Sweet Jayne (38 page)

His life is over.

And he’s going to spend the rest of it staring at the grey walls of a ten by ten cell.

Good fucking riddance.

“Thank fuck they finally got that pipe shut off,” a federal agent grunts as he splashes past me. “The whole house is damn near flooded.”

The Feds are crawling all over the crime scene. Normally, I’d have my panties in a wad over the whole ordeal, but after what Stokes told me, I hardly trust anyone. Well, aside from Jason Rhodes.

“I think they can wrap it up from here. You’ve all given your statements. It’s probably best if you take my sister-in-law and get the hell out of here before she falls asleep standing up,” Rhodes says with a grunt.

He was the first person I called. It was him who called the Feds rather than bringing in our own people. The case is too close to home and I wasn’t willing to risk any evidence disappearing in case Logan had any other minions on his payroll.

“Thanks, man. And have them check this out.” I hand him the key to the storage unit and tell him the number. He nods before heading back over to the lead investigator.

I step outside to search for my family. Two ambulances are parked in the driveway. The EMT is checking over everyone, but so far, nobody seems hurt too badly. Thank fucking God. Amethyst has her arm wrapped around my sister’s shoulder and is whispering things to her. The sight is one I’d like to see more of. It cracks through my black, hardened heart and kick starts it to life. All of the hate I’d armored it with flicks away like weathered paint, until it all blows away.

When I look over at the other ambulance, Donovan has the boy—his boy—sitting on his hip as he regards Nadia with an intense gaze. I guess Ames knew what she was talking about after all. The love. I see it one hundred fucking percent right now. With a sigh, I stride over to Nadia.

“Thank you.”

She lifts her gaze to mine and she smiles. “You’re welcome. I had it handled.”

I scratch at my jaw and raise an eyebrow at her. “You did. I’m sorry I…” I trail off as I try to regain my composure. My chest aches with sorrow. The things I tried to do to her. To hurt her. Hell, I even tried to fuck her all to get even. It’s goddamned sickening to think about.

She shakes her head with tears in her eyes and throws her arms around me. “Shhh, we’ll talk about this later. Okay? Get them all home and take care of them until then. I promise we can discuss this at another time.”

I squeeze her once more before I release her. Bending over, I place a soft kiss on her forehead. I’ll right this wrong one day. It might take weeks or month or years, but I’ll make it up to sweet Nadia Jayne for paying such a huge sacrifice for my sister. That, I can bet money on.

When I step away from her, I regard Donovan. His smug, all-business exterior is gone. The wind tousles his messy hair and dark bags are forming beneath his eyes. I feel sorry for the guy—to learn he’s a father the same day we barely rescue the love of his life from Logan’s dark clutches.

“He looks just like you,” I say with a smile and attempt to joke to lighten the mood. “Poor guy. Only thing we can hope for is he has your taste in music.”

He presses a kiss to the boy’s head and his eyes are rimmed in red. I’ve never seen him so vulnerable. Right now, he reminds me so much of his brother, Taylor. My best friend who took his life all too soon.

“Thanks, kid,” he mutters and juts his hand out to me.

I shake it brusquely before leaving them to get back to my sister.

“Come here,” I say with a grunt and tug her into my arms.

She hugs me tight. Her body is tense and I rub at her back to relax her. After a few moments, she breaks down. Sobs wrack through her as she lets go of a decade’s worth of pain.

“I’m so sorry, little bit. So fucking sorry.”

W
hen I emerge from the shower, a towel wrapped around my body, I find Donovan asleep with Van in his arms on the couch. Those two took to each other rather quickly. I think it helped that ever since he was born on a rug in a basement, delivered by Logan and Kasey, I would whisper tales of his heroic daddy named Donovan Jayne. Van knew from the get-go he was to be polite to Logan but that he wasn’t his father. So when I introduced Donovan as his real daddy, he was thrilled to finally meet him.

And Donovan, once the shock wore off, has only focused on making up for lost time. For two days now, he’s stayed glued to our boy’s side. I told him if he caters to our two-year-old’s every whim, he was going to spoil him rotten. Donovan just laughed me off and said he didn’t care.

I sit on the coffee table and watch them. Both of them look so peaceful. Kasey kept her promise to me and I kept my promise to her. I’d had to do the unthinkable. Renounce my child for Logan. To convince him I wanted more than to be trapped in a basement with a kid stuck to my hip. I told him I couldn’t stand being down there. Kasey and I came up with the plan to tell him it was postpartum depression. As soon as Van was born, we planned and plotted. It was during one faked suicide attempt, that Logan finally took me to a doctor outside of Aspen. She’d taken one look at us and asked him to step outside—that it was her practice to see her patients without an audience. I didn’t expose him—that would be a threat to Kasey, Taylor, and my son’s life. Instead, I had her implant me with a birth control device and begged her for a low-dose medication for my supposed depression.

Then, I worked my magic on Logan.

While he was at work, I played the parts for the cameras in the basement showing how depressed I was but would hold my baby at night and whisper sweet nothings to him. I told him stories of his real father and promised I’d get him out of there one day.

One day, several months ago, Logan took me upstairs much to both Kasey and my surprise. He was drunk and horny. Kasey always had a way about making him feel bad about doing anything sexual around the kids. It was my opportunity and we pounced on it.

That day, I begged, pleaded, and pretty much forced him into keeping me upstairs. I cleaned and cooked. I sucked his cock like I was starved for it. I played a role just for him. Eventually, he liked me up there. Late at night, he’d question why I didn’t love our child or why I hated Kasey. I’d simply shown him how much more I loved him instead.

He thought I was crazy.

Crazy for him.

But every time he’d bring a tray of food downstairs to have a meal with his family, I’d slip notes to Kasey underneath the rubber mat on the tray written inside a folded napkin.

I’m getting him to fall for me.

We made progress.

I met your brother. He’s perceptive. I can work with this.

Your brother knows something’s up. Thank God!

He keeps kissing me. I hate leading him on but it’s necessary.

Donovan knows I’m here. I nearly died having to send him away. I’m broken.

Logan made love to me in the shower. The fucking fool is falling for it!!

Kiss my son and tell him I love him. God, I love him.

Kasper’s girlfriend saw Logan hurting me. Almost there, Kase…

The plan moved slowly forward. Piece by piece, we were able to position ourselves. With enough people taking notice, and Kasper’s keen detective skills on our side, eventually it would all come to a head. And it did.

We made it to the other side. Alive. And with our children in tow.

“We’re going house hunting this weekend. I hate having to make him sleep in that portable crib. He’s too big for it. It doesn’t even look comfortable,” Donovan murmurs, dragging me from my thoughts.

I smile and scoop my sleeping baby into my arms. His mop of dark, thick hair is one of my favorite things about him. But when he opens his eyes and peers at me with those silvery blue orbs like his daddy’s, I simply melt for him. “He’ll be okay until then. I promise.”

Kissing my son’s forehead, I make my way over to his bed. Once I’ve tucked him in, I find Donovan standing in the doorway with his arms crossed. A smoldering look on his face has my entire body igniting with need. It’s been two days since we were rescued from that animal, and I think Donovan has been afraid to touch me. Meanwhile, I’m desperate to connect with my love. To erase the past with Logan once and for all.

“It makes me crazy fucking insane to try and wrap my head around all of this, baby,” he says with disgust in his voice. “To think, this whole time I could have…I should have…”

Shaking my head, I make my way over to him and slide my palms up his chest, stopping him from saying any more. He’s wearing a simple white T-shirt and it fits him well. I’ve been dying to tear it off of him all night. “Listen to me right now, Donovan Jayne. I love you. And not once have I ever felt disappointed by you. It was you,” I murmur and stand on my toes to kiss his soft lips, “that kept me going. Your memories. Our love. Tu, mí amor.”

His eyes close and he looks up at the ceiling. I run my fingertips along his Adam’s apple as he swallows. He’s having a hard time keeping it together emotionally. I’ve caught him on several occasions with tears in his eyes.

“Donovan,” I say as I kiss his throat. “You can’t punish yourself any longer for this. Neither of us can. It’s our turn now, remember? It’s time to let this go.”

He tilts his head down to me and a million emotions flicker in his eyes. Regret. Sadness. Fury. Longing. Desperation. Sexual hunger. Love. “He nearly broke you. If he would have killed you…”

I press my thumb to his lips to keep him from finishing that thought. “Make love to me. I want to replace the pain within me with you.”

His fingers tangle into my wet hair and he groans before his lips meet mine. Hungrily, he devours me. Our tongues duel each other but his is winning. Owning. Claiming. Marking. I let him take the control he so desperately needs. When I let out a moan, he tugs away from me. His glare confuses me for a minute.

“What?”

He runs his fingers through his hair and gives me a pained look. “I’m afraid I can’t be careful with you. What if I do something you don’t like? That reminds you of
him
?” He says the last part with a vicious hiss.

I yank at the towel and toss it to the ground. Then, I grab his hand and guide him into our bedroom. Under the bright light, I let him see. His furious, heartbroken eyes take in each and every scar Logan Baldwin put on me. “These bruises will fade. The cuts will heal. And the emotional damage will be dealt with over time. But you can’t hurt me, stupid man. You’re the only one who can help me. If I haven’t broken already, I’m not ever going to break.”