“I came here before,” he said.
“Before?”
“When I was little.” He glanced to me, his eyes warming. “My mom was supposed to bring me. We didn’t do a whole lot together when I was growing up. I don’t really know why. I think it was because other stuff was going on already.” The lines around his mouth tightened. “My dad cheated on her a ton, and she started drinking because of it. Things got bad in the house, but she promised me one morning that we’d come here. I remember it so clearly because I heard this amusement park had elephants, and I really wanted to see one up close.” He grinned to himself. “I wanted to see how big their penises were.”
I wasn’t even surprised. “How old were you?”
He shrugged, still grinning. “I was young. I was in sixth grade, and Mason was in seventh.”
“What happened?”
“My dad brought a woman home. My mom found her underwear that afternoon. I think my dad had already snuck her out, but the damage was done. The whore left her underwear behind. They did that sometimes. They liked leaving things behind. They hoped my mom would find them, and she usually did.”
“Is that what ended things?”
“Not that day, no. They divorced later, probably after the fortieth mistress. No.” Logan’s grin faded away. “That day my mom got drunk at the kitchen table, then decided going to a spa was the best idea in the world. I came home from little league practice, saw the underwear, saw the wine bottles, and knew it was a wash.”
“But you still came?”
“Mason took me. He and Nate.” His voice sounded stronger. “I had fun that day.”
Despite his mother.
I heard the unspoken meaning and I didn’t have words, so I covered his hand with mine. He turned his hand, lacing our fingers together. When he looked at me, I could see the whites of his eyes, and I saw his mouth lift in the slightest of smiles. His thumb rubbed over my knuckles.
“My mom never remembered that day. Well, that’s not true. She remembers the mistress, and she remembers what color the underwear was, but not that she was supposed to take me to the park.” He cursed under his breath, leaning forward so his arms were folded on the bar. My hand was still in his, tucked firmly between his arms. It drew me closer to him. He turned to look at me, and our faces were so near. “She had no clue we went without her.”
My heart had lodged in my throat. “I’m sorry.”
He grinned, but it didn’t reach to his eyes. “You shared. I wanted to share something, too.”
The more I stared into his eyes, so close to mine, the more I could see the deeper pain hidden there. I was getting a glimpse few others had been granted. My heart picked up its pace, and the longer I stared into his eyes, the faster it beat. The world had melted away.
I was pulled even closer to him.
This was Logan. He drew people to him, and I was no different. My heart was perpetually pounding in my chest, trying to get to him. With another slight movement, my lips rested against his. Our eyes held, staring into each other. I wanted him to kiss me. I swallowed, and when his eyes closed, his lips pressed more firmly into mine.
Then we heard a gunshot below.
CAR BOMBS.
#HEREWEGOAGAIN
LOGAN
For a moment we were frozen, staring at each other, not sure what we heard. Taylor seemed paralyzed, and after that, I didn’t think.
I launched out of the car, told her to stay put, and headed to the ground as fast as I could go. She needed to be safe. That was my first thought, but I needed to know what was happening. If people were coming in here shooting, Taylor was going to be the farthest place possible. I ducked, weaved, and jumped from one section of the walkway down to another. When I got close enough, I leaped over the fence around the roller coaster, and once my feet touched ground, I ran toward where I thought the shot came from.
I kept low, running for my Escalade, and hugged as close to the buildings as I could. When I heard the yelling on the other side of the gate, I relaxed a little. Only a little.
“I told you to get the fucking money!”
“I tried, Rankin. Okay?”
“Not okay!”
There were more shouts, but they were muffled, and I slowed down so they couldn’t hear my approach. I went to the gate. Thank shit I’d decided to park on the inside, not out on the street like normal. I moved so I could see through a tiny hole in the wall. I couldn’t make out their faces, but there was a group of them. They surrounded one guy in the middle.
He stuffed his hands into his pockets and said, “I’ll get the money, okay?”
The other voice replied, “Fuck that, Delray. You’ve been missing payments for three months. It won’t fly anymore.”
“Delray?”
No—I glanced behind me and Taylor was there, her eyes wide, her mouth open. As I watched, the blood drained from her face. She’d braked suddenly a few feet from me, and I went to her and grabbed her. Pulling her to my chest, I held her close and froze in place. Not one move. Not one word. When she pulled back to speak, I shook my head. My finger went to my mouth, and I pointed at the gate. They were ten feet from us. Ten fucking feet. They couldn’t know we were here.
“Logan?” she said, so quietly that I almost didn’t hear her.
I looked down and shook my head. It was all I could do; my mind was spinning. She heard her buddy out there. I didn’t know Delray well, but I knew enough to know he was screwed. He did illegal shit for Sebastian last year, and word from Blaze was that he’d gotten into even worse shit this year.