by Lori Ryan
Now, he did squirm.
“Oh! But, you don’t want to talk about that, right? Daisies.”
“What?”
“Daisies. I just planted daisies in a pot in my window. I’m not sure if they’re going to grow or not. I think I got them in early enough, but I’m not really great with plants. I mean, I get all the theory of them. I can look up all the information and follow the directions, but I don’t always seem to be able to apply all the information and get results, you know?”
Logan nodded as he realized she was changing the subject and letting him off the hook. The result was a little mind-spinning as she launched into a lecture of the dos and don’ts of growing daisies in a pot, in the window. He had to admit, it helped. And, he couldn’t help but wonder at her assessment that she sucked at relationships and reading people. She seemed to be damned good at knowing exactly when he needed her to move on, and she did it. No questions asked. She might move on to some strange topic, like the care and growth of daisies, but she did it. He had a feeling she was a lot better with people than she realized.
Chapter Two
Three days later, Logan was halfway down the hall to the company welcoming party for him and his new technology team, when his phone rang. The company’s reception area had been transformed into a chic cocktail party. The lights were dimmed, a temporary bar was manned by two bartenders in the corner, and from where he stood he could see wait staff circulating with appetizers and tiny napkins. The caller ID on his cell caused him to step back to his office and close the door rather than head down the hall to join the rest of the company.
“Hey, Cabo, I didn’t think you guys were stateside,” he said, by way of greeting. Jake Cabo had served alongside Logan for the majority of their missions. Cabo had been right there with him when Logan had been reassigned to a special ops team that only took orders directly from the Admiral at USSOCOMM, and Cabo had taken over as Lead Petty Officer when Logan had been medically retired, or MedRet.
“Just got back stateside and I wanted to fill you in on some old friends of ours.”
Logan tensed. “Old friends” usually meant the kind that wanted to kill them. Logan would prefer not to have any reunions with old ghosts. His only response was a grunt, but that was apparently enough to encourage Cabo to keep going.
“It seems the princess has come home. She seems to be taking over the family business.”
Logan whistled. There was only one woman Cabo could mean. Klavdiya Bogolomov, although she typically used the name Diya Molov rather than her full given name. Whether that was for ease of use or to hide the connection to her father, he didn’t know. It didn’t matter. Diya Molov was the only surviving child of Nikolai Bogolomov, one of the most wanted men by the US government, until Logan’s team had taken him out.
“No shit. I always thought Nikolai kept her well clear of all his business. I figured we took down the entire empire when we took him out.” Logan didn’t mention they’d also taken out both of his sons, but he cringed as the thought ran through his head. He and Cabo both knew what had happened. They didn’t need to relive that op, or any of the screwed six-ways-sideways shit that had happened that night.
“Well, we’re not entirely sure about all that, yet. We’re looking into it. It seems one of her cousins who was pretty involved in the business is serving as her right-hand man.”
“Yoshi?” Logan asked, digging back through his head for any information on Nikolai Bogolomov and his family. The man had at one point been nothing more than a gun runner. By the time Logan’s squad had been ordered to capture or kill him, Nikolai had moved from running guns to terrorism, and ultimately specifically targeting American military installations abroad. The man was a coldhearted killer and the more massive the scale, the more his murdering heart reveled in it.
“That’s the one. Yoshi Bogolomov. He’s not the brightest guy and apparently he was happy to defer to Diya as new head of the family, throwing his brawn behind her brains. We’re not sure if they’re dealing in arms or if she’s taken on her father’s political causes.”
“Huh,” was all Logan said. He knew damned well what Cabo meant by political causes. Nikolai Bogolomov supported a huge proportion of the world’s terrorist organizations and was often the mastermind behind many of their plots. All of their intel had indicated that Diya had not been active in the family business, nor had she seemed to share her father’s bent toward terrorism. She’d attended university and lived in England, far from the family home outside of Omsk, Russia.
“Why call me about this?” The hair on Logan’s arms stood at attention. The antsy feeling he always felt at the back of his neck when things were about to go belly-up came on full force.
“We’re still checking on the source and trying to get more info, but it seems she’s got her cousin looking into our squad. They’ve got a hacker. We don’t know if he got into official records. Intel says Yoshi might have found someone willing to talk to him. Someone who knows our names. But nothing’s confirmed yet.”
Logan didn’t hold back with the string of curses before calming enough to ask the pertinent question: “One of our own?”
He didn’t wait for an answer. “How the hell did that happen? No one should have access to that information. Those records are sealed. Shit, very few people in the military can get that intel. How the hell did an outsider get it?”
“They should be sealed,” said Cabo, his tone grim, but resigned. “We don’t know for sure how the information leaked and we’re still trying to find out if it’s accurate. But, you need to watch your back on the off chance it’s true. If she’s got your name…”
He didn’t finish the sentence, but he didn’t have to. They both knew what could happen if that kind of information got out. If Diya Molov was anything like her father, she’d be headed his way, guns drawn.
***
“You know I like you, right?”
Okaaaaay. Not exactly what Logan expected to hear from Chad. Logan glanced over at the big man standing next to him and frowned. They’d gotten to know each other over the past few months, since Chad and Zach were friends, but he had no interest in talking about Chad’s feelings. And Chad hadn’t really struck him as the touchy-feely type. The man had been an Army Ranger and he was a big man. He didn’t scream giant teddy-bear. It was more like tank or Mack truck.
“Uh, sure.” Logan took a step to the side, inching away from Chad. There was an odd glint to the man’s eyes.
“I’m just saying, I like you,” Chad said and then let his gaze move to where Logan’s had been moments before. Across the room, Sam stood talking to some of the other women who worked at Sutton. “But it needs to be said, if you mess with Sam, I won’t hesitate to implement a few of the more interesting techniques for dismembering bodies I’ve got tucked away.”
Andrew Weston, the third in the trio of best friends who ran Sutton and owned the majority of its shares, sidled up on the other side of Logan. He sipped what looked to be Scotch of some kind from a glass.
“Hear, hear,” he said quietly, raising his glass in a toast.
Logan rolled his eyes. “It’s not that I don’t appreciate the sentiment, gentlemen, and let me assure you, I have no intention of messing with her, but please. Don’t delude yourselves into thinking you can take me. Need I remind you you’ve been out of the action for, what, ten years, Chad?”
Logan had to admit the conversation might have turned a tad juvenile after that, with him and Chad murmuring insults at one another. Andrew cheered one side or the other on as the mood seemed to strike him. It didn’t have to be said that Logan had heard the warning and respected it. They loved Sam like a kid sister. Logan might be unreasonably attracted to her, but he also knew his head was in the wrong damned place to be starting anything with a woman. Especially with a woman like Sam. One who mattered. He wasn’t even sure he should be walking around civilized people instead of being locked up in a mental hospital talking about his feelings. He wasn’t relationship
material.
Jack joined the men where they stood, still debating the training and prowess of the SEAL teams versus that of the Army Rangers. All three men laughed when Jack opened with: “So, Logan, you know I like you, right?” as his eyes cut across the room to Sam.
Logan shook his head. “Yeah, yeah. I got it. You’ll kill me in new and interesting ways. We’ve covered it. Chad’s most recent plan includes fileting me from head to toe and Andrew has promised to bring salt to the party.”
“Hey, I said salt and margaritas,” Andrew said with a grin.
Jack laughed. “I thought we’d take you out on the boat, chum the waters, and see if a SEAL could swim faster than a shark.”
Logan had to grin at the creativity of the men who stood laughing around him. He saw Sam glance toward their group and his smile stilled. What the hell. He might as well be honest with these guys and let them know they had nothing to worry about.
“Listen, Samantha Page may very well be one of the sexiest creatures to walk the earth, but I’m not planning on dating her. You guys don’t have to—” And, that’s where he broke off, because he’d just watched Sam’s eyes go wide and round with surprise, as though she’d understood every word he’d said. Every damn word.
“Jack. Would Samantha by any chance happen to read lips?” Logan didn’t take his eyes off Sam, and she seemed to choke on her drink as he asked the question.
Jack could hardly speak and Andrew and Chad seemed to be completely useless as they laughed at his blunder.
“Sure does,” Jack finally said as Logan continued to stare at a suddenly red-faced Sam, across the room. “Why do you think she sits in on every negotiation I go to? Real handy trick.”
Of course it is.
Chapter Three
Logan knew things probably should have been awkward with Sam for a while after that, but they got over it quickly. They were a little stiff the next time they talked, but she appeared to be happy to ignore his comments from the cocktail party. He was glad to go along with her plan. Two weeks into his stint at Sutton and he’d managed to avoid leaving the building most days. He usually brought lunch, and when his team met over lunch, he’d had it catered in with sandwiches from the bakery located in the lobby of the building. Since Jack’s sister-in-law owned the bakery, no one seemed to mind him throwing business her way at least once or twice a week.
Sam dragged him out to eat at the bagel place a couple more times. They hadn’t ventured any farther than that, and she seemed content to wait on him to ask to go further. Each time, they went well after the lunch rush was over, making it easier on him. And as they had the first day, they stood away from the crowd and away from the intersection as they waited for the light to change. It was the saving grace that allowed him to manage the outing.
He was managing to get settled in with his team and get the new arm of science and technology up and running at Sutton. Of course, a lot of the companies Sutton Capital had funded in the past were related to science and technology in some way. In the past, Jack had relied on either the knowledge base of those in the company being funded or on independent contractors hired for the project to guide him. With the new team, Jack had chosen people who not only had science or technology in their backgrounds, but who also had either a business background or who had leadership skills that could help the start-ups Sutton dealt with find their way. Logan’s field was communications, but he also had a powerful track record of leadership from his service.
Logan and Sam were working on getting everyone on this new team assigned to work with companies whose industry matched their skill set. For the most part, that meant Sara Blackburn grabbed anything having to do with electronics, electromagnetics, or engineering; Jax Cutter and Dave Alexander took anything medical; and Kaeden O’Shea took anything else. Kaeden was a lot like Sam in that his depth and breadth of knowledge was a little mind-numbing. The man was crazy smart and seemed to have a baseline knowledge of about every topic you could throw his way. Enough, at least to assess the merits of a company’s technology or research and to help guide that company toward success.
In addition to getting his team settled in, Logan was starting to feel a little more settled into Sutton Capital. And that was in large part due to Sam. Earlier in the week, Chad had popped into Logan’s office and signed him into the feed for every security camera in the building. That gave him access to any camera angle he wanted to check on any feed, at any time. Logan knew having that access would mean he’d be able to take a deep breath during his work day and calm the grating need to check his surroundings. Perimeter checks weren’t easy to fit into a workday.
When he asked Chad why he’d given him access, the big man just shrugged. He said Sam thought Logan might want access. Chad didn’t think it was a bad idea to have another set of eyes on the building’s security, and given the high security level Logan had obtained during his military service, Chad felt comfortable with him. Logan just nodded his thanks and Chad walked away as though it was nothing. But Logan knew he owed Sam. She seemed to know what he needed, at times even better than he knew himself.
A light knock on the door jamb of his office had him looking up into Sam’s grinning face. Speak of the devil.
“How about some Mexican?” Sam held up a bag of takeout.
Logan lifted an eyebrow.
“You know, Mexican food? Remember the restaurant down the street I mentioned?”
Logan laughed as his stomach rumbled in response to her questions.
“That’s yes, right?”
Logan smiled and nodded, extending one leg under his desk to push at the chair that sat on the opposite side. The chair moved out a few inches in invitation to Sam.
“That’s a yes,” he said, and moved several piles of papers to make room on his desk. Sam opened the takeout containers and shoved a napkin and plasticware across the desk to him.
The sound that came out of Logan’s mouth when he looked at his lunch was half groan and half unidentifiable gurgle of wordless appreciation. Hell, this woman could somehow read what he wanted all the time. That fact would have unsettled him more if the smell of a combo plate of enchiladas, chimichangas, and rice and beans smothered in rich sauces and guacamole, hadn’t distracted him.
Logan continued to moan as he scooped oversized bites of the steaming food in his mouth, but stopped to glare at Sam when he heard her laughing at him.
“Sorry.” She raised her hands in front of her as if in apology but the impish grin on her face said she was anything but sorry.
“I like food. What can I say?”
Sam nodded and bent her head over her own food, eating with almost as much enthusiasm as Logan, but when Logan burst out with, “Jessica Rabbit!,” her head popped up in surprise.
“Excuse me?” Sam blinked at him.
“Jessica Rabbit. I’ve been trying to figure out who you remind me of all this time and it just hit me. It’s Jessica Rabbit. I mean, your hair is black not red, but other than that—” He broke off as if he was making all kinds of sense and she should be able to understand what he was saying. She didn’t.
“Don’t you know who Jessica Rabbit is?”
Sam just nodded at him.
He shrugged. “Well, you look like her.”
“No. I don’t. She’s all…all…gorgeous and hot and…all…all…”
Logan’s grin was irrepressible. “She’s tall and voluptuous and sexy as hell. Exactly like you.”
He went back to eating, but he could feel Sam’s gaze on him so he raised his gaze to hers again. “What now?”
He could see the gears in that gorgeous brain of hers cranking a mile a minute as though she were calculating something and not coming up with the right answer. “It’s a compliment, Sam. Nod your head. Smile. Say thank you and move on.”
“Oh. O-okay,” she said and went back to her food, but the pinched brows stayed as she continued to fuss at the problem in her head.
Logan laughed but went back to eating. He had a
feeling Sam would need to puzzle over things for a while on her own. No one else would be able to convince her of her beauty. She’d likely go home and somehow reduce the issue to numbers and equations and look for proof. And, damn how he wanted to be the one to give her that proof.
There was a time when Logan would have looked at a woman like Samantha and known right off the bat he shouldn’t be with her. It was the old problem of Sam being a woman made for marriage, and long-term love. Commitment. She didn’t have the personality for one-night stands or short-term romance. Logan’s life hadn’t matched her needs until now. When he’d been in the Teams, his life had been a revolving door of deployments and training, with no room for a relationship in between. Sure, some of the guys had married, some even making it last for a while. But Logan just never got how you could walk away from a woman you loved and stick yourself in the middle of the hellholes they went into and not lose your mind with worry. Or be distracted as all hell wondering how she was, if she was holding up all right or worried to pieces for his safety. He’d watched too many men tell one of their buddies to give a final message to a woman back home. He didn’t want to be that man.
Now that he was home for good, that was no longer an issue. In fact, Logan had begun to crave a longer term connection with someone, the sharing of a life. The only problem was, he was a enough man to know this wasn’t the time for that. He wasn’t whole enough right now and he honestly couldn’t say when he would be whole again. He didn’t feel like he could start something with Sam until he had found a way to beat this demon that seemed to be chasing him. If he could only fix what had been broken in him, then maybe, just maybe, he’d be man enough for her.