Page 118 of Logan
Olive may not be my brother’s biological daughter, but she calls him Dad, and he adores her. Being a teenager, however, with a new baby in the house is sure to have its challenges.
Payden’s phone rings and she pulls it out of her back pocket to see who the caller is. She’s been okay since we got home, butquieter than usual. I know the grieving process is different for everyone, and with her workplace still being a crime scene, that shit hit home heavy.
Whatever she wants to do is fine by me. She doesn’t have to go back to work or do anything until she’s ready, if at all. I’ll look after her. I know that’ll annoy the shit out of her because she’s an independent woman, but everyone has a breaking point, and living through what she’s been through? I think that is enough cause for a well-earned vacation. I’d love to take her away, but with Brew and Erica just having the baby and the renovations in full swing, I’m going to put it off for a few weeks. I hope she likes surprises.
I glance up as she says, “Willow?” Then moves away to take the call.
Yeah, we should probably catch up properly with my sister-in-law. We saw her briefly at the hospital, but we haven’t exactly been banging down her door to find anything new out. I get all I need to know from my brothers, Hustler and Sawyer. The rest doesn’t interest me.
A chat is probably long overdue, but if it stresses Payden out, even Willow can wait. They can all wait. All that matters is Payden is doing things at her pace, nobody else’s, even mine.
She’s the anchor keeping me coming back for more, the very thing I didn’t know I needed. My only job now is keeping her safe. Just like I promised.
Payden
Twenty-four hours later
I glance around the dive bar, wrinkling my nose at the putrid smell. I don’t want to be here, but the last piece of the puzzle is in place. And frankly? Closure feels good. It’s needed.
I feel a hand at my shoulder and I turn to look up. “Ryan,” I say, half standing as he engulfs me in a hug. My eyes widen. Okay, well, I wasn’t expecting that.
He reached out to meet after everything that happened and I agreed.
“Payden,” he says, finally releasing me as he slides into the booth seat. “It’s so good to see you.”
“You too, but why the cloak and dagger?” I ask. “This place isn’t exactly screaming wine bar.”
“My bad,” he says loftily. “I haven’t been here before, I thought it was upmarket. We can go somewhere else if you’d like?”
I shake my head. “It’s fine. How the hell are you doing?”
He’s still bruised from the beating the boys gave him over a week ago. They must have roughed him up good because he looks like shit. While I know Logan was disappointed the boys let him go, it was the right thing to do at the time. I just never expected him to reach out or that I’d see him again so soon.
“Well, I’ve been better. Those motorcycle thugs almost fucking killed me.” He also has no idea about my involvement with Logan, and because we were sneaking around nobody actually knew. He does understand my involvement with the club, though.
“Hey, don’t look at me, I was technically faking my own death,” I say, feigning innocence. “You know how the MC are in this town, and if they thought you had anything to do with the shooting and the evidence being tampered with, they were always gonna act.”
“Trust you to stick up for them.”
“Did you come here to argue with me or catch up?” I raise my brows expectantly.
“Listen, I’m sorry, okay, about how everything went down.”
“I know. It wasn’t your fault. I understand they were threatening people in your family. I get it.”
“Do you?” he asks. “Do you really? Because those assholes could’ve killed me.”
“Again, Ryan, I had no clue. I wasn’t even here. I was running for my life, no thanks to you.”
He raises his hands in surrender. “I didn’t come here to fight, I came here for closure. And I never meant for you to get into trouble.”
“So many people died—our boss!”
“What happened was out of my control. You were never a part of the game, I swear, not in the beginning, anyway.”
A cold feeling washes over me and I frown. “What the hell are you talking about?” I take a sip of my wine and he watches the movement closely, a small smile on his lips.
“I’m talking about severance, Payden, for what I’ve suffered through. These difficult times have had me rethinking things.”
