Page 126 of Short, Lethal & Claimed

He needed to stay calm, but he felt anything but calm at the moment with Jill’s emotions bombarding him. He’d never had a problem staying in control before, but right now, he was so fucking close to losing it and he couldn’t allow that. Not when he was close to losing everything that he loved.

“What do you want?” Logan demanded as he watched the bitch that had played him so well turn around and slowly made her way around the pool while Emma silently cried in her arms.

“I want what you stole from me,” Elizabeth said, running her fingertips over the boys’ cages as she walked past them.

“And that is…” Logan asked, watching the way that the humans and shifters stepped back as Elizabeth walked past them, letting him know that she was feared.

“A chance at a better life,” she said simply with a shrug.

“Is this where you go into your villain monologue, sharing your tale of woe about how you clawed your way out of obscurity to become the psychotic bitch you are today?” Logan drawled, making Elizabeth’s lips twitch as she paused by one of her men and held her hand out.

“Something like that,” Elizabeth murmured as a small wooden cross was placed in her hand. She took a moment to examine the cross before her gaze shifted to Jill. “Did my men forget to go over the rules?”

“I believe they were too busy scaring the hell out of my children to go into detail,” Logan bit out coldly when movement near Caleb’s cage drew his attention and made him go still.

“Daddy?” Caleb said, holding onto the metal bars as his cage was pushed forward until a few more inches hung precariously over the water.

“Then, let’s consider this your warning,” Elizabeth said pleasantly, making him swallow hard as she drew his attention to find her standing behind Jill.

When he opened his mouth, she cut him off. “Your mate or your child?”

“I thought this was a warning,” Logan said, watching Jill’s eyes turn silver as she struggled to stay where she was when all she wanted to do was to go to Caleb.

“It is. Next time, I won’t give you a choice, but someone needs to be punished,” Elizabeth said, gesturing for him to make his choice.

“Me,” Logan bit out coldly.

“I’m afraid that’s not how this works,” Elizabeth said with a sad shake of her head.

“And why is that?” Logan asked, struggling not to lose his fucking mind when the asshole guarding Caleb placed his hands on the metal box, ready to push it the rest of the way.

“I learned a long time ago that the best way to bring someone to their knees was through their weaknesses,” Elizabeth said, gesturing with the small wooden cross in her hand between Jill and Caleb. “Who will it be?”

“Me,”Jill mouthed with absolutely no hesitation as his gaze flickered to the boys to find Caleb sobbing and looking absolutely terrified while he watched Jill and Shane…

“It hurts,” Shane mumbled weakly, pressing his forehead against the metal bars.

“My mate,” Logan said hollowly, unable to take his eyes off his angel as one of the men guarding her knelt down and grabbed her, pinning her left arm against her side as another man grabbed her right arm and held it up, forcing her hand open.

Jill kept her silver eyes locked with his as Elizabeth placed Emma down before she reached over and-

Tore a scream from Jill before she could bite it back while Logan was forced to stand there, grinding his teeth together as a soft grunt of pain managed to escape him while excruciating pain tore through his hand as the bitch held the wooden cross tightly against Jill’s palm.

After a few seconds, Jill managed to bite back the rest of the scream and knelt there, biting her lip while Elizabeth watched him curiously. When he didn’t react, and god, did he want to fucking react while he was forced to watch as white smoke rose from her hand, Elizabeth released a disappointed sigh and pulled the cross away, causing Jill to slump against the man holding her and-

Nearly gave him a fucking heart attack when he saw Jill’s small hand deftly reach towards the shifter’s belt before pulling back and forcing Logan to look away before he gave her away.

“Once upon a time, I was your weakness,” Elizabeth said, ignoring Emma’s quiet sobs as she reached down and took her small hand in hers.

“And what was I?” Logan asked, needing to keep her talking as he felt the pain tearing through his palm slowly fading away,letting him know that the blood he’d fed his angel this morning when they’d made love was still working.

With a careless shrug, Elizabeth said, “The key to everything.”

CHAPTER 62

“Meaning?” Logan asked as the shifter shoved her away, causing Jill to slump over and gave her a chance to slide the small dagger that she’d swiped from his belt beneath the waistband of her shorts. She barely had a chance to pull her shirt over the handle before they were grabbing her arms and yanking her back to her knees.

When they didn’t pull her hands behind her back and handcuff them again, Jill slowly exhaled, realizing that this was the only chance that they were going to get. Her gaze flickered to the boys to find Shane watching her through silver eyes as he forced himself to release the death grip that he had on the bars and signed, “Save them.”

---