared Delray with a look, but reminded myself he was her buddy.

“Dudes.” Nate’s voice broke through my reverie. He was standing at the bottom of the stairs, a bag full of bats thrown over his shoulder. “You guys are back?” His hand slid off the railing with a thud. “Oh, man. I just grabbed these from my room upstairs.”

“You were coming back?” Mason asked.

“Yeah.” Nate nodded. “We haven’t had a decent rumble in forever.” He gestured to me. “Most times it’s because his mouth gets us in trouble. This time was legit, right?”

My eyes narrowed. “Are you kidding me? You were the entire reason we had problems last year.”

Nate moved back. “What?” His hand tightened around the bag strap.

“That’s not fair.” Sam stood up from the couch.

“Sebastian would’ve come after us anyway,” Mason added.

“But not the fraternity.”

That shut them all up. As I said those words, whatever fight Nate had left him. His eyes darted to the ground.

“They wouldn’t have gone after all of us, on three different occasions, if you hadn’t fucked things up,” I added.

His jaw clenched as his gaze found mine again. “That’s not fair, Logan.” His voice was heavy, raspy. “I made a mistake my freshman year of college. You make mistakes all the Goddamn time. Every fight we had against people in high school—”

“—was because of Mason,” I cut him off.

“Logan!” Sam’s voice was a reprimand.

I shook my head, looking at all of them. “It’s true. All of our fights have been because of Mason in some way.” I turned to him and held up a hand. “I’m not throwing shade at you. I’m really not, but it’s because someone wanted to control you or girls wanted you.” I flung a hand toward Sam. “Girls going at Sam because of you, or it’s just some dickhead like Sebastian who wanted to take you down because you hurt his ego. I deal with my fights. I always have.”

“You didn’t tonight.” Sam crossed her arms over her chest. Her eyes sparked with anger. I’d gone after Mason as far as she was concerned, but I was speaking the truth. It needed to be put out there, or—I glanced at Taylor and my anger damn near raged a bonfire in me—maybe I was pissed and taking it out on other people.

A savage curse slipped out, and I brushed past Mason as I went to his room. “Let’s get this talk done.”

“That asshole—” Sam said behind me.

But Mason shut her down. “He’s upset.”

“I don’t care.”

“His girl was in danger tonight,” Mason added softly.

I sucked in my breath and closed my eyes. Goddamn. He was right. I’d been lashing out, and…I was a dumbass. As soon as Mason and Sam came into the room, I apologized. “I’m sorry—”

They were holding hands, and Sam shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. I get it.”

“Sam.”

“I mean it.” Her voice softened. “I really do, Logan.”

The understanding in her voice had me gritting my teeth. It was like she saw something for the first time, and it all made sense to her. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. Something dark in me wanted to lash out again. I didn’t want anyone to see inside of me, or understand me. Not unless I gave them that right. I felt stripped bare. No fucking way.

“Can we discuss this and get it over with?” I asked.

Mason nodded. “Sure.” After shutting the door, he turned and leaned against it, his hands tucked behind him.

He was waiting for me. So was Sam. Both remained quiet, and somehow that irritated me, too.

I growled at them. “What?”

Mason shook his head. His mouth remained shut.

“That’s your girl out there,” Sam said.

I cut my eyes to her. “What the fuck does that mean?”

Her top lip quivered, like she was fighting a smile. She made a concerted effort to control her features and schooled them so they were blank. “Nothing.”

>

“What?”

“Look, whatever happened out there, for whatever reason, it happened,” Mason finally said. “We could have a serious problem on our hands.”

“Because of Delray.”

“Because of you.”

I looked at my brother. “What?”

“What were you doing there in the first place?”

I lifted a shoulder. “We were going for a drive, ended up there somehow.”

“You were going for a drive?” Sam narrowed her eyes. “I don’t believe that.”

“I don’t care.”

She looked like I slapped her, but she continued to study me. “Are you this upset because of how you feel about Taylor? I mean—”

“Look, they were there,” Mason said. “It doesn’t matter why.” He cast me a look. I got a feeling he knew exactly why I was there. “You drove out of the amusement park. That guy, whoever he is, could do some digging and make a guess who we are. I don’t think a lot of people have keys to an abandoned park unless they know the owner.”

“Shit,” Sam murmured. “Did he see your face?”

“It was dark,” I said. “I think I lit three cars on fire. He probably wasn’t seeing so well. He could’ve yanked Taylor out in a second, but he didn’t. He was pulling at her leg, not reaching in and getting a better hold on her. So maybe he couldn’t see.”

“Maybe.” Mason frowned. “What about the guy out there? Her friend. He’ll give up our names.”

Sam groaned. “These guys are involved with some bad stuff?”

“Yeah, someone was trying to collect a debt—the hard way, if necessary,” I explained. “Delray is Taylor’s friend, so I was trying to buy him some time. I was also trying to minimize the contact we had with him, but we couldn’t leave him there.”

“Delray...” Sam frowned. “Why does that sound familiar?”

“He’s the gambling guy I talked to Blaze about the other week.”

“Oh, yeah. He was connected to Sebastian last year.”

I nodded. “Blaze said this guy’s new connections are worse. He’s into some serious bad shit, and after tonight, we know that’s true.” Delray needed to stay away from Taylor. No matter what I should or shouldn’t do, I knew I was going to have a good, long one-on-one with him. The fucker didn’t like me being around Taylor? He was the dipshit who could be bringing guys like this around her. His priorities needed to be corrected, and fast.

Mason straightened. “We can’t do much, but that guy needs to stay away from Taylor.”

“He will.” I’d make sure of that.

Mason nodded. “It’d be smart if he could leave town for a while. You think you could persuade him to do that?”

“Sure going to fucking try.”

Sam snorted. “You don’t even know it.” She gestured to my face. “But you have this whole cocky, dark smirk on your face. You look dangerous, Logan.”

Dangerous was good. It was very, very good, and I planned to use it. I turned to Mason. “If we need to get at that Rankin guy somehow, we could—”

“I’ll reach out to that company I hired last year or if we have to, you know Dad will take care of this for us.” He glanced at Sam for a moment. “I’m sure we could figure something out to handle this guy if he becomes a problem.” His gaze came back to mine, and I had a feeling the dark and dangerous expression on my face was the one I saw on my brother’s. “We won’t let this guy become a danger to us.” He cast Sam one more look. “No way in hell.”

I couldn’t have agreed more. Delray had brought this Rankin guy into our world, a world Taylor was in, and one where she could be used against him. The guy had already tried to get her. If he did it once, he’d do it again. Delray was the bridge that led from Rankin to Taylor, and that was a bridge I needed to splinter.

I turned and left Mason and Sam in the room. As I returned to the living room, I felt Taylor’s eyes on me and looked over to see stark need on her face—need for me. I felt the same need rise up in me, and I reached for her. My hand tangled in her hair as she stood from her chair. Her head came to my chest. My arm wrapped around her, holding her in place, and I took a moment to breathe her in.

She was here.

She was safe.

She was mine.

I felt all of that on a primal level as I forced myself to look for Delray. I wanted to talk to him as soon as possible, but his chair was empty.

“Where is he?” I asked.

“He left.”

“What?”

I whipped around to where Nate had been, but he was gone, too. “Where’d Nate go?”

“He went to put the bats away.”

A guttural growl came from me, and I started for the door. Delray couldn’t get away with this shitstorm—not until I had a word with him.

“Logan, stop!” Taylor ran in front of me. Her hands came to my chest. “Stop!”

I kept going until her back was at the front door. Then I reached up and held on to her arms. I was two seconds from lifting her up and out of the way.

“I mean it, Logan. I know you’re worried about me.”

“Do you?”

“Yes.” She softened her voice. “But he won’t hurt you.”

“He already did.” I touched the cut on her face. Blood had seeped from it, and I showed her my finger.

Her hand went to her face and touched the cut. She hissed as soon as she made contact. “I have no idea when that happened.”

“I do. When his boss was trying to yank you out of my car.” I cupped the back of her neck and lowered my forehead to gaze right into her eyes. “Taylor, do you have any idea what the guy would’ve done? If he’d gotten you out?”

Her eyes widened. “I can’t think of it.” Her voice grew hoarse.

I closed my eyes. The deep need in me—the one that would only be quenched when I was moving inside of her—was transforming into a need to protect her.

I laughed harshly. “You can’t think of it? I can. Because I have to.” She started to look away, but I didn’t let her. I turned her face back to mine, gently but firmly. “It will happen again. He’s going to go back. He’s going to want back in, and maybe they’ll let him. Maybe all will be forgiven. That’s what they’ll say, but it won’t be the case. Rankin will want to know who we are, and who you are.”

She started to shake her head. “No.”

“Yes.” She had to hear me. “You need to stay away from him.”

“Logan.”

“I mean it.” My hands fell to her shoulders. “Please, Taylor. I know he’s family, but he’s sick. He can’t be around you anymore.”

A tear slid down her cheek. She didn’t brush it away. I don’t think she even knew it was there. Cupping the side of her face, I brushed it aside with my thumb and rested my forehead to hers.

All the walls I had, all the shields I’d erected over the years—all of those were gone in this instant. Knowing she’d been so close to danger, seeing the fear in her eyes—that shattered what I hadn’t been wanting to admit to myself. From the first time I saw her at that party, saw how she was ready to help Sam when she was a stranger, I had fallen for Taylor Bruce. Since then I had fallen farther than I was ready to admit to myself.

I closed my eyes and held her, but I was rattled.

TAYLOR

Logan led me upstairs to his room a few minutes later. It was just Logan and me now. As soon as we were inside and the door closed behind us, he pulled me in for a hug. “Are you okay?”

I burrowed into him, my head resting against his chest, and I breathed in his strength. I held on to him as tightly as he held me.