Page 27 of Short, Lethal & Claimed

“Gray should be back with their remotes in the morning,” came the announcement that had her biting back a sigh.

“And I’m sure that he’s doing everything within his power to get here as fast as he can,” Jill said dryly.

“Probably not,” Logan murmured as she went to turn the page only to go still when he added, “I want to make another deal.”

“And what deal would that be?” Jill asked, placing her book down on the mattress next to her as she looked up and-

She hated that she noticed just how incredibly handsome he was, hated that he was the one man that made her feel this way, and she hated that she’d never been able to force herself to react like this to another man.

She’d tried.

God, she’d tried,

There were so many times that she’d wished that she could make herself feel something, anything, for someone only to end up feeling more alone than ever. When she was in high school, she went for the nice boy, telling herself that she would never have to worry about him hurting her only to have him pull away when she couldn’t stop flinching every time he reached for her hand.

After that, she’d stopped trying, stopped caring, and let the anger that she’d been fighting for so long take over and would have probably ended up sharing a burial plot with her mother if her reality hadn’t been destroyed in one night. She went from hating her life to realizing that she was seconds from losing the only thing that mattered to her.

Her family.

Almost losing Chris…

It changed her, gave her something else to focus on and made it so easy to pretend that she no longer wanted all of those things that she used to dream of when she was a little girl. Then, one day, a vampire followed her into an alleyway and took her by surprise with a simple touch that left her wanting more.

“That depends on you,” Logan said as he held his hand out to her.

After a slight hesitation, Jill reached up and took his hand, allowing him to help her to her feet. She felt the gentle caress of his thumb across the back of her hand, making her breath catch in her throat as she watched his eyes flash silver and just as quickly, he released her hand and gestured for her to join him in the bedroom.

“Meaning?” Jill asked as she put some distance between them.

“You’re not afraid of me, are you, Angel?” Logan asked instead as she made her way to the large bed, the soundsof her metal chain dragging across the carpet behind her accompanying the move.

“No,” she said with a soft sigh as she sat down on the edge of the large bed.

“Why is that?” Logan asked, watching her curiously as he leaned back against the wall.

“Because you haven’t given me a reason to be afraid of you,” Jill said because there were worse things that he could have done to her besides pissing her off and leaving her locked up in a penthouse with a million-dollar view of Central Park.

“Yet,” he said with a look that she couldn’t quite read before he looked away and took in the rest of the large bedroom. “You want to tell me why you’re sleeping in the closet?”

“No,” Jill said before countering with, “You want to tell me what this new deal is?”

“Tell me what you want first,” Logan said as his gaze settled back on her.

“Besides my freedom?” Jill asked, blinking at him.

“Besides that,” Logan murmured.

“I want to know what type of demons you have stationed outside the front door,” Jill said, still wondering how she was going to get three marked shifter children out of here safely, especially since they still refused to talk to her or leave their room.

“Still planning your escape?” Logan asked, considering her for a moment.

“I never stopped,” Jill said, watching the way that his lips twitched as he pushed away from the wall and made his way to the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Central Park.

“Shifters,” he said, making her frown as she shifted on the bed so that she could watch him.

“You have shifters at the door?”

“I couldn’t leave demons guarding the door with three marked shifter children in residence,” Logan said, sounding distracted.

---