Never Look Back (Redemption Hills, #3)

by A.L. Jackson

“I knew you once.”

“Yeah. I thought I knew you, too.”

I could thank Aster Rose Costa for that. Girl had fucking crushed me, and now she had me stumbling all over again.

I hated her. Hated her for how much I still loved her. That she still held the power to fuck me up.

“My rules, Aster.”

“Okay.”

This was my chance. I had to use it right. I couldn’t allow myself to be crushed any more than I already had been. I’d been caged for so long. Held in chains of torment and pain. If I was going to stretch my wings, then I was going to fly.

Because there were few things that hurt as badly as looking at the man I loved with all of me and never being able to admit it. Few things that hurt as badly as the loss that had eclipsed my heart in vacant shadows.

“I take care of what’s mine.”

“So, what now?”

“That’s up to you, isn’t it? You’re the one who came to me. It’s on you to figure out what you want. What you’re willing to fight for. If you’re brave enough to see it through.”

“It might end badly.”

“It already did.”

“You’re going to make me regret this, aren’t you?”

“It seems fair since I’ll be regretting you for the rest of my life.”

“You are nothing but trouble, aren’t you, Aster Rose?”

A giggle got free, my chest so tight with love I thought I would burst. “Am I worth it?”

Adoration filled his gaze. “You’re worth everyt...

I was his daughter. Not his possession.

I wasn’t asking for one month. I was asking for my life.

For the first time in my life, I was standing up for what I wanted. Fighting for myself.

“I always told you that you were worth it.”

“You cut yourself.”

“It really wasn’t that big of a deal.”

“It is a big deal. I already told you I take good care of what’s mine.”

“I just want to be free.”

“I hate you. You’d do well not to forget it.”

“I hate you, too.”

I guessed we were both good at telling each other lies.

If there was something to be said about Logan Lawson, he had really good taste.

“They say the devil is so beautiful you wouldn’t be able to look at him if you saw him in his original form.”

“And you have a hard time looking at me.”

“The fucking problem is I can’t seem to look away.”

“Is that what you are, Aster? The devil? Here to tempt me? Lead me into sin?”

“Ironic since that’s what I’d always thought about you.”

“Maybe because we both were born in the pits of Hell.”

“We were supposed to escape it together.”

“Don’t worry, Aster, I’ll protect you. You keep forgetting I take care of what’s mine.”

“Is it wrong I don’t want to let you out of my sight?”

“You don’t have to protect me.”

“I might hate you, Aster, but I see your fucking pain. I know you’ve been hurt. So don’t fucking tell me you don’t need protected, even if wh...

“Relax. I’ve got you.”

“This is a bad idea,”

“All of mine are,...

Apparently these Lawsons had no issues staking claims.

There is no place my heart won’t find you. My North Star.

This man who had promised me that no matter where he went, wherever I went, or anything that tried to come between us, he would find his way back to me. Fate. Destiny. Our destination. My North Star.

as desperately as I wanted my freedom, to be my own person, it was the moment I realized I wasn’t sure I could handle losing Logan all over again.

He was used to being alone, it didn’t bother him all that much, but he had to admit sometimes the silence got to him.

It gave him too much time to think. Too much time to ponder what life might have been like if his mother were still alive. Too much time to contemplate the dynamic of his family.