Page 63 of The Lost and the Found

“It does to me. Tell me,” I said quietly.

“My dad.”

My brow pulled together in a frown. “Your dad did this?”

He nodded. “Just the cigarette burns. The rest you can thank him for, too, but they weren’t by his hand.”

He swallowed, and I knew whatever he was going to say wasn’t going to be easy for him. I moved closer and replaced the hand on his jaw with my lips. I felt him relax into my body, and I loved that I could clearly see how much I affected him.

“My dad and his friends, they realized early on that they could make a lot of money betting on which of their sons would win in a fight.”

My jaw dropped from shock, so sure he couldn’t be saying what I thought he was saying. There was no way for me to wrap my head around that. “You mean…”

He nodded. “Weapons were allowed, of course. The bloodier the fight, the more in a frenzy those old bastards got. The only rule was that we weren’t allowed to kill. I think they were more concerned about hiding bodies than they were for the welfare of the kids.”

“I'm sorry,” I said, my lips trembling. Then anger took root, and I never wanted to hurt anyone as much as I wanted to hurt Logan’s parents then. “Where are your parents now?”

He shrugged. “The last I heard, my mom died in a car accident when I was nineteen and my dad was drinking himself into a stupor. He might still be alive, I don’t know, and I don’t care. As long as he leaves Veena and me alone, I don’t care how he turns out.”

I nodded, moving closer to him. Our naked chests touched, and I loved how warm he was. How hard. “I’m glad you’re safe now,” I whispered.

He stroked my hair, and I laid my cheek on his chest.

“Like I said, it’s all in the past. I don’t want you to think any more about it, understand? In fact, I don’t want you thinking about anything unless it brings a smile to your face.”

I smiled against his chest then, and I knew he could feel it.

“You think you can protect me from everything bad in this world? Even from bad thoughts?”

“Yes,” he answered gruffly. No hesitation.

Silly boy.

It was impossible, what he was asking. He should know, I’d made friends with life’s tragedies a long time ago. I might have even romanticized the very notion.

I didn’t know how to be happy, how to be carefree.

Perhaps Logan could show me how. Or perhaps he could show me what I had known all along—that he was a heartbreak waiting to happen.

It was only a matter of time.

* * *

I walkedinto the kitchen to the sight of Logan cooking. He turned around when he heard me, his eyes making a slow perusal up and down my body. “I like your shirt,” he said.

I looked down at myself, at the large shirt I wore, which was his, to the boxer shorts, also his.

I couldn’t find my panties, so I wasn’t wearing anything underneath. With the way his eyes gleamed as he took me in, I had a nagging suspicion that Logan might have something to do with their disappearance.

“Thanks,” I said, walking over to the barstool by the island, my face expressionless, as if I wasn’t totally affected by his heated gaze. As if I didn’t spend the past fifteen minutes in the bathroom, thinking of him and all that he had done to me last night.

His grin widened as he pulled out ceramic plates from the cupboard and filled them up with vegetable omelet. They looked good. They smelled amazing, too.

“Thank you,” I said, digging in. Mine was delicious. I closed my eyes, moaning a little before I took another huge bite. My breakfasts at home consisted of either premade meals or cereal. I had forgotten how good it was to eat something that had just been cooked in the morning.

When I opened my eyes, I found Logan in the same spot he was before, a strange look on his face.

“What?” I grabbed the napkin and wiped my mouth. “Do I have spinach in my teeth or something?”

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