Page 64 of Short, Lethal & Claimed

“Yes, you did,” Logan admitted with a heavy sigh as he dropped his hands away.

“How?” Jill asked as she began toying with one of the buttons on his shirt.

“I planned on using you as leverage to get what I wanted,” he said, watching her absently trace a button with her fingertip.

“How exactly were you going to do that when you had no idea who I was that night in the bar?” Jill asked as she looked up to find him watching her.

“That night in the bar you were just an incredibly beautiful woman who took me by surprise in an alleyway with a well-placed dagger,” Logan drawled, making her lips twitch.

“My brother taught me well,” Jill said, absently tracing the button one last time before she gently worked it through the hole.

“Yes, he did,” Logan said as she moved on to the next button.

“How did I become part of your revenge after that night?” Jill asked as she freed the button before moving onto the next one.

“The compound.”

Absently nodding, Jill thought about all those late nights that she’d spent outside his cell as she took her time unbuttoning his shirt. When she spotted him sitting in that cell the first time, she almost did a double take, but she knew better despite what her father and Madison believed. He was a vampire in a Sentinel cell and no matter how much he intrigued her, she knew how dangerous the situation was.

For the first few weeks, she ignored him, well aware that he watched her every move as she made her way to Joshua’s cell every night. Then, one day, she just couldn’t resist teasing him a little and then she did it every time she visited her brother. It made her nightly visits with Joshua somewhat bearable, but…

Watching her brother get swallowed whole by his transition had left her feeling helpless, knowing that there wasn’t anything that she could do to help him. So, every night she came downstairs and sat outside his cell. Some nights she simply sat there, needing to be close to her brother, telling herself that he just needed time and other nights, she sat outside his cell andreminisced about her favorite memories with him, hoping that it would be enough to draw him out.

It never was, but she refused to give up on her brother. When he started throwing his trays on the floor and refusing to eat, she started making his favorite meals, hoping to entice him into eating something, but nothing worked. She kept coming even when he growled in warning, kept talking to him, kept hoping beyond hope that her brother was still in there somewhere until one night, she’d made the mistake of letting Marc come with her.

If she’d known the Sentinel doctor was going to be there, she never would have brought their little brother with her. Watching the Sentinels storm Joshua’s cell so that the doctor could take a sample of his blood had taken her by surprise, but watching Joshua’s reaction…

That terrified her.

She’d barely managed to drag their little brother away before the screams started. By the time they made it to the elevator, Marc had been trembling. It took her over an hour to calm him down and the promise to play hide-and-seek with him to get his mind off everything. Before she managed to get the words out of her mouth, he was racing for the door as she resigned herself to the soul-crushing night ahead.

Thanks to their brother Chris, Marc was insanely good at hiding. He took hide-and-seek seriously, a little too seriously for her peace of mind, which usually ended with her tearing the house apart and begging him to come out before she gave up and called in reinforcements. She hated calling in reinforcements, mostly because of that smug smile that Marc got on his face whenever she was forced to do it, but he didn’t leave her with a choice.

God, she still remembered the first time that she’d played hide-and-seek with him. If she’d known that Chris had gotten to him first, she would have suggested playing something else.As soon as she counted to twenty, she’d realized her mistake too late. It ended with her tearing the house apart along with her grandmother and the priests who lived with them as she frantically sent text messages to her father and Madison while she did her best not to panic.

She’d been on the verge of a nervous breakdown when her father strolled into the house ten minutes later. He simply sighed heavily as he made his way upstairs. A minute later, he was opening the hallway closet door and pulling Marc out from behind the extra blankets on the top shelf that he’d somehow managed to hide behind. She still remembered that smug smile on his face when their father threw him over his shoulder.

After that, she took it as a challenge, which, unfortunately, never ended well for her, but it was the one thing that she knew would help get his mind off everything that was going on. When she couldn’t find Marc in the living quarters that they’d been given in the compound, Jill made her way downstairs and began searching the dining hall and training rooms before she made her way into the living room when she heard the voice that had starred in every single one of her nightmares since she was a little girl.

Praying that she was wrong, Jill turned around and felt her stomach drop when she saw him featured on the ten o’clock news. She wasn’t sure how long she stood there before Marc found her and-

“Christ, you’re destroying me, Angel,” came the soft whisper as she felt his fingertips trace her jaw in a gentle caress that drew her attention back to Logan to find him watching her through silver eyes.

“And you’re stalling,” Jill said, forcing herself to focus back on his shirt buttons as she slowly exhaled, reminding herself that night at the compound was a lifetime ago, one that no longer mattered.

There was a slight pause before Logan said, “I wanted you,” making her go still.

Swallowing hard, Jill forced herself to focus on his buttons as she asked, “And now?”

“You really have no idea, do you?” Logan murmured as he ran his fingertips over her jaw one last time before he dropped his hands away and placed them on her thighs.

“Tell me,” Jill said, dropping her hands to the next button and worked it free as she watched his gaze soften.

“You make me weak, Angel,” Logan said as she worked the last button free.

“How?” Jill asked, keeping her gaze locked with his as she grabbed hold of his shirt and slowly pulled it free.

“You make me want to forget everything,” Logan admitted as her gaze dropped to his chest.

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