CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Nishi
Several minutes later, Logan parked the truck next to a red Camaro in the lot of an old, abandoned warehouse across town. I sat up straight, my eyes widening.
“What are we doing here?”
Logan sent me an apologetic look. “I’m sorry, Nishi. We have to do this. It’s for our own protection. Please don’t be offended. I promise it won’t hurt.”
I turned to glance out my window as I spied three of the four dregs waiting for us. They stood in the dark, empty lot next to the Camaro. Where had the other guy gone?
My heart thudded. What was going on?
I trusted Logan. He’d just saved me from Malik. He wouldn’t hurt me.
I shoved open my door. Logan hurried around to my side of the vehicle before I could climb down. He held out his hand, and I slipped my hand in his, graciously accepting his help out of the large truck.
The other dregs came forward, pausing in the headlights of the vehicles, their dark makeup smeared like Logan’s. They looked like actors from a B-rate horror movie. Zombies. “Pastor Smith” carried some type of small electronic device in his hand.
“Where’s Tony?” Logan asked. “Did he make it out okay?”
“Yeah,” a dark-haired guy with a prosthetic arm responded. “He wanted to get back to Grace and the kids.”
Logan walked me toward them, into the light. I glanced from Logan to “Pastor Smith” as uneasiness swept through me.
“What’s going on?”
“Pastor Smith” cleared his throat. “My name is Noah. And I promise this won’t hurt. We just need to check you for any tracking devices.”
Tracking devices?
I lifted my chin. “I’m not wearing any tracking devices.”
“Maybe not intentionally,” Logan murmured, “but you could have been bugged without your knowledge.”
I glanced back at Noah. “What happened to your eye? Why doesn’t it move?”
He leaned close, letting the truck’s headlights highlight his eye, allowing me to get a good look. “Bullet took it out. Luckily, the bullet hit my face at an angle, so it missed my brain, or I would be dead right now. It’s a prosthetic.”
Bullet? Seriously? He’d been shot in the eye? I hadn’t expected that. He waited while I stared into his prosthetic eye, giving me a moment to check it out, not appearing uncomfortable in the least by my interest. Noah must have been wearing colored contacts earlier at the wedding because his eyes had been dark then. Now, they were a pretty aqua color. The prosthetic eye was extremely realistic. Even the greenish-blue color was the same as his natural eye.
I nodded that I was done inspecting his eye, and Noah stepped back.
Then he lifted the small device toward me. Starting at the top of my head, he waved the scanner slowly over me, working his way down my body. It didn’t make any sound until he swept it along my right arm. Then it started beeping rapidly.
I gasped in stunned disbelief. I was bugged with a tracking device? How? When? Where was it?
Noah paused. “There’s a tiny device in your right sleeve.” He ran the device down my left side, and again it beeped. “And another one in your left sleeve.”
Malik must have bugged the dress before sending it over. Or maybe my father had his seamstress sew the tracking devices into it. I angrily yanked on the hated dress, roughly pulling at the zipper in back in an attempt to remove it. “Get it off,” I hissed out. “I hate this dress.”
“Whoa.” Logan gently covered my hands with his. He glanced at the other dregs. “Turn around, you guys.”
They all politely turned away while he helped me remove the dress. Logan kept his eyes focused across the parking lot, not once looking at me. After the hated dress was off, discarded on the ground, he pulled his long-sleeved shirt over his head and handed it to me, respectfully keeping his gaze averted.
My heart warmed. He was so sweet. A complete gentleman.
“Thank you.” I donned his very large, very warm shirt, his masculine scent engulfing me. The hem trailed to halfway down my thighs, leaving me decently covered. It made me feel extra small wearing his big shirt.
“Okay, guys.”
The other dregs turned back around, and Noah ran the scanning device over me again. It beeped again as he ran it over my chest. My cheeks heated. They’d stuck a tracker in my bra, too? Assholes.
I unsnapped my bra, worked my arms loose, then let it fall to the ground. The other dregs all averted their gazes until I was done. Logan placed a gentle hand on my arm and asked, “You doing okay?”
I lifted my chin. “I’m fine.”
Noah cleared his throat. “One more pass, okay?”
This time when he ran the scanner over me, it didn’t make any bleeping sounds. I was now free of tracking devices.
“All done.” Noah stepped back. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”
“No,” I admitted, staring down at my discarded clothes on the ground. Good riddance.
Noah and Logan exchanged a glance, and some kind of secret communication passed between them. I watched Logan’s face, trying to figure out what was going on, but his expression was unreadable.
The other two dregs stepped forward. “Let’s meet back at the maze for the interrogation.” The man who had spoken had short, spiky blond hair and very intense blue eyes that bored into me with suspicion. Though his face was smeared with the dark makeup, I could see that he was strikingly good-looking. This man obviously didn’t trust me. But I really couldn’t blame him. They’d just found three tracking devices hidden in my clothes. The other man—the one with the prosthetic arm—waved as they moved off.
Once they were gone, Logan glanced down at me and reached for my hand. “I’m sorry we had to do that.”
“It’s okay. I understand. I’m glad you did or I would have led my father right to you.” I slipped my hand in his, glancing down as his big, warm hand completely engulfed mine. For some reason, seeing our hands clasped together like that soothed me. Logan soothed me. I trusted him, and trust didn’t come easily to me. There was just something trustworthy about him.
Logan opened the passenger’s side door to the truck and helped me back inside. I settled into my seat and relaxed, inhaling Logan’s scent through his shirt. Now shirtless, he slid behind the wheel and backed the truck out of the lot. Wasn’t he cold? Apparently not.
Less than ten minutes later, we reached the military barricade at the edge of the city. Logan stopped the truck and spoke to the guard on duty. The guard let us pass, saluting Logan as we drove away.
My eyelids drifted shut and I dozed off.
The sound of a door closing jolted me awake sometime later. I blinked as Logan slid behind the wheel, handing a bag over to me.
“What’s this?” I asked, confused.
“Clothes. I grabbed you a few outfits at the all-night store. You were sleeping, so I didn’t want to wake you. I bought size ‘small’ of everything, since you’re so tiny. I hope they fit.”
I stared into the bag in shock. Logan had bought me clothes?
“Thanks.” My heart pinched. “I’m sure they will be fine.” No one except my mother had ever done anything so kind for me before. I searched through the bag, then pulled out a pair of pink sweats and slipped them on.
“They fit okay?”
I smiled. “They fit perfect.”
“You can keep my shirt for now if you want.”
“Thank you.”
A half hour later we pulled into the same garage deep in the forest that he’d parked in that first night when I’d stowed away in the back of his truck. He turned the engine off and exited the vehicle, coming around to my side. I slipped my hand in his again, letting him assist me down from the vehicle.
I glanced around, noting all the nice, new cars parked in the garage. A Lamborghini. A Jeep. The red Camaro that I’d seen back in Augusta earlier. Two motorcycles. Though I’d noticed the vehicles the last time I was here, I’d been more inter
ested in Logan, and hadn’t paid much attention to them. These guys obviously had money.
Logan’s gaze burrowed into mine. “I want you to know that I trust you, Nishi. But there’s one more thing we have to do, okay?”
Uneasiness returned, making my gut clench. “What do you need to do now?”
He cleared his throat. “We need to interrogate you first.”
I stepped back, yanking my hand from his grasp. “Interrogate me?”
He closed his eyes and let out a long sigh. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to do this, but the other dregs are insisting. You have to understand why, Nishi. You’re a part of the Black Dragons. And you had three tracking devices on you. How do we know you aren’t a spy? You could destroy us all.”
His explanation made perfect sense, but his distrust still hurt.
He’s only trying to protect himself and his friends.
I jerked my head in a nod. “Okay. Let’s get this done. They’re not going to hurt me, are they?”
“No,” he assured me, his gaze kind. “Of course not. We don’t harm women or children. Luke will just ask you some questions. All you have to do is answer honestly, and everything will be okay.”
I nodded. Interrogation. I wasn’t sure if I was up for that right now, not after the nightmare of the past few days.
You will survive this, Nishi. You are strong. You are a shadow warrior.
Logan bent and scooped me up into his arms before I could protest.
I gasped, my arms flying out and my hands wrapping around his neck. “What are you doing?”
“I’m carrying you,” he explained with a soft twinkle in his eyes. “You’re hurt. You’ve been through a lot these past few days. So just humor me and let me feel like a manly man, okay? You don’t hardly weigh more than a feather, anyway.”
I chuckled softly, burrowing into his hard chest, smashing my nose against his naked skin. The man was cut, his torso corded with sleek, sexy muscles. He smelled so good. He was so strong. So warm. So masculine.
Awareness snaked through me.
I had never been attracted to a man until Logan. He was just so…fascinating. So beautiful. So different from me. So…male.
For a moment, I got so caught up in him that it was difficult to breathe.
Heat pooled deep in my core as a powerful, intense longing overtook my entire body. I’m embarrassed to say that my father had kept me so isolated, not allowing any outside influence of any kind, that I had never been allowed to participate in any sexual activities before. I’d been subjected to plenty of leers and lustful stares from my father’s men, but no touching of any kind had ever been allowed. Whenever one of my father’s men—or Malik—looked at me with lust in their eyes, it grossed me out.
But Logan was so different from all of the others. He excited me in ways no other man ever had before. I wanted him to take me into his bed. I wanted his big, warm hands to touch me everywhere. I wanted his sexy, kissable lips on mine. I wanted him to ease the ache that only he had ever stirred inside me.
“That tickles.” He let out a soft chuckle as my hair grazed his chin.
“Sorry.” I tilted my head back to look up into his face. “You really don’t have to carry me, you know. I do know how to walk.” Though I couldn’t deny it was nice being held in his strong arms.
His lips twitched. “I know, but it won’t hurt you to pretend to be weak once in a while so I can feel extra manly.”
I let out a soft chuckle as we left the garage and Logan moved silently across the dark forest, carrying me effortlessly. Unable to resist, I reached over and gently squeezed his rock-hard bicep. “You’re so strong,” I murmured in fascination. “You make me feel tiny and delicate.”
He jerked his gaze to mine. “You are tiny and delicate, but only of body. Your spirit is incredibly strong.”
I softened inside. That was a compliment I would happily accept. Logan was such a sweetheart. I don’t know if it was possible to fall in love with someone you’d only known for a short time, but I was definitely starting to feel something very powerful toward him. And it wasn’t just physical attraction. I was completely enraptured by him.
Logan entered some kind of deep underground cavern. I tightened my arms around him as he moved forward, entering into one dark tunnel after another. It was like a maze, twists and turns.
An eeriness crept down my spine. We weren’t alone in here. Other things moved around in the darkness. But I felt safe with Logan. He would protect me. “Are there ghosts in here? I can feel something.”
“Yeah. But they won’t harm you,” he assured me. “They’re already dead.”
It was pitch black in here, not a light in sight. How did he see so well in the dark? How did he find his way?
He’s a dreg, Nishi. You read about him being injected with leopard DNA.
I cleared my throat. “I read that you were injected with different types of animal DNA. Is that why you can navigate in the dark?”
His muscles tensed. “Yes. I can see very well at night.”
I lifted my hand to thread it through his hair. When my fingers slid right over where his ear should have been, they passed along a smooth, flat surface. I halted, startled, and carefully brushed my fingers back down through his hair and along the side of his face.
His ear was missing.
The tension in his body increased, but he kept moving forward, as if he were trying to block out what I was doing.
“I…what happened to your ear?”
He made a soft grunting sound. “Bomb.”
I recoiled. “What? How?”
“An IED exploded near me awhile back. It blew off my ear and half of my face.”
Oh my God. I threaded my fingers through his hair again, gently brushing it back away from where his ear should have been. This sweet, beautiful man had lost his ear in an explosion. I hadn’t seen any telltale scars that would suggest half his face had been blown off. His plastic surgeon must have done an excellent job.
Tears stung my eyes. I blinked rapidly, washing them away.
He halted. “Nishi. Don’t…”
“I’m not repulsed, Logan. Not in the least. I’m just stunned, and I feel terrible that you were hurt. Truly, I like touching you. I don’t care that your ear is gone. I don’t care about your past. All I care about is the man you are today.”
He swallowed hard, the sound audible in the silent tunnel. Then he let out a deep sigh, his muscles relaxing as he exhaled. “How much of my file did you read?”
“Not a lot,” I admitted softly. “It was too…disturbing, so I quit reading after only a few pages.”
He moved off again. “It’s probably best that you don’t know. The things in that file might frighten you. Disgust you.”
I snorted. “I don’t think so.” Nothing Logan did or had done would ever disgust me. I was Nishi Anand. I was strong. Fearless. A shadow warrior.
For such a large man, Logan sure moved silently through the tunnels, like a stalking panther.
Because he’s not all human.
I pondered that for a moment. While it was apparently true, it didn’t bother me. Not at all. I had meant what I’d said. I didn’t care about his past. I didn’t care what he’d done. I didn’t care if he was only part human.
I cared about who he was right now.
And the man he was right now fascinated me. I wanted to know more about him.
Finally, we came to a tunnel that was lined with doors. A door near the end was open, its light spilling out into the corridor, lighting the way for us. Not that Logan needed it.
He went straight to that door and stepped inside.
It was a gym. A large workout room.
Cool. My kind of place.
Logan set me down and I moved forward, checking it out.
Two of the other dregs were in the center of a sparring ring where they had set a chair. I stared at that chair. Was I supposed to sit there during the interrogation?
The ring wasn’t parti
cularly scary. But what was the chair for?
Noah, the man who had posed as “Pastor Smith”, strode in behind us.
“You guys ready?” the blond guy called from the ring. His intense gaze was focused on me.
I lifted my chin and marched forward, not about to be intimidated.
“I’ll be right back,” Logan murmured. “Let me get a shirt.”
I watched him leave, my gaze feasting on all those sexy muscles.
The blond guy cleared his throat loudly. “Come on. Let’s get started.”
I turned and glared at him. “I don’t like you.”
The dark-haired guy with the prosthetic arm snickered. “Don’t worry, doll. Sometimes I don’t like him, either.”
I entered the ring and paused before them, not about to be intimidated.
“I’m Ryan,” the dark-haired guy informed me. “And that’s Luke.” He motioned to the blond guy. “We won’t hurt you. It’s just a simple question and answer session. Right Luke?” He glanced at the other guy.
Luke shrugged. “It will be as simple or as difficult as she makes it.”
Noah stepped forward. “Hey now, cut it out. She’s Logan’s guest, so let’s treat her with respect.”
I decided I liked Noah better than the other two dregs, especially better than the blond guy. He was rude, while Noah was much nicer.
Logan returned at that moment. He’d donned a fresh shirt, hiding all those sexy muscles from my view.
I turned to face Luke again. “I’m ready. Ask away.”
Luke motioned to the chair. “Sit.”
I shook my head. “I’m not sitting in that chair so you can try to make me feel inferior. I’m already short enough as it is.”
Ryan huffed out a laugh. “She’s a little spitfire! She’s got you there, buddy.” He smacked Luke on the arm.
Logan came to stand beside me in a show of support. “She stands for the interrogation. And if you get too forceful, I’ll take you down.”
“You’re too close to her,” Luke ground out. “You can’t think objectively around her. Stand aside and let me do my job.”
“No.” Logan and Luke locked stares.
I liked that Logan was standing up for me, but I didn’t want to cause a fight between them. I wavered in indecision for a moment, then plopped down into the chair. Screw it. I would sit.
The Trainer (military romantic suspense) (The Dregs Book 5) Page 10