If Forever Comes (Take This Regret #2)(47)
Author: A.L. Jackson

His entire face twisted in contention. “You think she meant less to me than to you? You think my heart isn’t broken over this?”

“You wouldn’t even touch her.” It dripped from my mouth as a sneer.

Anger bled free.

Overbearing.

Brutal.

Destructive.

A sob tore up my throat.

Logan jerked back, holding my face at a distance as if to hold back the chaos raging though me, panic firing in his green eyes. “Oh my God, Liz, I’m so sorry…I didn’t mean…”

We both jumped when we heard the crash at the front door. Our attention whipped around just as Christian barreled in. He seemed to get knocked to a standstill when he saw Logan and me twisted up together.

Violence trembled from his seething bones, his face pinched in pain as he cast his devastation on me.

Logan jumped to his feet, his body a barricade as he stepped in front of me. His voice dropped in slow disbelief. “Are you out of your f**king mind?”

Protective aggression curled through his muscles as he took a stance in front of me. Shielding me.

That was impossible. There was no defense. Nothing that could defend me from the force of Christian.

I stared up at the man, the one who inhabited every significant memory of my life, the pain and the joy, the love and the ecstasy, the misery and the torment.

And anger.

It was glaring. Overwhelming.

I was so angry.

Blue eyes blazed at me with disgust, destroyed, spearing me to the couch.

Pain sliced through me, the sharpest knife driven into the pit of my stomach.

And I hurt.

How was it possible to hate a man I loved so much?

Chapter 19

Present Day, Early October

Elizabeth and I had been through so much.

Indescribable bliss and devastating sorrow.

Our love ran so deep, and yet, it seemed our wounds ran deeper.

Some of those wounds had seemed unbearable, inflictions impossible to recover from.

No doubt one came with the regrets of the greatest mistake I’d ever made, the day Elizabeth had been forced to choose between me and Lizzie before she was even born, the day I’d sent her away to live life on her own, scared and alone.

Another had been the day Lillie was taken from us. Our hearts had ruptured when she was ripped from our lives.

I once believed the other had been the day I’d walked out of Elizabeth’s house little more than three months ago. I couldn’t imagine hurting any worse than that moment, when I’d snapped the door shut to block out the overwhelming sorrow of the woman I loved, a wall put up between us because neither of us knew how to deal with the excruciating pain.

But that moment didn’t come close to the devastation that hit me now.

Elizabeth balanced just on the edge of his couch, one leg canted off to the side as if she were getting ready to slip onto the ass**le’s lap. Those fingers I knew so well were tangled in his shirt while he held her perfect face between his filthy hands.

Malice curled my hands into fists as I took in the brutality happening ten feet away from me.

He was kissing her.

He was f**king kissing her and touching her.

And the bastard had the nerve to do it while she still wore my ring.

Her head spun in my direction, breaking their connection. Shock widened her brown eyes as she gaped at me from across the short span of the room. Still, it felt like I’d never been further from her than I was now. The distance so great. An impenetrable expanse.

Logan jumped to his feet, and the ass**le moved to stand in front of her. Misplaced aggression coiled his muscles. As if I were in the wrong. As if he thought it his job to keep her from me. That was his intention. I knew it. Possessiveness radiated from his posture, as if he had some kind of claim on her.

But he had none.

She was mine, and she was always going to be.

Even through the barrier Logan tried to forge between us, her wary gaze held mine. A storm raged in her expression, tightened in shock, taut in anger, flashed with distinct relief and adoration. I didn’t know if Elizabeth recognized she still held it for me.

The ass**le’s voice rang somewhere in my mind. “Are you out of your f**king mind?”

My attention snapped up to meet his sneer.

Yes, I was most definitely out of my f**king mind.

How could she do this to me?

I said it aloud, the trauma flowing free. “How could you do this, Elizabeth?” It was an accusation, a rush of emotion squeezed from within. I looked at her with disbelieving eyes, my head slowly shaking as the pain tore through me. “How could you?”

Tears slipped down her face, her lips quivering.

And I knew she had been crying, even before I broke through the door. Like maybe she felt it, too, the chaos that had spun me into a complete f**king frenzy as I pounded the sidewalk outside the bastard’s house for the last fifteen minutes. When I couldn’t take it any longer, I’d tried to peer through the drapes of his window, the two silhouettes obscured, though I’d seen them leaning, pressing, moving.

There was no more standing aside.

I was taking her back.

Logan inched a little farther in front of her. He cocked his head to the side as he narrowed his eyes. “Get the f**k out of my house.”

My laughter was ragged, verging on hysterical.

Because there was no sanity in this situation.

“I’m not going anywhere without her.” I spit the words at him.

Elizabeth whimpered, grasping at the collar of her shirt as she scrambled back on his couch, climbing to her feet on unsteady legs.

I could see the line of her, her face blocked from view, her body shaking as she fumbled a few steps back. And it almost felt like relief when she came around and stood in the small open area behind the couch. Her face was downturned, and she wavered in indecision.

I made it for her.

“Go get in my car, Elizabeth.” The command slid out low.

A cry erupted from her, as if she were in physical pain. I knew she was.

Logan rushed around the other side of the couch, as if to shield her, as if he knew anything about the woman crumbling in the middle of his room. “She isn’t going anywhere with you.” He extended his arm back to keep her at bay. “Baby, stay back,” came as a quiet assault from his mouth, as if he were sharing some kind of private conversation with her, telling her without words that she didn’t have to be afraid of me.

Baby.

He called her baby.

Hostility rolled from me in waves as a sweep of possessiveness broke, taking over every cell in my body.

When he took a single step toward me, I charged him. My shoulder collided with his chest.