Page 32 of When He Plays

They’d both been tossed into the system once upon a time. Fate had put them in the same foster house. But his grandmother had worked until she’d gotten custody of him. She’d fought hard for him. So hard.

When his parents had died, his grandmother had not even realized what had happened. She’d been living far away, and his dad had cut communication. But when the truth had finally reached her, his grandmother had rushed back to Vegas. Back to Logan.

He’d gone to live with her, but that had meant leaving Simone behind.

Logan’s feet rushed harder over the broken concrete in Vegas.

I didn’t leave Simone for long. Because she was the sister of his heart. He’d convinced his grandmother that they had to take Simone in, too. Only…

Hell, his grandmother had barely been scraping by at the time. All of Logan’s father’s money had vanished after his murder. My mom and my dad. Murdered. Ripped away from me.

But he and his grandmother had gotten Simone. Eventually. They’d made a family. A bit of an unorthodox one, but, still family. His grandmother had baked cookies and given them birthday parties and…

He and Simone had raised plenty of hell.

They both had a knack for dealing with darkness. But now Simone was paired up with and in love with a CIA operative of her own. A real dangerous bastard named Ryan Quinn. She was off to live her version of a happily-ever-after, and in return…

Logan raced faster through the darkness.

I’m still chasing demons.

Two guards were behind him. Logan could hear the distant thud of their steps. The heavy night stretched over the city, but this was Vegas, so, of course, people were still out. Lurking in corners. Partying near bars. Cars whizzed by on the main strip. He stayed off that strip, preferring the quiet of the side streets.

The adrenaline in his blood still boiled. Rage seethed just below his surface.

Eventually, he’d have to kill Ares. He understood that fact. He’d planned for that fact. But his timeline might have just been sped up by the actions of that night.

He rounded the corner as he headed back for his hotel. Sweat coated his skin because he’d gone hard. Some nights, he ran because the memories were too strong. Some nights, he ran to quiet the rage inside of him.

This night, though, there was no quieting it.

Charlotte. Ares wanted Charlotte.

How was he this enraged over Ares’s desire for her?

He bounded forward. Took an empty side street that would take him to the rear of his hotel. His feet ate up the distance. Closer, closer he came to his hotel.

Gunfire blasted. A lone, hard crack of sound, and he actually saw a chunk of nearby brick fly off the wall. Light from a streetlamp hit that brick, illuminating it completely, and he saw a section hurtle off at impact. A section that had been way too close to his head.

Some bastard is shooting at me. The realization didn’t frighten him. It just amped up his rage.

In the next beat of time, a body flew against his. Logan felt someone launch at him from behind, and he whirled even as he was hit by⁠—

Charlotte?

Yes, dammit, Charlotte.

She’d thrown her body against his.

“Get down!” she yelled.

They slammed into the pavement.

Another bullet blasted.

When he and Charlotte dropped, Logan made sure to hit the pavement first so that he’d take the impact of the collision, but then he rolled, instantly covering her with his body.

“What are you doing?” Charlotte’s outraged shriek. “I’m protecting you, not the other way around!”