Short AN: This is the final chapter, I hope you all enjoy it. I really enjoyed being able to write such a well-received story and hope that my next venture will be just as appreciated. Thank you readers, you're the best.
Chapter Twelve
Logan watched Max's retreating figure from his position under Zack. With a sudden burst of energy, Logan refocused his attack and flipped his opponent off him reversing their positions. Tussling with an X-5 was a damn bit harder than working out with his trainer.
Finally Zack pushed Logan off and stood up at the same moment Ben moved away from the elevator doors.
A diversion, Logan thought getting to his feet. She needed to run and starting a fight between her brother and me was the best she could do. I expected better. He stiffened slightly when he felt Zack move up behind him, and silently berated himself for showing the weakness.
Awkwardly, Zack placed a hand on Logan's shoulder, attempting to comfort the man who had done so much for him and his siblings, despite the fact that he had just beat the shit out of Logan. "Give her some space."
Logan grunted. "That's all I have been giving her. Space." Flopping down on the carpet, Logan went for broke. "I don't understand, Zack. I can have any woman, why did I fall in love with the one person who refuses to even give me a chance?"
Zack folded himself onto the floor beside of Logan and studied the man alongside of him. Maxie could have done a lot worse than Logan Cale. He was strong, intelligent, and not afraid to go after what he wanted. "Hell, Logan, none of us know how to trust worth a damn."
"Believe me, I know that fact real well."
Zack grinned and nodded in agreement, before darkness overtook him. "Max…well, Maxie is different. She changed, someone changed her. When we were younger, and even up until a few years ago, Max looked for the best in people. Then," Zack paused searching for the right words, "then she became like me. Untrusting. Cold."
Logan started to speak, and then remembered who he was with. If he wanted to live, he had better keep his damn mouth shut about just how hot Max could be when given the chance.
"You said someone changed her." Logan stated, intently studying Zack's face. "Who?"
"Carson," Zack grimaced, the name left a bad taste in his mouth. Regardless of the fact that he didn't know exactly what transpired between his sister and the man, he still felt an intense hatred towards him. "It was her first deep ops assignment. Allan Cummings, Senator Allan Cummings," Zack corrected himself, "had been receiving anonymous threats. To appease his wife, he used his government connections to secure the services of our company."
Logan nodded, showing that he was following Zack.
"Everyone was busy, and I was stuck babysitting Richard Maxwell's daughter so I sent Max to him, under the guise of a personal assistant. Despite my warnings, Max got herself mixed up with Carson. I swear the boy could have told Max that the sky was neon green, and come hell or high water she would have believed him over anyone else."
"I find that hard to believe," Logan said, thinking of the fiercely opinionated woman that haunted his dreams.
"He was a real number," Zack explained. "I was on assignment when I got the call, it was Max telling me that the threat had been eliminated and Carson had died. She told me he took a bullet for her, but I don't buy it." Zack shook his head remembering the day. "Max completely shut-down after that. She immersed herself in the job until she became a shadow of her former self."
Logan digested the information and then nimbly pushed himself off the mat. Standing he stretched out a hand to Zack, surprised when he took it and pulled himself up. "I've got to find Max."
Zack thought for a minute, tightening his grip on Logan's hand. "I know where to find her."
Max knelt in front of the tombstone, a look of torment etched on her face. What she was doing to Logan was killing her. She hated Carson more than ever, for the pain he was still causing her.
She looked at the roses that had been placed on his grave. Knowing they were from his parents, she picked them up and waved them menacingly at the marble stone before reducing them to a very expensive pile of thorns and petals. "You don't deserve them."
Max looked at the blood gathering on her palms. The pain was good; it reminded her she was still alive. "You didn't deserve me." She could picture Carson laughing at the hold he still had on her, and the rage welled up inside of her.
Max heard the noise behind her and stiffened slightly, smelling the air. Cologne. Logan. Knowing that he had not come unaccompanied, she spoke out to her brother. "You can go now, Zack."
Zack gave her back a hard stare, willing her to turn around, but after a moment he relented. Giving Logan a slight push toward Max's kneeling figure, he disappeared.
She felt Logan move to stand next to her. "Logan Cale, meet Carson Cummings."
Logan knelt beside her, placing a tentative hand on her knee. He was somewhat encouraged by the fact that she did not pull away from his touch. "What did he do to you, Max?"
"Is it that noticeable?" She asked quietly, not wanting to know the answer.
Logan couldn't tell if she wanted to hear the truth so he remained silent, and after a long moment she began to speak.
"Carson was the golden boy. The apple of his parents' eyes, if you'll excuse the colloquialisms," Max half-heartedly grinned. "I thought he was perfect, at least at first."
Logan tensed beside her, fearing what was coming.
"I brushed off the rough sex and the comments he would toss my way. I was young, stupid, and, I thought, in love." Max felt Logan's hand leave her knee, and his arm wrap around her. She leaned into his presence, absorbing his strength. Letting out a deep breath she continued. "I've never told anyone what really happened the day Carson died. I think Zack suspects, but he doesn't know for certain. I told him Carson died saving me. Yeah, that's really believable when I have reflexes like a cat. But Zack didn't press and I didn't volunteer."
Logan tightened his embrace around Max's shoulders, wanting so much to protect her from the pain of the memories. For a brief instant, Logan wished Carson were alive so that he could personally send the scum to Hell.
"After a few days of warming his bed, Carson found out what I was," Max explained. "I don't know how exactly, but he knew. He took great pride in the fact that he had control over me. Me, a genetically engineered super soldier, was being played like a puppet on a string. The bruises were easy to hide," Max shuddered.
Logan turned her gently in his arms, wrapping her tightly in a hug as he pulled her into his lap. "It's okay, Max. You don't have to tell me anymore, if you don't want to."
Max turned her face to the side and breathed in Logan's scent. She needed this; she needed to do this three years ago. "I'm okay," she whispered against his neck. "I need to do this."
Logan nodded, softly stroking her hair.
"A few weeks passed, and I overheard him talking to his friends about me. About what a great screw I was because I liked it really rough." Max closed her eyes against the pain, "I woke up. I finally woke up and took a look at what I had become. I was just someone else's toy, a puppet in another collection. The day he was killed, I broke up with him. I was standing on the steps outside his father's office, when he found me. He threatened me, bullied me, and just when he was about slap me he fell into a pool of blood. There was a hole in his chest, two inches to the left and I would have had a matching one in my own. I could only watch as he fell."
Max sniffled, and wrapped her arms around Logan's neck causing him to tighten his own embrace. "I heard another shot and turned to see Allan holding a gun in his hand. I looked across the street to where a man sat facedown in his linguine, a sniper rifle peering out from under a napkin. I lost it. I just dissolved into tears. Allan thought I was crying for his dead son, and wrapped me in his arms saying what a pity it was that Carson didn't know what I was." Pulling away slightly so that she could look at Logan, she was surprised at the tears she saw reflected in his eyes.
His once bright blue eyes were now a misty gray as a stray tear fell down his cheek. Something inside of Max broke at the sight of Logan crying her tears. "But I wasn't crying for him, Logan. I was crying for myself. I was crying for all the things that he had taken from me that I could never get back."
Max drew in a shaky breath, determined to close the door on the past. "Carson Cummings raped and beat me. He stripped me of my humanity by making me feel that I wasn't worthy or capable of love."
Logan's heart was breaking as he watched the woman before him conqueror the old ghosts. He cupped her face and looked into her eyes. "You are worthy of love, Max," he said softly. "And you are loved. By Zack. By your siblings. By your friends. They all love you, Max."
Max's heart skipped a beat, as he paused searching her face before continuing.
"And by me. I love you. I love you so much that it hurts. And right now, watching you go through this, I love you even more if that's possible."
"How," Max's voice broke over the question, "how can you love me, knowing what I am? I'm not even human."
"Being human has nothing to do with how we are brought into this life," Logan said, stroking the side of her face. "Being human has everything to do with how we choose to live this life and interact with others. Carson Cummings wasn't human, but you…you take my breath away."
Max dropped her head as Logan's words washed over her. She felt cleansed. Smiling, really smiling, she was free.
Logan's heart stopped as he watched Max lower her head. Thinking that she didn't believe his words, he kept speaking. "I love you. I love everything about you," he desperately tried to assure her.
Lifting her head, grinning, she laughed at the look on Logan's face. "Would you just shut up a minute." Seeing that Logan was shocked into silence, Max took the opportunity to pull his face towards her own. "I love you, Logan Cale."
Logan stared into the brown depths of her eyes for a moment, before a smile formed on his own face. "I love—" he stared to say, but his sentence was cut off as Max fused her mouth to his.
Two hours had passed since he had left Logan with Max, so Zack wasn't surprised when the elevator doors opened to reveal their smiling faces. Zack grinned at them, quickly hiding the file that he had been reading. "Good afternoon."
Max smiled mischievously over her shoulder at her brother, as she pulled Logan down the hall to her room. "Good night," she called out in a singsong voice.
Zack chuckled as he heard a muffled thud and the sound of a door slamming. When they had first moved into the building and began renovations, Krit had suggested soundproofed rooms because he 'really didn't need to hear his siblings banging the gong.' Thank God for Krit's idea, Zack thought with a brief smile walking into the kitchen.
No matter what the future would bring, they would face it together…as family.
Author's Notes: I know I promised a case and did not deliver, but that is what a sequel is for. I really need to watch my DA season 1 and rediscover how much I love and enjoy the show and the characters. There was supposed to be a chapter thirteen but I just decided to wrap it all up. I'm working on something else—that is very OOC for the couple and I don't know how it is going to develop. Thank you so much for staying with me.