Page 25 of Short, Lethal & Claimed

A few minutes later, Jill found Logan sitting in the dining room with an incredibly handsome man with jet-black hair and the bluest eyes that she’d ever seen go completely still as soon as she stepped into the room. She watched as he slowly looked up at her with a look of disbelief that she easily ignored while she focused on the man watching her through silver eyes. Never taking her eyes off Logan, Jill placed her list on the table in front of him before she turned around and-

“You know my price,” Logan drawled, making her wonder why she thought this would be easy.

“And I paid it last night,” Jill pointed out as she turned around to find him looking over the list.

“You paid for the right to be an unpaid babysitter, not for the rest of this stuff,” Logan said before his gaze flickered to her. “One month.”

“One month for what exactly?” Jill asked after a slight hesitation.

“Spend the night with me for the next month,” Logan said, leaning back in his chair as he considered her, drawing her attention to the dark red skin marring the back of his hands.

“Because last night’s conversation was so scintillating that you can’t wait to do it again?” Jill asked dryly, making his lips twitch.

“Because you didn’t answer my questions,” Logan said as the man sitting next to him rubbed his hands roughly down his face with a muttered, “This isn’t going to end well.”

“And you think that will change if you force me to spend more time with you?” Jill asked as they ignored the man dropping his hands away so that he could shake his head in disbelief as he glanced between them.

“I think you want answers,” Logan said, making everything inside her go still.

“And you’ll give them to me if I agree?” Jill asked, watching him closely for any signs that he was lying to her.

“There’s only one way to find out,” Logan said, looking completely relaxed as he waited for an answer.

Slowly nodding, Jill said, “Remove our cuffs.”

Lips twitching, Logan said, “Two months.”

“One.”

“Two,” he said firmly before adding, “This isn’t up for negotiation.”

“And yet, we’re negotiating,” Jill countered. “They come off or there’s no deal.”

“Two months, and I’ll remove your cuff instead,” he said, watching her closely.

“You’ll remove all of our cuffs.”

“Just yours.”

“Theirs,” she said without hesitation. As much as she would love this damn thing off her leg, she wanted theirs off more. The sight of those cuffs on their legs turned her stomach. “And I want you to keep Gray away from them.”

“That’s not an option,” Logan drawled.

“Why not?”

“Two months and I’ll remove their cuffs, give you everything on this list, and answer your questions. Do we have a deal?” he said instead.

“Deal,” Jill said, knowing that this was the best deal that she was going to get.

“Anything else?”Logan asked as he watched her, wondering if she had any idea how much power she held over him.

He’d already planned on removing the children’s cuffs as soon as Gray returned with their remotes, but he’d decided to have a look at them this morning after he carried Jill back to her closet and tucked her into bed. None of the children said a word when he walked into their room. The older one simply glared while the two little ones did their best to hide behind their brother while Logan took a knee in front of him and ran his eyes over the metal cuff wrapped around his ankle. When he found the seam, Logan met the boy’s terrified gaze before he reached for it, sliding his fingers between the cuff and the boy’s skin, making sure that his fingers covered the sensors, and pulled only to end up grinding his teeth together when a surge of electricity tore through his fingers and up his arms, nearly knocking him on his ass.

He ignored the excruciating pain tearing through his arms as his skin blistered and held on, ensuring that not one single fucking jolt of electricity touched the boy. When it was over, Logan removed his blistered fingers from the device without a word and stumbled to the door. By the time he made it to the kitchen, his skin began to tear apart as melted skin turned into ash, making him realize just how fucking sick Magnus really was and ensuring that Logan was going to rip his fucking heart out of his chest before this war was over.

“Not at the moment,” Jill said as movement behind her drew his attention to find the little girl peeking out from behind the doorway, watching him. When he allowed his eyes to flash silver, she swallowed hard before she took off running back the way she came.

“Then, I’ll see you tonight,” Logan said, shifting his attention back to Jill in time to watch her turn around, forcing him to bite back a groan while he ran his eyes over her, taking in everythingfrom the delicate set of her shoulders down to the smooth slope of her back before taking in her heart-shaped-

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