by Lori Ryan
As if reading his mind, she placed her hands on his wrists and squeezed. “Hey, you were there for me. You stopped those men during the scariest thing I’ve ever had to live through. I won’t have you paying for it now. Not if there’s anything I can do about it.”
Her eyes were fierce and strong as she looked at him and he knew if he had any little ruins of the walls left around his heart, she’d just knocked them all down. He might not deserve her and he might not be good enough for her, but somehow he’d been blessed to find her. He couldn’t walk away now.
“Come on,” he said, slipping his hand in hers, aware there were three sets of eyes on them as he pulled her toward the kitchen. “Show me what you found out while I had my head up my ass.”
Chapter Twenty-one
Lazarus Alonzo was frighteningly easy to lure out of the woodwork. In only three days, Diya, Yoshi, and Peter had not only traveled to Connecticut themselves, they’d set up a meeting with Lazarus. He’d responded as planned to the code words planted in online chat rooms and had reached out to one of her father’s old email accounts. Diya sat now in a bare office leased solely for the purpose of setting Lazarus up, and watched as Yoshi opened the door to let the man in.
He was younger than Diya thought he’d be. She expected him to be old and ugly, perhaps because the nature of his former business was so ugly. So repulsive. But, before her stood a young, incredibly good-looking man. His eyes were dead, though. Flat, dead, and without feeling.
“Thank you for coming, Mr. Alonzo,” she said, not rising from her chair. She tilted her head to indicate the chair across from her and waited a beat while he lowered himself into it. She could see how wary he was, how his eyes took in Yoshi, and then Peter.
That was fine. She didn’t actually need him to trust her to make this work. She needed a few fingerprints of his around the room. Needed to have his presence here verified on the cameras the building had in the lobby and parking garage. That’s all it would take.
“I’m here out of respect for your father, Ms. Bogolomov, but don’t mistake my tolerance for anything more than that. Say what you need to say and get on with it.”
“I’d like to hire you for a job, Mr. Alonzo. I know money’s been a little tight for you lately.”
She didn’t really know why she was toying with him. Perhaps it was simply entertaining to see a man who had once been so powerful taken down to nothing. The narrowing of his eyes, the hard glint in them, was rewarding, nonetheless.
When he didn’t answer, she continued. “I’d like to hire you to eliminate someone for me.”
Alonzo stood abruptly and laughed. “You’re playing at things you obviously know nothing about, Ms. Bogolomov. Your father may have been made for this business, but you clearly were not. Eliminated. Did you learn that on television last night? Go back to your dolls and your teacups, little girl.”
He strode toward the door. Yoshi looked to her, one eyebrow raised, but she gave a slight shake of her head. She didn’t need him to stop the man. She could do it herself.
“I’d like you to take out Gl1nd4w1tch.”
Lazarus Alonzo froze, one hand holding the doorknob. Diya had to school her expression and resist the urge to get up and dance. He stood there, most likely putting a perfect handprint on the door. What more could she hope for? At this point, he could walk out and she needed nothing more. But she had a feeling, once he had Samantha Page’s name, he’d immediately attempt to confirm that she was Gl1nd4w1tch. That would only serve Diya’s plan, for any contact between the two or evidence of Alonzo looking into Samantha only helped demonstrate his guilt.
Diya continued. “My father spoke very highly of you. He was saddened by the way Gl1nd4w1tch attacked you, came after you. I thought perhaps it was time for you to have your revenge. You’ve had trouble identifying her, have you not?”
He turned back to her. “And what’s in it for you? Why do you want Gl1nd4w1tch taken out?”
Diya pursed her lips. She wouldn’t be sharing those secrets today. “I have my reasons, but for now, they’ll be mine to understand. You don’t need to know them.
Alonzo surprised her. He shrugged. “I’ll need money up front.”
Ah. The man thought she was the one being played for a fool here. Thought he could take her money, use her funds to rebuild his business and crawl back out of the hole he’d been in for the last two years. Idiot. Diya’s father had not raised a fool. Not by any means.
“Certainly,” she said with a nod. “I would expect nothing less. My father has left me very well-funded. Give the details of your account to Peter. I’ll see you have what you need.” She nodded to Peter, who thus far had sat quietly in the corner.
Alonzo smiled at her and wrote a series of numbers out on a piece of paper before handing it to Peter.
“I’ll expect results, Mr. Alonzo.”
He smiled, the cocky smile of a man who thought he was taking advantage of a naïve woman. “Certainly, Ms. Bogolomov. Certainly.”
“Very well. If you’ll provide Peter with an email address, he’ll see that you’re sent the identity of Gl1nd4w1tch promptly. You’ll find the information in your email box shortly.”
In reality, Peter would set it up to look like Alonzo had received that information months ago. From an anonymous source.
She watched him leave, but held up her hand when Peter would have spoken. “Wait. Yoshi, check to be sure our friend is gone, but use care on that doorknob.”
Yoshi used a tissue and two fingers to ease the door open and peered into the hallway. With a nod, he returned, leaving the door ajar so he wouldn’t need to touch the knob again. She was impressed. Yoshi seemed to get what she was thinking without the explanation. Peter, who didn’t seem to be able to understand much other than computers, looked at her with a question in his gaze. She rolled her eyes.
“All we needed was his presence in the building and his prints somewhere in the room. When they figure out where the shots came from, they’ll run the security video. They won’t be looking for any of us, but with his connection to Samantha, they’ll spot Alonzo. Yoshi, when you come back tomorrow, be sure you wipe the gun clean and don’t touch that doorknob with your bare hands. We just need enough evidence to point back to Alonzo. With Peter creating a trail leading to him, this should be enough to convince Logan of Alonzo’s guilt. That’s all we need for now.”
Yoshi nodded and Peter laughed. Diya didn’t allow herself to even smile. This wasn’t over yet. There were several more pieces to put into place before all was done. Letting herself get too confident would be a foolish, dangerous move. She wouldn’t put her family’s vengeance at risk by becoming complacent. She wouldn’t relax until this was over.
Chapter Twenty-two
Sam outlined all she’d found to Chad, Zach, Logan, and Ernie. As Sam initially suspected, it appeared Lazarus Alonzo was connected to the attacks on her. The evidence she’d found so far wasn’t overwhelming, but he’d left small traces of his activity here and there. There’d been a couple of chat room connections between himself and one of the mercenaries, and an email to an old account of Alonzo’s.
Logan had to hide his shock that Sam was Gl1nd4w1tch. Hell, Gl1nd4w1tch’s work was studied as a case from time to time in some of the computer forensics courses he’d taken in the military. She was a legend. An absolute brilliant, real-life superhero, with the mask to match. No one had been able to uncover her identity except the handful of federal agents who had worked with her. In fact, her gender was never actually confirmed. Some surmised she was a woman, while others contended Gl1nd4w1tch was a man. Leave it to the woman he loved to be this secret superhero.
Well, damn. Loved.
Logan shook his head and grinned. Yeah. He loved her. Sam. Gl1nd4w1tch. He shook his head again.
Chad laughed and tossed a spoon across the table to get Logan’s attention. “Get over it. She’s Gl1nd4w1tch. Really, did you expect any less?”
“No, I guess I didn’t,” he said and
watched Sam duck her head. She blushed, but he grabbed her hand and squeezed it tight and let out another big burst of laughter. He felt fantastic. “I’m dating Gl1nd4w1tch.”
Sam smiled at him and shrugged but he could tell she was pleased with his reaction. For the first time in a long time, he was looking forward to whatever the future held. They’d get through this. They would keep her safe. And she’d help him get through his PTSD and learn to live with it, to cope. And, they’d build a life together.
“All right, Sam, what did you find?” Zach’s question drew Logan’s focus back to the problem at hand.
“It’s thin so far, but I’ve found threads in a chat room that show our mercenaries in the same place as Lorenzo Alonzo. And, I’ve tracked money paid to one of the men back to a cover company linked to Alonzo. I don’t know if it would be enough for them to arrest him, but it points us in the right direction.”
“That’s the human trafficker you took down?” Logan asked Sam.
“Yeah.” Her answer was short and everyone was quiet for a minute as they processed this news.
Logan spoke up first. “Can you find out where he is now?”
Sam shook her head. “No. I haven’t been able to find anything. No trace of him.”
“I can get this information to my friends at the FBI,” Chad said. “They’ll take it seriously if he’s coming after Sam. They’ll do what they can.”
“But we don’t know if that will be enough,” Logan said. The others agreed and Logan caught Sam’s gaze. She looked frightened and exhausted.
“All right. Let’s get some sleep and see if we can track this guy down in the morning,” Chad said.
Logan would normally have plowed on, without sleep or thoughts of rest. He’d take a combat nap here or there and keep going, but he could see Sam had reached a breaking point. Maybe she hadn’t been kidding when she said she couldn’t sleep without him in the house. He’d been an ass since she’d dragged him in.
He said a quick goodnight to everyone and tugged Sam to her feet.
“Together?” Sam closed her eyes, flinching as she did so.
Logan laughed, putting his arm around her shoulders and walking up the stairs with her. He leaned down to her ear. “Yup, that was out loud, Sam.” He couldn’t stop laughing as she nodded her head, eyes still closed.
“I’ll fix it someday. There must be some way to train myself to keep my mouth shut.” No sooner had she said the words than a yawn took over and she covered her mouth.
Sam froze at the top of the stairs, eyes on the closed door to the master bedroom and what Logan knew lay inside: the bathroom where she’d been attacked.
“The guys moved my things into the guest bedroom. I’m staying in there for now.” She nodded to the room on the left and the small bathroom off of it. “I keep telling myself, the men are gone. The blood is gone. No one here can hurt me. It works. Sometimes. But, when I put my hand on the knob to go in there, I just can’t do it.”
He nodded and walked with her into the guest room.
Logan’s arms came around her and Sam’s body responded instantly, but she couldn’t will away the anxiety she felt. He would see her cuts, the stitches. He would see the ugly markings left on her that would never go away. The plastic surgeon had said the scars would fade and be thinner and lighter over time, but that wouldn’t happen right away. For now, there was an ugly reminder of what had happened, right on her breasts.
“Hey,” Logan said, tipping her chin up to allow him to meet her eyes. “I will never, ever see any of you as ugly. You’re beautiful to me, inside and out, Sam. Nothing will ever change that.”
Sam felt a tear fall down her cheek despite her efforts to keep them at bay. She wanted so much to believe him but how could he not look at the cuts and think them anything but ugly and sickening?
“I’ll show you,” he said softly, and Sam might have wondered if she’d spoken the words aloud or he had simply guessed what she’d been thinking. But, he didn’t give her time to think again. He pressed his lips to her neck, just below her ear and she heard a soft moan fall from her mouth. The feel of his lips on her, of his tongue as he traced a path down to her collar bone, melted her concerns.
Sam let her head fall back as he nipped and licked and teased and caressed. Her body heated and she felt her breath come in pants. The tingling his kisses sent through her wasn’t like what she’d felt before with other men. He made her feel so much more. Want so much more. She leaned her body into his, pressing her stomach and thighs against him, feeling the rock hard erection that proved he had told her the truth. He did want her.
She heard his groan as she rocked her hips into him and he tore his mouth from her neck. He captured her mouth and delved into it with a hot and needy tongue as he pressed her back to the bed. How he managed to be both so gentle and so powerful at once, she would never know. He laid her down on the bed and stretched out next to her.
“Sam,” he said in a whisper. It was prayer and plea, want and need. It was asking permission and telling her he was going to please her in every way imaginable. All of it, in one drawn out syllable.
“Yes,” she hissed on an exhaled breath. It was a grant of permission, a plea to never stop. It was prayer and hope and her heart swelling to allow him in, completely.
Logan’s hands played over the shirt covering her breasts, gently tickling and teasing. Sam felt a moment of panic and her hands came to his wrists, grasping them tightly. Logan came up onto one arm and looked into her eyes.
“You never need to hide anything from me, Samantha. Never.”
And then he waited, not demanding, not seeking entry. Just waited. And she found it easy to let him in. She dropped her hands and watched as he undid the buttons on her shirt and slipped his hands inside, gently easing the cloth from her shoulders.
“So damn beautiful, Sam.” His words held a weight to them, a thickness she knew was honesty. He wasn’t telling her what he thought she needed to hear. Somehow, he saw something other than the wounds and the angry puckering of skin that hadn’t yet healed when he looked at her.
He kissed the skin around her breasts, avoiding her injuries before taking one nipple gently between his lips, circling it with his tongue. She moaned and writhed under him, her hips moving of their own will. She wanted more. Needed so much more from him.
Logan’s teasing continued as he worked his way down her body, kissing her everywhere. He set her ablaze and she whimpered, running her hands through his hair, gripping tight. She pulled him more tightly to her and panted with need when he removed her pants and panties. He wasted no time in finding his way to the center of that need. His mouth found her wet and ready for him and she pressed her hips higher. He answered the unspoken prayer in her head and cupped her clitoris with his mouth.
The wet heat enveloped her and she cried out, then covered her mouth with her hands. He didn’t pull his mouth from her when he chuckled and the vibration wrenched another moan from her body.
She let her hands find his shoulders and pulled him closer. “I need you inside me, Logan. Please.”
He took his time returning to her, his mouth continuing to torture her as he worked his way up her body. His fingers continued to tease her wet folds. He circled and slid inside and out again, circling over and over until she thought she would go mad. And then those talented fingers pressed down on her clitoris in just the right way, with just the right pressure, and Sam’s orgasm exploded, washing over her. She clung to him as he kissed her and held her through it all. And, when the rolling waves subsided, he was there, watching her face with a look of awe.
“I want you,” she said bluntly and for once, she actually intended the thought to slip out. She needed him to know how much she wanted him. How much she needed to feel him fill her, for them to come together and melt to pieces in one another.
Logan stood and pulled his wallet from his back pocket to retrieve a condom and Sam realized, with a jolt, he was still dressed. She lay on the bed, compl
etely stripped bare before him.
“Not fair,” she murmured.
“What’s that, angel? What’s not fair?” Logan began to undo the button and zipper of his pants.
“You’re wearing an overabundance of clothing,” Sam said with a grin and he shucked pants and socks.
“Better?”
“The best,” Sam said with a languid sigh as she reached out and ran a hand over the muscles cut into his stomach.
She let her hand fall down his body, tracing the scars on his hip. She licked her lips as her hand wrapped around the soft steel shaft jutting out toward her. Logan hissed through clenched teeth and she pulled back.
“You don’t have to stop,” he said, but she almost laughed at how tightly he clenched his teeth while he spoke.
She bit her lip and looked up into his eyes as she reached her hand back out. She wanted him inside of her so badly, her hands trembled with the thought of it.
“Yes, ma’am,” Logan said and rolled the condom over his length. She must have voiced one of her thoughts aloud, she realized, as he lowered himself over her.
Sam wrapped her arms around his shoulders, pulling him closer. His gaze met and held hers as she felt the tip of his erection begin to glide up and down her wet slit. He slid inside her, only allowing the first few inches to enter and she moaned, pressing her hips up. She wanted more. She wanted all of him.
“Slowly,” he said, pulling out before easing back in again. “Samantha,” he said on a pained groan, “you feel so incredible. So damn amazing.”
“More,” was all she could whimper in response.
He obliged, pressing his full length into her in a long, languid motion that seemed to curl her toes and set her on fire. She moved her hips in small circles as he set a pace entirely too slow and tortuous for her. Where on earth did he get the kind of control he seemed to have?
“Faster, Logan. Please.”
“Can’t,” he ground out between jaws clenched tight with fierce concentration.