by Angie Martin
Sara went to the shower and regulated the temperature before stripping off the rest of her sticky clothes. As she climbed under the steady stream of lukewarm water, tension formed new knots in her shoulders and back. The bubble her father and Stephen had formed around her suddenly seemed a very unsafe place to live.
Chapter Nine
“What did he say?”
Allie kept her eyes glued to Logan’s hip no matter how hard he had tried to get her attention while she examined his stitches. “This is looking a lot better even though it’s only been half a day.”
Logan groaned with frustration. Still tired from yesterday’s job, he now had to rush off and save the daughter of the man who had killed his pregnant wife and he couldn’t get Allie to talk to him about anything other than his injuries. He let her re-bandage his hip in silence, but wasn’t about to give up trying.
“You’re good to go.”
He hopped off the gurney and slipped on his jeans while Allie cleaned up her supplies. “What did he say?” he asked again.
“I’ll take another look at you tomorrow before you leave and send you off with some bandages to keep it clean. I’ll also give you a pair of small scissors, in case you aren’t back in time for me to remove the stitches.”
Logan grabbed her arm and spun her to him. “What did Schaffer say in your meeting this morning?” he asked, stressing each word.
Allie briefly met his eyes. “He asked me why I would want to destroy my career over someone who was just using me.”
Logan’s mouth dropped and a sharp pain struck his heart. “Allie, I wasn’t using you.”
“Weren’t you?” She looked up at him. “I knew what the stakes were and I knew nothing would ever come out of what we were doing, but damn it, Logan. I can’t help how I feel about you.”
“Allie—”
“Maybe you’re right, though, and you weren’t using me. Maybe I was the one using you.” Tears spilled from her eyes, dripping from her cheeks down to her white doctor’s coat. “Maybe I kept thinking that one day you’d wake up and see me for who I am and that you would love me, too.”
“Allie, stop.” He brought her to him and circled his arms around her in a tight embrace, and she pressed her face into his chest. “I’m so sorry, Allie. I never should have done this with you. I should have ended it the minute you told me how you felt.” He placed his hand on the back of her head. “I never meant to hurt you.”
She pulled away from him and wiped her cheeks. “I know you didn’t. It’s entirely my fault for sticking it through when I knew better.”
“I wish I could tell you that I love you, but I can’t do that to you.”
“Things with Karen are still too raw for you to love anyone right now.”
Logan nodded and swallowed back his own tears. “It’s more than that. Karen is dead because of my life here. I can’t put anyone else in danger like that, especially not you. You deserve so much more than that.”
Allie touched her fingers to his cheek and wiped away the dampness beneath his eyes. “Now I know you weren’t using me, at least not on purpose. You’re too big-hearted to intentionally hurt someone.”
He didn’t feel as if that mattered. He had hurt her, and badly. It also didn’t matter if she knew what she was getting into. The blame rested with him.
She placed her palm over his heart. “You have so much pain in here. It started with Karen and the baby and you’ve just let it build up. I know you were only sleeping with me to try to expel some of that pain before your heart explodes.”
Logan covered her hand and pressed it to him. “I’m sorry, Allie. I don’t—”
“Let’s just leave it at that. You’re sorry and I’m sorry and we’ll get over it eventually.” She pulled her hand out of his, but kept her eyes on his face.
He wanted to say more, but the finality in her voice warned him against further discussion. “Are you coming into the meeting now?” he asked.
She shook her head. “I have to get some things together first and then I’ll come in to demo the nebulizer for your team.”
He brushed her cheek with the back of his knuckles. “Just for the record, I always saw you for who you are, but I couldn’t act on it. I want you to find someone who is not only going to see you for who you are, but who will know what to do with it.” He pecked her smiling cheek. “I’ll see you in a bit.”
Logan walked out the door, but only made it a few feet before her voice found him again.
“And wear your damn sling, Logan!”
He laughed, but to give her the win, he adjusted it from where it hung around his neck and secured his left arm in it.
In the planning room, his team waited for him. On the table, scattered folders waited for his review. At a glance, he saw over a dozen folders. While grateful for the amount of intel on Sara Langston, it also triggered concerns.
“What do we have so far?” he asked, as he chose the seat at the head of the table.
“Everything,” Charlie said. “We have pictures, reports, more pictures, more reports.”
“Basically Sara’s life on a platter,” Jack said.
Logan picked up one of the folders and opened it. Sara’s smiling face stared back at him. Her beauty jumped out from the photo, with her wide smile that revealed the top row of perfect teeth, sparkling brown eyes, and dark, reddish-brown curls that framed her slender face. His forehead creased as he studied her and he reminded himself that she was the job, not someone for his imagination to enjoy.
He closed the folder without looking at the other pictures and grabbed another folder. Inside, a report gave a full account of her wedding plans for the next two days. He saw the meeting with the wedding planner listed, the one after which they would kidnap the women.
Looking at Lester, he asked, “Do we have a map of the area?”
Lester retrieved a map from the folder in front of him and spread it across the table, close to Logan’s end.
Logan stood up and planted his palms on the table. “Tell me what’s what.”
Pointing to a red circle on the map, Lester said, “This is where the wedding planner’s office is.” He picked up a pen, and dragged it along the road heading east. “We need to first follow the designated route to Langston’s estate where the rehearsal will take place so the girls think nothing is wrong.”
“Do we know what her security will be like?”
“Two men are assigned to her at all times,” Jack said. “They’ve been with her for a couple years now, so they are pretty aware of her movements.”
“Is there any way to derail that and have someone else as security?” Logan asked.
“Negative,” Jack said.
He ran his finger north along the street, toward the green circle, which marked Langston’s estate. “We need a distraction. Something that will put distance between us and her security.”
“An accident is always a good way to go,” Lester said.
“We have enough guys here that aren’t assigned to the job that we could easily create an accident,” Charlie said.
“Let’s do it,” Logan said. “Les, I want you to pick a few men and work with them on how to create the diversion. We only have one shot at this, so everything has to be timed perfectly.” He pointed to a spot ten blocks away from the wedding planner’s office. “I want the distraction here. Then we can drive another four blocks, to here.” He moved his finger along the route, as Lester marked the indicated locations with a black marker.
“From there, we turn west, into this alleyway. We won’t have long to do the exchange. I’ll make sure Mary is on the passenger side and Sara on the driver’s side. I’ll stop at the intersection here,” Logan motioned to a cross-shaped intersection in the alleys. “I want two cars to come up on either side. Les, you’ll approach from the south and Austin will come in from the north. One person opens the doors on each side at the same time and administers the sedatives. Then we pull them out and move them into the main cars. I’ll have a
driver replace me in the car and we’ll head out from there. We should be able to do it in less than two minutes in order to stay ahead of her security detail.”
“Then we get to tell her that dear old dad is trying to kill her,” Jack said. “That’s not going to be easy.”
“No, it won’t. We’ll lay low in the safe house 30 minutes outside of town, since we’ll be eight hours away from here,” Logan said. “As soon as Langston and Mathers realize she’s gone, which won’t be long, there will be an immediate call to action to find her. We’ll keep her sedated until Saturday afternoon and then Charlie and I can deal with telling her. We’ll redirect the team with Mary to a safe house on the other side of town. We need the girls as far away from each other as possible.”
Logan fell back into his chair and looked around the table. “Any questions or thoughts?”
His team shook their heads.
“Les, get going on working with the diversion team.” Logan glanced at his watch. “Charlie, it’s about time you get started on your sleep shift. I’ll wake you in four hours and we’ll have Doctor Connors demo the nebulizer then.”
Both Lester and Charlie left the room, leaving Logan alone with Jack. Logan picked up the folder with the pictures again and sorted through them. The first several photos were only of Sara, while the last half had her with Stephen in various locations.
Flipping through the pictures of Sara with Stephen, Logan picked up on a recurring theme. In every photo, Sara leaned away from her fiancé. In the one picture where Stephen kissed her cheek, she appeared disconnected, her face absent of a smile that most women in her position would have.
“There’s something missing here,” he said.
“What’s that?” Jack asked.
Logan straightened out the pictures in a neat stack. “Love,” he said, setting them down in the middle of the table.
“What are you, a premarital counselor or something?” Jack asked.
Logan ignored the joke. “It’s evident from the pictures that she doesn’t love him and we can use that to our advantage.” He turned his head as Schaffer walked through the door, and rose from his chair. When he reached Schaffer, he asked, “Can we talk for a minute outside?”
Schaffer turned back around and Logan followed him into the hall. “What’s going on?” Schaffer asked.
“We have too much intel.”
Schaffer laughed. “Normally, you’re complaining that we have too little intel. Now you’re complaining because we have too much. Exactly how much intel will make you happy?”
“It’s not that,” Logan said. “The norm is that we have too little intel. So why, all of a sudden, do we have an overabundance of intel on this particular job?”
Schaffer studied him for a moment. “Are you worried about something?”
“We haven’t had time to debrief from the last job, but something was off there, too. We were sent out to destroy a drug lab, and we did so, with no one in sight. Once we took care of it, over half my team left. I see the other barn, and it’s only when I’m inside alone that I get ambushed. That barn was filled with child pornography. Not something we’d expect to see from drug dealers.”
“Do you think it was a setup?”
Logan hesitated. He had yet to voice his suspicions and he worried about Schaffer thinking him to be a conspiracy theorist. “I don’t know what it was, but something wasn’t right. The men who caught me said something about their boss wanting me in one piece. Who else wants me outside of Hugh Langston? And now we’re getting massive amounts of intel for a hit on his daughter?”
Schaffer took a deep breath. “If you’re right about this, we could have a leak.”
Logan nodded, grateful Schaffer brought it up first. “What if Sara is in on this? What if we’re meant to bring her back here to infiltrate us? She could be wearing a wire or have a bug or transmitter when we pick her up.”
“I trust your instincts. I always have. When you get her, sweep her for any bugs, however you feel necessary. Make sure she’s clean. If this hit is legit and we do have a leak, you will need to limit access to Sara until we can get her to the FBI. Someone could be using us to get her into the Church, like you said, or even so that we get her out in the open so they can go through with the hit that way, while she’s in our custody.”
“Setting us up for the murder since we kidnapped her.” Logan shook his head. He hated thinking anything like that could happen, but he had to remain on high alert. “I trust my team, but I’ll limit access to her to be safe. If someone on my team is the mole and they are working with her or they want to kill her, they’ll have to get through me.”
“I’ll work the leak from this end and see what I can find out. Be careful and get a backup plan ready that only you know about.”
They moved back into the planning room. Schaffer’s acceptance of his theories made Logan happy to have Schaffer on his side. The idea of a leak or a possible setup added a whole new layer to the job.
Logan sat down at the table and picked up a random picture of Sara. He didn’t know what he would do if he found out she was involved, not after everything her father put him through. She didn’t seem the type, but he wasn’t about to rule anything out.
Chapter Ten
“I’m famished,” Sara said. “Let’s stop for a late lunch.”
“You read my mind,” Mary Flynn said. “I never thought I would tire of wedding preparations. I swear if you divorce this man, you better elope with the next one. I’m not going through this ever again. Well, maybe I will for my own wedding someday.”
Sara laughed. “I don’t think that will be an issue. If I divorced Stephen, Dad would have a massive heart attack, then survive just to tell me off.”
“Where do you want to go to lunch? Our usual?”
A childlike smile filled Sara’s face. “Where else would we go?”
Sara opened the tinted glass that divided them from her driver and gave him new directions. When the glass rolled up, she leaned back in the seat and turned to watch the shops pass by. The day had exhausted her and it was only midafternoon. From the excitement that morning of slipping her detail, to meeting with the wedding caterer, having their nails done, and checking the final alterations on her dress, Sara wanted nothing more than a strong drink and her comfortable bed.
The car pulled up to their destination. Sara hopped out of the car when the driver opened her door, already salivating. At the food truck, Sara placed their usual orders and handed over a twenty, telling the owner to keep the change. After a year of coming here, the owner of the truck always treated her right and she always doubled-down on the tip. She received far better service here than at any of the expensive restaurants Stephen or her father insisted on going.
With their food in hand, they walked across the street at the crosswalk and made their way onto the beach, toward their normal spot on a short wall in front of the bike path. When they sat down on the concrete wall, facing the water, Sara kicked off her sandals and curled her toes into the soft, warm California sand. She spread a napkin over her lap and prepared her tacos for consumption.
Taking her first bite of the overstuffed, corn tortilla, she took note of the activity all around her. She enjoyed the tranquility in her surroundings, watching the surfers lost in their own world of waves, the competitiveness of the volleyball game to her right, the healthy mix of tourists and locals on the pier, and the families enjoying the water.
“Where are Tweedledee and Tweedledum today?” Mary asked with a mouthful of burrito.
Sara’s mouth turned downward, as she glanced at the two unfamiliar faces watching them from a distance. “Apparently I got them fired this morning.”
Mary’s mouth opened, giving Sara a glimpse of her half-chewed food. “What?”
Sara leaned in as her friend resumed chewing. With a mischievous tone, she said, “I slipped my security detail on my run.”
Mary smiled, a combination of surprise and admiration. “How did you manage that?�
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“Right time, right place, I suppose. I just wish Stephen hadn’t fired them.”
“What possessed you to do it?”
Sara shrugged and took another bite of her taco. She had been asking herself the same question since that morning. Sure, she had always wondered if she could do it, but she was 26-years old and preparing to marry the most powerful man in her father’s empire, right under her father. With a wealth of money and all the best in life, expectations of her were high. She couldn’t run around like a teenager rebelling against her overbearing parents.
Her teeth sunk into the thick taco and the juice from the tender meat ran down her fingers, coating her engagement ring. She threw the taco into the tray and ripped off her ring. She dipped a napkin in her water and wiped off her hand first, then poured a little water over her ring.
As she polished it off with a clean napkin, Mary asked, “Why are you marrying Stephen?”
Sara finished drying off her ring and secured it back on her finger. She twisted the gaudy ring around her finger and stared at the five carat square-cut diamond, flanked by half carat square diamonds. Everything about it screamed Stephen, with nothing in the ring reflecting her personality. Stephen insisted on yellow gold, but she preferred white. Stephen demanded a large ring, while she wanted something inconspicuous. She didn’t care if it was a single solitaire of only a tenth of a carat. If she loved him, it wouldn’t matter if she had no engagement ring, as long as they were together.
“You don’t love him,” Mary said. “You never have.”
Sara shot her a glance, wondering how Mary could know that. She had never expressed her concerns about getting married, never once disclosed her nonexistent feelings for Stephen.
Mary laid a hand on Sara’s arm. “I’ve supported you through this wedding and I’ve held my peace. But you’re also my best friend and have been since prep school. As such, I have the obligation to tell you how I feel. Tomorrow you’re marrying someone who doesn’t give you the happiness you deserve. And why? Because Daddy told you to.”