Chapter 37

CHAPTER 37

Cedar Hollow, Pennsylvania

“ I s this it?” Caleb asked as Logan waited until the iron gates finished opening before he pulled onto the cobblestone driveway.

“It’s your new home,” Logan said as he made his way past the circular driveway and drove towards the large stone barn that had been converted into a garage nearly a hundred years ago. “Do you like it?” he asked, pressing the garage door opener as his gaze flickered to the rear-view mirror to watch Caleb press his little face against the heavily tinted window and took in the large Victorian mansion that had seen better days.

“I love it,” Caleb whispered reverently.

His gaze shifted to the little girl sitting between her brothers as he asked, “What about you, mīn smael? Do you like the house?”

With a shy smile, Emma smiled, making his lips twitch before his gaze shifted to Shane. He noted the guarded expression on his face as he took in the iron gate that surrounded the property. “What about you, Shane?”

“It’s just another prison,” he said with a bored sigh.

“It’s your home, Shane,” Logan said, watching the muscle in Shane’s jaw clench before he shifted his attention to the small woman who’d barely murmured two words to him since they’d left the penthouse.

“What about you, Angel?” Logan asked, pulling into the garage as the automatic lights came on, illuminating the old horse stalls and what was left of the hayloft above.

“It’s beautiful,” Jill said with a warm smile as Logan closed the garage door behind them.

“Just wait until he chains you up to this one,” Shane drawled as he shoved his door open and climbed out.

“He’d have to catch me first,” Jill said with a teasing smile for the twins as she climbed out of the car before Logan could respond.

Biting back a sigh, Logan climbed out of the car and-

“I don’t want to be chained again,” Caleb mumbled sadly as soon as Logan opened his car door for him. Forcing a reassuring smile, Logan reached over and unbuckled Caleb’s seatbelt only to feel his heart break for the little boy when his bottom lip began trembling.

He was going to rip Magnus’s fucking throat out one day.

“No one will ever hurt you again, mīn swēte sunu,” Logan promised, kissing Caleb’s forehead before placing him down on his feet.

Worrying his bottom lip between his teeth, Caleb asked, “You promise?”

“I promise,” Logan said with a solemn nod as he glanced up and met Jill’s gaze, watching as her beautiful brown eyes flickered silver.

“What about Emma?” Caleb asked as he glanced back at his sister.

“No one will ever hurt Emma again,” Logan said, pausing to reach inside the car and help his little shadow out of the car before continuing, “or your brother Shane or-”

“Jill,” Caleb finished for him with a firm nod.

“Or Jill,” Logan promised, kissing the tip of Emma’s nose before he placed her down next to her brother. “Do you want to see your new home?”

“I really do,” Caleb said with a solemn nod, making him chuckle as he stood up and took Emma’s hand in his while Caleb raced around him. He watched as the little boy slapped his hands against the car door and pushed it shut with a grunt, which was followed by a satisfied sigh and a silent demand for Logan to pick him up.

He released Emma’s hand so that he could reach down and pick Caleb up and-

“Kissy!”

-felt his lips twitch as he dutifully kissed the little boy’s forehead before he reached back down and picked Emma up. Kissing her forehead, Logan carried the children towards the back of the barn, past the old horse stalls and made his way to the stable manager’s office, careful of the sunlight streaming in through the windows.

When he reached the office door, he handed Caleb to his brother, watching the way that Shane’s gaze lingered on the garage doors before shifting to the windows and-

“Be careful of the metal fence. I had it lined with silver,” Logan said, adjusting his hold on Emma as he opened the door.

“So, it really is just another prison,” Shane bit out with a glare.

“It’s for your protection,” Logan said, kissing the top of Emma’s head as he carried her inside the office.

“That’s what they always say,” Shane said evenly as he carried Caleb inside.

“I’m not them,” Logan said, having absolutely no fucking clue how to make this right for them. He-

“I’m sleepy,” Caleb mumbled sleepily as he laid his head against Shane’s chest, forcing his brother to bite back a curse as he rubbed his little brother’s back.

“Are you tired, mīn smael?” Logan asked the little girl in his arms as he glanced back at the door to find Jill once again looking lost in thought.

Hoping that Marcus’s instructions were right, Logan carried Emma to the built-in shelves against the back wall and pressed his hand down on the middle shelf. There was an audible click before the bookshelf separated from the wall and swung forward.

“What is that?” Shane asked as Logan reached in and gently pulled on the long string hanging from the ceiling, turning on the single lightbulb hanging above the stairs and illuminating the stone stairs below.

“A tunnel,” Logan said, kissing the top of Emma’s head as he adjusted her in his arms and carefully made his way down the set of stone stairs to an oversized metal door. He typed in the code that Marcus gave him and waited for three beeps before he opened the thick security door.

He glanced over his shoulder to see Shane carrying Caleb down the stairs with Jill close behind before stepping into the stone tunnel. He made his way past the crates stacked against the wall to the thick wood door that he was going to have replaced. Logan pushed the door open and turned on the light as he stepped into the matching stairwell.

Halfway up the stairs, he realized that Emma had fallen asleep in his arms. He carried her upstairs, careful not to wake her as he turned around and used his back to push what he’d been told was another bookshelf open, revealing the library. He held the door open for Shane, noting that Caleb had fallen asleep as well before his gaze shifted to Jill and-

This was for the best.

“This is their room,” Logan murmured quietly as he carried Emma into the room while Jill took in the long hallway from the outdated wallpaper on the wall to the black screen blocking the window at the end of the hallway that matched the ones at the penthouse before noting the one thing that was missing.

Cameras.

Curious about that, Jill followed Shane into the large bedroom and watched Logan carefully lay Emma down on the same plaid comforter that matched the one that she’d picked out for Shane back at the penthouse. Unable to help but frown, she glanced at the two twin beds with comforters matching the ones that she’d picked out for Caleb and Emma and the matching bureaus and nightstands before her gaze landed on the shopping bags filled with clothes, toys, and books neatly stacked in the corner.

“I had doubles of everything that you ordered for the children brought here,” Logan said, answering the unspoken question as she watched Shane carefully lay Caleb down on the bed next to Emma.

Once he was done, Shane swallowed hard as he glanced around the room, taking in everything before he backed into the corner and broke her heart when he sat down, his terrified gaze shifting to the twins and-

“Why don’t I show you to your room?” Logan suggested when she opened her mouth to tell Shane that everything would be okay.

“Okay,” Jill said instead, knowing that there was nothing that she could say right now that would help. With one last look at Shane to find him struggling to keep his eyes open, Jill followed Logan into the hallway.

“This way,” Logan said, gesturing for her to join him as he made his way down the long hallway while Jill found herself thinking about what he said at the penthouse and the fact that he’d taken them out of state in the middle of the night to a rundown house and-

“You’re leaving,” Jill said, knowing that she was right when a muscle in his jaw began ticking.

“I don’t have a choice,” Logan said as he led her to the last door on the left.

“Yes, you do, but I’m not going to argue with you,” Jill said, stepping past him into the bedroom that was at least four times bigger than the children’s room.

“And why is that, Angel?” Logan murmured, watching her curiously as she made her way around the bedroom.

Absently shaking her head, Jill ran her fingertips along the comforter covering the king-sized bed before she dropped her hand away and made her way to the first door on her right. “It doesn’t matter,” she said, noting the peeling paint on the door as she opened it.

“I can’t stay, Angel,” Logan said as Jill took in the large walk-in closet before moving on to the next door and opened it, revealing an outdated bathroom with a clawfoot tub.

“I didn’t ask you to,” Jill said, knowing better than to ask him to choose between her and the memory of the woman that he loved. She just…

She knew better than to expect anyone to choose her.

“I’ve made sure that you and the children will never want for anything. I’ve set up accounts for you as well as the children. I’ve made sure that you have everything that you’ll need to enroll the children in school in the fall and Tomas will arrange for private tutors to help them catch up,” Logan explained as she made her way to the next door. “Tomas will be taking the private quarters on the first floor and will stay here for as long as you need him.”

“How close are we to my family?” Jill asked the question that she’d been curious about since she saw the sign welcoming them to Pennsylvania.

“Less than a half-hour away,” Logan said after a slight pause as she opened the last door, revealing another walk-in closet, but this one had a bare mattress on the floor and what appeared to be a freshly installed light on the wall. “You’re in a blind spot. Your brother and father patrol the towns immediately to the north and east of us and there’s a Sentinel house set up thirty minutes to the west with a shifter couple protecting the towns to the west and south of us.”

“You don’t think they’ll figure out that they have vampires in their territory when they start making blood deliveries?” Jill asked, having absolutely no doubt that the Sentinel Council was using Tattletale to keep track of the blood deliveries in the area.

“They would if I was using the Sentinel blood system,” Logan said, taking her by surprise.

“Do they know I’m here?” Jill asked after a slight hesitation.

“No.”

“Are you planning on telling them?” she asked, wondering what she would say to them if she ever saw them again.

“Not unless you want me to.”

Nodding, Jill took in the rest of the closet only to feel her stomach drop when she spotted the stainless-steel shutter secured above the door. Swallowing hard, she slowly lowered her gaze, taking in the metal tracks on either side of the door so that the shutter could lock in place.

“Looks like Shane was right. This is a new prison,” she said, wondering how long it would take for him to have another chain installed in here.

“It’s for your protection in case the shutters on the windows malfunction,” Logan said as she took in the keypad in the corner, noting that it only had open and close functions on it before stepping back into the bedroom and spotted the matching keypad outside the door.

“When are you leaving?” Jill asked, reaching over to run her fingertips along the torn silk wallpaper lining the walls as she made her way around the room.

“In the morning,” Logan said as she met his gaze.

“Then, I guess this is goodbye,” Jill said, watching as he pushed away from the wall and-

“Goodbye, Angel.”