“—I ran away. I didn’t want to go back. I didn’t remember why, but I knew it was awful.”
“We searched for you, my department, but we couldn’t find you. I wasn’t on your case, I’m only familiar with it now, but there is something you need to know.”
“Come on, Cortez. Can’t you see she has been through enough?” Logan said as he held my head against his chest. He was my anchor.
“The man that killed your parents escaped prison. He has been seen in this area again, and my guess is he came back to finish what he started.” Cortez looked me dead in the eye, and then handed me the file that held everything I ever wondered about myself.
“Oh my god,” Lucy’s voice shook.
“What? What are you saying, Cortez?” Logan questioned him, his voice on the edge of hysterical. “What’s that mean?”
“Serial killers don’t like to leave things undone, Logan. He knows she is alive. He is going to come back.”
Logan gripped Cortez by the shirt and slammed him against the wall, a loud roar ripping from his throat. “Are you saying she’s at the top of a list this guy has?”
I stared at Cortez, hand against my heart as he looked away from Logan to meet my gaze. He dripped with wine still, and he could easily push Logan off him right now, but he didn’t. “That’s exactly what I’m saying, Logan. Abigail is in danger, and until this man is caught, she’ll always be in danger.”
Logan let Officer Cortez go and took a step backward, seeming lost and confused. “No,” he said, shaking his head in denial. His red strands shined from the sun beaming in the window and even worried, he was the best looking man in the room. “No,” he repeated. “I won’t let anything happened to her. I won’t let anything happened to you, baby. I won’t.” In two steps, he had me in his arms, holding me tight against his body until I couldn’t breathe. “I won’t.” He sounded like a broken record.
He was trying to convince himself more than he was me.
“You hear me, Abigail? Nothing will happen to you.” He cupped my face, and I glanced away, not able to look at him. He made me though, cupping my jaw and fingering my cheekbones until I had no choice but to stare at him. His blue eyes were bright with tears, and the white of his eyes were red. “I love you, okay? You hear me? I love you, and as long as I’m alive and have breath in my lungs, I’ll protect you.”
“I’ll place you on 24-hour protection. You’ll always have a cop car outside your home, alright?”
“Thank you,” Logan told Officer Cortez.
I was putting everyone in danger. Logan, his family, Officer Cortez. Everyone would be better off if I wasn’t here. I was doing more harm than I was good.
Good thing he ran that background check on me, or we would never know the threat that lingered.
“You could stay here,” Lucy said, red-faced with tears. “We have plenty of room.”
“No,” I declined, running my hands down the skirt of my dress. I felt like I needed to do something, being here in this large house, I felt the walls caving in. “I don’t want to put you and your family at risk. This man will kill anyone, apparently, and if you’re in his way, he’ll kill you too.”
Logan hugged his sister and kissed her cheek, gathered me in his arms. “We’re leaving, come on.”
“We haven’t had Easter dinner,” I tried to joke, but no one laughed.
Tough crowd. It wasn’t like they had a serial killer coming after them. Logan picked me up and carried me down the steps, running toward the truck as if the killer was right behind us. I’d never seen him in such a hurry.
“We are going to buy a security system, a few guns, and I’m adding a panic room to the house.”
“Logan—”
“I’m going to keep you safe,” he set me in the passenger seat and buckled me up. Kissing me long and hard, he breathed heavily for a few seconds when he broke the kiss. “I swear on my life; I’ll keep you safe.” Logan shut the door and ran around the front of the truck
like he always did. We were gone just as quick as we arrived at his sister's, spitting dust behind us.
As I looked in the side mirror, leaving Logan’s family behind, I knew one truth to all this: It wasn’t me I was worried about.
Chapter Seventeen
Logan
Three weeks later
I hadn’t been able to get enough of Abigail’s body. Ever Since Cortez laid out her entire life story and the serial killer coming back for her again, the only place I felt like we were safe, was when we were in bed, making love.