I make my way home with my head still filled with the images he painted with his deep voice. Every utterance causing goosebumps to rise in the wake of his pained promise. He obviously doesn’t work for Mr. Oakridge. He couldn’t, because if he did, he would’ve snatched me right there in the park. He would’ve hurt me. But what doesn’t make sense is why he ran.
5
Logan
She’s fucking with my head. I was so close to showing her who I am. The same man who snubbed her years ago. But she’s no longer the little girl I recall looking up at me like I was her savior. Now she’s a grown woman looking for a prince. But I’m so far from royalty, my needs far more dangerous than she can even fathom.
I pick up my cell phone and turn it on. I needed to get away from her the moment I told her my fantasy of how I’d love to find pleasure with her body unmoving, her sleeping form merely a toy for my amusement.
I tap out a message to the one man I can still trust. He may have previously worked for my father, but I’ve known him since I was a kid. He was the one who helped me track my beauty, and now he’s going to ensure that this arranged marriage farce is dealt with. I need to know who she’s been promised to, and the moment I find out the name, I’ll gut the asshole myself.
My phone rings five minutes after I hit send. I grin as his name comes up on the screen, and I answer immediately. “What’s up, fucker?”
“You are contacting me, so that means something is bothering you, Logan,” he speaks in the thick accent I’ve come to know well. We grew up together. We’re both heading toward our thirties, and when we were younger, we promised the other that our friendship far outweighed the bullshit of our parents.
“I made contact with her. I spoke to her,” I tell him urgently. I’m sure he can tell from the sound of my voice I’m concerned. “She said something to me that’s got me thinking—”
“Is this about her engagement that her father had promised?”
“You knew about it? Who is it? I need to know because the moment you give me a name, I’ll find the asshole, and I’ll make sure he sings like a goddamned canary.”
Dax sighs on the other end of the line. “I did know, but the problem is, you can’t kill the man she’s been promised to.”
“What? Why?”
He’s silent for a moment, and I wonder what the fuck he’s hiding from me. The dickhead may be my friend, but he needs to tell me right the fuck now.
“She ran off just before her eighteenth birthday, and he’s been searching for her ever since. If he finds her . . .” His warning is clear, even though he doesn’t finish the sentence, I know Vera is in danger. Real danger, not the playful, roleplaying that she needs so badly. “The man in question, he’s not someone you want to fuck with.”
“Dax, I’m not fucking around any—”
“It’s your father.”
The breath whooshes out of me in one heavy swoop. He has to be fucking kidding me. My father with Vera? What the fuck is he thinking? Surely, my mother knows about it. She has to. Perhaps that’s why she’s been calling me nonstop.
My mind calculates the fallout from this. If my father wants her, he’ll have to go through me. I may have walked away from her once, but I’m not doing that again. There is no love lost between my dad and me, and this would definitely kill any lingering doubt.
“What if I took her?”
“Then it will be your head he’s searching for,” Dax warns. “Listen to me, Logan, I may have done some stupid shit before, but this is taking on the king. You do realize that it could get you killed,” he tells me.
This is not news to me. My father has the connections, he has a fucking army behind him, and me, all I have is her. But then again, once she learns who I am, she’ll only hate me even more.
“I know. I . . . I need to do this.”
“He’s going to be at the club tonight. I can try to get some information out of him. He still trusts me even though Theia’s dad was his friend.” Dax can do this. Theia, Dax’s submissive, grew up around the same men Vera did. Dangerous and violent. And her father was one of the worst. Thankfully, her brothers, Samael and Kael, didn’t turn out like their dad.
“He can’t know where I am, Dax.”
“I’m not going to throw you into the lion’s den,” he tells me. “And you know I have the Wolfes on our side.” He’s talking about Samael, Axel, and Kael. They’ll step in if needed. I haven’t seen them in years.