Page 140 of Short, Lethal & Claimed

“You don’t want them to see this,” Chris said with a pointed look at Caleb.

Frantically shaking his head, Shane opened his mouth only to close it when Logan said, “Take them into the living room and close the door.”

Swallowing hard, Shane reluctantly nodded as he reached over and took Caleb’s small hand in his. “I don’t wanna go, Daddy,” Caleb mumbled as his terrified gaze met his.

“Everything’s going to be fine, min swete sunu,” Logan said as he reached over and picked Emma up, kissing her forehead before he placed her on her feet. “Go with your brothers, min smael.”

As soon as the door closed behind them, Kale was wrapping his hand around the knife handle as Logan leaned down and kissed Jill’s forehead. “Come back to me, Angel.”

“Ready?” Chris asked as he angled the syringe just below her rib cage and pushed the needle through her skin. He watched the Sentinel slowly push the blood into her heart as Kale pulled the knife free and tossed it aside.

“Come on, Jill,” Chris said, picking up the metallic vile and poured several drops onto the wound before placing the vile at her lips and poured the rest into her mouth.

As soon as the last drop hit her lips, Logan was reaching for her. He pulled her into his arms as he leaned back against the wall. “Please come back to me, Angel,” Logan said as he wrapped his arms around her.

“She always was a pain in the ass,” Chris said with a sad smile as he joined them.

“She was perfect,” Logan said, kissing the top of her head. “Absolutely perfect.”

“You love her?” Chris asked after a slight hesitation.

“More than anything,” Logan whispered against her damp hair.

“And the reason why you let me think my sister was dead?” Chris asked as he reached over and took her hand in his.

“Because I’m an asshole,” Logan said flatly as Kale joined them.

“You’ve had your moments over the years,” Kale drawled, making his lips twitch despite the fact that he felt like his heart was breaking in two.

“You know that this isn’t over, right, leech?” Chris asked hollowly, absently running his thumb over the back of Jill’s hand and looking absolutely lost.

“I didn’t think it was,” Logan said, closing his eyes as he dropped his head back against the wall.

“Did you know that she was pregnant?” Kale asked softly as Logan realized that Tomas was right.

He wasn’t going to survive this.

CHAPTER 67

“This is a really bad idea,” the small woman who was completely fucking oblivious of her surroundings said as she paused halfway down the stairs so that she could place her hand against the wall and rub the large swell of her belly while the teenage boy that she’d somehow managed to convince that this was a good idea continued to glare down at her.

When Marc didn’t say anything, mostly because he was still glaring at her, Ashley cleared her throat, pasted a warm smile on her face and absently gestured to the stairs that she was currently trying to waddle down and murmured, “Why don’t we sit down and enjoy this lovely evening?”

That was followed by visibly struggling not to wince when Marc narrowed his eyes on her, clearing her throat, nodding, and mumbling, “Right,” to herself before she slowly inhaled, placed her hand back on the large swell of her belly as she pushed away from the wall and grabbed hold of the banister as she carefully lowered herself down onto the step behind her.

Once she was there, Ashley went through the minute-long process of sitting down, which was immediately followed by sighing with relief while Ephraim stood in the doorway of thepitch-black living room, glaring at her before his gaze flickered to the large Ion leaning against the wall across from him in the dimly lit foyer. He watched the muscle in Christofer’s jaw clench and knew without a doubt that the Ion was imagining throttling his little sister, which was understandable since she was seven months pregnant and was supposed to be on bed rest.

Folding his large arms over his chest, Christofer’s silver eyes briefly met his before Ephraim glanced to his right to find Noah sighing heavily as he pinched the bridge of his nose. They probably should have said something when they caught her sneaking out of her room after they came back from patrol, but…

He wanted to see how this played out.

“This is fun,” Ashley said with a satisfied sigh even as she closed her eyes and slowly exhaled. “Isn’t this fun?” she asked the teenage boy that moved closer so that he could glare down at her.

“You’re supposed to be in bed,” Marc bit out, forcing her to once again bite back another wince.

Clearing her throat, Ashley said, “I do remember that being mentioned at some point.”

“Then, we should go back upstairs,” Marc said, gesturing for her to get on with it.

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