He joins me on the floor, our legs brushing, our arms touching, and it’s enough to help me keep going. He wants to say something but stays quiet, letting me continue.
“Right after my father died, I moved in with my mom and her new husband. He drank. A lot… and gambled… a lot. He was a terrible husband to my mom and one lousy stepfather.” I lay my head back against the icy wall. “Anyway… he got himself into trouble. Borrowed money from the wrong people. Made promises he couldn’t keep. Then one day, these men showed up at our door and basically told him he was a dead man walking unless he paid up.”
Logan shifts next to me, his body tense, but I keep my eyes forward.
“When he couldn’t pay, he made a deal. A deal with the devil you could say.” My voices shudders. “I came home from school that day to a black car waiting for me in the driveway and my stepfather sitting at the kitchen table with two men in suits. I still remember the coldness. The emptiness in his eyes when he told me I’d been sold. I didn’t understand at first.” I tap my fingers on my knee nervously. “The bastard was a coward and sold his own stepdaughter to get out of a debt.” I snort with a chuckle because of how ridiculous it sounds.
Logan casts a glance at me, and I turn, meeting his stare. If a look can kill, his would. His eyes hold a glacial, threateningappearance and I shiver from it. “You were seventeen,” he says through gritted teeth.
“My stepfather signed for us to get married. My soon to be husband was older than me. In his late thirties. His father had all the money, but as years went by, his father handed him the business. I won’t lie and say it was horrible because truthfully… at times, it was better than living with my stepfather.” The words sound deranged.
“You were groomed, Sora. He was a grown fucking man. And you were a minor.”
“I know that now.”
“Where was your mom? She just watched as it happened—allowed her daughter to be taken away.”
I glance down at my chipped manicure. Funny, if I was still living with Jason, he would tell me to go get my nails done. “My mother was dead. Drug overdose six months before. I had no other family, so the court considered my stepfather fit to keep me.”
Logan’s jagged breaths shake in my ear.
“I lived a life of safety and luxury for years. I was led to believe it was perfect, and that he was my hero. When in reality he was the devil in disguise. My husband owns a nightclub, amongst other things, and it all changed after I turned twenty-one. He made me dance for his friends and colleagues in private rooms. They were never allowed to touch me… until they were.”
“Jesus Christ.” Logan breathes out what seems like fire, flexing his fists that lay on the tops of his knees.
I wipe a fallen tear, then another and before I know it, it’s complete waterworks. I can’t keep up. So much for holding it together.
Logan pulls me to his side and a strong arm wraps tightly around my shoulders.
“It wasn’t until he started hinting that I’d soon be pimped out to those men that I knew I had to get out. I couldn’t stay any longer. No matter the circumstances.”
The man sitting next to me takes in a sharp breath—one I experience down to my bones. “I’m going to kill him.”
I shake my head, leaving his comforting embrace. “You won’t. I won’t let you near him. He took my life, my youth. He stole enough from me. I won’t let him take you too.” Tears I can’t control roll down my face and there’s dread in my voice. Despair.
I hate Jason. I hated him because he made me believe I was safe. Shaped me into thinking he cared for me. Loved me. But it was false. In some ways, I realize that, but I knew I had nowhere else to go. So, I stayed.
“Is he the reason you’re so afraid?”
I nod. “He came looking for me at the café. Which obviously means he knows I’m here.”
Logan pulls me to him again, and I lay against his warmth, listening to his heartbeat. But it’s nothing short of calm. “You don’t need to fear anyone or anything,” he says with such intensity. His voice is low and hidden with rage.
I wish that to be true. The thought of going back now… makes my stomach turn.
“I can’t even go to the police. How do you take down a man who’s higher than the law?”
Logan says nothing. Doesn’t question it as if he almost trusts me—trusts what I’m saying is true.
I breathe in, taking the smell of Logan with me. With his arms enclosed around me like this, he keeps my monsters at bay.
“And your father… how did he pass?”
I miss him.
“A heart attack. But I believe his death was from a broken heart. He was never the same after my mom asked for a divorce.She was already using, and I think she cheated on my dad with my stepfather.”
Logan kisses my temple, his warm lips seeping into my soul.
