Page 96 of Winter's End

I fought back the sob forming in my throat. Silent tears laced with grief and shame dropped to my cheeks as he kissed a trail down my neck.

It would have been a fitting time for a panic attack, but it never came. Overwhelming futility crashed over me instead; I was ashamed I couldn’t get away. Ashamed I had let this entitled monster win.

He pawed at my taped breasts beneath the bodice and wrenched my nipples into painful twists. I desperately bucked my torso, but my body barely budged.

“That’s it, you dirty slut. Just lay down and take it like the easy fuck you are.”

I willed myself to go numb; I could disassociate. This would be over soon, and I would get the therapy I needed, just like last time. Carson could take my body, but he wouldn’t take my soul.

Humiliation spread through my limbs. I wasn’t prepared to fight off a rapist. I had failed by not knowing how to protect myself.

It was probably what I was wearing. Isn’t that what all women are told? Even as I untied my mind from my body, feminist rage heated my insides.

My mind snapped to reason. As if what I was wearing could eliminate my rights as a human being. I was learning to fight off rapists. I had smashed my head into his balls, I?—

A stifled sob threatened to choke me as, despite my attempt to recover, Carson’s body slammed against mine and numbness started to take over my mind.

The booming resonance of a heavy door slamming behind us disrupted my disjointed thoughts. The resounding crack of bone on bone echoed behind me.

My eyes flew open as Carson dropped me to the floor in a muddled heap. I kicked my brain back into gear. Wasting no time, I crawled to the wall a few feet away before spinning around to see my savior.

Logan’s face was mottled with wrathful hate as he held Carson in a choke hold. “I had other plans for you, but I think we’re going to have to take out the trash another way, you fucking neanderthal.”

Within seconds, Carson’s face shifted from pink to red to purple, a kaleidoscope of color, before he stilled, unconscious. Logan released him and he fell unceremoniously to the floor.

Logan immediately stepped in front of me, his angry mask shifting to careful concern. “Can I touch you?”

I nodded mutely. He sat down beside me and gently pulled me into his lap, wrapping his arms around me in a light but firm hold.

“It’s okay, Princess. He won’t hurt you, or anyone else, any more.”

He rocked me and untied my hair ribbon, running his fingers soothingly through my ruined braid. My scalp stung at the roots, and a few chunks of my hair fell out when Logan worked his hands through it.

“That fucker.” He growled and flicked my dead strands onto the floor. He whipped out his phone from his pocket and typed a quick one-handed email; the ‘sent’ sound filled the surrounding space.

He tucked away his phone and pulled me tighter into his chest. He kissed the top of my head reverently before explaining.

“I was going to handle this another way, but I just sent Doug’s file of evidence to Carlisle’s Chief of Police, and a copy to both my legal team and the Baker family directly. There’s enough in there to get him sent to prison for at least ten years, if not life.”

I nodded mutely and snuggled into his embrace. We sat in silence for another few moments, and I allowed Logan’s soothing touch to bring me down to earth. I was traumatized, but we would have to deal with it later. The altercation with Carson had not been in our plan for tonight.

We had to find Travis and contact Kellan. Georgio and his dangerous family had an agenda tonight, though I highly doubted it had anything to do with the wealthy rapists of the Baker family.

When I finally looked up into Logan’s honey-brown eyes, they held their usual determined and conceited glint. But there was a newfound tenderness and care reserved for me and only me.

He brought his hands up to cup my cheeks and peered into the abyss of my damage.

“I’m a broken man, but I won’t let anyone break you. I’ve got baggage, but I won’t weigh you down. I won’t coddle you, but I’ll cherish you. You are my princess, and you’re also my queen.”

His declaration made my heart stutter; of course, the asshole of our group would be the most poetic. Perhaps he was just trying to erase the pain of the minutes before, but it was working. His words meant the world to me.

“I think I love you too,” I whispered with a wan smile. This was not a suitable moment for confessions of feelings, but sometimes life didn’t work like the movies.

He scoffed then, and the arrogance that could only be Logan came back into full view. “Love isn’t close to covering it.” He kissed me quickly but fiercely, as if trying to convey that very sentiment through our lips and tangle of tongues.

Too soon, he pulled back; our gazes fell on Carson’s still form.

“We need to hide him and get you out of here,” he announced resolutely. Pushing me off of him, he stood. I took his outstretched hand, and he pulled me up too.

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