Page 147 of Short, Lethal & Claimed

“No, they’re not,” Jill said because she was never going to let anyone hurt them again.

“You love him, don’t you?” Ephraim asked, watching her curiously as he crossed the room.

“More than anything,” Jill said, watching him as he gently cupped her face in his hands.

“You know that I’ll rip his heart out if he ever hurts you, right?” Ephraim asked as he leaned down and kissed her forehead.

“I know,” Jill said with a watery smile before asking the one question that she’d been avoiding since she opened her eyes. “Where’s Madison?”

“She’s asleep,” Ephraim said, dropping his hands away with a soft sigh. “We didn’t want to overwhelm you tonight.”

Knowing that was probably for the best, Jill slowly exhaled as she turned to Chris only to find him still glaring at their father and-

“I’m beyond fucking precious,” Chris said, making them both roll their eyes as he grabbed hold of her hand and dragged her towards the door.

While Chris grumbled to himself, which she probably would have found concerning if she wasn’t currently trying to wrap her mind around everything that happened, he dragged her up the stairs and down a long, dimly lit hallway and into a room on her right and…

Why was Logan hanging from the ceiling? Jill found herself wondering. She opened her mouth only to find herself wondering why Izzy, who appeared to be heavily pregnant, was fast asleep on the bed, hugging a large bag of peanut butter cups against her chest.

“She fell asleep in the middle of interrogating me,” Logan said, drawing her attention to find him watching her through silver eyes.

“That’s because I broke him in less than a minute,” came the sleepily mumbled announcement followed by, “This isn’t what it looks like,” while Jill stood there, unable to take her eyes off Logan.

“Tell me that’s not an insanely large bag of chocolate in your arms,” Chris said as Jill watched Logan’s gaze soften while he watched her.

“Those aren’t mine,” Izzy said, trying to sound innocent while Chris released a long-suffering sigh seconds before the rope attached to Logan’s legs went slack, dropping him to the floor with a pained grunt.

“They’re his!” Izzy said, pointing a damning finger at Logan when Chris released another sigh. “He’s just trying to set me up for breaking him so quickly.”

“And what exactly did you get out of him, munchkin?” Chris asked, tossing the rope aside while Jill quickly made her way to Logan’s side.

“He loves her,” Izzy said with a heartfelt sigh accompanied by the sounds of a candy bar wrapper crinkling as Logan reached up and cupped her face in his hands.

“Angel,” Logan whispered reverently as he leaned up and gently brushed his lips against hers and-

“Oh, God, I didn’t need to see that,” Chris said, sounding horrified and making her lips twitch as she blindly reached down and grabbed hold of the knot securing the rope to Logan’s leg and pulled it free before she climbed onto his lap.

Once she was settled on his lap, Jill wrapped her arms around him and felt herself relax.

“You scared the hell out of me,” Logan said, wrapping his arms around her and pulled her closer while Chris went back to grumbling to himself as he carried his mate out of the room before closing the door quietly behind them.

“I know,” Jill murmured quietly as she closed her eyes and slowly exhaled as she allowed herself to think about what happened in that foyer. “Tell me that Emma is really okay.”

“The little sugar addict filled me in before she passed out. There’s a human doctor that came to live with your family named Noah. He took care of Emma’s cuts and even gave Caleb matching band-aids so that he wouldn’t feel left out. He made sure that all of the children were okay while Kale’s mate fed them. Shane survived his first transition. They’re all fine,” Logan promised her as he kept one arm around her while he shifted his weight onto his other arm and carefully stood up.

“And Elizabeth?” Jill asked, wrapping her legs around him as he carried her into the bathroom.

“She’s dead,” Logan said, turning his head to kiss her cheek as she felt a wave of relief pour over her.

“And Tomas?” she asked, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth as she thought about the cranky demon.

“I’ll find him,” Logan said as he carefully placed her down on the bathroom sink and kissed her forehead. “I promise.”

“And you?” Jill asked, reaching up to cup his face in her hands.

“I’ve never been more terrified in my life,” Logan said, pressing his lips against her forehead.

“I should have died,” Jill said as she found herself glancing down and taking in all the dried blood covering her shirt as she thought about the moment when she realized Elizabeth had stabbed her.

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