by Angie Martin
“I have an idea of where Schaffer might send us, but first we need to find a phone. He may have already sent a team out to the safe house to find out what’s going on since we’ve been out of communication for about 12 hours now.”
“How often do you normally talk to him?”
“Protocol is to check in every two hours. That’s why we have to get to a phone. He needs to know I’m alive and you’re safe.”
The thought of another team going out to the house to find the bodies of Logan’s friends saddened her again. Though Logan told her she wasn’t to blame, she still felt responsible for their deaths. She had just started to get to know the others, and then they died, all because her father wanted to kill her.
Sara leaned her head back against the headrest and watched the mountains fly by outside her window. Life had changed so drastically in the past few days, leaving her feeling out of sorts and scattered. She wanted to talk to Logan to pass the time, to take her mind off everything, but making small talk seemed a ridiculous idea.
“What are you thinking about?”
She raised her head at Logan’s question. Shrugging her shoulders, she said, “Nothing, really.” She paused for a moment, then turned to look at him. “I guess I’m not sure what I’m thinking about. I just feel so lost right now.”
Logan kept his eyes on the road in front of them. “I can’t imagine. Honestly, I’m not sure how you’ve kept it together, not with the bombshell we dropped on you about your father and with everything that’s happened since.”
“How have you kept it together? Your entire team is gone.”
“We’ve lost people before. It doesn’t happen very often, but it does happen.”
“But you seemed so close to them,” Sara said. “Especially Jack.”
Pain flashed in his eyes and he grimaced. “Jack and I practically grew up together.”
A hint of melancholy mixed with sadness laced his voice, and Sara wanted nothing more than to comfort him. “I am so sorry,” she said.
He shot her a sideways glance. “You have nothing to be sorry for,” he said, ending the discussion.
She frowned and focused on her hands in her lap, trying to think of something more to say.
“What was it like growing up with Langston?” Logan asked after a few moments of silence.
“Our relationship was disconnected. I never knew him. I guess I still don’t.” She sighed and turned her eyes back to Logan. “I was always gone from the house and when I was there, he wasn’t too interested in me. I think he was happy when he passed me off to Stephen. It was like the best thing about me graduating from college and being an adult was that he no longer had to take care of me. I became someone else’s problem.”
“When did he introduce you to Mathers?”
“A little over a year ago. I tried to break it off a few times, but Dad kept pushing me to stick it out.” She shook her head. “All because Stephen is his number one.”
Logan remained silent, while Sara mulled over her last words. An unbidden thought entered her head, one she hadn’t considered before. Realization dawned on her, and her eyes glazed over.
“His number one,” she said under her breath.
“What’s that?” Logan asked.
“Didn’t you say that Dad was grooming you to be his right-hand man? But Stephen wanted the job, so he did all those things to try to prove you weren’t legitimate?”
“Yes.”
“If you were legitimate and not working at The Boys Club, would you have gotten the job?”
“I think so,” he said. “I worked very hard to get to the top in a short amount of time.”
“That’s so weird.” An incredulous smile crossed her face and she shook her head. “If you had been legitimately working for my dad and moved into Stephen’s position instead of him, then my dad would have pushed me to marry you, not Stephen.”
Logan’s eyes widened, but only for a moment. “I suppose you’re right.”
“Strange how that worked out,” Sara said, shaking her head. “Now you’re protecting me from him.”
“I guess I never thought about that before. I’m glad that’s not the way it was.”
Sara’s eyes flew to his face. “Thanks a lot,” she said, overplaying her sarcasm.
“That’s not what I meant. You shouldn’t have let him push you to be with Mathers to begin with, so I’m glad it wasn’t me that he tried to force on you.”
“Something tells me if you had worked for him legitimately, you never would have gone for it. You’re a much different person than Stephen. And, though the circumstances could have been better, I’m glad it happened this way.”
His eyes connected with hers for a moment. “Me, too.”
“You know I never dated anyone before Stephen.” The words tumbled out of her mouth and she instantly regretted sharing something so personal.
“Never?”
Sara shook her head. “Dad didn’t like the idea of me dating anyone. Sometimes I wonder if he always had this plan to marry me off to someone high up in his organization.”
“He may have,” Logan said. “He always thinks about the long-term when he makes a decision. But how did he stop you from dating if you were never around him?”
“My security detail did his dirty work for him. I guess I did go on one date before I met Stephen. I was 16 and this guy took me to a movie. We were sitting in the back of the theater, and I was so nervous since it was my first date. After the movie started, we held hands, and then about halfway through the movie, he kissed me.” Sara smiled at the memory. “My first kiss.”
“So what happened that you stopped seeing him?”
“My dad happened. He had told my security detail that I wasn’t allowed to have any physical contact with the guy, so in the middle of a crowded theater, they yanked us up and dragged us out of there. They pushed the guy around, made sure he understood he couldn’t come near me again, and then drove me back to the dorms.”
“That’s pretty extreme.”
“I was so embarrassed. The theater was filled with kids from our school, so word spread pretty quickly. No guy even would talk to me after that, let alone ask me out on a date. Then, somehow, the story followed me to college. It was my curse. That’s what it was like growing up with Dad. If I should even call him that anymore.”
“It’s hard, growing up with the feeling that no one cares about you. I know you had your mom, but after she passed away and you were left with Langston, it was probably a lot like what I went through on the streets. No one seemed to care.”
“We do have that in common, I suppose. Although I wasn’t homeless.”
“I wasn’t for too long. Schaffer took me in after a few years.”
Sara studied Logan’s face for a moment and thought she caught a hint of a smile. “He sounds like a wonderful man. I can’t wait to meet him.”
“You’ll get along with him very well.”
She leaned her head back again and turned to the window.
“Why don’t you try to get some sleep?” Logan asked. “I’ll wake you when we get near a stopping point.”
Until he suggested it, Sara had not noticed her exhaustion from their adventurous morning. Her eyes grew heavy and she yawned. With Logan next to her, she could rest comfortably again, knowing he would do everything he could to keep her safe.
Chapter Thirty-five
When Logan pulled the car into a truck stop two hours later, Sara was still in a deep sleep. She had barely moved since drifting off, and Logan did not want to wake her. Though he had chosen a parking space at the far end of the lot, closest to the pay phone, he could not go inside and leave her in the car for a nosy patron to find her and possibly recognize her.
Logan touched her shoulder. “Sara?”
She stirred a bit, but didn’t wake.
“Hey, Sara,” he said again, his tone light. “Time to wake up.”
Her eyelids snapped open and she jumped forward in the seat. Frantic
, her eyes darted about the car before landing on Logan.
“You okay?” he asked.
She lifted her hand to her chest. Taking deep breaths, she said, “I thought something was wrong and they had found us again.”
“It’s okay,” he said. “We’re not going to let that happen.”
She looked out the windshield, toward the truck stop. “Can I go inside with you?”
He grabbed his bag from the backseat. Digging through it, he found his stash of money and handed her six twenties. Gesturing to the pay phone near the car, he said, “I’m going to use the phone to call Schaffer. Go on into the store, use the restroom or whatever, and get some food and water. The safe house won’t have anything for women, so get what you need for two or three nights. Keep your head down and don’t linger. Don’t look anyone in the eye if you don’t have to. I’ll meet you in there.”
“I’ll be as quick as I can,” she said.
Her confident tone erased any doubts he had about leaving her alone for a few minutes. “I won’t be long,” he said, opening the car door.
Logan watched her walk to the gas station, her head bowed as he had asked. When she disappeared behind the door, he made his way to the pay phone, nervously jingling change in his hand. He deposited the coins, waited for the dial tone, and punched in the numbers for Schaffer’s emergency cell phone. He didn’t want to risk the leak answering the phone at the Church.
The phone clicked, but no one spoke on the other end. Logan recognized it as Schaffer being cautious. “It’s me,” he said.
A sigh of relief came from the other end. “Logan,” Schaffer said. “Where the hell are you?”
“Just across the Arizona border at a truck stop.”
“I sent in a team to the safe house when I hadn’t heard from you. What happened?”
“We were ambushed. Jack, Charlie, Les…”
“Damn,” Schaffer said. “We didn’t know who the bodies were.”
“What do you mean?” When Logan saw the lifeless bodies of his friends, he knew immediately who they were, even in the darkened room.
“The safe house was burned down. There were just three bodies, but we had no way to identify them. I’m glad you’re safe. Is Sara with you?”
“She is. What about the team that has Mary?”
“They’re fine,” Schaffer said. “They relocated Mary two days ago. She reunited with her parents and now they’re all in a safe house up in Oregon. As soon as Sara is with the FBI, we’ll look at getting Mary back to her normal life.”
“Sara will be glad to hear that, but I need to get her to a safe place. What’s our next move? I thought maybe you’d send us to Flagstaff.”
“That’s the best place to be right now, so head to the safe house there. But I want you to get to the Church tomorrow.”
Logan hesitated. Though he wanted to get back more than anything, he still had no idea who was working with Langston from the inside. “I can’t bring her there, Schaffer. Not until I know who the leak is.” He tightened his hand around the receiver. “They’ve killed three of us now. Jack… Jack’s gone—”
“I know this isn’t easy for you, but I need you to stay focused on keeping Sara safe. I’m still working on the leak from this end, but we have to get you both out of the open. Call me when you get to the safe house. Tomorrow, we’ll figure out where to go from here.”
Logan ended the call and leaned against the top of the pay phone with his eyes squeezed shut. He had been so focused on his job until now that he hadn’t thought about his friends being killed. He knew he had to get Sara to safety, but he didn’t know how much more he could handle before he broke.
He took several deep breaths to decompress and align his thoughts with Schaffer’s instructions. Sara’s life now rested entirely on his shoulders and he could not fail, not after three men gave their lives for her. As he walked toward the truck stop to find her, he resolved to stop at nothing to bring Langston down.
Chapter Thirty-six
Sara accepted the change from the cashier without looking directly at him and turned around to head to the bathroom. She tried to stay conservative while shopping, settling on a couple T-shirts, a few personal items, some water, and food. The truck stop had no jeans or other clothes for her, but she figured she could make do with whatever they had at the next safe house. It would only be for a few more days at the most, she hoped.
In the restroom, she stood over the sink and used paper towels to soap off her face, neck, and arms. After drying her skin, she went into the handicap stall and changed into a clean shirt. She wanted nothing more than to climb into a hot shower and change into fresh clothes, but she reminded herself it wouldn’t be too much longer before she could do that.
Back at the sink, she took the toothbrush and toothpaste out of the bag and worked on getting her teeth cleaned. Between that and the sponge bath, she already felt much better, but was a long ways off from being back to normal.
“Screw you, too, Vern,” a female voice came from just outside the bathroom.
The door swung open and Sara froze at the sink as a stout woman wearing a flannel shirt walked in.
“Men,” the woman said. She stepped up to the basin next to where Sara stood and looked at Sara in the mirror, as if they shared some common bond. “You can’t live with ‘em, but you can sure as hell live without ‘em.” Her laugh echoed through the small bathroom.
Sara gave her a brief smile, but returned her attention to brushing her teeth. She spit out the last of the toothpaste. Leaning over the sink, she cupped water in the palm of her hand and brought it up to her mouth.
“I’ve had to do more than one of these truck stop clean ups,” the woman said, washing her hands. “Not the best in the world, but it works. Where you heading?”
Sara hesitated, unsure of what to say. “Um, just taking a road trip, that’s all.”
“I see, I see,” the woman said, eyeing Sara in the mirror. “Me and Vern are heading over to Nebraska. Have a load to drop off there by tomorrow. Looks like you’ve been on the road quite a bit already.”
“Not for too long,” Sara said. She worked on packing her things back in her bag to leave.
“Yeah, you’re a bit worse for the wear. Still adorable as a baby chick, though.” She moved to the paper towel dispenser and yanked out several sheets of rough, brown towels. “You driving with your man or with a friend?”
Sara grabbed her bag and headed to the door. “A man… I mean, a friend. He’s a man, but he’s a friend.” She pulled open the door as a flush crept into her cheeks.
The woman laughed again and followed Sara out of the restroom. “I know that type of man friend,” she said.
Sara stopped to look around for Logan, and considered her exit strategy. She didn’t want to be rude to the woman, who was friendly enough, but she also couldn’t keep talking to her in case someone noticed them or the woman happened to recognize her from the news.
“Over there,” the woman said, her short arm extended and pointing to the hot dog warmers. “That’s my Vern right there.”
Sara smiled at the sight of Vern, who scratched the top of his head and messed up his comb over.
“I sure do love him, but sometimes spending all day together in that truck of ours gets the better of us. You’ll find out at the end of your trip with your man, I’m sure. Which one is yours, now?”
Sara’s stomach knotted as she looked around for Logan. She wanted to hurry and get back to him, away from the prying conversation.
“That’s him coming in now,” the woman said. “I know it sure as I know my name. He seems like your man, at least.”
Sara swallowed hard at the sight of Logan walking into the truck stop. She latched onto her locket and swung it back and forth on the chain.
“Yeah, that’s him,” the woman said. “Man alive, he sure is something.”
Logan stopped when he saw Sara and stared at her with his trademark, unreadable expression.
Sara kep
t her eyes on him, immobilized by her thoughts. She didn’t know what he was to her, other than her protector, even though she felt something more when he looked at her. Any day now, he would walk out of her life, and though she could not fathom why, that was not an acceptable outcome to her. He seemed to be the only thing she had left to hold onto before the FBI took her away and she did not want to lose the one person who tethered her new life to her old one.
“It was nice talking with you,” she told the woman.
Logan’s eyes shifted to the cash register. He looked back at Sara with a frown before walking toward her.
Sara wondered what he saw that changed his demeanor so suddenly. She turned her attention to the cash register.
“Oh my goodness,” the woman said from beside her.
Sara’s jaw dropped and her heart jumped when she saw the television behind the counter. There, for the whole store to see, was her picture. Information scrolled across the bottom of the screen beneath the word “MISSING” in large, block letters, just above a phone number.
“That’s you,” the woman said. “You’re that girl they’re looking for in California.”
“Time to go,” Logan said when he reached her. He grabbed her arm and guided her lead-filled legs to the exit nearest them.
“Wait!” the woman called out.
Logan picked up the pace. As soon as they went through the door, he coaxed her to run. She barely heard the commotion of people behind them over her heart thudding in her ears. They both jumped into the car and Logan fumbled for a second with the keys. Her eyes landed on the woman running out with Vern and a few other patrons right behind her. She noticed a man on his cell phone gesturing wildly, occasionally pointing in her direction.
The engine revved up and Logan tore out of the parking lot. She watched the side mirror for the first few miles, but didn’t notice anyone following them.
“We have to get on some back roads for a while,” Logan said.
“I’m so sorry,” Sara said. “That woman wouldn’t stop talking to me and—”
“It’s okay, Sara. There’s nothing you could have done once it was on the TV. If she didn’t recognize you, someone else would have. We’re just lucky there were no cops there at the truck stop.”