by Janie Marie
Logan looked at Ryder in horror.
“That bastard will burn for eternity,” Ryder promised.
“It’s going to be all right, Maura,” Detective Parvati murmured. “He’s gone now.”
“But she’s not,” Maura cried.
“Who?”
Logan leaned forward, his heart beating painfully fast.
“Kylie!”
Ryder shook his head. “She’s been terrified of Kylie all this time, Logan. She hasn’t been beating her for fun. She’s afraid. She’s keeping her weak to stay safe.”
Maura bawled, but she kept going. “She saw him on me. She saw him raping me. I begged her to get help. And she lied to my mom. She said I told her I wanted her dad to divorce her, but she loved Mama and wanted her to stay. Mama believed her. She believed her and not me. She told me he was a good man—that he was the best place for us to be. He’d take care of us.” Maura wailed, “Kylie saw him rape me!”
“Jesus Christ.” Logan wanted to cover his ears.
Thankfully, a text notification flashed, interrupting the video as Maura cried.
Ryder clicked the notification.
Morning Star: Deal with this or I will.
There was an audio clip attached. Ryder hesitated but eventually pressed play, and Kylie’s voice rang out loud and clear: “Do you know they helped cover up Janie killing the guys she accused of raping her? Do you know Luc helped Ryder plan to kill those boys? But Janie did it!”
Logan stared at the phone, his heart ripped wide-open, his mind unable to process what to think.
Ryder, though, he threw his head back and laughed. “This bitch just doesn’t know when to quit. I told you she’d rat us out.”
Logan lowered his head. “I’m sorry.”
“Oh, I know you are.” Ryder lifted his phone to his ear, his smile vanishing when he spoke to whoever he’d called, “If Reaper doesn’t keep her quiet, you know what to do.” He ended the call saying nothing else.
“Who was that?” Logan knew Reaper was Than’s codename, but he didn’t know what lengths Ryder would go to to keep Janie out of trouble. No matter how angry and hurt Kylie made him, he didn’t want to see her hurt. He wouldn’t allow it.
Ryder stood up, closing his eyes. “She won’t be killed, so don’t worry about that.”
“I messed up,” Logan said, his hands shaking with rage and fear. “I know she’s betrayed us.”
“Not you.” Ryder looked at him. “Didn’t you hear her? She didn’t say Ryder and Logan. She said me, Luc and Janie. She’s trying to get all of us put away. Everyone but you. Fuck, I don’t even know if she realizes just how much she manipulates everything to get her way.” He quieted, shaking his head. “She needs help. But I don’t think she’s going to accept it—not now anyway.”
Logan didn’t know what to say.
Ryder pocketed his phone. “Let’s go. I want to get some shit done before the others go out. If Trevor’s watching and sees the two of us leave, he might follow or try to enter the building.”
Logan didn’t want to leave Janie at all. Gareth was with her; she’d be safe, but he didn’t trust having her out of his sight, and this shit with Kylie was destroying him. He wanted to keep her safe, but at the same time he wanted nothing to do with her.
“I have the building surrounded,” Ryder said. “And Janie’s and Maura’s floors are filled with Wolves. Plus Luc will be with Baby girl in a few minutes. No one will touch her.”
Logan followed Ryder as he chose not to let his mind linger on Kylie. If he did, he’d march in that room and break her heart just to make her see what she was causing him to suffer. He couldn’t, though. He didn’t want to hurt her, and it only devastated him more because he’d hurt Janie the way he was choosing not to hurt Kylie, and Janie had deserved this effort—not Kylie. He was a terrible boyfriend. “I never thought you’d be happy to have Luc around,” he said, pushing his anger aside. Janie was his focus; capturing Trevor was his priority. Kylie made her choice, and he wasn’t supporting her.
“Luc loves her,” Ryder muttered. “And I can see she cares about him too.”
As far as Logan knew, Janie despised Luc. “You’re paranoid.”
“No, I’m not. She hasn’t been awakened, but they have something. Always have.” Ryder nodded to a man with long curly hair who was sitting in a wheelchair eating an apple. “Full alert, Sin.”
The man smirked. “Shall I visit your vixen? I have an extra apple.”
Ryder didn’t stop walking, but he flipped the guy off, which only earned a low laugh from the man.
“His name is Sin?” Logan asked.
“Yeah.” Ryder pushed the elevator button. “He likes to get under my skin because Janie blushes whenever she sees him. He offers her apples.”
“His name is Sin, and he gives her apples?” Logan laughed, entering the elevator, but his heart ached. He’d lost his mind when Janie blushed at Ryder. He’d given up on her for simply being a silly girl, and even Logan had to admit, blood still rushed to his dick when he looked at Janie, and he was with Kylie. The difference was Janie didn’t hide her attraction. To her, hiding her attraction was the betrayal. So she acted silly, and Ryder trusted her.
“He’s a Wolf—one of Nick’s brothers,” Ryder clarified. “They’re always testing my patience by flirting with her, but she’s good to me. She knows their flirting is a way of claiming her as their queen.”
Janie being considered Luc’s queen was incredibly hard to stomach. The fact Ryder was saying Janie seemed to embrace the role now was disturbing. “Does that bother you?”
“What?” Ryder typed a text without looking at him.
“That she’s fine with being queen. That Luc might be awake?”
“Yeah, it bothers me.” He let out a deep breath. “But she says being queen feels right. I know she’s in good hands with the Wolves. As far as Luc waking—I haven’t decided how I feel. It’s strange, like I immediately trusted he was the safest person for her when he walked into the hospital room.”
Logan decided to ask Ryder about the other night. “When I told you everything, you had a moment. Do you know what I’m talking about?”
Ryder cast a side glance at Logan. “Luc says I keep stirring in my sleep. He says it’s happened often.”
That was interesting. “Do you remember what you say or do?”
“Sometimes.” Ryder chuckled, a scary laugh that made the hairs on the back of Logan’s neck stand. “I remember telling you to train Kylie. But my memory of it is off. It’s like I’m watching myself say it instead of me being the one who told you that. I don’t think I would’ve said that to you. Training her, I mean.”
“You’ve been helping her, though. Is there really nothing behind that?”
Ryder shrugged. “I do it because Janie wants you happy. Not because I ever felt sorry for Kylie. I’ve felt nothing but darkness in her presence. I’m surprised you got as close as you did to her with the way she hates Janie.”
Logan sighed, his heart felt like he had to concentrate just to keep it beating. “You’re good for Janie.” He rubbed his chest, hoping that getting the conversation off Kylie’s hatred for Janie would make it easier to breathe. “I couldn’t let her be who she was destined to be without becoming jealous. She only smiled and blushed at you, and I lost it.”
Ryder was quiet, but then he smirked. “Well, you don’t flip out when the blonde gapes at me.”
“It’s not the same, I guess.” How true that was.
“Nope. I guess it’s a good thing for you shit went south fast.” The doors opened and Ryder walked out first. “I’d hate to watch Janie worry about your bitch ass if you’d been in love with this chick. I couldn’t care less about you, but I’d hate to see Baby girl sad for you.”
“Fuck you.” Logan chuckled, but the ache in his chest grew. He thought he loved Kylie. Now he wasn’t sure he ever did.
Nick Prince entered the hospital as they neared the exit. He bowed his head to Ryder, almost as if he wa
s greeting royalty, and Ryder didn’t react surprised by this.
“News?” Ryder asked.
Nick was the highest ranked Wolf Logan knew, but he didn’t know they obeyed Ryder. The Wolves were supposed to be under Luc’s thumb.
“A girl was assaulted at the mall,” Nick said. “She’s a student—claimed it was him, but she said his eyes were brown, and his hair was dark. She was sure it was him, though. Apparently he tried to say he was Logan, but the girl said he had no tattoos, and she knew Logan had ink.”
He couldn’t believe Trevor was going to these lengths to take him down.
“Was his face fucked up?” Ryder asked.
Nick smirked at Logan. “Very. You got his ass good. Still, if he’s changed his appearance, he’s going to be even more difficult to notice. His father trained him more than I gave him permission to.”
“Fucking rogues.” Ryder took out a pack of cigarettes. “How long ago was this? Was Lorelei with him?”
“A couple hours. And still no sign of her.” Nick looked toward Logan with pity. “I heard Kylie’s returning to Kevin’s.”
“What?” Logan darted his eyes to Ryder.
“I haven’t heard anything.” Ryder pulled his phone back out and growled. “She refused to talk or go to the center. She’s waiting on Kevin to pick her up. I guess she decided that after throwing us to Kali.” He smirked at Nick. “Unfortunately for Kylie, she doesn’t know Kali works for me.”
Nick chuckled, but Logan felt as though a knife was wedged in his heart.
Ryder placed a hand on his shoulder, and he kept it there as he addressed Nick, “Go to Maura’s room to relieve Than, and remember, I want Trevor alive if he shows up. We’ll be back.” He gently shoved Logan as Nick walked away. “Snap out of it. You’re no good to me if you start crying. You barely knew this bitch.”
“I didn’t know her at all.” Logan stumbled along under Ryder’s rough hold.
Even though there was nothing comforting in Ryder’s presence, he knew his rival was attempting to soothe him, and he relaxed.
“When we get done, you’ll go to Janie, all right?” Ryder squeezed his shoulder painfully hard. “She’ll help, and I won’t stop her from doing what’s necessary to get your head together. You’re in with us. Be a Grimm. I know who you are, and you know who I am. I’m not letting you fail her again. She did this for you.”
The waning crescent of the moon called to Logan as dark clouds rolled away.
Ryder gave him a hard pat on the back. “See? She’s there, even when she’s in the dark. Don’t forget who you are. You may still be lost, just as most of us are, but you know this world isn’t what everyone thinks. The legends are real—she’s real. We’re all real, and we’re going to do this right. You’re going to get your chance to be the man she wanted you to be.”
He nodded, pulling his gaze from the moon to get in Ryder’s car. “Thanks.”
The engine roared to life, and Ryder backed out of his spot. “It’s never for you, fucker. But I’m not gonna to take you away from her. You’re hers even though she’s mine.”
Logan smiled, his eyes catching sight of the little moon before clouds blocked out her light.
Ryder cracked his window, lighting a cigarette as he made fast turns.
“I thought you stopped smoking.”
“I did.” Ryder blew out a stream of smoke. “She’s breaking, though, and I can’t function peacefully without her.”
Logan sighed, closing his eyes. He saw two sets of eyes staring at him. A pair of forest green eyes, and the hazel eyes that never left his dreams. “Just remember your own words. She’s yours, and she’s there even when it’s dark.”
“Bitch, are you trying to make me cry?”
He laughed, rubbing his face. “I hate you.”
A sinister chuckle resounded in Ryder’s chest as he inhaled. “I only feel Janie. It’s just like the fairy tale for me. When she feels, I have intense sensations—I’m unsure how to describe it, but it’s overwhelming. But she doesn’t hate anyone. Well, she hates herself. When I feel that from her, I want to take her away. I want to make her forget everything but me. But she won’t let me. She won’t leave you.”
If the stabbing wound to Logan’s chest could get any deeper, it just went through his back.
“I wish I could hate.” Ryder took another drag. “I think that’s why I won’t last without her. She won’t be there to tether me when I need to hate. I’ll just lose my mind.”
“You’ve never hated me?” It was strange to talk to Ryder about this, but it gave him a sense of peace. Simply understanding Ryder’s feelings for Janie brought him there. And the legends, the stories—he never thought it would be Ryder opening up. Ryder was the force none could stop. To know everything was real should’ve left him cowering in his presence, but he felt the same draw he did when he was around Janie.
Ryder shrugged, blowing smoke out the window. “Like I said, there are intense sensations. But she loves you, so I can’t really hate you.” He grinned at him. “I’ve wanted to kill you. Often. I’ve wanted to take her from you so you can suffer something close to what I feel from her pain, but I won’t unless she tells me I can.”
“Huh.”
“Weird as Hell, I know.” He laughed, flicking his cigarette out. “She never stops having a sense of humor.”
Logan wasn’t sure who Ryder meant, so he scanned the open road, hoping he could keep himself from thinking about Kylie. He wasn’t ready to accept everything had been a lie, that nothing was real. She wasn’t real, and neither was he.
Thankfully, Ryder provided distraction. “I know it’s against our legacy to discuss what the secret texts say. Even stuff about me is kept from me, but I’ve come across things about you. Your soul, I mean. You were a badass. Then again, you had help.” Ryder rolled to a stop at a stoplight. “I know Lance is considering renouncing you, but it’ll be a mistake—you’re meant to be with us.”
His heartbeat quickened. “What have you found out?”
A faraway smile came over Ryder’s face. “Well, I put more together when she dreams. You know, Janie doesn’t only have night terrors where she screams for you. She has good dreams, too. She whispers your middle name, and she smiles.”
“You know my middle name?” Warmth slid over his soul right then—he wasn’t a full monster to his baby doll.
“Yeah.” Ryder shifted into gear and took off. He grinned evilly. “Don’t get excited, though—she moans my name when she dreams about me.”
Logan laughed, tilting his head back. “Dick.”
“She loves it.” Ryder snickered before becoming serious. “I dream of her roaring, leading the charge. Gold. Lots of gold, emerald, and sapphire. Then light. Just light. I wish I’d really seen it.”
Logan swallowed hard. “You’re going to let Luc take her, aren’t you?”
“He already has,” Ryder said quietly. “Why else would any of us be here?”
✦✦✦
Kylie pulled her hoodie tighter around her body as she leaned away from the huge guy sitting beside her. Damon King radiated power, and unlike Luc, who was insanely attractive to the point he looked like royalty, Damon King was the attractive that screamed he’d been a bad guy all his life. His skin was darker than Ryder’s, and his eyes were an odd amber color that almost appeared red whenever he tilted his head a certain way. It fit having the last name King. She could almost imagine him as a powerful tyrant king. There was something else, but she couldn’t put her finger on what seemed off about him.
She turned in her seat. For whatever reason, they had left him to watch over her as the detective and chief paid a visit to Maura because no one could locate Lorelei, and Maura was panicking.
So, here she was, with Luc’s right-hand man as she waited for Kevin. Hopefully, Kevin would have some sense and realize she was the main victim. He’d help.
Are you sure? He considered Maura his princess long before you.
“Shut up,” she said
aloud. Then horror and humiliation poured down on her at the realization she’d just talked to herself in front of this man.
Damon smirked, shaking his head. “You know, Luc has footage of you when you were younger.” His eyes sparked with hunger, but not the kind men gave women—this was the hunger of watching another person suffer. “You’re not the girl Logan Grimm thinks you are.”
Her heart shuddered as an icy hand seemed to wrap around it. “What footage? Why does he have anything?”
“It was collected when they were investigating your parents’ deaths and seeking evidence for your abuse. Luc has it, and Ryder was told about it. They also have statements from peers and teaching staff regarding instances of little or no punishment given to you because of your mother and father.” He looked her dead in the eye. “You’re fucked.”
Her eyes pricked with tears. “Why are you all doing this to me?”
“I hardly see Janie asking Luc to find proof of your abuse as doing something to you. It wasn’t her fault you were not who you were pretending to be.”
“Janie?” She nearly threw the table. “Janie had me snooped on?”
“No,” he drawled. “She simply asked Luc and Ryder to help do what they could to ensure you weren’t called a liar, as you told Logan you were.”
“It was none of her business.”
“True,” he said calmly, “but she’s someone who was told you’d been called a liar before. She knows exactly what that feels like.” His stare was menacing, yet he delivered his sarcasm in the most bored but elegant tone, which made him scarier. “What a terrible thing to step up for others when one has the power and resources to do so. You wouldn’t expect a police officer or authority figure to overlook a crime simply because it wasn’t their business, would you?”
She felt the hate on her face as she spat, “She’s just a dumb girl who flaunts her pussy to get men to do her bidding. That doesn’t make her an authority figure. If people would mind their own business, the world would be a better place.”
His amber eyes almost glowed red. “My, you are still so vicious.”
Kylie ignored him and shifted in her chair. “Why are all of you so obsessed with her, anyway? She’s not even that pretty.”