My teeth ground as I angled forward, ignoring his threat.
Hatred boiled from my tongue. “That shot was for Aster. For hurting her. For the pain you caused her. For treating her as anything less than the miracle she is.”
Agony and contempt rasped from his breaths, and he tried to rebound, struggling to lift the gun that dangled at his side in his other hand.
I stood higher, and that time, I aimed the barrel between his eyes. Eyes that widened in terror.
“And this? This is for our kid.”
I fired.
Aster screamed into her gag.
She screamed and screamed as she backpedaled with her feet to get away from his body that toppled to the floor.
A gush of air wheezed from my lungs, a moment of shock, of relief, of sickness, of every mistake and sin that had ever been committed.
The gun slipped from my hold, and I rushed for Aster. I dropped to my knees in front of her and ripped the gag from her mouth.
I took her face in my hands, my attention racing over every inch of her, searching for any injuries. “Are you okay? Baby, are you okay?”
My thumbs frantically brushed over the tears that soaked her cheeks. The right one was swollen and bruised, and there was a cut on her lip.
Fury flamed again.
“Little Star,” I begged.
She gasped a cry, and I freed her hands, and she threw her arms around my neck. “I’m fine. We’re fine.”
I slumped to the ground on my ass, and I pulled her onto my lap and curled mine around her.
I held her tight as our jagged breaths heaved and jutted and our haggard hearts screamed.
I breathed out because I was never going to let her go. “It’s over, Aster, it’s over.”
“Logan,” she sobbed and buried her face in my neck. “Logan.”
“It’s okay. It’s over. It’s over.”
I ran my fingers through the tangled locks of her dark brown hair.
Hyacinth and magnolia leaves.
My breath.
My blood.
My life.
My Little Star.
“Well, shit,” Jud said, scrubbing a giant palm over his face as he looked around the scene.
Trent jutted his chin at Oz. “We need to dispose of these bodies. You have bags?”
Oz nodded. “Three of them. They were intended for you. They knew you would come.”
Oz shifted his attention to me where I held a trembling Aster on my lap, my lungs squeezing the oxygen up my constricted throat.