by Angie Martin
Logan ran his tongue over his bottom lip and he took a deep breath. “If our situation was different, I wouldn’t waste any time. Right now, where I am, though, even if we could do all that, I’m not…” He looked down and his mouth tightened as pain flashed in his eyes. “I’m not free to—”
Sara touched her fingers to his mouth. She lifted her head and brushed her lips against his. “I’m not either, Logan. I wish I was and I wish you were, but that’s not the way it is for us.” She lowered her head back to the carpet and laced her fingers behind his neck. “But as much as it will rain all over us tomorrow, for tonight, can’t we just… pretend?”
He nodded and a small smile contorted his mouth. “Until this ends.”
Chapter Forty
Sara stretched awake on the floor of the guest bedroom. Her eyes fluttered open and she smiled to see Logan next to her. As she studied him, she sucked in her bottom lip. He seemed so peaceful in sleep, unlike during waking hours, when he carried more than his fair share of burdens.
She got to her feet and crept through the room to the hallway. She made her way down to the restroom, grateful Logan suggested they get dressed before falling asleep. Though he wanted to be dressed in case they needed a quick getaway, her own insecurities made her happy to not have to walk down the hallway naked in the middle of the night.
After using the bathroom, Sara decided to wash up before going to bed. Excitement coursed through her body and she knew sleep would not come easy. With every kiss, every moment spent with him, she grew a little more addicted to Logan.
She couldn’t take back what she had done, yet she felt no hint of guilt she would have expected from cheating on her fiancé. In the past two days, having distanced herself from Stephen, she realized marrying him would have been the worst mistake of her life. She never wanted to spend her life with him, but had only agreed to the relationship because of her father. Now that they were apart, she recognized the ridiculousness of the arrangement.
Stephen never made her feel as important, protected, and loved as Logan did when he made love to her… whether frantic and greedy as he was the first time, or tender and gentle as he had been the second time. Her bond with Logan ran deep, encased in unbreakable cement, yet pulled them together with its strong, magnetic force. She had never once experienced those emotions with Stephen, and no matter how many years they would have spent together married, she never would have.
More than that, she had experienced how incredible it was to be with someone who shared a mutual attraction with her. To look into the eyes of someone and see the reflection of her own wild, reckless desire. To soak up the touch of a man who cared about her, and not because of her father. Logan represented everything that was missing in her dead-end relationship with Stephen. The passion, desire, need, urgency, respect, and care. And one day, maybe even the love.
Sara leaned against the bathroom counter, rested her palms on the edge, and closed her eyes. A large smile overcame her face and she bounced up and down with her thoughts about Logan, as if a giddy teenager took over her mind and body. She wished she could share her experiences with Mary right now. They were too amazing to keep locked away for long.
Footsteps coming down the hall interrupted her thoughts. She stared at the door, knowing she should go out and meet Logan, but terrified to move. Seeing him outside the bedroom would be strange the first time it happened, yet she desperately wanted to be close to him again.
She grabbed the doorknob and pulled the door open. A man she didn’t recognize grabbed her arm and yanked her to him. She yelped as she collided with him. He slapped his hand over her mouth and lifted a gun to her head. “Quiet, darlin’. No one’s gonna hear you anyway.”
Her eyes widened and flicked to the left, toward the bedroom where she left Logan.
“He can’t help you now,” the man said. “Let’s go.”
He dragged her down the hall to the bedroom. When her eyes adjusted to the dark, she saw Logan on the floor with a shotgun to his temple. She lurched forward, but the man tightened his grip on her and put the barrel of his gun to her head.
“Let’s get them wrapped up and out of here,” the man with the shotgun said. He grabbed Logan’s arm and lifted him to his feet.
Logan locked eyes with her. “Just do what they say,” he whispered, “and you’ll be just fine.”
“What about you?” The words gurgled out as a whisper.
“He’ll be dead,” said the man that held her. His cruel laugh bounced around the room and brought tears to Sara’s eyes.
“Don’t hurt him,” she said. “I’m the one you want, not him. He was just doing his job.”
“You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” the man with the shotgun said.
Sara heard footsteps behind her, but the gun against her head scared her into not turning around.
In front of her, Logan’s eyes narrowed as he looked past her. “What the—”
The man with the shotgun smashed it into Logan’s head, knocking him to the ground. Despite Sara’s cries for the man to stop, he hit Logan again, and Logan stopped moving.
“Blindfold her,” a man’s voice said behind her.
Sara only had a second to think about the somewhat familiar voice before a blindfold wrapped around her head, covering her eyes. The man next to her took her arm again, escorted her out of the room, and helped her down the stairs. Toward the bottom of the stairs, the clunk of Logan’s body being dragged down the steps tore into her heart.
After going outside into the cold night air, a car door opened from somewhere in front of her. The man pushed her into the seat and she slid over until she ran into someone else on the other side of her. The man climbed in next to her, and the feeling of two large bodies on either side of her made her claustrophobic.
“Put your wrists together on your lap,” the man said.
She obeyed, and someone wrapped a tight binding around her wrists.
“Now, just sit there and be a good girl,” he said. “We have a bit of a drive ahead of us.”
“Where are we going?”
“No talking,” the man told her. “I wouldn’t want to have to knock you out like we did Logan.”
Sara lifted her bound hands and lowered her head, touching her forehead to her fingers. Silently, she prayed like never before.
Chapter Forty-one
I’ve been in far worse spots than this.
Logan chanted his mantra over and over until he gathered enough strength to open his eyes. He lifted his aching head and took inventory of his surroundings. The grey concrete beneath his boots and the concrete walls stained from water damage told him it was an unfinished basement, but he didn’t know where. His location wouldn’t matter until he freed himself from the metal chair to which he was bound.
The handcuffs that restrained him to the chair bit into his wrists, but he could freely move his head to look around. He leaned forward and made note of the several knots in the rope that secured his ankles to the legs of the chair. He reclined back in the chair, tensed all his muscles, and tried to rock the chair out of position. The chair didn’t budge. He alternately moved each of his legs up and down, but the rope was too tight to work his way out of it. He’d have to find another way to free himself.
Looking to his left, he saw a rusty, metal tray with tools on it. It sat too far away for him to reach it, but not so far that he couldn’t identify each tool. Pliers, knives, cutters, a drill, a hammer, and a saw. All useful in the art of torture. Langston would never allow him to leave this world without experiencing a bit of pain first.
To take his mind off his immediate future, Logan searched the depths of his memory for anything that could help him figure out his location and who had him. He thought about his night with Sara and how amazing it felt to hold her, touch her, and kiss her. After wanting her for so long, the release of being with her was incomparable. He had not wanted to take advantage of her vulnerability, but she had assured him that wasn’t th
e case.
He had opened up to her and allowed her inside his world. In turn, he let his guard down and they were both taken by the very men from which he swore he would protect her. He had failed again, in so many ways, and while he would probably not get out of the situation alive, Sara’s future was uncertain. He hoped Mathers and Langston would grant her life, but what kind of life would that be, married to a man who used her for his own gain and could turn on her at any time when he decided he had no more use for her? How would she ever feel safe again? How could she ever trust anyone? Sara deserved so much more.
A memory sparked in the back of his mind, of lying on the carpet with the shotgun barrel flush against his temple. Sara had come in with the other man holding a gun on her, a terrified expression on her face. Then, another man walked in. Someone familiar. Someone he knew.
No.
“Good to see you’re awake,” a man’s voice came from behind him.
Logan squeezed his eyes shut, not wanting to believe his ears. He knew to whom that voice belonged, knew it almost as well as he knew his own voice. But surely his eyes and ears had deceived him. It wasn’t possible.
It couldn’t be.
The man walked around to the front of him and Logan opened his eyes, bracing himself to finally face the mole, the leak in The Boys Club. The man who had betrayed him, betrayed Karen. The last person on earth he expected to see standing in front of him.
“You don’t look very happy to see me,” Jack said. “I thought at the very least you’d be surprised.”
“I am surprised,” Logan said with a strangled voice. “I saw your body—”
“But you didn’t stop to check, did you? That’s 101 stuff, Logan. Always check the bodies. Make sure someone is dead.”
“I shouldn’t have had to check to make sure my best friend—my brother—was dead. I never thought he would do something like this.”
“Then maybe you didn’t know me as well as you thought.”
“What did you… I mean, why? How?”
Jack let out an incredulous laugh. “Well, I wasn’t dead.”
“Clearly.”
He pulled a chair up in front of Logan and sat down. Resting his elbows on his knees, he said, “After you left your undercover job working with Langston, he spent a lot of time searching for you. Once he learned your identity, he also found out I worked with you. That’s when he approached me.”
“You’ve been working for him all this time?”
“Not at first, of course. A lot of threats were made, but I eventually came around to his way of doing things. Plus he pays a hell of a lot more.”
Logan forced his next question out. “You knew about Karen?”
“No,” Jack said, remorse crossing his face. “Karen was never a target. She wasn’t supposed to be there—”
“You knew he was coming after me?” Logan’s stomach churned. “That he would do it at my house?”
“She wasn’t supposed to be there!” Jack walked around behind his chair and rested his palms on the back. “You talked so much about how she was going to her parents’ house for the week. You said she was leaving the day before—”
“But she didn’t leave!”
“That’s not my fault!” Jack stared at Logan, his anger and hatred emanating from his eyes. “That wasn’t the plan.”
“Your plan backfired.” From the angry expression contorting Jack’s face, it was as if Jack blamed Logan for Karen’s death just as much as Logan blamed himself. “You were never one to complain about the pay, so why the hell would you work with Langston?”
“You are always the hero,” Jack said. “Everyone always looks to you to solve a problem, to take on the tough jobs. I grew up in the shadow of the great Gabe Logan, knowing I’d never be good enough to be at the top. Didn’t matter how hard I worked or how many times you messed up. Schaffer always elevated you and left the rest of us scrounging for scraps.”
“So you wanted me dead over what amounts to little more than a jealous temper tantrum? Daddy loved me more than you, or something immature like that?”
“You can joke all you want, but you’re the one tied up right now, not me. You always were on top. Work, Karen, everything. You had your perfect life, married with a kid on the way. The rest of us had to pick up the slack when you left, and all Schaffer could talk about was how he wanted to get you back so that you could take over one day. You didn’t even work there anymore! And then Karen was in the car instead of you.” Jack stormed over to him and pushed his finger in Logan’s face. “You were supposed to die that day, not her!”
Something in the way Jack responded twisted Logan’s gut. A strange, jealous rage punctuated his words and consumed his face.
As much as he didn’t want to, Logan kept his eyes locked onto Jack’s. “So, kill me and leave her alone, pregnant? Or what was the plan there, Jack? Were you trying to eliminate me so you could take my place with Schaffer and with Karen?”
“You were never good enough for her,” he said.
“You’re right. I wasn’t. But you sure as hell weren’t, either.”
Jack’s fist connected with Logan’s cheek. Logan straightened out his neck from the blow and ignored the pain. He had to somehow get through to Jack, to make him realize he could still turn around and make the right decision.
“Whose body was in the safe house in your stead?”
“One of our guys you killed in the woods.”
“Yeah, sorry about that.”
“He was a nobody. Expendable.”
“Except everybody that works for Langston eventually becomes expendable.”
Jack chuckled and shook his head. “I see what you’re doing. Trying to make me think that one day, Langston will get rid of me. That’s not going to work, Logan. Langston needs me too much.”
The black hole of his situation swirled around Logan, swallowing him up the more Jack spoke. “What does he need you for?”
“What do you think?” Jack asked, throwing his hands out to the side. “To take down Schaffer. Take down The Boys Club.”
Logan closed his eyes and gave up on Jack. He was lost to Langston’s cause, brainwashed by the scent of money and the promise of revenge against Logan for whatever perceived wrongdoing. He had to find a way to get out of his restraints and get to Sara, but that wouldn’t come through Jack.
“You see, Logan, with you gone, there’s nothing stopping me from rising to the top and giving Langton the information he needs to get rid of Schaffer and his band of vigilantes.”
“And just how do you explain that you’re not dead?”
“I miraculously escaped the safe house, but you were captured with Sara. Schaffer needs someone new to take your place, and I’m next in line.” He walked around behind Logan, leaned over, and spoke in Logan’s ear. “Of course, Doctor Connors has an opening for someone new, too, doesn’t she?”
Logan clenched his teeth and jerked on his bindings, but the cuffs only dug further into his skin.
“You broke her heart and then ran off and died on her. She’ll need someone to console her through the late nights, to let her know that there are much better things on her horizon.”
“Leave her out of this,” Logan said.
Jack rose back to his full height and sat back down in his chair. “I don’t think you have a say in it any longer.” He leered and his eyes widened in an innocent manner. “I promise to treat her right.”
“You son of a—”
“Speaking of which,” Jack said, “I see you treated someone right just as soon as you were alone with her.”
Logan froze. How could Jack possibly know about his night with Sara? “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Ah, come on, now. When we were tying you up, the back of your shirt slipped down a bit and I noticed what I thought was a cut. Turned out, they were fingernails, running straight down your back. Only one way that happens.”
Logan’s heart stopped. If Jack told Mathers or Langston a
bout his time with Sara, it would not end well for either of them.
Jack propped his elbows up on his knees. “You thought your team was dead and you just broke Doctor Connors’s heart. You couldn’t even wait until we were in the ground and the good doctor wallowed in her pound of consolation ice cream before jumping in bed with Sara? She was the job, Logan. Guess you decided not to follow that straight and narrow after all.”
Logan tightened his lips and remained silent, while staring Jack down. Yes, he had screwed up, and he was a bastard for it. He had toyed with Allie’s heart and then slept with Sara. No matter how he justified his actions, he was wrong. But Jack’s statements also made him realize how hard he had fallen for Sara to do those things.
“Don’t worry,” Jack said. “I won’t tell Mathers about any of this. If he knew, he just might shoot you and take away all my fun.”
“I don’t know what it is that I did to you,” Logan said, “but whatever it is, I’m sorry. I always regarded you as my closest friend, as family. I would never intentionally hurt you, Jack. Not now, not ever.”
Jack’s expression turned serious. “It’s a little late for that now, don’t you think?”
The door behind Logan opened again, and Jack rose to his feet. A hefty man of about 250 pounds of muscle spread out over six feet of height walked up to the tray with the tools. Logan made note of the key ring on his belt, along with the key that appeared to belong to the cuffs on his hands.
“Logan,” Jack said, “I’d like you to meet my friend Xander.” He turned to the goliath. “Xander, this is Logan, my former friend.” Jack grinned at Logan. “You two will be spending some time together. In fact, Xander is going to get to know you very intimately over the next several hours.”
Watching Xander fumble with the tools on the tray, Logan tried to remain stoic, but failed in that task. Unless a miracle happened, the only thing he could hope for was a quick death.
Chapter Forty-two
Sara rocked back and forth on the edge of the bed and stared at the door in front of her, waiting for someone to come through it. The more time that passed, the more her body trembled at the unknown. But as much as she worried about her own fate, Logan remained a constant in her mind. The men that took them had no regard for him, not with the way they knocked him out and let his body flop down the stairs.