by Becky McGraw
“I came back to get your clothes and put them in the wash with mine. I figured that’s what was taking you so long,” he said calmly. His eyes traveled down her body then met hers again. “I see you found Cee Cee’s clothes. Good, I thought they’d fit.”
Don’t be nice to me now, Logan, it’s too late. “I’m just borrowing them. Tell your girlfriend I will return them once they’re clean,” Susan said waspishly, taking a step to grab the doorknob. She waited for him to move, and when he didn’t, she shoved a shoulder into him. “Move, Logan!”
“I also wanted to tell you thank you for, um… earlier.” Susan was surprised to see Logan’s face flush above his beard scruff. “I’m sorry I ran out of here. I just needed a word with Slade, and I didn’t want him leaving.”
The starch of Susan’s anger left her spine, and her chin dropped to her chest. It was then she noticed the knuckles on his right hand were swollen. A small trickle of blood oozed down his middle finger from a cut. “You hit Slade?!?” Susan dropped her clothes to grab his hand and smooth her thumbs over the knuckle. He needed to put some ice on it before it disappeared into the swelling.
“He needed it,” Logan replied with a dry laugh. “Bastard knew better than to come in here. I changed the code on the door, so he won’t be doing that again. And Dex is removing the audio monitoring on the alarm system as we speak. I’m sorry that happened.”
Susan’s body stiffened. “Yeah…I agree it was a mistake. Let’s just forget it happened.”
Logan pulled his hand from hers to tip her chin up with his finger. “I’m not sorry about that,” he clarified gruffly. “I’m sorry that Slade came in here like he did, and that the intercom was on. The guys know they better not say a damned word about it or they’re fired, so there’s nothing to worry about.”
“I don’t know, Logan. You were right when you said I’m doing nothing but disrupting your team. You guys are too close to be fighting, and I don’t want to be the cause of it. I think it would be better for both of us—all of us—if I move on.” She shrugged. “I need to find out what’s going on with my sister anyway.”
“I sent Slade to get your car, because I don’t want to see him today. And Dex has some preliminary information on that project at Wellington. Whether you want to be or not, you are part of my team now. Once you’re in there’s only one way out, and that’s toes up,” Logan said and the corner of his mouth kicked up. “Nobody has left yet, but Slade came close this morning.”
With a heavy sigh, Susan nodded.
Logan surprised her when he grabbed her wrist to pull her to him for a hug. Resting his chin on top of her head, his beard stubble pulling her hair, he sighed too. “I’d like to go for round two right now, but we really do have to work. The guys have info we need to discuss.”
“I thought we were going shopping?” Susan asked with a laugh. It seemed to her that plans around Deep Six changed hourly.
“Well since neither of us are fashion gurus, I thought it would be best if we called an expert. I called Leigh Ann Baker, an image consultant recommended by Allison Rooks. She works out at the R & R Ranch in Amarillo.”
Susan’s eyes shot up to his. She knew that name. It was a name she never wanted to hear again in her life. “The beauty queen who almost ruined our op at the Diamond Bar Ranch the first time?” That prissy little blonde had caused Susan nothing but trouble, and had almost gotten herself killed.
“One and the same. She’s booked up, but she recommended someone here in Dallas to help us become Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence.”
Susan groaned, as she rested her forehead on his chest. “Another beauty queen?” she guessed, her heart melting to her toes.
Laughter rumbled in Logan’s chest. “Unfortunately, yes. But those women do seem to know what they’re doing with that stuff.” He shrugged. “If we need an explosion, we hire an explosives expert. We need a makeover and to be able to sell ourselves as socialites…”
Susan looked up into his eyes, and grinned. “We hire a sniper, because I’d rather be shot than do this?”
Logan laughed again, dropped a kiss onto her forehead, before giving her a squeeze that she felt inside her chest. He pushed her back and smiled, “C’mon Barracuda, man up. You’ve been shot at, fought the baddest of the bad guys and survived. You’ll survive this too, I promise.”
Susan lifted a brow. “That’s the second time in twenty-four hours you’ve compared me to a man. Maybe I do need a makeover,” she said indignantly. “Or a bigger caliber pistol.”
“I’m going to have to frisk you before we meet with the consultant tomorrow. I don’t want to have to bail you out again,” he said as he reached behind him to turn the doorknob.
A delicious shiver skittered through her ending in a twang at her j-bar. “So who’s stopping you? Frisk me,” Susan invited holding her hands out to her sides.
His heated eyes devoured her body to her toes, before meeting hers again. “We have work to do, but I’ll definitely frisk you before I finish what we started earlier.” Logan’s sensual promise sent all the moisture in her body south. The last thing Susan wanted to do right then was work, she wanted him to pay up.
Logan smiled, but held up a finger as he pulled the door open. “Work now…frisking later,” he said with a smile. Susan smiled too as she bent to pick up the clothes she’d dropped. Dave Logan was an emotional rollercoaster ride, and she was starting to like the ride. That scared the hell out of her. She needed to be careful she didn’t get attached to him. It could happen, and that would definitely spell disaster for them both. Dave Logan was a workaholic, and her life was a hot mess right now. Neither of them was relationship material, and he’d told her in no uncertain terms she was temporary in his life.
After this mission is over I will take great pleasure in firing you.
Susan knew that plan hadn’t changed, so she needed to be on the lookout for another job, even while she was working this mission with him. Her priority needed to be finding a job, and helping her sister find her focus again. To do that, Susan couldn’t afford to lose her own.
Dave followed her down the hallway to the conference room. At the door, he grabbed her clothes from her. “Go on in, I’ll be right back.”
Susan waited a second, straightened her borrowed, too tight clothes, then sucked in a breath and opened the door. Dex glanced up, but quickly went back to whatever he was doing on his laptop. Gray was studying a pile of papers like the world’s problems could be solved there. He didn’t even glance her way. Neither man spoke to her, so Susan took a seat at the table, several seats away from them.
After a while, the silence in the room became uncomfortable, heavy like the white elephant nobody would acknowledge. “Is Logan always that technologically challenged?” Susan asked with a snort.
Dex grunted, but he didn’t look up. “He’d still be chipping out meeting notes on a clay tablet if I let him.” He typed more, his fingers flying over the keyboard. Without looking up he added, “Smoke signals would be his preferred method of communication, if I wasn’t here.” His glasses slipped on his nose and he pushed them up to the bridge, but still didn’t look at her.
Dex had to be the hottest nerd she’d ever met, Susan thought, as she studied him pecking away at his computer. Superman nerd hot. And funny as hell sometimes.
“And I might go back to that method, if you ever let something like that happen again. I’d think you’d realize I wouldn’t want audio monitoring in my quarters,” Dave grumbled as he walked into the room and slapped a notepad on the table. His pen landed on top and he put his hands on his hips. “And I thought I told you not to talk about it.”
“She brought it up,” Dex replied gruffly, looking mad, but sulky too.
Unless something gave, this would go on for who knew how long and interfere with their operation. Didn’t they see that? The tension was so thick in the room she’d need a chainsaw to cut through it, and Logan’s alpha-caveman tendencies were just making it worse. He needed these men on
his side. It was obvious the morale was in the toilet at Deep Six. Susan was embarrassed as she’d ever been in her life, but it was either get things out in the open, or let them fester.
It looked like Susan was going to have to take a bullet for the team to at least get them talking. Sitting up straighter, she rested her arms on the table and pinned Logan with a hard look.
“Well, you have to admit it was partly your fault too, Logan. You engaged the audio on the system yourself. I’m sure Dex installed it to protect you and the team, not to spy on us. Have you not been trained to use it?” Susan had no doubt that Dex tried to train him to use the alarm system, just like he had the phone system at the office in town. Logan just wouldn’t slow down long enough to allow it, which wasn’t Dex’s fault at all. It was Logan’s.
Dave just needed to admit it, and apologize to his men.
“I haven’t been trained on a damned thing. We get new gadgets so fast around here, I can’t keep up. Dex buys every damned new toy he finds in the Nerds-R-Us catalog, and expects me to not only pay for it, but learn to use it.” Dave’s eyes and the heat in his words practically scorched her to the core. Jerking his chair from under the table, Logan sat and flopped open the file in front of him. “The best thing you can do right now, Susan, is mind your own damned business. We have a lot to cover this afternoon.”
At the rate that Logan was going, the only thing they were going to be covering was him, with dirt, if he didn’t back off. Out of the corner of her eye, Susan saw Dex’s body tense. He eased the lid down on his laptop, then angrily scraped back his chair to stand, before shoving the papers in front of him into his courier bag. After he finished, he picked up the computer to tuck it under his arm.
“Where the fuck do you think you’re going?” Dave growled.
“Wherever the fuck my master’s degree from MIT will take me. I’m sure there’s someone else out there who will appreciate my Nerds-R-Us gadgets and experience.” Dex walked toward the door, but stopped by Dave’s chair. “You’ve got two weeks, buddy. That’s not much time to find some other sucker to use and abuse, so you better get started. Slade is on the bubble too, so you might want to start looking for his replacement as well.”
Gray heaved a sigh, and shoved a hand through his hair. Pushing his chair back, he stood and gathered up the reports he’d been studying. “If Dex is out, I’m out too. I’ll get all the loose ends tied up on your accounting, before I leave.”
Dave’s gaze swung to Susan. “You leaving too?”
Susan looked at Dex and Gray who were both waiting for her response. She knew she had to do something fast. Measure her words, make them count, or this situation was going to get very, very bad. Worse than it was. “No, of course I’m not leaving. But I’m made of sturdier stuff than them,” Susan said tossing a thumb over her shoulder at the guys. “It’ll take more than an inconsiderate asshole to run me off. Besides I’m a woman of my word. I said I’d help you with this project and that’s what I’m going to do. Afterwards though, I will take great pleasure in telling you goodbye.”
Logan looked a little surprised that she’d thrown his words back in his face. Those muscle ticks started in his face again, as he ground his jaw. “Inconsiderate asshole?” he repeated in a low, lethal tone.
“How many times do I have to call you that before it sinks in?” Susan laughed. “If the hole fits, wear it, bucko.”
“It definitely fits,” Dex agreed, which relieved Susan a little. If he was talking, he wasn’t walking. No matter if he was blasting the man who was running him off.
“I’m more inclined to say abrasive asshole is a better description,” Gray added thoughtfully. More progress.
“Blind works too,” Dex added, and Susan saw a little of the tension in his body fade. Now, they were on a roll, and her shoulders relaxed a little.
“Arrogant,” Susan filled to keep them going, which got a snicker from both men that made her smile.
“Ignorant,” Dex supplied, with a dry laugh.
“Enough!” Dave shouted, shooting to his feet to slam his palms down on the table. “Y’all aren’t exactly a pleasure to work with sometimes either. In fact, it’s downright frustrating most of the time.”
“Once I’m gone, I’m sure your life will be a lot easier. But think of me when you’re stuck in the field on a job without the tools you need to do it. Let’s see how frustrated you are then,” Dex grated, his face turning as red as his Nerd Power t-shirt. Shaking his head, he walked through the door.
“I’m also sure you will be a lot more frustrated when you have to hire two people to do the job I’ve been doing for you too,” Gray chimed in following behind Dex.
“Is it lunchtime yet? I need a fucking drink,” Dave growled getting up from the table.
“What you need is to apologize to your men. Those guys are your team, Logan, the reason your company is so successful. They’re about to go, and you can’t let that happen because of your damned ego.” Susan stood and walked over to put her hand on his forearm. “I know you’re busy, but you need to let them know you appreciate their contributions around here. They do what they do for you because they care about you. They’re good men, the kind who would have your back even if you weren’t signing their paycheck. Men like that are hard to find. Trust me, I know. My guys at the bureau would’ve just as soon put a knife in my back as look at me.”
Dave muscles tensed as he dropped his head. “You’re right, I can’t lose any of them,” he said sounding very defeated now. “They’re like my brothers. This place would crumble. I can’t afford it right now, but I’ll give them a raise.”
“It’s not about money, Logan. It’s about appreciation. Just go talk to them—and apologize. You were in the military, you know about morale. Morale is at rock bottom around here. Do something to raise the morale of your team. At the very least, give them today off. It’s Sunday. Everything will still be there tomorrow, except them if you don’t do something.” Logan nodded, and Susan blew out a breath. She patted his arm. “You take care of that and I’m going to get me a sandwich, I’m starving. Then I’m going to take a nice long bubble bath. That is what you do on Sundays.”
Dave leaned on the conference room table and just breathed for a second. That was something he didn’t do often. Breathe. He was always on the hunt for something. A killer, a thief, a gangster, his next case. One day ran into the next in that chase, so weekends didn’t mean much to him. That probably wasn’t the case for his men. Everyone had a life except for him. And pushing them as hard as he did probably interfered with that. What had worked for him as a Marine, obviously wasn’t translating well to civilian life.
These guys had hung with him six years, he had to give that to them. But it looked like his team, his friends, had finally had enough. It was time to change his methods or he was going to lose them, and probably Deep Six too. Sure he led them, but Susan was right, those men were Deep Six. He couldn’t function without them, so he better kick his brain into gear to come up with something to make them stay. It’s not about money, it’s about appreciation.
That made it doubly difficult to fix the situation. Throwing money at things to fix them was easy. Morale is at rock bottom around here. Do something to raise the morale of your team.
How in the hell had the Barracuda, a woman who was known for abrasiveness by her colleagues, come into his office and figure things out so quickly?
It was easy being on the outside looking in. And why in the hell did she have to be right?
He was an asshole.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Men were the strangest animals on the planet, Susan thought, as she dressed in her yoga pants in the laundry room the next morning. The men of Deep Six Security were the strangest of them all. This morning she’d seen Dex in the kitchen and he was smiling as he made a bowl of cereal. Gray was still sleeping according to Dex, and they were to gather in the conference room at nine for a meeting. When she slipped out of the suite a few minutes ago, Dave’s d
oor was still closed, so Susan hadn’t knocked.
Last night, it seemed the men who had been on the verge of killing each other earlier yesterday had settled their differences over a battle in a war game video on the big screen television in the living room, which lasted for hours. Susan knew this because she’d passed through the darkened living room several times and heard their curses, shouts and the explosions on the screen. While she washed and dried Logan’s sheets, made herself a sandwich and a glass of wine, Susan had held out hope that Logan would stop her on one of those passes to give her some indication he wanted her in his bed last night. There was no way she was going to assume anything and make a fool of herself.
But Logan hadn’t even seemed to notice she was there, so after she finished making his bed, she went into the spare bedroom and passed out. Susan had no idea what time he came into the suite, but he hadn’t bothered her in the spare room. That told her she’d made the right decision, and her question was answered. Their time yesterday had been a one-time thing.
Going into the meeting Dave had called this morning at nine was going to be damned uncomfortable. They’d had sex—screaming hot sex. And everyone in the office knew it. The white elephant could just pound peanuts. Susan was just going to have to pretend it didn’t happen, and focus on the job. She’d get through this mission, and move on. But to do that she had to call and schedule those interviews that Logan had arranged for her, and one she had happened onto herself with the Department of Justice.
Susan went back to the spare room to get her cell phone, then sat in the conference room and checked her email, found the message that Dave had sent her with the names of his contacts. She called and scheduled one appointment for Wednesday and two for Thursday, feeling a sense of accomplishment when she hung up the phone. She and Dave were going shopping that afternoon with the consultant to outfit themselves for the mission, so Susan would just make sure to get something appropriate to wear to the interviews. Like Logan had guessed, all Susan had at home were the baggy black suits she wore at the agency, and those wouldn’t do.