“Hmmm…now this is interesting. What does anything mean exactly?” Mike teased back into the intercom.
“Whatever you want. Drugs, money, me.” Lina bit back a sob. She heard the desperation in Logan’s voice and knew that Mike was just toying with him. She pressed her face against her shoulder to wipe away the tears and caught a whiff of pure Logan. She realized Mike wrapped her in Logan’s shirt at the house. For some stupid reason that warmed her. Even when he hadn’t been there, he’d provided for her.
“What do you mean, you? What good would you be to me?” Mike asked.
“I’ll leave. For good and never return. I swear it.”
“Well, how does that help me? I don’t get what I want,” Mike answered.
“Just tell me what you want, dammit! I’ll do anything,” Logan spoke softly. Lina struggled to hear him. “Take me in her place. Do whatever you want with me, make me pay. Just don’t hurt her.”
Lina could feel her heart pounding in her chest. This man, who had control over the whole city, who dealt in payments by the millions, was offering his own life in exchange for hers. He didn’t know that Mike wanted her, not him. He would never let her go.
Mike rose to look out the window, down to where Logan was standing on the doorstep. He opened the window and called down to Logan.
“I will never let her go. Guys like you will never beat me. You will never win. She is mine,” Mike spat down at him. “But you can come up and make your last goodbyes. That would make this moment perfect.” Mike walked back over to the door and pressed the buzzer.
Lina heard his footsteps running up the stairs. It went silent for a second and then he kicked in the door. He stood there, chest heaving, muscles tensed, eyes dark with anger. She thought she’d never seen a better rendition of a hero.
His eyes glanced over the room and then landed on her. “Lina, are you okay?”
Unable to speak around the gag, she nodded.
Logan searched her eyes, hoping to find truth. She was in one piece, in a men’s shirt. His shirt, he realized. That brought him some comfort, irrationally. Scanning her body for bruises or injuries, his gaze landed on the paring knife that was stuck in the top of her thigh. He saw red and fury made his whole body tighten.
He saw the man that had been leaning out the window and had no recollection of him at all. He definitely was not Clyde.
“Ah, I see you were expecting someone else. Well, I’m Mike. Paulina’s probably told you about me. She has…oof!” Logan roared, and slammed into Mike mid-sentence. He didn’t care who he was or why he had taken her. All he knew was that this man put her in danger, threatened her. He was dead meat.
Though he looked scrawny, Mike was lean and strong. Logan got in several good hits and took some pretty good hits, as well. At one point, Mike reached out and grabbed all the knives out of a cutting block with one swipe and thrust it into his shoulder. Logan felt the blades slice through the skin and bury deep. They were battering each other with whatever they could find. With each blow, Logan felt his shoulder screaming in agony.
Logan’s gaze landed on the heavy vase in the corner and he maneuvered Mike against that wall. While holding off Mike’s attempts to cut off his air, Logan reached down and grasped the vase. He brought it up with all his strength against Mike’s head. Mike went limp. He sagged to the floor, blood streaming from the bash on his temple.
Logan let the vase drop from his fingers, heaving. He turned towards Lina, saw the tears in her eyes. At this point, he struggled to free her, his arm not even responding to his attempts to lift her.
When she was untied, she stood shaking and clasped her hands around his neck. His arm trembling, he clenched her as hard as he could and placed kiss after kiss all over her face and mouth.
The tears flowing freely, she returned every kiss until she felt him start to shake. She murmured something, asking him how he found her.
“I put a tracker in your phone,” he admitted.
“You WHAT?! When?” she exclaimed.
“On the way back to my house. I figured Clyde would try something and I wanted to make sure you were safe.” By the end of the sentence, he was quivering and could barely stand, his adrenaline fading.
“I don’t even want to talk about this,” she muttered. Logan figured she was angry. Not only had he betrayed her trust, but he had lied to her and put her in danger. She wasn’t used to this lifestyle. No one should be used to it, but he was.
“Lina, I’m sorry. I…” It was becoming increasingly hard to get a breath, but he wanted her to hear everything, how much he wanted her, and wanted to be with her.
“Shut up.” He could hear the anger in her voice, and knew that here, in this place, he could not convince her. His only hope was to show her over the course of the next few days. He would have to change her mind. He knew they were meant to be together, she just didn’t realize it yet.
He remembered him leaning against her and then he blacked out. Next thing he knew, he was waking up in a hospital bed. He looked around the room, but didn’t see Lina.
“Nurse?” Logan called for the woman in white walking by his door.
“Oh good, you’re awake. I’ll just let them know then, shall I?” The stocky nurse started walking away.
“Wait…let who know? Where’s Lina?” he asked, desperately.
“Well I’m not sure who Lina is exactly, but I was just going to let your doctor’s know. You’ve been out for four days. They had to keep you in a medical coma because they had to repair your muscular tissue. You’re lucky to have such a great doctor. It’s obvious she cared for your welfare very much. She barely left your side. She…” Logan cut her off.
“I don’t care about a damn doctor. I want my wi…” Logan stopped himself just short of saying wife. Somehow in the last few days, he had come to think of her as a part of him. It was crazy, he was crazy. He wanted her, cuddled up into his hospital bed. He wanted to wake up every day with her. He wanted to go to bed every night with her.
It hit him like a load of bricks when he realized she hadn’t been there. He’d been here four days, and Lina hadn’t been there. Clearly, the tracker in the phone had been too much. She had run. Either that or his lifestyle had scared her off. Here he was - thinking about how he was going to spend the rest of his life with her - and she left him like yesterday’s trash. It didn’t take much, and she had just dropped him off at the hospital and burned rubber. He wondered if she was even still in town, if she thought about him.
He was caught up in his own musings when he heard the nurse say, “Oh good. Here’s your doctor now. Doctor Rogers, he’s awake. And look at how good he’s looking!”
Rogers, somewhere his brain registered. He looked up and saw Lina standing there in a white doctor’s coat, just like the first time he had seen her.
“You,” he whispered. He reached out to her and she came to his side.
“Hi ya,” she whispered back, clutching his hand to her heart.
“I thought you left me,” he admitted, eyes searching her face to find the answers he was looking for.
“I would never do that, you idiot,” she admonished. “I just figured that if anyone could take care of you in a hospital, it should be me. I am a damned doctor or was.”
He pushed the hair that had fallen forward back off her face. “Marry me.”
He saw her eyes widen and continued, “You’re my everything. I don’t know how it happened so fast or why I had the good fortune to be a part of your life at all, but I swear to you that I will protect and love you for the rest of my life.” Her eyes shined with unshed tears and he waited for her answer.
“Yes.” He would remember the sound of that word for the rest of his life, he was sure. He grabbed her around her waist and swung her up onto his good side. She laughed, trying to push herself off of him, but he kissed her fiercely and wouldn’t let go.
The nurse brushed away a tear and the people watching from the hallway cheered.
Thank you, Evan. He sent the t
hought up and out, wherever Evan might be. It was his brother’s doing. Somewhere, he knew his little brother was smiling at him.
Outlaw Love: A Biker Erotic Romance Page 3