by Sam Crescent
“And now I’m the richest motherfucker in town with all the power,” Logan said.
Ava jumped. In the doorway, Logan stood with Hunter. How much had he heard?
From the look on his face, all of it.
They stepped through the door, and Hunter flicked the lock back into place.
“I locked that door,” Luke said.
“No, I changed the locks. All you did was flick the catch and I had it installed to open both ways. You think I didn’t know you were stealing from me? I knew all along. It wasn’t exactly hard to guess. You always arrived, had a good time, money was gone.” He shrugged.
Ava gasped as Logan removed his jacket. His white shirt was covered with blood.
Was this it? Was this how her life was going to end?
She felt sick.
“Dude, Ava and I were just talking, shooting the shit, that’s how I see it.”
“Really, from where I was standing, you were taunting her with what you can get over on me. The shit you can do without me batting a fucking eye. How you had all the power when we were kids. Come on, dickhead. Keep on going. Keep on praising yourself for being the good friend you are.”
“You’re hearing things.”
“Do you know whose blood this is?” Logan asked.
She didn’t want to know. Staring into his eyes, she saw the anger and the rage shining within them.
“I don’t know. Some poor schmuck? Look, Logan, what you heard. It was all bullshit. You know that. I was being an asshole.”
“It’s the sheriff’s,” Logan said, interrupting.
“What’s the sheriff’s?”
“This.” He pointed to the blood. “All of it. Every single drop of perverted sheriff blood. You want to know why I got all this blood on my hands.”
“You got really bad at throwing knives?”
“I found out the truth.”
“Come on, Logan. Do you really think I’m capable of that? Please, they’re messing with your head. Does this go back to that slut? She wanted it rough. She told me.”
“You raped Ava. She went to the sheriff and reported it. You hurt her in the girls’ locker room after she’d been swimming. It’s why she can’t stand to go swimming now and will never enter the locker room again.” Logan took a step closer. “The sheriff had your name changed to mine, and your lawyer negotiated a deal to keep me out of jail so this wouldn’t go to any judge or jury. Where Ava wouldn’t have to testify and tell the truth. All this time, you manipulated this shit, and what did I get out of it?” Logan smiled. “I guess I can’t complain. You’re standing in the office of my club. You work for me. Your parents squandered your fortune in helping you stay out of trouble. This, is all me.”
Luke’s face changed. He was no longer smiling or laughing.
“What are you going to do, Logan, kill me?” Luke burst out laughing.
It was all fake.
All lies.
“I won in the end. I will still be the first man inside her virgin pussy, and you, you’re nothing. I have everything, and you have nothing. You sent one of your men to capture videos of her fucking. You’re not even second or third.”
Ava didn’t know what she was about to see as Logan approached Luke. There was a violence there.
Hunter moved toward her and gripped her.
“What are you doing?”
“What you’re about to see, you can never tell a living breathing soul or you will be dead.”
“You can look Ava in the eyes and know all this time, I fucking won. I fucked her. I hurt her, and no one believed her. Not even you. The precious knight you used to think you were.”
Logan grabbed Luke around the throat, cutting off his air supply. Luke instantly started to choke.
“You think you’re in any position to taunt me? I was never a fucking knight, Luke. I was always a bully. A worse one than you. Look around you. Look what I created in the death and blood of my victims. This is all me. Every single part of me, and you, Luke, you’re not going to live to see anymore.”
She cried out as Logan pulled a small knife out of his pocket, opened it up, and plunged it into Luke’s crotch.
She didn’t know what she was seeing or what the hell was happening.
Logan loosened his hold to let Luke scream.
“Look at her,” Logan said. “Look at her and know she is going to have the best fucking life I can offer her, and you, you’re going to be rotting in a gutter.”
Luke was shaking. Perspiration dotted his brow.
“You will never be free,” Luke said.
“I am free.”
He plunged the knife into Luke’s neck, ending his life right before her eyes.
Ava was in shock. Her body shook and Hunter tried to hide the scene from her, but it was there for her to see.
“Hunter, take her home. I’ll deal with her when I get back.”
She didn’t put up a fight as Hunter led her out of the office. There were guards waiting and what looked like a cleaning crew, all of them ready to do what their boss had ordered.
Hunter put her in the back of the car, and she curled up in a ball, trying to escape everything she’d just seen.
“Are you okay?”
“He killed him.”
“Luke deserved it. Don’t tell me you’re mourning for that sick fuck.”
She shook her head.
“Good.”
They were driving, and the city, it was all a blur. The lights, all of it. She didn’t see a thing as Hunter took her back home.
Not to Crow Valley.
To Logan’s apartment.
When he pulled back into the private parking space, she didn’t wait for him to open the door. She climbed out and looked at the door.
Hunter was there, taking her by the hand, leading her toward safety.
The moment they entered the apartment, she went straight toward the shower. She climbed in fully dressed, turning on the hot water, scalding her flesh as she removed the dress Logan had picked out for her.
She didn’t use soap or conditioner, just stood beneath the spray, letting it roll off her.
Slowly, she turned it to cold, the chill making her shiver.
She turned the water off the moment she couldn’t take anymore, stepping out of the tub, and grabbed a towel. Had she really seen Logan kill Luke?
It was all too easy, wasn’t it?
The blade slicing through his body. Draining his life.
It was almost too much for her.
Drying her body, she pulled on a pair of pajamas and went out to sit in the living room.
Hunter was already waiting.
“Hot chocolate soothes all pains and problems,” Hunter said.
“I’m not in pain.”
“No, but you have a whole host of problems, and I imagine you’re pretty freaked out right now.”
“A little.”
She sat down, and Hunter handed her the hot chocolate.
“Sorry, I’ve never seen anything like that.”
“If it makes you feel any better, that was a quick kill. The bastard didn’t deserve it. He should have been made to suffer more.”
She laughed. “I don’t know why I’m laughing. This is not something to make fun of.”
“I wasn’t making fun. Logan did what he had to do. Do you really think if he let Luke go, he’d disappear and live a nice life away from you?”
“I don’t know what to think.”
“Men like Luke, they set out to hurt and destroy people. It’s what they do. They don’t know any other way.”
“And what about Logan? What does he do?” she asked. “What does any of this mean for us? So he knows the truth. Luke, he lied about so much. There is so much pain because of him. What do we do about it?”
“We take it one day at a time, like everyone does. We make it work, somehow.”
“Do you know what the scary thing is?” she asked.
“What?”
“I don’t even fee
l guilty about his death. Luke deserved it. Does it make me a bad person?”
“You’re talking to the wrong guy here. I don’t think it makes you anything. I hated Luke, so seeing him die was no hardship to me. He didn’t have a right to walk free. Not after what he’d done to you and Logan. Drink your cocoa. I don’t want Logan to be upset with me because I didn’t take care of you.”
****
Twelve years ago
“I have to say I don’t see the attraction,” Luke said.
Ava looked around the girls’ locker room, and no one was in sight. She’d been taking late classes as the pool was open when the guys were training out on the football field. Sometimes there were cheerleaders, but there was some kind of competition and she was alone.
“This is the girls’ locker room. You shouldn’t be here.”
“Oh, I know.” Luke smiled. “I’ve watched him for a few years now. He thinks he’s got it all covered up. No one knows his little secret, but I do.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Of course you don’t. Why would you know? You don’t know anything,” Luke stepped closer toward her.
She wrapped her towel a little tighter around herself.
“I know that you’re not supposed to be here, so any kind of prank you’re playing needs to be dealt with elsewhere.”
“I doubt you’d be making jokes if you knew what was at stake.”
Ava cried out as he shoved her hard against the locker.
“I’ve watched you as well, Ava. I’ve seen the way you are, and I’m not impressed with what I see.”
“If you hate it so much, leave me alone.” Her heart raced, and she had never felt so scared in all her life. She felt sick to her stomach. Petrified. This couldn’t be happening, and yet, it was.
She tilted her head back, looking up at him, waiting.
“I can’t do that. You see, Logan, I’ve got a problem with the guy. He seems to go through life getting everything he ever wanted. What he looks at, it’s his within a matter of days, if not hours. Now, with you, you’re different. At first, I figured it was because you were indifferent to us. You thought you were better than us, but now I see it’s not that. Logan likes you. He has the hots for you. You make his dick hard, and it confuses him. Poor guy doesn’t know what to do around you other than rub himself all over you, acting like a big dog.” He tutted.
“You’re wrong,” she said.
“Am I? You weren’t alone in that classroom when he had his hands down your pants. I was right there, seeing the action. Watching you. I knew then what I could have that he never would.” He gripped the edge of her swimsuit, and she grabbed his hand.
It didn’t do her any good.
He pulled the suit down, and she cried out.
Fighting against him, she tried to make him let go of her, but he wouldn’t do it. He held onto her tightly, and she couldn’t push him away. During the struggle, he managed to pull her swimsuit completely off, and she fought him, trying to get away.
She was on her hands and knees, fighting with all of her might, but it did no good.
There, on the dirty floor of the girls’ locker room, she lost her virginity. It was torn from her by Luke as he raped her, spewing about how it was supposed to be Logan’s but now he had that piece of cherry all to himself, and no one else was ever going to take it from him.
Chapter Thirteen
All of Logan’s clothes were burned, the mess in the warehouse and the club cleaned up. There wasn’t a single trace of the sheriff or Luke near him.
He sat in the hallway outside his apartment, staring at the door.
He’d faced so many opponents over the years. Some taller than he was, stronger, fitter, wiser. He’d made sure none of them saw his fear or his nerves.
Beyond his door was a woman he had laughed at. He’d taken revenge on her for something she hadn’t done.
Running fingers through his hair, he didn’t move from his precious spot. He watched the door, knowing Hunter would take care of her.
The only real friend he had in his life was Hunter.
He’d already put a call out to all of his businesses, saying Riley and Marvin were cut off. They were not to get freebies and would soon be cut out of his life for good. It was the only way he could do this.
After what Luke did, he was never going to trust them again.
He didn’t know the full extent of the truth his friends were told, but it was already too much. He’d deal with them, and that wouldn’t take long, bringing him back to his current problem.
Ava.
The girl he should have been there for.
He’d known she’d started to go swimming after school. She once told him it helped her to think, especially if one of her assignments wasn’t coming together. Luke must have found out during one of his times of watching him, trying to find any means to hurt him.
Logan sent Hunter a text letting him know he was outside.
Within seconds the door opened, and Hunter was there.
He closed the door and sat with his back leaning up against the door.
“I told you to watch her.”
“I am watching her. She’s inside, asleep. Curled up on the sofa, waiting for you. I gave her a hot chocolate.”
“Did you drug her?”
“No. She’s out cold because of exhaustion. Don’t worry, I won’t hurt her.”
“No, you won’t, and neither will I.”
“Is this the reason you’re out here and not in there?” Hunter asked.
Logan stared at his friend. “You hated him.”
“I know.”
“Did you ever suspect him of doing this?”
“No.”
“You didn’t?”
“I can hate men without them being rapists, Logan.”
“What was it about him that you hated?”
“I don’t know. It was the fact he was always there, breathing down your neck, trying to get you to do something, anything he wanted you to do. It was like he had this hold, and he knew it as well. What I didn’t know was what he’d done.”
“Ava told me.”
“She did me as well.”
“Did you believe her?” Logan asked.
Hunter paused. “I … I didn’t outright believe her, but I also didn’t think she was lying. I know this is complicated.”
“No, it’s not. She was telling the truth the whole time, but the sheriff, Luke, his parents, they’re the ones who ruined my life.”
“You got them both now. You made up for it.”
“What if it’s not enough?”
“I don’t understand.”
“I don’t know if I can face her. How can I marry her and keep her, when I forced her to be naked in a room with Luke? To come while he watched? I didn’t believe her. I thought the worst, and look what happened. She was the main victim.”
“Logan, after everything that has happened tonight, you need to step into that room, talk to her. At least, do that. She deserves it after everything. Don’t do anything rash or stupid. Just take your time with all of this. There is no reason to do anything right now.”
“You’re being the voice of reason.”
“You’re the one who taught me not to go breaking down walls that didn’t need to be broken. Ava needs you right now. Even if it is just for a hug. You’ve got to give her that chance.”
“I don’t know if I can be all that she needs.”
“She needs the man who just killed in front of her to hold her. To put aside whatever mess is between you two. Did you take the pregnancy tests?” Hunter asked.
“Fuck, I didn’t even think about them.”
“You were the one who wanted them. You’ve got to make this right. I’ll be right outside if you need me.” Hunter shuffled out of the way, and Logan got to his feet.
“I don’t like you right now.”
“Don’t need to like me,” Hunter said. “Besides, you and I both know I’m lo
yal to you and only you.”
Entering his penthouse suite, Logan closed the door.
He took each step slowly, removing his jacket and entering the sitting room. Sure enough, Ava was curled up on the sofa. She looked so peaceful.
He walked toward her, sitting down on the edge of the coffee table, watching her. She was so beautiful. Age had only deepened that beauty.
He reached out, tucking a strand behind her ear, and smiling as she moaned a little. It was a soft sound but oh, so sweet.
“Hey, beautiful,” he said, when she opened her eyes.
“Hey.” She didn’t smile.
He saw the tears in her eyes. “Are you afraid of me?”
“No. How are you?” She sat up but didn’t make a move to hold him.
He wanted to touch her so badly.
“I’m fine. Believe me, this is in no way a new experience for me.”
“What is it then?” she asked. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“What do you have to be sorry about?”
He stared at her, and hoped she saw it.
“Logan?”
“I should have believed you.”
“You didn’t know.”
“But you told me, and I laughed in your face.”
“I’m a little fuzzy about everything,” she said.
“Luke had a hold on me up until twenty-four hours ago.”
“And now?”
“He’s dead.”
“Do you miss him?” Ava asked.
“No. I couldn’t miss someone who treated me like that. His death, it was a long time in coming, and it was way too easy for him as well.”
“Logan, he was still your best friend.”
“Who raped you. If he didn’t know how I felt about you, he’d never have been given the chance.”
“You don’t know that. He was a monster.”
“And I’m the worst one there is. This is all based on lies.” He saw the tears fall, and he reached out, gently swiping them away. “At least you’re not afraid of me after everything I did to you.”
“We can’t change the past, Logan.”
“How can you even bear to look at me?” he asked.
“You saved me.”
He shook his head and got to his feet. “Everything is a fucking mess.”
Ava grabbed his hand, pulling him down so he collapsed beside her on the sofa. She wrapped her arms around him and held him tight.