And he would.
Logan had every intention of avenging Claire
and feeding his own anger at what he had seen Gerry doing to him.
Disgusted, furious, and itching to kill someone, he got to his feet
and turned around, preparing himself. He’d never dealt with a
situation like this before, but he couldn’t just leave her like
this.
And she sure as hell wasn’t staying in a hotel
anymore, at least not that one.
Cautiously, he went over to her and knelt
before her, touching her leg.
She jerked, a sob ripping from her
throat.
Pain tore at his heart. She sounded so scared,
so broken.
Logan took hold of her arm, pulling her forward
so that he could slip his arm under her knees and his other around
her back. Standing with no effort at all, he carried her away from
the ally. Her thin arms curled around his neck and hot tears stung
him where they fell. Logan heard her sobs, felt them. Anger shot
through him again, and he tightened his arms around her.
“I really don’t want to go back there,” she
cried, clutching him. She reminded him of a hurt child. Her voice
was high-pitched and she was shaking in his arms.
He nodded against her head and walked with her
to his truck, thankful that the streets were completely dead and no
one was around to see them. “You aren’t. But I want you to stay in
here. Give me the key to your room,” he commanded her gently,
unlocking the door of his black pick-up and tucking her into the
seat.
She reached behind her, and then
turned to look at him with big watery eyes. “I left my backpack
there! Oh, god I need that,” she wiped at her tears angrily before
trying to move past him, still shaking and
still
crying.
“I’ll get it for you. Just sit here and try to
calm down.” He pushed her back softly and brushed his hand over her
cheek, catching a stray tear. His throat was tight as he saw her
internal struggle.
“Front side pocket, left. Room S437, on the top
floor. You have to take the stairs because the elevator
broke.”
He nodded, tucking the information away while
making sure she would be alright. Her top was torn, her hair was a
mess, and her eyes were red and puffy. She sniffled
loudly.
Logan smiled, despite the anger and worry he
was feeling.
She was adorable.
“Oh,” Claire said as an afterthought, wrapping
her arms around herself. “My suitcase is on the balcony, behind a
couple of pots.”
“I’m not even going to ask,” he commented
dryly, relieved when she tried a smile. “I’ll be just five minutes.
Lock the doors to the truck and if Gerry comes up to it, put the
keys in the ignition and drive away. I don’t care where you go as
long as you don’t leave the town.”
“But what about you?” she asked, worriedly.
Claire grabbed onto his shirt, holding him in place. “I don’t want
to be left alone,” she said, voice catching. He heard the tears
gathering and pushed her back gently.
“Honey, you can’t even walk right
now. I’ll be
five
minutes. That’s it. I’ll be fine if you take the truck, I know
a guy who could give me a lift to my ranch.”
Her head was shaking, messy blonde hair
flopping around her face. A tear rolled from her eye. “I don’t
--”
Logan felt bad, but nodded firmly and pushed
her inside, clicked the lock button, and closed the doors. She
immediately curled into the corner of the truck seat, not looking
at him. She was a pouter, he thought, smiling, loping away from the
truck and to the alley she’d been in.
He wasn’t smiling when he got there. Gerry had
picked himself up and left, but the backpack was still there,
discarded.
Two minutes later, he was climbing the stairs
and digging for her room key. He found her room, a spacy suite, and
went to the balcony. Her suitcase was right where she said it had
been. It took him another two minutes to grab all of her clothes,
shampoos, and other girly things, and right when he was walking
out, he noticed a pile of pillows in the corner. He took a look at
the bed, and then grabbed the pink and blue covered pillows. Those
were obviously not the hotels.
When he got back to the truck, he plugged in
the code to unlock it and opened the door.
Claire screamed, quickly turning to face
whoever had opened the door.
The second she saw him, she relaxed, taking
shuddering breath.
Then she glared at him.
“You’re one minute and twenty-seven minutes
late. You said you would be back in five minutes.”
“Well,” he started, throwing her suitcase in
the back seat and then holding up the pillows. “I had to grab
these.”
The anger immediately dissipated. “I forgive
you,” she said, then grabbed the pillows and clutched them to her
chest, pressing her face into them and inhaling.
“Good,” he said, nodding. It was a pain to
climb down those stairs with all of that.”
“I’m sorry,” she murmured, turning to look at
him with her head still resting on the pillows.
“It’s fine.”
He’d thought they had a mutual agreement that
she was going to stay with him for the night until she said, “You
can just drop me off like, at the park...” He could hear the tears
in her voice, again. Her voice was shaky and he could tell this was
taking a major blow on her pride, but he had to ask.
“Why?”
“I’m not going back to the hotel and I have
nowhere else to...” She trailed off when he turned to stare at her.
He didn’t say a word, just stared at her.
“What?” she asked, backing away from
him and pressing into the truck door. He turned on the ignition and
shook his head, not answering her. She would find out soon enough
that he wasn’t planning on letting her sleep in a
park
after she’d almost
been raped.
---------------------------------------------
Claire held onto her pillows tightly, breathing
in as she quickly got more confused.
They smelled like home. She’d made sure to
bring pillowcases that she’d used when she had been backing because
she had known she would get homesick. They reminded her of her
room, and the moments when her and her father would have talks and
when she had been little, he’d tuck her in and read her a
story.
Tears gathered in her eyes again.
“Logan?” she asked, not lifting her head from
the pillows. At first, she thought he hadn’t heard her because her
voice had been muffled, but then she heard him.
“Yes?”
“Where are we going? I think you passed the
park, it only takes a minute or two to get there...”
“I did pass the park.”
“Oh. Well, turn around?”
“No.”
She turned and looked at him, her face screwed
up. “Where are you taking me, then?”
“To my ranch.”
She mulled this over silently, still clutching
her pillow. A ranch, even with Logan there, was a lot better than
sleeping at a park where Gerry could still find her. She shivered,
nodding her head to him and hoping he’d seen it. Claire could try
to talk, but she would fail miserably. Even now, tears were
gathering in her throat and her hands were turning numb at the pain
that was coursing through her.
The ride was silent, giving her time to think
and calm her nerves.
She’d left the store right after the weird talk
with the pharmacist, and the second she’d gotten outside, something
had felt wrong. It had been like someone was watching her, staring
at her and willing her to look back. She’d known it hadn’t been
Logan. His stare was hot, scorching. It took her breath away and
made her body flame.
The stare she’d felt hadn’t given
her tingles of desire. No, it had been tingles of
fear
.
She clutched the pillow tighter,
shuddering at the memory. She felt Logan look at her, concerned,
and bit her lip against it’s quiver. Claire had never felt so
vulnerable and weak in her life. She was used to handling
situations with a cool, graceful reserve, but then again, she’d
never been through
this
before.
The men she was around were respectful and
politically correct. To hit on a Senators daughter would be a
scandal and no one wanted that on their records.
Claire forced herself to calm. Logan wouldn’t
let Gerry near her, she told herself. He might not like her and
have an obligation to protect her because she was a woman, but
Gerry would surely stay away from her from now on. The image of
Logan standing over Gerry flashed through her mind and she
shuddered, struggling between fear and desire. He’d been so dark
and dangerous, like nothing she’d ever seen before. Even in her
terrified state, Claire was woman enough to take notice of
him.
Up until he got rough. She’d had to turn away.
Claire didn’t want to think of him near killing someone. No matter
how alluring he’d been, she had a strike of conscious of witnessing
violence, and plus a large dose of fear.
Claire hadn’t realized how long the ride had
been until she looked at the clock when they turned onto a gravel
road. She thought it wouldn’t take long for a house to show up, but
it was a surprisingly long time. There were fields and miles of
rolling hills. She was just about to ask how long it would be when
she suddenly saw a roof. It was dark out, but the falling sun and
rising moon cast shadows and illuminated the house.
It almost took her breath away.
It was huge and white, with a long circle
driveway and a peaceful patio. She bit her lip to keep from making
a comment, even though she wanted to compliment him on his house so
badly. Claire knew it wasn’t what normal people would do, but she
was used to giving compliments and showing people that she
appreciated their welcome. It was only proper.
Her eyes sought out more of the
house, utterly entranced. Claire was used to mansions, but not any
like
this
.
“My mother first sketched the house when she
was six. When she met my father, they built it
together.”
Claire was so distracted by the beauty of it
that she said, “It’s so big... How many children did they
have?”
“Me and two other brothers.”
“Oh,” she whispered, peering out of the window
even more raptly as they got closer. She could feel his eyes on her
but she chose to ignore them. “Are your brother’s here as
well?”
“Ah, no,” he said, almost awkwardly. “One of
them is overseas and the other is working on a project in Socorro.
I haven’t heard from him in a bit so I’m assuming he’s doing
fine.”
“Wouldn’t you be worried if you hadn’t heard
from him?” she asked, confused, loosening her grip on the
pillow.
“With Chase, the less contact you have with him
means the less trouble he’s in. When he calls me, I’m going to
assume he’s locked up in jail.”
She turned to him with wide eyes. “Oh, my.
Maybe you should check up on him,”
Logan looked at her like she was crazy. “Why
would I do that?”
“Well,” she frowned, thinking of her own
family, “if my family were prone to getting into trouble, I would
want to make sure they are okay...”
He was silent for a second, and then he did
something that shocked her.
He laughed, right at her face. It was a deep
rich sound, and she could tell he didn’t laugh much. It made her
smile.
“My family doesn’t work like that. And I just
hope that while you’re here, they don’t show up. You’d run
screaming for the hills,” he said, chuckling.
“Would I?” she asked, distracted by the
now-closer house. She clutched her pillow.
She didn’t pay attention to his answer.
Instead, she struggled to wait patiently when he parked the car and
came around to her side. She didn’t want to show him how excited
she was to be there, or how much she wanted to run around screaming
like a kid , playing in the flowers that were amazingly still in
bloom. He didn’t notice her excitement.
The first thing he did was made her
promise she would sit in the truck and then he took her things into
the house. He left her with her pillow and she took that time to
gaze around her in awe. There were millions of little flower beds
spread around the house. Even along the driveway there were bushes
lined up and rock gardens. In the front lawn, there was one
huge
tree with a small
rock garden placed to the front right of it. It was such a lovely
site that it almost had her bouncing in her seat to see
more
Logan came out a second later and helped her
from the truck. He held onto her waist the whole time and when they
got to the stairs, he only let go of her for a second to hold open
the door. It was a nice gesture, coming from him, but his worry was
making her antsy. She was still shaken because of Gerry, but the
house and the soothing aura it gave her were enough to calm her
nerves enough that it wasn’t on the forefront of her
mind.