Already Gone

by Diane Benefiel

  “Tell me where the girls are.”

  He sneered, then spit dirt from his mouth to dribble down his cheek. “Nowhere you’ll find them, asshole. There are young ones in this bunch, one not even ten years old. I’ll keep her for myself.”

  Logan’s gut twisted, and he fought down the anger that urged him to simply shoot the guy in the head so he could never again hurt young girls. He grabbed Lazlo by the front of his jacket and heaved him up against the door of the truck, head slamming into the window. Keeping one hand gripped tight at Lazlo’s throat and wiping blood from his eye so he could see, Logan wrenched open the back passenger door and reached in to unzip his tool bag. Lazlo tried to yank free, but Logan slammed him back again, his head making a solid thunk against the window.

  The truck on the road sounded closer. Shit. He had to get away fast or he’d be dead.

  He pulled his pistol from its holster, shoving the muzzle into the side of Lazlo’s neck, right at the carotid artery. “Tell me where the girls are.”

  The black eyes didn’t even blink. “Go fuck yourself.”

  Going with instinct, Logan lowered the gun, jamming it into the other man’s crotch. Lazlo wheezed in a pained breath.

  “How about I shoot off your dick? Bet I could get your dick and balls with the same bullet.”

  The already pale skin blanched white and Lazlo’s words spewed out like he couldn’t talk fast enough. “The cargo’s in a delivery truck. On a dirt road. There was no place to take them that you Feds aren’t watching.”

  “Where? What dirt road?”

  “I don’t know the name. The driver found a deserted road in the trees, and called one of my guys to pick him up.”

  “Where, Lazlo?” Logan drove in the muzzle harder. “Tell me where the girls are.”

  “I don’t know, man.” Despite the cold, sweat broke out on his forehead. “I can’t tell you something I don’t know. Honest.”

  Logan swore under his breath. “You wouldn’t know honesty if it bit you on the ass. When did you get the call that the driver was abandoning the cargo?”

  “We weren’t abandoning them. Only leaving them until tomorrow when it’s safe to move them.”

  “Answer the fucking question.”

  “Early this morning, before light. I sent a guy to pick up the driver, but didn’t ask where it was. I got a place to stash them up north but I needed to leave them in the truck until the storm blows over.”

  “You sick fucker. You left them out there to freeze to death.” The truck sounded like it was probably around the last bend. The desire to mess the guy up so he couldn’t molest any more ten-year-olds had Logan tightening his finger on the trigger. But as much as he wished otherwise, he couldn’t shoot a man in his custody. He had to trust that the FBI would eventually get the guy and justice would be served.

  The truck rounded the bend. Logan used the butt of his gun to rap Lazlo on the side of the head hard enough to knock him out. Scooping up the other gun, he took off into the forest.

  Footsteps descending the stairs had him looking up. Maddy crossed the room, paused in front of the fireplace, hair gilded by the fire. God, she was beautiful. It wasn’t only the classic combination of bright blonde hair and blue eyes that made him think of the sky reflected in a mountain lake. It was the way she talked, an appealing mixture of brainiac and smart aleck. Plus the way she cared about her community, how she tended to the people closest to her. That her circle seemed to include him humbled him. If he hadn’t screwed it up so badly all those years ago, maybe he’d have a chance now. What the hell he would do with that chance, he didn’t have a clue.

  The couch dipped as she sat next to him. Pathetic bastard that he was, he breathed in the lavender scent that clung to her hair. She picked up his hand to press between both of hers and he wanted to groan. Maddy touching him made his heart ache. He knew he’d blown to hell and back any chance to have her.

  “Your hands are warm. That’s a good sign. How do you feel?”

  “Glad I’m not dead.”

  She nodded slowly. “You scared me.”

  “Me too.” He turned his hand to grip hers, stifling the urge to bring it to his lips. “Thank you, Madison.”

  She withdrew her hand and scooted a few inches farther away. “What happened, Logan? Why were you out there in this storm? You could have died.”

  He tipped his head back against the cushion, exhaustion like a heavy blanket weighing him down. “My cover’s blown.”

  “What do you mean your cover is blown?”

  “It means I’ve been undercover.”

  “Undercover of what?”

  “Undercover, Maddy. As in I’m a cop. Posing as a construction worker is my cover.”

  “You’re a cop? You work for Brad?”

  “No, I don’t work for Brad. I’m Federal.”

  “Like a Marshal or something?”

  “More like FBI.”

  She narrowed her eyes, studying him like she could verify his claim with X-ray vision. “I can see that. I bet you’re good at your job.”

  He didn’t want to care, but found her words uncoiling something that had tightened inside when he’d decided to tell her. “Regardless that Lazlo is already on to me, you can’t tell anyone else. The only person who knows is Brad, and probably Emma.” Logan stared at her. “I mean anyone, Maddy. Not your vet boyfriend, not your mom, or your sister, or Dory.

  “Jason is not my boyfriend.” At his look, she raised her hands. “Not that it’s relevant, but he’s not.”

  “If he’s not your boyfriend, he wants to be.”

  Ignoring the comment, she asked, “Tell me what happened. Why you were out in the storm?”

  “That Lazlo guy I told you about? I’ve made a point of always being available to do work for him. He picked me up, said he had a side job at a cabin on the other side of the ridge. If he was bringing more girls in, I wanted to know the location. So I went with him. I got out of the truck and the asshole pulls a gun. Figured out I was a Fed, and he was going to take me out. Only thing that saved me is that he didn’t wait for the men who were supposed to help him get rid of my body. That, and the fact that he’s an idiot who leads with his ego.”

  She made an involuntary movement and he paused. “What?”

  “Describe him again?”

  “Horvath? Medium height, pasty skin, dark eyes, black hair. Why?”

  “I think he was in the café yesterday.”

  “Damn. I saw cups like the ones from your place in his truck. What happened?”

  “It was him and another guy, but the one you described as Horvath did all the talking. He was super creepy.”

  Logan sat forward, then wished he hadn’t. He braced his head in his hands until it stopped spinning. “What did he do that was creepy?”

  “Everything he said had a sexual connotation. I told him to leave and never come back in my store.”

  “Son of a bitch. If he does come back, don’t hesitate, call nine-one-one, then call me. He’s dangerous.”

  She nodded. “You bet I will. Damn creeper.” Her tone softened. “You okay?”

  “I will be.”

  “What happened after he pulled the gun?”

  “I was able to disarm him, get some information about the truck with the girls out of him before the others showed up. Once they did, I couldn’t hang around.” He shrugged. “I had a better chance surviving climbing over the mountain than against three of Lazlo’s goons.”

  “You could have died.”

  He caught her hand, letting go when she pulled free. “I didn’t die. Thanks to you.”

  She gave a jerky nod and stood, eyes shadowed. “I’m going to heat soup. Do you want some?”

  Great, somehow he’d blown it. Again. At his nod, she moved to the kitchen. He watched her from his seat on the couch. She used her flashlight to search the cupboards until finding what she was looking for. A match flared, and she lit several candles, taking a minute to set them around the living room
and kitchen, giving the cabin an intimate atmosphere. She stirred a pot on the stove, put a loaf of bread on a board. A few minutes later and she was setting steaming bowls on the table, along with the bread and a dish of butter. Sophie stood optimistically beside the table.

  Maddy bent and stroked the dog, cooing to her. “Come on, baby, let’s get your dinner.”

  There was the sound of kibble hitting a metal bowl, and then a can opener turning. In the dim light of the candles, Maddy picked scraps from the counter to add to the dish, then scooped dog food from a can. In seconds, the dog was busy wolfing down her meal.

  “You’re going to spoil my dog.”

  “Not your dog, and she deserves a little spoiling.”

  “A spoiled dog is a pain in the ass.”

  “Not your dog, not your problem.”

  And if that didn’t put him firmly in his place, he didn’t know what did. He crossed the room to the hearth to test his knit shirt. Finding it mostly dry, he pulled it on. The ski pants weren’t quite as dry but he wasn’t going to sit at the table in his skivvies so he pulled those on, too. He eased into a chair at the table.

  “You okay?” she asked again.

  “Exhausted. Feels like when I was on patrol for three days straight.”

  When she spoke, her tone was pensive. “Is that what you would do in Afghanistan? Go on patrol for three days straight?”

  “It happened, but not often. You knew I was in Afghanistan?”

  “Brad kept the family informed.” She frowned. “Exhaustion could be a consequence of hypothermia. I wish I had the Internet so I could look up what to do for you.”

  “You did exactly what you were supposed to. Trust your instincts. Now I need to sleep.” He indicated the window with a nod of his head. “Snow stopped.”

  “How can you tell? It’s pitch black out there.”

  “Looked out earlier. Clouds are clearing. Temperatures will drop even lower tonight.” Thinking that it would be even more dangerous for the women in the truck increased his worry.

  She chewed her bottom lip, a habit that never failed to stir him up. He’d given up trying to figure out why he found everything about her so over-the-top sexy. Like the sun and moon in the sky, it just was.

  She sipped tea from her mug. “With the power out and no heater, we’ll have to keep the fire going in the fireplace. I’ll need to bring in more wood.”

  “I’ll do it.”

  “Why should you? You’re recovering from hypothermia. I’ll get it.”

  He shook his head. “No. I don’t want you out there.” That was the end of the conversation as far as he was concerned. He ignored her scowl and spooned up a mouthful of soup, swallowed, then scooped up another. “This is really, really good.”

  She appeared to make an effort to let his pervious comment go. She cut a couple slices of bread and handed him one. “Thank you, customers at the café also think it’s really, really good.”

  He slathered on herbed butter and bit into the bread. “This is good, too. Tell me, how did Madison Gallagher decide to go into the bakery restaurant business?”

  “Are we going to share life stories, Logan?”

  “Humor me.”

  Maddy spooned up the last of her soup and pushed back her bowl. “Nothing earthshaking. If you remember, I’d wanted to own my own business and I’ve always enjoyed baking. I worked in a café in Los Angeles while I was in college and decided that was the kind of business I wanted.”

  “You went to college in LA? Your dream had been to go to that school in San Francisco.”

  Her expression clouded and her tone was flat when she responded. “I changed my mind. I majored in business, and for my senior project, developed a concept I thought would work in Hangman’s Loss. The result is Hangman’s Best Café and Bakery. Mom loaned me the money to get started.”

  Why did he feel her words were a canned response, like lines she’d practiced until she could say them by rote? There was something more, something beneath the surface, she wasn’t telling him. “What about relationships? No string of broken-hearted boyfriends?”

  She stood and picked up her empty bowl. “You don’t get to ask me that.”

  “Right.” Message received loud and clear. He finished the soup that he decided was the best he’d ever had, and pushed back from the table. Sophie scrambled up, ears perked forward. “Don’t get excited, dog. You’ve had your dinner.” He set his bowl on the counter and told Maddy, “I’ll help you clean up.”

  “I’ll take care of the kitchen. You should rest.”

  As much as he hated feeling weak, stretching out sounded really good. But besides it being safer for Maddy inside, he thought maybe she could use a little distance. “I’ll take the dog out, then bring in more wood.”

  “I brought up plenty from the woodshed before the snow started. It wouldn’t hurt to have a little more if there’s a break in the snow since we’re going through it pretty fast, but I can—”

  He held up a hand. “If you’re going to tell me that you’ll do it, don’t bother.” He pulled on his now-dry wool shirt and boots, and grabbed a flashlight. Maddy got the dog ready and, at her direction, headed out the side door to the carport. When the dog was done, he returned her to the house, quickly closing the door to keep the bitter cold from seeping into the cabin.

  Chapter Nine

  The storm had cleared out, at least for the time being, leaving a star-strewn sky with only a few clouds remaining. The mountain air was so cold he thought his lungs were going to seize up. He circled the cabin, sweeping the flashlight in front of him, looking for footprints or anything that would indicate he’d been followed over the mountain.

  Finding nothing, he slogged through the knee-high snow to the shed. At the little wooden structure, he took a minute to regain his strength. Who knew nearly freezing to death sucked virtually every reserve of energy right out of you? Forcing himself to keep moving, he filled a canvas tote with logs and hauled it to the porch where he added it to the pile already there, then he returned to the shed to repeat the process. From there, he brought logs in to stack in a small mountain beside the hearth. As long as they kept the fire going, they weren’t going to freeze.

  “How is it out there?”

  “Cold as a witch’s, ah…” He coughed. “Nose.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “That’s not how the saying goes.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Why do you do that? Do you think I’ve never heard swear words, or mild crudeness before?”

  “No, but you don’t swear, never did, so I figure you don’t like it.”

  “Because I don’t swear doesn’t mean I’d faint dead away if someone says ‘witch’s tit.’”

  “Good to know.”

  “And why is it that when we were together, you were always shielding me, trying to protect me, like I’m some delicate flower who can’t withstand even a little bit of off-coloredness?”

  “Is coloredness even a word?” He pulled off the wool shirt and sat on the hearth to yank off his boots, his back to the fire.

  “It is now. Answer the question.”

  Logan kept his hands busy, trying not to look at her, because now that he had warmed up and wasn’t in danger of dying, he was finding being snowed in with Maddy a fantasy come to life. One that he wouldn’t allow himself to take advantage of. One boot hit the floor with a thud, and he worked on the other while he thought about her question. “You want to know the truth?”

  “Of course I do.”

  “No of course about it. You might not like the answer.”

  “Logan.”

  God, he loved it when she used that tone on him. Always had. It heated his blood and sent it arrowing southward, making him want to scoop her up and make use of the rug in front of the fireplace.

  “Don’t make me hurt you.” She glared at him, and even that made him hard.

  He stood in front of the fire, arms crossed, fighting the physical reaction. “Truth? Okay, here’s the truth.
You were mine. Maybe you’re not now, but you were. And I protect what’s mine.” He shook his head when she opened her mouth. “Let me get this out.”

  She bit her lip, and dammit, his body loved it. “Do you remember the first time we met? Brad invited me to your house for a barbecue and there you were, the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen. You were perfect. Smart, sweet, funny—I fell hard, but didn’t do anything about it because besides the fact that you were my best friend’s kid sister, you were too young. Then you started your freshman year in high school. I was a senior, Brad had graduated, and it seemed like every time I turned around, there you were, the brightest light in the whole school.

  “Not only were you the most beautiful girl at Loss High, but everyone loved you. And you seemed oblivious to the fact. Even people who were jerks to you, like Sabrina what’s-her-name, who accidentally on purpose dumped ketchup on your cheer uniform at the diner before the football game. You couldn’t be mean back.” He shook his head.

  “But you wanted me, the son of the guy who went on benders every weekend, the poor kid who couldn’t afford his baseball uniform. I’m the man your mother should have warned you to steer clear of, but instead, the entire Gallagher clan brought me into their family and held on tight.”

  Arms crossed in front of her, she scowled at him, eyes snapping. “That’s what you think? That I’m perfect and that somehow you’re not worthy of me?”

  “I wasn’t worthy of you.” He didn’t understand her anger.

  “Is that why it took you so long to ask me out?”

  “Partly. Plus, you were still a kid. I waited until you were eighteen because that was the right thing to do. I shouldn’t have asked you then, but I couldn’t stay away from you.”

  “Why shouldn’t you have asked me?”

  “I betrayed your family’s trust in me by touching their princess. Plus, your dad had died and you were all grieving. That night I came up to the house and you were sitting on the front steps crying I asked you how you were doing and the next thing I knew you were in my arms holding me tight. You turned to me for comfort, and I kissed you. I couldn’t resist you one minute longer.” He shook his head as the memory returned. “I still don’t know why Brad didn’t beat the shit out of me.”