Chapter 108
-Logan-
I heard the doorframe splinter when I slammed the office door behind me.
I didn’t give a fuck.
The words were still ringing in my ears. A death sentence wrapped in calm logic.
Hailey. Gone. Behind my fucking back. With my fucking father. With my cousin.
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It wasn’t a stab in the back. It was a goddamn sledgehammer to the chest. And the only thing I could do was swing back.
The first thing my eyes landed on was a table by the wall, covered with full ashtrays and empty beer bottles. My bad leg howled as I put my weight into the kick, but I welcomed it.
The table legs snapped like dry twigs, sending glass and ash and cheap laminate skidding across the floor.
I was already moving on… a storm of pure fucking rage with a busted leg and a broken compass.
The bar was next. My sanctuary. My post.
I swept my arms across the length of it. Bottles of whiskey, vodka, gin, tequila flew through the air and exploded against the wall. The smell hit me first, then the sound.
The shattering glass wasn’t loud enough to drown out the voice in my head.
My cane clattered to the floor then. I didn’t need it. Adrenaline was a better crutch.
I drove my fist into the drywall next to the mirror. The plaster gave in with a sick, satisfying crunch.
Pain shot up my arm. A bright, clean contrast to the grinding agony in my thigh. I did it again. And again.
My knuckles were bleeding, covered in white dust. Each impact was a name.
Talon.
River.
Jake.
Ledger.
Hailey’s face flashed through my head. She’d looked them in the eye and agreed to this. She’d chosen them
over me.
I stumbled back. My breath was sawing in my lungs. My attention landed on the cane on the floor. That stupid fucking piece of metal. A sign of how useless I was. How they saw me.
11:44 Fri, Jan 23
Chapter 108
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75
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A liability. A cripple to be managed. Lied to.
I snatched it up. Put both hands on it, planted my good leg, and brought my knee up hard.
It bent into a satisfying V before snapping in half completely. I threw the two pieces of scrap metal across the room. They clattered into the dark under the pool table that Leo almost died on.
Somewhere in the haze, I was aware of Jake and Ledger following me out of the office. Their voices were distant and muffled. Like they were shouting at me from the other end of a tunnel.
“Logan, goddammit, stop!”
“Son, listen to me!”
Nah, fuck that. I grabbed a barstool by the backrest and spun, hurling it toward the far wall. It put a giant crack in the plaster.
Jake had his phone to his ear, with his other hand held out toward me like he was trying to calm a wild animal.
The call for backup. For my brothers to come and restrain me. That was the final twist of the knife.
I started launching the rest of the barstools at the wall, turning the crack in the plaster into a gaping dusty hole. Then I stood there, chest heaving, surrounded by my wreckage.
The air smelled like cheap booze. My hands were throbbing. My leg was a solid bar of pain from hip to ankle. I was looking for something else to throw.
Hands grabbed me from behind, locking around my arms. I threw an elbow back and connected with something solid. Heard a grunt.
It was Mason. Link was on my other side. Monty stood in front of me with his hands up and a worried look on his face.
They were everywhere. My brothers, materializing out of the shadows to rein me in, and all I could think was that they were in on it too. They’d known.
They’d all fucking known.
“Get the fuck off me!” I roared, trying to wrench free. My bad leg buckled from the pain, but the anger was better fuel. I was all raw nerve and white–hot rage. “You lying pieces of shit! All of you!”
“Logan, stop. Just breathe,” Mason said. His voice was strained from trying to hold me. He was strong, but I was insane with it.
“Where were you?” I spat at Monty. “Huh? When they were planning their little field trip? You lie to me too?”
His jaw flexed. “I didn’t know a thing, brother. I swear.”
It didn’t matter. It was a stain on all of them.
11:45 Fri, Jan 23
Chapter 108
“Logan Nash, you look at me.” My mother’s voice came from somewhere behind me. It wasn’t loud. It was soft, and it cut through the noise in my head like a laser.
I looked at her. She looked… sad.
My Aunt Trina stood beside her. A sliver of a woman with a titanium spine. “You’re acting like a child. A spoiled, reckless child. This isn’t helping anyone.”
The fight went out of me.
The adrenaline drained away, leaving me with the crushing weight of the pain in my leg, my hands, my fucking chest… where my heart used to be.
My shoulders slumped. Mason and Link felt it and loosened their grips.
“Sit down,” Ma said.
They led me to one of the few barstools I hadn’t destroyed. I dropped onto it and leaned my elbows on the bar. Dropped my head into my bloody hands.
Scarlett appeared behind the bar, snagging a fresh bottle of whiskey and a clean glass. She filled it almost to the brim and slid it toward me.
I reached past it, wrapped my fingers around the neck of the bottle, and took a long swig. The whiskey burned its way down my throat. I drank until my eyes watered.
The club formed a loose circle around me. A jury of my peers.
“Talon knows what he’s doin‘, Logan,” Monty said. “He’d die before he lets anything happen to her.”
“River’s got his back,” Link added. “They’re a good team. They’ll get her home.”
They were trying to help. But every assurance that Talon and River could handle it was a reminder that they decided I couldn’t.
“He’s a dead man,” I said flatly. “My old man. And River. They’re both dead men walking. You hear me? They come through that gate, I’m putting bullets in ‘em both.”
Nobody argued, they just stared at me with worried looks. The kind you give a rabid dog you’re not sure how to put down.
“You don’t mean that,” my mother whispered, but there was no conviction in it. She knew I did.
I turned my head, and my eyes landed on Ledger hovering near the office door like he wanted to disappear into the wall. “The address. Give it to me. Now.”
Ledger shook his head, a quick, nervous twitch. “Logan, man, that’s a suicide run. You’re in no shape to ride, and even if you were, by the time you got there-”
“I said. F**king. Give it to me!” I started to push myself up from the stool as the rage started to boil over again. The movement sent a spike of pain through my leg, and it made my vision white out for a second.
11:45 Fri, Jan 23
Chapter 108
As I sank onto the stool in defeat, Jake’s phone started ringing.
E 55 youchere
“Talon,” Jake answered, and the name was a lit match tossed into gasoline inside my skull. “Talk to me. He listened, scanning the faces of the club before landing on me and staying there.
I couldn’t read his expression. It was part relief, part exhaustion, part something else. “You’re sure?… Everyone?… Christ.” He let out a long, slow breath that seemed to drain the tension from his shoulders. “Yeah. Yeah. Just… get back here.”
He ended the call and slipped the phone back into his pocket. Every eye in the room was on him.
“Well?” The word ripped out of me.
“They’re fine. Everyone’s fine. They’re on their way back.” Jake ran a hand over his face.
The relief that washed through me was immediately followed by a fresh, icy wave of fury. She’d been put through god knows what. Because they took her there.
The club let out a collective sigh of relief. Backs were slapped. Scarlett poured a round for everyone. The crisis was over.
For them.
For me, it was just starting. They took my woman on a suicide run. The fact that she came out clean was miles away from the point.
It settled in my bones, numbing the physical pain. Muting the roar in my ears.
The rage wasn’t gone. It was just… refined. Focused.
I pushed myself up from the stool. My leg throbbed, but I ignored it. I didn’t look at any of them. I looked at the wreckage.
“When they get back,” I said low, “they come to me. Nowhere else. They come to me first.”
I didn’t wait for a response. I grabbed the bottle of whiskey and started the long, painful limp toward the stairs. Toward the empty room that smelled like her. Leaving them to their relief and their whiskey and the mess I made.
The war outside the gates was nothing anymore. The war inside had just started.
And the worst part wasn’t that they went without me.
It was that they were right to do it.
11:45 Fri, Jan 23
Chapter 108
As I sank onto the stool in defeat, Jake’s phone started ringing.
2200
“Talon,” Jake answered, and the name was a lit match tossed into gasoline inside my skull. “Talk to me. He listened, scanning the faces of the club before landing on me and staying there.
I couldn’t read his expression. It was part relief, part exhaustion, part something else. “You’re sure?… Everyone?… Christ.” He let out a long, slow breath that seemed to drain the tension from his shoulders. “Yeah. Yeah. Just… get back here.”
He ended the call and slipped the phone back into his pocket. Every eye in the room was on him.
“Well?” The word ripped out of me.
“They’re fine. Everyone’s fine. They’re on their way back.” Jake ran a hand over his face.
The relief that washed through me was immediately followed by a fresh, icy wave of fury. She’d been put through god knows what. Because they took her there.
The club let out a collective sigh of relief. Backs were slapped. Scarlett poured a round for everyone. The crisis was over.
For them.
For me, it was just starting. They took my woman on a suicide run. The fact that she came out clean was miles away from the point.
It settled in my bones, numbing the physical pain. Muting the roar in my ears.
The rage wasn’t gone. It was just… refined. Focused.
I pushed myself up from the stool. My leg throbbed, but I ignored it. I didn’t look at any of them. I looked at the wreckage.
“When they get back,” I said low, “they come to me. Nowhere else. They come to me first.”
I didn’t wait for a response. I grabbed the bottle of whiskey and started the long, painful limp toward the stairs. Toward the empty room that smelled like her. Leaving them to their relief and their whiskey and the mess I made.
The war outside the gates was nothing anymore. The war inside had just started.
And the worst part wasn’t that they went without me.
It was that they were right to do it.
