Heartbreaker (Unbreakable #1)(32)

His jaw shut and he cast me a doubtful expression. But he finally moved away from us and toward the shadowed area of the vent stacks.

“Nice to finally meet you, Kiki. I knew someone had to be dragging Darren away.” She leaned toward me, lowering her voice. “Bet he didn’t tell you about me.”

“No,” I admitted quietly. “Didn’t realize I was a secret either.”

She shrugged. “He’s pretty protective of me.”

Everything began weighing heavier as information was revealed—against Darren’s plan.

And as the seconds ticked by, a phrase he’d said more than once kept repeating in my brain. It’s complicated.

I had a strong feeling she was the complication. “Nice to meet you too, Logan.”

She glanced at me, narrowing her eyes a fraction as if assessing my worth. Then her lips twitched and she gave a slight nod. Like she’d decided to induct me into the members-only club the two of them belonged too. “I’m Darren’s sister.”

Okay. That suddenly made sense.

I huffed out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.

Then I waited. Because my gut screamed that it was still more complicated than that.





Darren…

There they were. The two people in the world I was crazy about. Worried about.

Logan and Kiki.

Standing in an acoustical sweet spot, I could hear every word. Every frustrated sigh.

“I don’t come here to jump, you know.” Logan leaned back on straightened arms, her hands gripping the bottom edge of the worn brick.

“No?” Kiki glanced at her.

Logan shook her head. “She jumped.”

There it is.

Felt like a gut punch every time.

A long pause followed. Almost a full minute ticked by. Finally, quietly, Kiki asked, “She?”

Tipping her head back, Logan exhaled hard. “Our mom.”

Kiki gasped softly. “I’m so sorry.”

My eyes never left the two girls most important to me, my sister, who my whole world revolved around, and Kiki, who’d unexpectedly breathed new life into it. But both leaned backward toward the building, sitting inches from one another. Safe, for now.

Logan let out a heavy sigh. “I come here to feel close to her.”

Kiki glanced at her. “You do?”

“Yeah. She suffered on the inside. Me and D knew that. We tried to help. But depression wrecks a person. Makes them not be able to feel the good that everyone else tries to share with them.”

After another long pause, Kiki swayed a little closer to Logan and nudged her shoulder. “Sounds like you understand her.”

“I do.”

“You suffer from depression too?”

Logan shrugged, took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly. “Yeah.”

Kiki nodded. Nothing more.

“Sometimes the meds help. Most times they don’t. But even when it gets bad, and I find myself up here, on the same ledge she stood on…in her last seconds…I still don’t want to jump.”

“Good,” Kiki said. “That’s good.”

I blew out a relieved breath. A part of me had hoped that’s why my sister often texted me from up here. She’d just needed me to be here with her, talk her away from the ledge. But she’d never opened up about the why’s of it. Maybe I’d been too f*cking scared to ask.

“Means I’m not yet as bad as she was. We didn’t understand her.” Logan’s voice broke, and her head hung lower. Then she glanced up and sniffed. “Me and D didn’t get how bad it was, or we would have done something.”

My heart burned as I listened to my sister’s version of the story I’d lived. She paused long enough for another sob to tear free from her throat.

Kiki instantly slung an arm around her shoulder.

Logan leaned in toward the comfort. She’d never let me get close enough on that edge to touch her. But Kiki, she let in.

And none of it mattered up here. Logan needed something and Kiki could provide it. Meant more than anything I could’ve done.

Logan’s voice quieted to the point I had to take a few steps closer and strain to hear her above the wind. “I miss her. I miss…family.”

Her pain shredded me. I’d been so busy juggling responsibilities, I’d slacked off on the one thing that mattered—the very reason why I’d never gotten serious with a girl. Yet it all still fell short. I hadn’t been holding up my end of the bargain…taking care of my family.

Kiki squeezed her shoulder. “You busy this Sunday afternoon?”

Logan choked out a laugh. “Why? Wanna meet back up here in the light of day?”

“Nope. My brother, Cade, and his new wife, Hannah, are throwing a barbeque.”

“I don’t…I’m not sure.” Logan eased away from Kiki, tilting her head. “How many people will be there?”

“You have to come. There won’t be ‘people’ there. It’s family. Not just Cade and Hannah, but Ben and Mase, his friends. They’re like my brothers. And Chloe and Daniel are coming, they’re the owners at Hannah’s old bakery. And Ava, our dog.”

The spot in the center of my chest warmed—not a burning hole like a minute ago, more like an ember glowing back to life. Kiki hadn’t meant it’s her family. She meant they were Logan’s family too, our family, if we wanted to be included.