Page 92 of Whenever You Call

“That I’m some crazed fucking stalker, still hung up on Newman’s death. Obsessed with it, even.”

“And that’s not what’s happening here?”

“I couldn’t give a flyingfuckabout Cole Newman.”

Jerry’s brows rose, his face full of surprise.

“I mean it, Jerry. Was I fucked up when it happened? Yes. Was I still fucked up over it the first time I bumped into Hannah? Yeah, and maybe even some time after that, too. But things changed…”

“What things?”

“Lots of things!”

“Like?”

“Like finding out Cole Newman was a manipulative asshole who didn’t deserve the wife and daughter he had, and now I feel no sorrow over what happened to him. I feel no guilt over not being able to save him, either. The only thing I feel bad about is that a man like him was ever given the gift of that woman and that little girl because they deserved the world, and instead, they got him and all the shit he brought along with it. And the worst part is that they’ll never escape him now, or the messed-up crap he continues to put them through.”

Not a word of what I’d said had been a lie, and the rage I felt toward him made my veins burn with a need to go to the afterlife so I could find him and kick his all-American boy ass myself.

I’d fight for Hannah… even in death.

I’d allowed his fame and his following to swallow me up whole and make me feel responsible when I’d done everything I possibly could to save that man’s life. The truth was, he hadn’t wanted me to bring him back. Hannah had pretty much said so herself.

You can’t save those who don’t want saving.

She should know. All she’d ever tried to do was keep her family together, even at the expense of her own happiness.

Jerry blew out a breath. “That doesn’t sound like the Logan I know.”

“Because it isn’t.” I jabbed my own chest. “This is me finally opening my eyes and seeing that I can’t take on the responsibility of other people’s decisions. It kills me. It’s fucking killing me. There’s too much weight on my shoulders with all this guilt, and it guts me to know I can’t save the world, but that’s the truth. And the truth is that, from now on, I’m going to save those who need me the most.”

People like Hannah.

Since she’d walked away with such disappointment in her eyes, I’d been forced to think about everything that led up to that moment. Every decision I’d made. Every hardship I’d suffered. Every death I’d taken on as my own.

Jerry’s eyes narrowed. “This has to do with the widow, doesn’t it?”

“She’s not just Cole’s widow. She’s more than that.” I groaned. “So much fucking more.”

“Oh shit…”

“What?”

“You’re sounding like you’re in love there, LT.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“I mean it. This isn’t just about you wrapping your head around Cole’s death. This is about her. It’s all about her. It makes sense now. The way you left the bar. The way you’ve been on your phone lately. Your mind not on the job—”

“My mind is on the job every time I go out there, so don’t you dare put that shit on me, Jerry.”

“You know what I mean.”

“The fuck I do.”

“Logan…”

“What?”

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