Fontaine got up from the table and offered his hand. Logan reached out and shook it. “Until we meet again, Mr. Callahan.” He gave a little bow and disappeared out the back of the tent.
Logan wasn’t sure how long he sat there until the front flap moved and Gage walked in. He caught a glimpse of Mitch standing watch outside the cabana before the flap slapped back into place. Gage sat down in the seat Fontaine had vacated.
“What did he want?” Gage asked.
“Fontaine wanted to say thank you, but I think we’re in a lot more trouble than we thought.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Three weeks later
“Good crowd last night. Must have been because you weren’t cooking,” Mitch said.
Logan threw a beer cap at his youngest brother. Mitch dodged it and laughed.
“I did cook last night, and the food was popular, wasn’t it, Carol?” The waitress nodded as she wiped down the tables in the back. Logan went back to looking at the paper in front of him. It was next week’s menu.
“Popular with the women. I’m sure they are begging for something, but I’m guessing it’s not your food.”
“When are you going back to Europe?” Logan demanded.
The smile slid off Mitch’s face, and Logan could have kicked himself. Mitch had just gotten back last night. Things with Drake were tense. They still didn’t know who was behind the push to steal the prototype software. Mitch only came back to regroup and make sure one of his guys was OK. There had been an exchange of gunfire last week, and Mitch’s guy had taken a bullet to the gut. He lost his spleen, but he was going to recover.
“We’ve got to talk about how we’re going to handle this,” Logan said. “Gage is busy trying to find the programmer, so you and I have to come up a game plan.” They hadn’t heard from Gage directly in days. They were both on edge.
“You’re right, we do,” Mitch said as he moved over so he was sitting directly in front of Logan. “But we agreed tonight we would just celebrate the fact you are now cooking at the pub. Gotta say, it’s convenient being downstairs from the office. With you cooking, we don’t have to order in as much. That’s got to be saving us money.”
“Maybe,” Logan said. He wasn’t ready to go that far. “We’ll see how it goes.” Ever since he came back from the Bahamas, he’d been working on the side to revamp the pub that was on the first floor of the building next to their office building. Their father bought the building years ago but Connor Bennett had been renting the space for the pub well before that. It used to do well in the old days when the Irish mob ran Hell’s Kitchen. Now, it was a dive that only the most steadfast of locals went to.
Logan had talked Connor into letting him be a partner and make some changes, which included doing some of cooking. In truth, Connor hadn’t made the rent in months, but the brothers had agreed to let it slide. Connor had to be seventy if he was a day. They didn’t want to see him on the street.
Within days of Logan making a few changes, not the least of which was putting decent tables on the sidewalk and calling it a patio, people had started coming. The beer was cheap and the food was good. It wouldn’t be long before it was a raging success. Logan could feel it in his bones, but first they had to deal with the Drake mess. He was still CEO of Callahan Security. Cooking relieved his stress but it didn’t solve his problems.
“Pour me a beer, brother, we need a chance to catch up.”
Logan was reaching for a glass when he saw a flash of daylight in his peripheral vision. “Sorry, we’re closed,” he said. He turned around to pull the tap for Mitch’s beer, looked up and froze.
“I, ah—” Lacy stopped speaking once she saw the look on Logan’s face.
Mitch turned to see what had spooked Logan. “Lacy, what a surprise,” he said.
“Hi, Mitch.” She approached the bar.
Mitch stood up. “Why don’t you take my stool. I was just heading back to the office anyway. I’ll catch you later, Logan.” He gave his brother a wave. “Nice to see you, Lacy.” He nodded in her direction, then left the bar.
She sat down on Mitch’s stool. Words failed her. She’d planned a persuasive argument that would make Supreme Court Justices sit up and listen, but Logan looked so damn good standing there that the words stuck in her throat. The blue button-down shirt with rolled-up sleeves emphasized his stunning blue eyes.
The muscles in his arms rippled under the fabric as he wiped the bar down. It was a relief to see for herself that he was back on his feet and healing nicely. It made her want him all the more and she hadn’t thought that was possible.
“Carol, can you go downstairs and continue the inventory?” Logan said. “I’m almost finished. It shouldn’t take you long, and it’ll give you the chance to sit before the supper crowd comes.”
“Sure,” she chirped. She smiled at him as she passed. “Thanks for the thought, boss.”
The hairs on Lacy’s arms stood up. The chirpy waitress was in love with Logan. She watched as Logan smiled back at Carol. She wanted to rip the girl’s lips off.
Logan moved back to lean on the counter behind him, arms crossed in front of his chest.
She frowned. “Alex told me you’re cooking here now. That’s great. How’s it going?”
“Fine.”
“That’s awesome. You’re living your dream.”
“Uh huh.” He just stared blankly back at her.
“So, I um…guess you are wondering why I’m here?”
He just stared at her with a cocked eyebrow. Damn. He was making this as difficult as possible. Could she really blame him? After everything they’d gone through together, she’d treated him like shit.
“Pour me a drink?” she asked, licking her dry lips. She saw his gaze follow her tongue. Well, that was something at least.
He turned around to pour her a glass of white wine. She was moved by the way his faded jeans molded his fine ass. Heat crawled up into her belly from her core. God, she wanted this man. Now more than ever. He turned again and plunked the wine down in front of her before returning to the position he’d assumed before.
She reached out and took a big swig of the wine, then put it back very carefully. Here goes nothing.
“Logan, I owe you an apology. I treated you horribly. I was scared. It’s not an excuse, but it’s the truth.” She watched his face but didn’t see one flicker of emotion. She licked her lips again and continued, “I get why you had to check me out over the email. It was pretty stupid to send an encrypted email while I was at your office. It was only going to make you suspicious.” She toyed with a napkin on the bar.
“I wanted you to know Trenthom was blackmailing me into taking over my father’s business. He said if I didn’t take over from my father like Dad had wanted, he wouldn’t help any of us. He actually threatened to…hurt us.”
She looked into his eyes, saw nothing there, and started playing with her napkin again. “We didn’t use the scuba gear, by the way. My father got there and said there were holes in the regulator lines, so we just went into the water straight off the beach and swam for it, but I guess you already knew that.
“I turned back when I heard the explosion, but your brother got a hold of me and wouldn’t let me go. He said the last thing you would want was for me to get killed trying to help you.”
She kept searching his face for a sign. Anything that might give her hope, but it was still blank. His posture was just as unyielding. She took another sip of wine, fidgeting in her seat a bit.
“Did Alex tell you that my father retired? He realized I was serious about it, so he got out. Well, he’s getting out. There are a couple of loose ends to tie up, but in a month or so, he’ll be free. He says he’s going to spend the summer here in New York with me, but we’ll see.”
“I thought you just said you had to take over or Trenthom would hurt you?” Logan’s tone was terse.
“Well, um, the truth is Trenthom just wanted to work with someone he could trust to do the right thing. D
ad suggested Reggie. Reggie has been with us for years, longer than Omar, and he knows the business almost better than anyone. So Trenthom worked out a deal with Reggie, and now I don’t have to go into the business anymore.”
She watched Logan’s face closely and prayed for a sign. “I can follow my dream now, like you did…” Her voice trailed off. Glancing at him again, she twirled her wine glass.
The silence grew around them until she finally couldn’t take it any longer. “Look Logan, the truth is, I panicked when you pulled out the box.” She touched the earrings as a nervous gesture. She wore them almost all the time. “I was already in love with you, but I knew that I had to agree with Trenthom’s demand. I couldn’t ask you to stay with me. It would have meant asking you to give up your dream. Give up all of this.” She waved her arms around. “I couldn’t ask you to live that life for me.” She stopped speaking, and the silence settled once again.
“It’s all different now.” She glanced into his eyes, but all she saw was an unbreachable ice blue wall. “I love you. You heard that part, right? I have been totally miserable without you. My father made me admit it. He realized it was tearing me apart not being with you. He knew I was unhappy as a lawyer, but he thought bringing me into the family business was a great solution since I love logistics so much. I finally told him about my dream. He understands, and he is totally supportive of me. So, I came back here to start up my life again, hopefully with you in it. There, I said it. That’s the truth.”
She chanced a glance at his face, which was still impassive. So that was how it was going to be. Well, she didn’t have the right to expect anything else from him. Taking a deep breath, she stood up from her stool and bit her bottom lip as she brought a hand up to smooth her hair. Her heart was splintered like tempered glass did when hit by a bullet. She had to get out of here while she still had a modicum of control. In about thirty seconds, she was about to burst into tears, and she didn’t want him to see her like that. She didn’t want him to know how much his rejection was killing her.
“Well, now you know where I stand and where to find me,” she said while looking at her shoes. She straightened her shoulders and brought her head up to give him one last chance to say something to her, only to find herself alone. He wasn’t behind the bar. “Well, shit.” She sighed.
It had only taken him two seconds to disappear after she’d confessed she loved him. Message received. Her shoulders slumped as she turned around and walked right into Logan’s chest.
“Oof.”
“Seems to me, this is right where we started,” he growled, his voice gravel. She gazed up at him. His eyes were the color of a stormy ocean. The color they turned when…
She blinked. “You love me,” she breathed.
“Of course, I love you.” He put his arms around her. “I will love you no matter what hell you put me through. No matter what you do for a living. No matter what adventures you drag me on. We were made to be together, always.” He swooped down quickly and claimed her mouth with a scorching kiss. And that was exactly how the chirpy Carol found them some twenty minutes later. Totally wrapped up in one another.
About Lori Matthews
I grew up in a house filled with books and readers. Some of my fondest memories are of reading in the same room with my mother and sisters, arguing about whose turn it was to make tea. No one wanted to put their book down!
I was introduced to romance because of my mom’s habit of leaving books all over the house. One day I picked one up. I still remember the cover. It was a Harlequin by Janet Daily. Little did I know at the time that it would set the stage for my future. I went on to discover mystery novels. Agatha Christie was my favorite. And then suspense with Wilber Smith and Ian Fleming.
I loved the thought of combining my favorite genres, and during high school, I attempted to write my first romantic suspense novel. I wrote the first four chapters and then exams happened and that was the end of that. I desperately hope that book died a quiet death somewhere in a computer recycling facility.
A few years later, (okay, quite a few) after two degrees, a husband and two kids, I attended a workshop in Tuscany that lit that spark for writing again. I have been pounding the keyboard ever since here in New Jersey, where I live with my children—who are thrilled with my writing as it means they get to eat more pizza—and my very supportive husband.
Please visit my webpage at https://lorimatthewsbooks.com to keep up on my news.
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Also by Lori Matthews
Break And Enter
Smash And Grab
Hit and Run (Coming Soon)
Smash and Grab: Action-Packed Thrilling Romantic Suspense (Callahan Security Series Book 2) Page 22