Page 76 of Fated Despite the Moon

Caleb grabbed his shoulder. Blood seeped through his fingers. "I'll heal."

Derek tried to say something, and Logan banged his face into the table again.

"I don't think we need to hear from you again. You sign. You take the money now, ten grand, and disappear. If you don't agree, I'm gonna break your other arm and offer you five. And if you still don't agree, then I'm going to take off my suit coat, and you really are not going to want me to do that, because if I take off my two thousand dollar suit jacket so I don’t stain it with your worthless water-thin blood, then I'm going to kill you. Then I’ll take the money home, hand it back to my father, and forget you ever existed."

"You can't kill me. People will come looking for me," Derek mumbled.

"No, Caleb can't kill you because he promised Makayla. I, on the other hand, can and I will kill you. And we both know, there isn't a soul out there who will miss you for more than ten seconds." Logan grabbed the pen and shoved it in Derek's hand. "Sign it."

Derek took the pen shakily and scrawled his name on the first page. Logan turned the pages one by one indicating where he needed to sign.

When he finished signing, Logan tossed him on the floor, put the pen back in his pocket, and then walked to the leather bag, removing five grand and throwing the rest at Derek.

"You have until dawn to be out of here. And if you ever try to contact Makayla or Caleb again, you will have all of Wolf River after you. And I guarantee our father won't be as lenient as I have been."

Logan grabbed the paperwork and handed it to Caleb. "Let's get you back to your family."

* * *

Makayla pacedthe cabin’s front room, rubbing her belly and staring at the phone. She wanted to call Jeremiah yet again and ask if Caleb had shown up, but she'd called three times already.

Screw it. She stormed over to the phone just as headlights flashed in the front window. She ran to the door and threw it open, racing down the stairs as Logan stopped Caleb's truck and Caleb got out the passenger side.

Makayla ran to him, throwing her arms around his neck. He gave her a one-armed hug. She kissed his cheek as tears streamed down her face.

"I thought you were dead,” she cried. “I thought you were dead. I didn't want to go on."

"It's okay. I’m okay."

She backed up and smacked his arm. "Don't ever leave me here like that again."

"Yes, ma’am."

"I mean it. I can't—" The scent of blood tickled her nose. She looked him over and noticed him holding his left arm at an odd angle. "You're bleeding? What happened?"

"He's fine," said Logan. "He needs to have his shoulder cleaned, but he'll be healed in a couple of days."

Makayla pulled Caleb into the cabin and sat him on the couch. A tear marred his flannel shirt.

"Dammit. I just bought you this shirt. I really liked it on you."

Caleb chuckled. "You can get another one."

She stripped the shirt off him and looked at his shoulder. "Shot? You were shot? I'm gonna freaking kill him with my bare hands!"

Caleb pulled her to him. "Calm down. It's okay. I'm okay. It went right through. It will heal. And best of all, he's gone."

Her breath caught. "Dead?"

"No," said Logan. "But he knows he will be if he ever contacts you again."

Caleb handed her a bundle of papers. "You're free."

She looked down at them, and a couple drops of blood mixed with the signatures on every page of the papers.

"It's binding," said Logan. "He can't ever take the baby."

She looked up at Logan with fresh tears flooding her eyes. "Thank you." She looked to Caleb. "Thank you both."

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