Chapter 43

CHAPTER 43

One Week Later…

“ I got you, Mommy!” Caleb said with a huge smile as he continued to pummel Jill with a pillow.

With a mock glare, Jill grabbed a pillow and sent the little boy racing off the bed, squealing with laughter as Emma joined him, making Logan chuckle as he watched them from the doorway. When Jill caught Caleb, she picked the giggling child up and placed him on the bed where she attacked him with kisses, somehow making the little boy giggle harder.

He watched as Emma grabbed a pillow off the bed and took up the attack on Jill, giving her brother the distraction that he needed to escape. Once Caleb managed to wiggle free, he joined in the attack, making Jill laugh as she fell to the floor. Logan glanced from the pillow attack to the teenage boy on the other bed, trying to read the book that Logan bought for him a week ago when he went into town for supplies.

He watched as Jill and the twins suddenly turned their pillow attack on Shane and chuckled at the look on Shane’s face when he realized what was happening. Shane tried to ignore them before he finally gave up and joined the attack, making the twins squeal with laughter as they tried to run away. Jill turned her attack on Shane only to laugh when he grabbed her in a bear hug and brought her to the floor so that the twins could join in the attack.

God, she was so good with them, Logan thought as he watched Jill and-

Christ, he loved her.

He loved all of them more than anything, and that fucking terrified him.

He remembered the pain that he’d felt when he lost Elizabeth and just how fucking much he wished that he could join her and he knew without a doubt that pain would be nothing compared to the pain that he would feel if he lost Jill or one of the children.

He would never survive losing them.

For the past week, he’d watched over her, gorging on blood and fed her so that she could heal faster and worked on the checklist that she gave him, needing the distraction while he tried to figure out how he’d fucked up this badly. She was only supposed to be a temporary distraction, something that he lost himself in and moved on from when he grew bored, but somewhere along the line, she became the most important thing in his life.

“I need a kissy, Mommy!” Caleb said as pure joy exploded in his chest, the same as it did every time Caleb called Jill her that, letting him know just how much she loved them.

He just wished that he knew how she felt about him.

Other than thanking him for saving her arm, Jill hadn’t said more than two words to him over the past week and it was absolutely fucking killing him. He’d caught her watching him curiously a few times, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth as though she was trying to figure something out only to walk away a moment later without a word.

He watched them for another minute before he stepped away and pulled his phone out of his pocket as he headed to his room, deciding that it was time for answers. He scrolled through his contacts until he found the number that he was looking for. After a slight hesitation, he pressed send and waited until he heard the call connect before he said, “Tell me what happened with Elizabeth.”

There was a slight pause, and then, Kale asked, “Are you sure that you really want to know?”

“Yes,” Logan said, needing to know the truth now more than ever.

“Why now?” Kale asked, sounding genuinely curious.

“Does it matter?” Logan asked as he closed the door behind him.

“It does if you’re looking for a reason to come after my family,” Kale drawled.

“I want answers,” Logan assured him.

“Does this have anything to do with the brownstone?”

“Does it matter?” Logan asked, taking in all the changes that Jill made to his room over the past week.

She’d taken it upon herself to turn this house into a home for the children. She’d started cleaning the house, making sure the children didn’t have to depend on takeout or have to spend all of their time in their room. She’d turned one of the bedrooms into a playroom for them, ordered a playground for the backyard that took him half the night to put together, set up a cozy living room for them downstairs, and scrubbed the kitchen from top to bottom before setting it up so that she was baking them cookies a few days after they moved in. She also set up his room with new bedding, furniture, and ensured that he had everything that he needed in his bathroom.

“Not really. What do you want to know?”

“The truth,” Logan said as he made his way to the windows overlooking the large, dimly lit backyard and felt his lips twitch as he watched Caleb race outside, completely naked and giggling his little butt off.

“You’re not invisible!” Shane yelled as he chased after him.

“Yes, I am!” Caleb said with a huge smile as he quickly climbed up the slide and slid down before Shane could grab him. He watched as Jill raced over to the slide and scooped the little boy up before he could make a run for it. She-

“You have the children,” Kale said, letting him know just how sensitive his hearing was now.

“Yes,” Logan said, not bothering to lie to the shifter as he watched Shane try to wrestle Caleb back into his teddy bear undies while Jill did her best to hold onto the giggling child.

“There are quite a few people looking for them,” Kale drawled coldly, letting him know just fucking pissed he was about the children being dragged into this mess.

“And I’m planning on killing every single one of them,” Logan said, watching as Jill kissed Caleb’s forehead before she placed him back down on his feet and-

“Stop taking off your teddy bear undies!” Shane yelled with a growl of frustration when Caleb took off running back into the house.

He watched as Jill followed them at a leisurely pace, pausing to pick up Caleb’s discarded undies before she disappeared inside and-

“You saw what you wanted to, Logan,” Kale said, making Logan go still.

“Meaning?” Logan asked as he made his way to the chair that Jill ordered for him and sat down.

“You saw a beautiful girl who was in need of rescuing,” Kale murmured softly. “She was cruel, manipulative, and incredibly selfish, but she knew how to get what she wanted with a sweet smile and when that didn’t work, she used tears and tantrums to get what she wanted,” Kale said as Logan told himself that Kale was lying, he wasn’t talking about his sweet Elizabeth, only…

Long forgotten memories that he’d excused at the time and had refused to think about because it always made him feel like he was betraying her memory had him swallowing hard as he remembered what happened when she didn’t get her way. The tears would start and they wouldn’t stop until he did what she wanted.

When he couldn’t give her what she wanted…

God, it had been pure hell.

“What else?” Logan forced himself to ask.

“Are you sure you want to know?” Kale asked, making him chuckle without humor.

“I’m not sure of anything right now,” Logan said, ramming his fingers through his hair as he dropped back against the chair and stared up at the ceiling. “Tell me everything.”

After a brief pause, Kale did exactly that.

For the next hour, Logan sat there listening as Kale recounted everything that he remembered about Elizabeth. While Kale recounted the rumors that Logan refused to believe and the tales of her cruelty, he found himself thinking about the woman that he’d planned on spending his life with. He thought that he found the perfect wife the moment that he saw her. She was beautiful, sweet and he knew without a doubt that she would have made a wonderful mother one day, but now…

He thought about how upset she would get when he played with her cousins instead of focusing on her, the way that she ignored them when they called her name, and the way that she changed the subject whenever he brought up having children.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Logan demanded when it became too much.

“Because you loved her,” Kale simply said, making Logan sigh heavily as he rubbed the back of his neck. “And I never planned on standing by and letting you marry her, but I don’t think it mattered.”

“Why is that?”

“I don’t think she ever planned on marrying you.”

Logan opened his mouth and-

“Fuck!”

-threw the phone across the room, smashing it against the wall before he dropped his head in his hands, furious with himself for being so fucking na?ve.

He never should have-

“So, I was tucking the children in a little while ago when I suddenly got hit with a wave of anger, which was a bit concerning since I was kissing Emma goodnight at the time. That, of course, was followed by soul-crushing misery that had me questioning my decision to read the Teddy Bear book again,” Jill said conversationally, drawing his attention to find her walking into the room carrying a tray covered with a kitchen towel and placed it on his bed.

“I will admit that it made me curious about a few things,” Jill said as she made her way to his bureau and selected three black neckties.

When he only sat there, she released a heartfelt sigh as she closed the drawer and made her way over to him. “It had me thinking about a few things that happened over the past week,” Jill said, gesturing for him to sit back.

After a slight hesitation, he leaned back in his chair, curious to see where she was going with this. “And what things would that be, Angel?” Logan asked, watching as she grabbed his right arm and placed it on the armrest before expertly securing it with one of his ties.

“Well, there was last week after the incident on the couch that we’ve been pretending never happened when I felt a surge of anger out of nowhere. Before I could really wonder about it, it was gone,” Jill explained as she focused on securing his left arm to the chair.

“And now?” Logan asked, watching her as she double-checked the knots.

“Now, I want to know how you knew that I was hurt,” Jill murmured as she shifted her focus to the third necktie.

“I heard Shane yelling for help,” he lied, shifting to get more comfortable.

Nodding absently, Jill absently toyed with the tie in her hands as she began slowly walking around him. “That would make sense if Caleb hadn’t told me that you were upstairs looking for me.”

When he didn’t say anything, she said, “Then, there was our first night here,” making him swallow hard as he thought about the shower. “It also made me wonder why I was able to drink your blood.”

“And what conclusion did you come to?” Logan asked, watching her as she slowly walked around him.

“I know enough from my father and Eric to know that this isn’t normal between vampires,” Jill said as she came to a stop behind him and wrapped the tie around his head, blindfolding him as he took a deep breath and said the one thing that he’d never planned on telling her.

“Because you’re my mate.”