Never Look Back (Redemption Hills, #3)

by A.L. Jackson

It seemed I was no longer playing for wealth. It was pride. Revenge. Or maybe it was purely survival because I wasn’t sure I was going to make it through this alive.

Normally I came off as easygoing. Probably too easygoing.

I wanted what never should have been his.

He wanted to hurt me, and it killed me that he did.

“You’re going to freeze.”

Scoffing, she hugged herself tighter. “Like you care, Logan.”

“I take good care of my po...

I hated that she was so goddamn pretty. Hated that I could remember the times when the sight of me had brightened her face with the kind of joy that had felt so real.

An old spark I resented still had the audacity to thrive. The kind that burned and seared and left nothing but ash.

An avalanche of greed hit me so hard it came close to knocking me from my feet. Urges slammed me from all sides. Attraction. Want. An old devotion that should have been crushed underfoot.

Clearly, I was the fool.

You really want me to dump you on the side of the road? Fine. Be my guest.”

I wouldn’t. But fuck. I could barely handle the hatred that emanated from her. The distrust. The disbelief.

How the fuck did we end up here? Because I remembe...

“Why would you make that bet?”

Because he was a monster. Because she no longer shined when she was standing at his side. Because I still didn’t fucking understand. I boiled it down to the barest, most basic thing.

“He took what was mine, so I to...

It really fucking sucked loving someone you were supposed to hate.

“Then why are you doing this?”

“Some people need to be taught a lesson.”

I had no goddamn clue how to handle this. How to treat her. How to even look at her without coming unglued.

This was the girl who’d fucking wrecked me. Destroyed the good thing I was trying to build. She didn’t get my sympathy or worry.

My eyes caressed her shape as a fresh round of those memories surged. The way she used to be a picture of joy. The way my heart used to beat out of my chest every time she came into a room. What a fucking injustice that it still did.

I was definitely, definitely playing with fire. The way I wanted to sink in. Forget it all and tell her I didn’t give a fuck about what’d happened in the past. That would make me the biggest fool of all.

Vengeance the ugliest side of greed.

Aster and I came from dirty families. But hers? Hers was powerful.

It was funny how I’d once believed she was nothing like them.

That old ferocity flared in her gaze. The part of her I’d loved most. She’d been sweet and kind and so fucking strong and brave that I’d thought together we could conquer the world. But it turned out that person hadn’t really existed. She’d succumbed. Let them control her the way they always had. Chose that life over the one I’d offered.

I wondered if she had the first clue how deeply it’d destroyed me.

“And if you were mine, I would never share you.”

That’s what living without her had been. Cruel.

I guessed I shouldn’t have been surprised that one day Logan and I would end up here. Should never have been shocked that our paths would collide. Least surprising was that seeing him again had hurt almost as badly as the day I had to watch him walk away. The day I’d told the greatest lie. One that had cracked me apart, cleaved me into a thousand pieces, half of them belonging to the man and the other to what had been forever lost.

From the moment I’d met Logan Lawson, he’d made it difficult to stand on my own two feet.

He was so intimidatingly beautiful he made me fumble. Heart and soul.

Logan glanced my way. In that bare beat, I swore I saw a million things. Regret. Sadness. Pain. But it hardened so fast I had to have been imagining it. Searching for something that just wasn’t there.

The man was art in the seat, one hand on the wheel while the other tapped out a controlled dance on his thigh.

Questions burned on my tongue. I wanted to ask him so much. About his life and how he was and if he’d found love—even if it’d drive a stake through my heart. I wanted to ask him if it’d been worth it.

“I fell in love with you.”

“None of it matters. None of it but you,”

“Then take me away from here.”

“One day, Aster. ...

“Don’t.”

“Don’t what?”

“Don’t look at me like you have the right to know. Like you have the right to look inside me.”

“Are you ...

“I have everything I need, Aster.”

Sorrow pinched my face, the sword he’d swung meant to kill. Still, I gave him more of my truth.

“That makes m...

“Don’t sit there and pretend lik...

I did. I did. Way ...