Page 65 of Rebellion of a Kingdom

Chapter 39

LOGAN

Ihave never liked it when we did slumber night. All it does is remind me how lucky I am. I have an amazing family, I know that. I could have landed in a much worse place than I did, but when we do stuff like this. All it does is remind me that I only got this lucky because both my parents died.

Everyone is sleeping. Well, everyone that is here, but I am wide awake. I can’t relax. Not that I have ever been a good sleeper. It’s something I’ve always struggled with. Lily helped when we were younger. We used to sneak into each other’s rooms all the time, but that stopped as we got older. She’s the same, doesn’t always sleep great and I worry about her now. She never talks to me, not like she used to. She was doing better at college, seemed happier, but then everything happened, and now here we are.

It was nice to watch her get along with Elle and Taylor tonight. Watching the three of them bond over their love of Disney karaoke and then The Vampire Diaries. They’re all team Stefan apparently, which is fucking stupid. Everyone knows it should be team Klaus.

I can feel the anxiety practically crawling through my body, I need to do something, anything. I slip out of the mattress I’m on and eye everyone else. My mom and dad are sound asleep on one side of me and Cassie, Elle, Taylor and Lils are on the other side. Marcus is on another mattress next to them, like he can’t bear to be away from Elle. Zack is on another, a tight grimace on his face even while he sleeps, never escaping the pain from what that piece of shit Greg did to him.

I don’t know what’s worse, the fact he almost killed him, or the fact Zack is a fucking Donovan himself. My brother, my first friend, tied to the enemy in a way I never could have imagined. I shake the thoughts from my head and quietly tiptoe from the room. I decide to head to the gym, hopefully try and burn off some of this energy. It always helped when I still lived at home. I quickly change into sweats and a tank, and then make my way there, only to find someone has beat me here.

"Fucking hell, Conrad, you're the last person I thought I'd find in here."

"I can't sleep." Jace grumbles, as he pushes himself up on a leg press.

"Me neither." I respond pointlessly, because clearly being in the gym at 3am shows I can’t sleep. I watch his form, taking in the tension in his shoulders and the tight set of his jaw.He’s brutally stunning and it’s easy to see why Taylor has been drooling over him all night.

"Wouldn't have anything to do with that little temptation in the silk pj's would it?" I tease, attempting to break the seriousness, but all it does is rile him up more.

"Watch it." He snaps, and I smile, knowing I’ve hit the nail on the head.

"Hey man, no threat.” I hold my hands up in mock defense, moving to sit down on the floor so I can lean against the mirror. “I'm just saying, if I was trying to hit that I wouldn't be able to sleep either."

"I'm not trying to hit that." He grits out.

"No?" I question, because I watched them flirt furiously with each other all evening.

He huffs, slamming the leg press back into its resting position and climbing off. He wipes the sweat from his brow before coming and flopping down beside me.

"I can't hit that." He adds quietly.

I frown, "problems downstairs?"

He scoffs, "No, you fucking dick!" He swipes both hands over his face in distress. "I don't want her anywhere near any of this, near me. It's not safe to be around us." I don’t have to hear the silent ‘me’, he added onto that in his head.

I soften at his confession because I know first-hand what it’s like to be in this world. I remember the night I woke up to my mother’s cries and discovered a distressed and bloodied girl in my father’s office. Our life was so disgustingly perfect. Elle changed that, changed all of us. I was blinded by my pristine fucking everything. Forcing it all to be flawless, as I tried to forget about the destruction my parents’ death left behind. It would have been easier to keep my rose-tinted glasses in place, but at what cost? Elle isn’t the only girl out there who was hurt. Thousands of people are abused, trafficked, and murdered every single day. It would be wrong to ignore that.

I want to help people. It’s why I’m following in my dad's footsteps and studying to go to medical school. I want to become someone worthy of helping those people when they need it most. But I still want to live my life. The situation we are in right now is dangerous, but it won’t be like this forever, right? It can’t be. We can’t put our life on hold just in case something bad might happen.

"Shouldn't it be up to her to make that decision?" I ask, because I see the way she looks at him, if he doesn’t see how far gone, she already is for him, then he’s dumber than he looks.

"Sometimes we have to make decisions that no one likes but are for the greater good." He responds, and I look at him and take in the sadness that coats his face. Elle told me what happened to his sister and I can’t imagine what that must have been like. The rage I felt that night, when Zack told me who Elle was and what she had endured, it was like nothing else I have ever experienced. She was a stranger, yet also family. All I wanted to do was protect her, protect Lily. Jace didn’t even get that chance, but with Taylor he does.

Understanding dawns on me. "And this is one of those times." It’s not a question, but he answers me anyway.

"Yes.” He breathes out solemnly, before plastering the fake smile that I know all too well on his face. It’s the same one I have perfected for myself. “Besides, she probably just wants a night with the playboy Rebel."

I can sense his desperation for lighter topics, so I offer him a wink. "Don't we all." I nudge his shoulder again suggestively, and he smiles more genuinely this time.

He ignores my attempts at flirting and adds. "Besides, girls like Taylor are unattainable to someone like me." I want to call bullshit, tell him that isn’t true, but the words die on my tongue as my own realm of torment enters the gym, pausing when he spots us both.

"Trust me I know all about the unattainable." I mutter in response to Jace, as Asher Donovan crosses the threshold.

“Mind if I work out?” He asks, ever the perfect, polite, fucking, annoying gentleman. I don’t know why he bothers with that perfect, well-bred facade when we all know how many skeletons are in his closet.

“Didn’t think the deadly, Donovan, had to ask permission for anything.” I tease, and I hear Jace muffle a laugh beside me as I taunt Asher.

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