Mask - A Stepbrother Romance (36 page)

Chapter 18

Logan

I was trying hard to concentrate on studying for my upcoming exams, but I couldn’t stop myself from repeatedly glancing at the clock. Sasha was usually home on a Thursday well before I got home, because my classes ran slightly later on those days, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong, seeing as she hadn’t answered any of my texts or calls, and she wasn’t home yet. I knew she was probably just at the library or out with a friend, but there was a cold sensation sitting in the pit of my stomach, and it was telling me that something was wrong.

Very wrong.

Deep down in my core, I knew it.

“Logan?”

I turned to see Martha standing in my doorway, holding a pink top, and I smiled. “Hey, Martha. Do you know where Sasha is?”

“I came to ask you the same thing. I saw your car, so I figured you were already back from whatever you two were doing, but I can’t find her. It’s not important; I just wanted to tell her I couldn’t get this sauce stain out of her blouse, so if you see her, let her know.”

I furrowed my brows. “Sasha and I weren’t doing anything this afternoon. I only just got back from class fifteen minutes ago.”

A puzzled expression marred her delicate features. “But she told me she was meeting you and her friend Robin somewhere. She came home about half an hour ago to borrow her mother’s car so she could do so.”

“Martha…Sasha and I didn’t have any plans with Robin today. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

She shrugged. “Ah, well, maybe she’s off on a date with some boy, and she didn’t want us to know. Although…I thought…” She gave me a funny look, and I wondered if she knew about me and Sasha. I had no way of knowing, because she regained her composure a second later. “Well, at any rate, I’m sure she’s fine. Perhaps I misheard her.”

“Maybe.”
I doubt it, though.
Something was obviously going on.

I watched Martha walk away, and just as I picked up my phone to try and call Sasha again, it began to vibrate.
Oh, thank god,
I thought, but it wasn’t her; it was a number that I didn’t recognize.

“Hello?” I said cautiously. I didn’t trust unknown numbers. If I wasn’t concerned about Sasha, I probably would have just ignored it.

“Logan, it’s Robin. I think something has happened….I’m worried about…I think Bec…”

She was speaking so fast that I could only pick up a few words.

“Wait, slow down,” I said. “What’s wrong?”

I heard her take a deep breath on the other end of the line. “Well, you know how I lost my phone the other night?”

“Yes?”

“I’ve been trying to find it, but I forgot the password to my ‘Find my Phone’ app thingy, and no one has been answering it.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I just remembered the password, and I tracked it to find that it’s at the Miller farm, way out of the city. It’s an old abandoned dairy farm. We all used to have picnics there…including Becca.”

“Right.”

“So I called it again, and someone finally answered, but I think it was by mistake, like the phone was just in their pocket or something. I could hear what sounded like Becca and Travis talking, and one of them said something like ‘Sasha fell for the text, she’ll be here soon’. I think they’re using my phone to lure her out there for some reason.”

I stood up immediately. “Shit. I’m going there now.”

I hung up and threw my phone down, and then I ran to the car without even thinking. I plugged the name of the farm into my GPS, and I thought I heard someone yelling out to me as I screeched down the driveway, but I didn’t even look to see who it was.

I sped along the road, my mind racing at a million miles an hour. What the fuck were that pair doing at an old farm with Sasha? And more importantly, why hadn’t I taken Becca’s ‘watch your back’ threat seriously? I should have made absolutely certain that Sasha was never alone, and if anything happened to her, I’d never forgive myself.

I was certain that I was speeding, but I didn’t care. Even if the cops tried to pull me over, I wouldn’t have stopped. They would just have to arrest me at a later date. Sasha needed me, and that was all I cared about.

When I reached Ashby Road twenty minutes later, I skidded to a stop on the side of the road and leaped out of the car. My heart was practically in my throat, pounding so heavily that I felt sick, but I didn’t let that stop me.

I spotted two people standing by the entrance to the farm by the main gate, screaming and yelling at each other. It was Becca, along with a guy who I assumed must be Travis. He was a tall, skinny guy with dirty blond hair and brown eyes.

“…we have to fucking go,
right now
!” he was shouting. “Come on, Becca! We have to forget about her, it’s too late!”

I wanted to shout at them and ask where the fuck Sasha was, but I needed to be closer. I needed them to not see me until the very last second, so I waited till I was within a few feet of them, and when they finally stopped yelling for long enough to hear the crunching of leaves under my feet as I approached, they whirled around.

Becca, quick on her feet—and obviously used to escaping dodgy situations—took one brief look at me and then took off running. I didn’t even bother to watch her race away. I was angry as fuck at her for whatever the hell she was up to, but she was insignificant compared to Travis. He really deserved to have the shit beaten out of him.

After a beat, he went to move as well, but he was too slow, and I roughly grabbed him by the collar.

“Where. Is. She?” I asked him.

“I…we…it was just a joke, man. We were just trying to scare her to get her back for being such a fucking bitch, and then…then…”

He was sniveling now; cowering under my touch. What a fucking pussy. Clearly he thought he was a big man for threatening girls, but the minute someone bigger than him confronted him, he practically started to shit himself. 

“I asked you a fucking question,” I hissed, putting my face closer to his. He whimpered, and tears started to form in the corner of his eyes.

“The barn,” he finally choked out. He couldn’t meet my gaze.

I let him go, and just as he looked up to meet my eyes to confirm that he was free, I swung my fist at his jaw in a bone-crunching punch. The impact hurt my knuckles, but I didn’t give a shit. I heard him cry out in agony and slump to the ground, but I didn’t see it, because I was already on my way to the barn. I was done with him now, and he could rot in hell as far as I was concerned.

As I sprinted over the hill in front of me, an odd warmth began to fill the air. Something felt alien and familiar about it all at once, and my heart began to race again. Fear coursed through my veins, warning me to back off, and it was almost as if my body knew what was happening before my brain did.

Then I saw it.

Yellow, red and orange flames lighting up the horizon.

Fire.
My worst enemy and biggest fear.

Not again…

An image of my mother filled my mind—one that was much clearer than I’d seen in years. It stopped me dead in my tracks, and for a moment I wasn’t sure if I could ever move again. Then Sasha’s face replaced my mother’s and I felt my legs moving again.

“Sasha?” I shouted, shoving the barn door down despite the searing heat that stung every inch of my skin. Smoke crept down into my chest and lungs, making it difficult to breathe, but I pushed forward.

I couldn’t let her die. I couldn’t lose her.

Luckily the barn wasn’t very big, so I spotted her through the billowing smoke only seconds later. She was standing upright, tied to a gate, but her shoulders and head were slumped down. I gulped down the terrified thought that she might already be dead, because I couldn’t allow weakness to consume me now. I needed to be a superhero for her.

Several burning wooden beams had fallen down around her, but thankfully nothing had hit her. She’d been lucky so far, and I needed to ensure that luck continued. I raced over towards her and quickly tried to untie her, but the knots made it impossible to tear the rope away. Jesus, what the hell had Travis and Becca been thinking? Was this seriously their idea of a fucking joke? This was fucking insane. If I hadn’t shown up, she would’ve died.

I couldn’t even think about that right now, though. She was still alive, and she was going to stay that way no matter what it took.

My throat and chest were already racked with coughing from the smoke inhalation—and I knew where that could lead—so instead of continuing to try and free her from her bonds, I kicked the gate until the wood splintered, and once the structure was weakened, I wrenched it off the pen in several hard movements. I dragged her outside, still attached to the small wooden beams of the broken gate, and I barely even felt the scratches and splinters in my hands and arms—I just wanted to free her from this hell, and nothing else mattered.

“Don’t worry, Sasha,” I said as I finally managed to gasp some of the cool, fresh air outside. “I’m here now. You’re safe.”

She didn’t reply; her body remained limp and her eyes were still closed, and an icy shard of fear stabbed through my guts.
Please wake up, please wake up,
I willed her. As I leaned close to her, I could hear that she was still breathing, and she had no sign of external injuries. Thank fuck for that.

Adrenaline coursed through me as I tugged at the rope and duct tape, giving me what seemed like superhuman strength, and I finally managed to loosen and free her arms and legs, which meant I could lay her down on the ground to get a better look at her. She was still scarily limp. I remembered some stuff from a first aid course I’d had to take in high school, so I rolled her into the recovery position and patted down her pockets until I found her phone in the back of her jeans. I didn’t have my phone on me, because in my haste to leave, I’d forgotten it, and I quickly dialed 911 on hers, praying all the while that she’d wake up.

She still didn’t stir.

Just as I got someone on the line and told them what had happened and where to send the police and ambulance, Sasha began to cough and splutter. Relief flooded through me, and I put the phone down and placed my hands under her head.

“Sasha? Oh, thank god…thank god. Are you okay?”

I watched her force herself upright onto her elbows to cough some more. She looked dazed and confused, but she was well and truly alive—and that was all I needed in this moment.

“What happened?” she panted, barely able to talk through all the coughing.

“We’ll talk about it later,” I said. “Right now we just need to focus on getting you to a hospital. I’ve called 911, and they’re on their way, but if they’re not here in five minutes, I’m carrying you to my car and driving you to the hospital myself.”

She looked around to see the burning barn, and she gasped. I cringed at the look of horror in her eyes—fuck, she wasn’t ready to see this just yet. She’d only just woken up.

“Oh god…I remember now. I was in there after Becca and Travis left me. You got me out. You saved me.”

“Of course I did.”

“But after what happened with your Mom…you said you were scared of fire.”

“I was way more scared of losing you,” I replied. “The fire was nothing compared to that.”

She gave me a weak smile and squeezed my hand. “Thank you,” she whispered. “I don’t even know what else to say.”

She might not have known what to say in this moment, but I did.

“Sasha, I love you,” I said, gripping her hands. “I kept thinking I had to wait for the perfect moment to tell you, but there’s no such thing as a perfect moment. I should’ve just told you ages ago…I love you. I fucking
love
you.”

“Logan, I—”

Suddenly sirens burst into the background, distracting us from our intense conversation, and I jumped up in surprise. “They’re here already?”

But Sasha wasn’t listening to me; she was looking at her phone, which I’d dropped on the ground next to her. “It was Robin,” she said. “She’s been messaging me from her aunt’s phone. She called 911.”

“She called me too. She’s the reason I knew where to find you,” I said. I needed her to know what a massive part her best friend had played in all of this. After all the betrayal she’d suffered, she needed to know just how many people cared about her.

“Wow, thank god for Robin,” she said. “Oh, jeez…it hurts to breathe.”

“I know. But it’ll be okay. I won’t let anything happen to you ever again.”

“It wasn’t your fault. Becca and Travis are totally fucked up. No one could’ve seen this coming, not in a million years.”

“I still feel partly responsible.”

She squeezed my hand. “I know, but you aren’t. And Logan…I love you too.”

With that, she pressed her lips to mine. I knew the cops and EMTs were on their way over to us, but I didn’t care if they saw, and I kissed her back. Her lips and tongue tasted smoky, but it was still the sweetest kiss I’d ever had.

A feminine voice called out to us a moment later. “Sasha!”

Oh, shit. I knew that voice all too well by now.

We broke apart as if we’d been hosed down with ice cold water, and I looked up. In front of us were two paramedics holding a gurney, ready to take Sasha to the hospital, and behind them were two very familiar—and very confused—faces.