by Lori Foster
Logan clamped a hand around her arm, drawing her away from the door and into the apartment. “Stay here. I’ll be back up to talk to you as soon as I can.”
When she didn’t answer, he caught her chin.
“Do you hear me?”
She searched his face and hated what she saw. “You’re arresting him?”
He remained cold, distant. “I’ll explain everything later.”
Like an explanation existed beyond the obvious? Her past had caught up to her. Logan either was or wasn’t in league with Morton Andrews, but either way, it didn’t much matter. Not when he exposed Rowdy, and by association, left her exposed, as well.
After all their years of caution, all they’d gone through to stay invisible and safe—she’d destroyed it all.
Thinking of how badly she’d been duped, she laughed, then quickly covered her mouth to muffle the near-hysterical sound. Tears tried to blur her vision, but she blinked them away.
Logan hesitated. “Pepper—”
“You know my name,” she realized aloud. Oh, God, oh, God. “You know everything.”
The other cop uncrossed his arms with a sigh. “Yeah, why don’t I just go handle things? Looks like you have your hands full here.”
After a last searching look, Pepper shoved past them both.
“Pepper!”
Holding her long skirt high above her knees, she went down the steps two at a time and hit the front door hard, flinging it open. She got into the yard in time to see one cop holding open the back door of an unmarked sedan. Another told Rowdy to get inside.
This couldn’t be happening.
Horribly afraid that if they took him, she’d never see him again, she raced toward them. Were they legit cops? Were they good cops?
She had so many reasons for doubt.
Logan called out to her again, but she ignored him. Later, she would have to deal with that, with how incredibly gullible she’d been, how easy she’d made it for him to get to her brother, to use her—in more ways than one.
For now, she needed to talk to her brother.
“Wait!” She got close, but one of the officers—how damn many were there, anyway?—stopped her when she was still several yards away.
Rowdy gave her his darkest, most imposing scowl. “Back inside. Now.”
“I’m so sorry,” she said, choking on the words, on her escalating fear and the awful, grinding shame. “I should have known. I should have listened to you.”
“Say nothing,” he ordered again.
Oh, God. “I’m sorry…” She took a step toward him.
“Stay away from me, damn it.”
No. No, he couldn’t face this alone. He couldn’t do this to her.
He couldn’t leave her.
“Please…”
“You know what to do, now do it.”
“Get him in the car!” Logan grabbed her arm, and this time she couldn’t shake him off.
Seeing that, Rowdy narrowed his eyes more—and continued to resist the efforts of the cops. Infusing his tone with iron, he ordered, “Tell me you understand.”
“Shut him up,” Logan barked.
The officer tried to stuff Rowdy into the car, but he shouldered the younger guy hard and sent him reeling. “Damn you, answer me!”
Two cops swarmed in on him, and still he fought.
Her heart broke into shattered pieces. “I understand,” she whispered. And then again, louder so that he could actually hear her, she shouted, “I understand!”
Rowdy wanted her to follow the fallback instructions. Did he honestly think she’d forgotten?
Of course he did, and with good reason. Because she had. For a little while there, with Logan, she’d forgotten…everything.
With her agreement out there, Rowdy stopped struggling. Rough hands pulled him around, someone knotted a fist in his hair. He got shoved into the car even though he’d stopped resisting.
Her brother was tough, one of the toughest men she knew. He will be okay. Pepper had to keep telling herself that or she’d fall apart.
Now wasn’t the time for excesses of emotion. She had to be strong, if not for herself, then for her brother.
All along her back, she felt the heat of Logan standing close behind her. He had used her. He had set her up. And she’d made it absurdly easy.
Yes, she remembered everything Rowdy had ever taught her. But this time, to atone for her guilt, she’d do what was best for him, instead of what was best for her.
The officers waited for instructions.
From Logan.
Burying deep the hurt, the fractured hope, the absurd injured feelings, Pepper turned to face him. She needed information. She needed Logan to go on thinking he had the upper hand.
Beyond him, the big blond said, “I grabbed you a shirt.”
Staring at her, Logan nodded. “Thanks, Reese.” He took the dress shirt and pulled it on. As he buttoned it up, he said to Pepper, “I want you to wait in your apartment until I—”
“Go to hell.”
He paused at her cold, flat tone, then nodded as if he simply accepted her reaction.
Almost as if he didn’t care. But…of course he didn’t. All of it was for show. His friendly smiles, his caring, his sexual interest…
Her stomach cramped at the appalling reality: everything he’d said and done had only been meant to win her over.
God, she hated herself in that moment.
To two of the officers, Logan said coolly, without emotion, “Stay here with her. See that she’s safe.”
So he’d leave her with guard dogs? Pepper smiled at Logan. Perfect.
It perplexed him and made him wary, just as she intended.
He studied her face, his gaze direct but guarded. “Your brother will be fine.”
“He will be,” she agreed. “No thanks to you.” She’d see to Rowdy’s safety. She’d do what she should have done long ago. She’d been thinking about it for a while now. Logan’s deception had only spurred her to act more quickly. Thanks to him, the decision was no longer hers alone to make.
She looked past Logan to the other detective. “Reese?”
Logan frowned, but his buddy only arched an eyebrow. “Detective Bareden, Reese to my friends.”
“Am I under arrest, Detective Bareden?”
“I can’t imagine why you would be.” He deferred to Logan. “Care to chime in?”
Disgusted, Logan tucked in his shirt. He looked a little mismatched in the button-up shirt and jeans, but then, he’d been a walking contradiction all along.
If only she’d grasped that sooner.
“I have no reason to arrest you. The men will stay to see to your safety until I can get back.”
She ignored Logan and again spoke to Reese. “You’re arresting my brother?”
Morbidly amused, Reese grinned at her. “Taking him in for questioning. For now.”
“Questioning about what?”
Logan stepped in front of Reese. Teeth locked, he gritted out, “I will explain to you later.”
She leaned around him to see Reese. The blond sighed and shook his head as if exasperated with her.
She didn’t care what they thought. She couldn’t care. “Where are you taking him?”
Reese gave her the name of the police station—in the same area where Morton Andrews ran his damned club. Was that even legal? She didn’t know. And what did it matter when she couldn’t involve lawyers?
“When can I see him?”
Logan again blocked her view. “You want to talk to him, Pepper, you’ll go through me. Now if you’ll just—”
“You’re wasting that arrogance on me, Detective. I’m not impressed, I’m not intimidated, and I’m no longer trusting.”
His gaze sympathetic, Logan held silent.
She could take just about anything—except his pity. “You think you played me for a fool, don’t you?” She wrought a credible laugh. “You’re the fool. I only wish I could be around when you realize it.”<
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“You aren’t going anywhere.”
After everything that had just happened, did he honestly think he could stop her? “I’m going away from you.” She stepped around him and headed for her apartment. “For now, that’s more than enough.”
Logan said nothing, but she felt his gaze burning into her back as she retreated to her apartment.
She had a lot to do, a lot to accomplish tonight. She wouldn’t waste another single second on lost causes.
And whatever his real name might be, Detective Logan was most definitely a lost cause.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“GUESS YOU’RE IN THE doghouse,” Reese said to Logan. They rode in a car behind the sedan carrying Rowdy. Logan wasn’t ready yet to deal with him. He needed to tamp down his rage—and his conscience.
The look on Pepper’s face… God, it ate at him. “She’ll come around.” Somehow, he’d make it so.
“You think so, do you?” Reese followed the sedan closely. “She looked more pissed than hurt.”
Reese only thought that because he didn’t know her well. “She’s sweet and tenderhearted. She doesn’t belong in this mess.”
“She’s in it all the same.”
Thanks to him. “Quit needling me with the obvious, damn it.”
“Just saying.” Reese glanced at him. “You know, I can handle this shit with Yates, if you want to be with her.”
“No.” Difficult as it might be, he’d remember his priorities.
“The more time you give her, the less she’s going to want to hear you. Women have a way of working themselves into a lather over stuff, especially when embarrassed. I’d say using her to get her brother would qualify as an embarrassing situation.”
“Until I talk to Rowdy, until I get what I need, she’s not going to want to listen to anything I have to say.” She’d only want to follow Rowdy’s order—to be quiet, to shut him out.
Logan thought again of how the brother had shouted at her, his lack of gentleness with her. It infuriated him. “Once I have the info, I can reason with her, make her understand how important it is.”
Reese let that go to ask, “How long do you think you can hold him?”
“After catching him in my place? Long enough.” He hoped. “What did the lieutenant say?”
Reese squeezed the steering wheel. “I didn’t tell her yet.”
After giving Reese a long look, Logan put his head back. Shit. It needed only this. “She’s going to be pissed.”
“We’ll hit the station in another ten minutes. Even if you don’t call her, she’ll find out soon enough.”
It actually worked to his advantage that Reese hadn’t gotten around to calling her. “I’ll talk to her after I question Rowdy. In the meantime, I want him in holding, and I want him watched 24/7.”
“I’ll do it.” Reese glanced at Logan again. “Better not to trust anyone else at this point.”
Because Logan felt the same, he nodded. He wouldn’t take a single chance that Rowdy Yates would walk before he had the opportunity to get the details needed.
Once he had the right info, he’d find a way to protect Rowdy—and he’d start building the case to get Morton Andrews, once and for all.
And after that, after all the details were in place, he’d go back to Pepper. He’d reassure her, he’d apologize to her, and he’d explain.
But he kept seeing that look on her face, and deep down, he just didn’t know if any of that would matter to her.
*
THE TWO OFFICERS that Logan left behind crowded into her doorway. Pepper gave them direct stares. “You can leave now. I’m not going anywhere.”
“Ma’am.” The lankier of the two gave her a look of apology. “We’re just here to see to your safety. It’ll be easier if we’re inside.”
“I need to shower.” Yeah, not her most immediate concern, but it was as good an excuse as any. “I need to change clothes and go to my brother—”
“Detective Riske was clear, ma’am. He’d prefer that you wait here.”
“I don’t care about his preferences.”
They looked at each other. The shorter guy stepped in farther. “You won’t be able to see your brother until he’s processed anyway. If you try going there, it might just slow things down.”
Processed. She wanted to groan. Thanks to Morton, she knew far more about how the criminal element worked than the procedure for law enforcement. “How long will that take?”
“Depends. They’ll take him to the station to be interviewed—”
“You mean interrogated.”
He said nothing to that. “It takes time to do the booking paperwork, photo, fingerprints and all that. I don’t know if he’ll be transported to the county detention center for holding until bail or trial.”
The lanky one said, “He could go straight to county. We won’t know until Detective Riske returns.”
So they weren’t informed of the whole procedure that’d be taken? Was that a security thing, or were they just grunts who didn’t deserve the details?
It really had nothing to do with anything, but Pepper heard herself ask, “Is his name really Logan?”
“Ma’am?”
She waved a hand in impatience. “Detective Riske. Is his first name Logan?”
“Yes, ma’am. Logan Riske.”
Probably he’d used his first name to keep from tripping himself up while…seducing her.
Humiliation rolled over her in suffocating waves.
He thought her shy and introverted. He’d smiled at her while she’d shared her wretched background. He’d been gently accepting when she insisted on sex in the dark.
He’d been inside her.
It felt as if an elephant sat on her chest, crushing her heart, all but crippling her. Wrapping her arms around herself, she struggled to hold it all together.
Numb, sick, Pepper whispered, “Thank you.” To keep their suspicions at bay, she gestured to her couch. “Make yourselves at home. I’m going to get ready just in case Logan calls or returns more quickly than expected.”
They gave her pitying looks, thinking her naive, thinking she didn’t grasp the nuances involved.
That could be, but she understood the most important fact: people outside the law and in it wanted her brother. He could die if she didn’t react quickly.
“I won’t be long.” And with that, Pepper turned away. Time to get things under way.
She went to her bedroom first. Buried inside the bedsprings, she found her stash of cash, her knife and .38 revolver, and the keys she’d need. She put it all inside her purse, then wrapped it up in a change of clothes, bundling everything together. As she left the bedroom for the bathroom, she glanced shyly at the officers.
Neither had sat down. They both stood at the ready, watchful, wary. Maybe they were good cops. After all, they hadn’t yet tried to murder her. They hadn’t called in the goons. They hadn’t even threatened her.
But they did stand by her front door, trying to block her escape.
Knowing the flimsy lock offered little real protection, she locked the bathroom door behind her, turned on the shower, and wasted no time changing into jeans and a T-shirt. Putting the strap of the purse over her shoulder and across her body, she opened the window and climbed out. It had been a while, but she scurried down the tree limbs with ease, then dropped the last several feet to the ground, landing in a crouch. Anxiety making her breathless, she waited, but no one seemed to notice her. No alarms sounded.
No one gave chase.
To help disguise her, she pulled the band from her ponytail and let her long hair hang free. She didn’t head for the road but instead darted to the back of the building and went down alleyways until she’d crossed a mile or more. The bright moon and security lights for other buildings made it tough to stay in the shadows.
She found Rowdy’s car in the agreed-upon location. Holding back, she watched it, worried that it might be a trap, that others could have it under surveillance. But with
little time to spare, she swallowed her misgivings and fear and ran to the car to quickly unlock it.
Once she had the engine started, she breathed a sigh of relief.
For too many years she hadn’t been behind the wheel. She’d missed it. Even as she drove out of the lot, she watched for anyone shadowing her. She stayed alert as she stopped at a convenience store for a quick shopping spree of necessary items. She constantly scanned the surroundings as she went next to the motel room where Rowdy had last been staying.
It took her a few precious seconds to pick the lock, and when she got the door open, she found a woman there in his bed. Un-freaking-believable.
Rowdy was such a hypocrite.
Furious, Pepper swept into the room, stormed over to the bed and jerked away the covers. The drowsy—naked—brunette stirred, looked at her, and sat up to object. “Who are you?”
“Out,” Pepper said, cutting off the complaints and questions. “Now.”
Confusion kept the woman huddled on the bed. “I’m not going anywhere! I’m waiting for—”
Pepper didn’t want to know what alias Rowdy had used. She withdrew her knife. “Take your clothes,” she enunciated clearly, “and leave.”
“Ohmigod!” With great haste, the woman scampered out of the bed, stepped into a slinky dress and grabbed up her sandals and purse. “You’re insane!”
“I noticed.” Pepper held the door for her until she’d cleared it. Insane? Maybe. Driven with her purpose? Most definitely.
Boy, would she give Rowdy hell. Later.
At least, she hoped she’d be able to.
Please, God, let him be okay.
In less than five minutes she’d cleared out all signs of Rowdy’s presence. Luckily, her brother kept the majority of his meager possessions in the trunk of his car. He had only a change of clothes and toiletries in the motel room, never anything incriminating. But they couldn’t take chances, and so Pepper did as she’d been taught and removed all traces of his stay. She didn’t leave behind a fingerprint or even a hair.
Since the run-down place was a pay-as-you-go establishment, and no way would Rowdy have given his best-known alias, she didn’t have to bother checking him out. She loaded his stuff into the car, got back behind the wheel, and headed to the safe location they’d established long ago.