Chapter 355 Broken Noses & Broken Hearts
Logan
It was supposed to be simple-a night out at the racetrack, full of life, energy, and maybe, just maybe, the softening of Ella’s guarded heart toward me.
The air was warm, filled with the scent of gasoline and grilled meats, as I wandered through the maze of food vendors. I was in a good mood, an incredibly rare feeling for me. Ella seemed to be enjoying herself, and that made me think tonight might just be different.
I took my time selecting our food, eyeing stalls that sold fries drenched in cheese, corn dogs with a crisp exterior, and for a touch of sweetness, funnel cakes powdered with sugar.
“Logan! Is that you, buddy?” a voice broke through my thoughts. I turned to see Mike, the vendor I had known here for years. He ran one of the more popular food stalls, known for its top-tier corn dogs and fries.
“Hey, Mike,” I greeted, a half-smile forming on my lips.
“Wow, you’re in the viewing area tonight? Skipping the usual gig, huh?” he winked, carefully avoiding specifics, a man accustomed to the nature of delicate topics.
“Yeah, just felt like doing something different,” I replied. “And I’ve got company.”
“Ah, the lovely lady I saw with you. She’s cute. Got a new girlfriend or something?” Mike asked, tossing a corn dog into the fryer.
“No… Just a friend,” I said, the words coming out more defensively than I intended. “And Mike, don’t mention anything about my usual activities here, okay? I don’t want her to know.”
Mike winked again, a knowing look in his eyes. “Your secret’s safe with me. In fact, how about a little discount for the mystery man?”
“Appreciate it, man,” I said, gratefully accepting the tray loaded with greasy food that was sure to make Ella’s mouth water.
As I made my way back through the crowd, my wolf stirred, a low growl vibrating in the recesses of my mind.
“You know, she’s going to be upset when she finds out the truth about what you really do here,” he cautioned.
“What’s the point?” I mentally retorted. “It’s not like she’ll ever let herself get too close to me anyway.”
“You’re a fool if you believe that for a second, Logan,” he hissed. “She’s smitten with you, whether she’s willing to admit it or not. Get closer with her. Be honest. That alone would make her more open to the idea of the two of you.”
My wolf’s words lingered as I thought back to how Ella had looked earlier in the bleachers.
She was radiant in the simplest of ways-her white-blonde was hair pulled up into a messy bun rather than a tight ponytail, her mascara slightly smudged from rubbing her eyes. She wore casual jeans and a T-shirt, so different from her usual lawyer attire, and I was hopelessly drawn to her.
For a moment, too, I envisioned us at that restaurant during my brother’s wedding shower. In my old playroom, we had almost gotten closer than ever before. The intimacy of that moment would be forever etched in my memory.
But then the painful truth of reality broke through my fantasizing. Ella was convicted about her life, and she would never go for a guy wrapped up in my kind of business.
There was too much of a risk involved. Try as I might to extricate myself from the mafia, there was always the looming possibility that its claws were in too deep to let me go. Ella knew that, and she would never take that risk.
And yet, it was precisely her fierce independence and moral rigidity that I loved, even if those were the very barriers keeping us apart.
“So, you’re just going to let her slip away?” my wolf prodded, clearly annoyed.
“Maybe,” I replied, gripping the tray a little tighter. “And maybe it would be the best. For her, at least. To keep her away from this… life of mine.”
My wolf fell silent, clearly bothered by my decision. I shook my head slightly and continued making my way back to the bleachers.
But when I returned, balancing the tray carefully in my hands, I saw him. Some stranger was sitting next to Ella-in my seat-casually talking to her as if he belonged there.
And then I saw it-the guy’s hand creeping up her leg. Ella looked uncomfortable, her face tightened into a strained grimace as she tried swatting his hand away, only for him to smirk and grip her leg even more tightly.
My vision blurred, narrowed to a tunnel focused on that vile hand.
I dropped the food. Before I knew it, my fists clenched, my muscles tensed, and I lunged at him, grabbing his shirt and punching him square in the face. There was a sickening crunch, and blood splattered. I had broken his nose.
The pandemonium that ensued was a whirlwind of chaos, Ella screamed, people around us recoiled in horror, and security guards flooded the scene. As I was being dragged away, I heard Ella’s footsteps following, her face hidden behind a curtain of her beautiful white-blonde hair that had come loose from its bun during the chaos.
Outside, Ted, one of the security guards who had seen me here many times, said, “Logan, you’re known here. Come back another day, man. But for tonight, you’re done. Got it?”
“Fine,” I snapped, shaking him off and making my way through the parking lot.
Ella caught up to me. “Logan!” she called after me, her footsteps pounding on the pavement. “Are you alright?”
I nodded, quickly wiping the smatter of blood off my knuckles before she could see. “I’m fine,” I lied, although my body was still tense and itching to give that guy another beating. “Just had to do what was right, that’s all.”
Ella paused for a moment. The sound of her footsteps stopped as I strode up to the car, and I could sense her staring at the back of my head. “Look,” she called out. “I appreciate that you got rid of him, Logan. But that was way over the top.”
I stopped and turned to her, searching her eyes for a flicker of understanding. “Ella, I saw his hand on you, I saw how uncomfortable you looked, and I lost it. I can’t help it-you’re my fated mate, whether you believe in that or not.”
For a split second, I thought I saw it-a glimmer of something in her eyes. Passion? Recognition? I couldn’t be sure, but either way, it disappeared too quickly, replaced by a morose look in her eyes and an uncomfortable silence.
“I’ll take you home,” I said softly, the words filled with regret and a strangely desperate sense of hope.
The car ride was filled with silence, punctuated only by the sound of tires against asphalt and cars honking in the city. I could feel the questions lingering in the air, throbbing like a second heartbeat in the car.
Finally, Ella spoke up. Her voice was hesitant and quiet, much unlike the Ella that I had come to know. “Why did the security guard know you so well, Logan?”
I blanched. I wasn’t ready to tell her the whole truth, to unravel the tapestry of my complicated life before her. “I’m an investor in this racetrack,” I lied, keeping my eyes on the road.
“Oh.”
As we pulled up to her place, Ella turned to me, her eyes softened by the glow of the car’s interior light. “Thanks for tonight, Logan. It was fun, despite the abrupt ending.”
A wild hope surged through me. Would she invite me upstairs? Was this the moment when the yawning gap between us would finally start to close?
Instead, she opened the door and stepped out, her eyes never meeting mine.
“Goodnight, Logan.”
“Night.”
