“Don’t think that for a second,” he scolded
her. Blake came around till he was standing right next to her,
munching on his apple. “Logan would give his life for you – hell,
he’s preparing to do just that right now.” He smiled as if he found
the notion enjoyable.
“What?” she gasped.
“Well he can’t just stand by and watch you get
shot at if shit hits the fan.” Blake explained it to her as if she
were a child. “You look really pale,” he said. Then he frowned. “I
think I’ll go eat my apple in the other room and keep my mouth
shut.”
She nodded numbly, thinking over
what he had said. He was
preparing
to die for her? Meaning he
counted on it
? Or was she just looking
too far into it. Her heart crashed in her chest as Blake left her
to her thoughts. God, why was this all happening now?
Logan pulled on his jacket, connecting the
comm. link to the hidden frequency and slipping a gun in his
holster. They’d be leaving in only a couple of minutes, and he had
no doubt that Claire was already awake, even though he hadn’t
bothered to check on her.
Looking at her physically hurt him. The dark
spots under her eyes, the worry he read in them every time he
looked in them. The way her shoulders were curled, how vulnerable
she looked. Last night, he’d slept in the basement with the men,
just so he wouldn’t be tempted to go to her room and hold her. She
wanted her space, she was going to get it.
But damn, did it hurt.
“We already to go?” Nathan asked from his spot
on the couch. He was loading amo into one of the
riffles.
Logan nodded. “We just have to hook her up and
then we can get going.”
“Right. I’ll go get Luke. He’s locked up on his
computer right now, doing some weird shit.”
He frowned. “What do you mean?”
Nathan shrugged, standing up and slinging the
riffle over his shoulder. “No idea. Didn’t you notice him leave
last night?”
“No,” Logan growled. “I’ll go find
him.”
He put his hand on the handle, but before he
could do anything, it burst open. “You guys are not going to
believe this,” Luke said, laptop in hand.
“What is it?” Logan demanded. Nathan walked
over as Luke set the laptop on the table. The screen was white at
first, but after a few taps on the keyboard, a list of numbers
appeared on the screen.
“Those phone numbers?” Nathan asked, peering
over the screen.
Luke grinned, nodding. “The guy who called our
Claire is pretty slow. I traced the call to his number and got a
list of previous numbers he’d called. The only number he’s called
beside’s the house phone is Senator Joey’s.”
“We already guessed that they were connected,”
Logan said, straightening up, indifferent.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t get bored so
quickly. I took the liberty of tracking down Claire’s cousin
—
Andrew Baker. I also
tracked his cell,” he said, looking at them as if they should know
what he was implying.
Logan raised a brow at him. “And?”
“And, it’s snuggly moving around New York, his
hometown. I rigged up a telemarketing call just to see if he was
actually in New York… He answered a short survey for me, thinking I
was telemarketing for the Senatorial election about his
uncle.”
Nathan and Logan looked at each other. “So he’s
not here,’ Logan growled.
“Nope. Safely in New York with his father and
mother. Nowhere near us,” he said, straightening form leaving over
the computer. “And, right now, our man is at the hotel we’re
supposed to be meeting him at.”
“Logan,” Nathan said, taking the riffle from
his shoulder. “We leave Claire here and take care of the man. The
sooner that happens, the sooner it’s over. Then we don’t have to
worry about this happening again.”
He shook his head, wishing it were
that easy. “Joey won’t give up until the election is over
—
and he might not even
stop after that. He’ll want Claire for revenge if he
loses.”
“We can at least take care of the
main problem,” Nathan pointed out. Luke gave them a parting nod of
his head before heading back to his room. The man was tall and
lithe, and he had the computer skills of a mastermind. If he wanted
to take over the government, he could with a simple click of a
button
—
everyone
knew it; that’s why he was on their team. The man could fight, but
he was best known for his skills with a keyboard. Finding out the
information he had just now must have taken him seconds, a piece of
cake.
“I take it we can’t just off the Senator and
call it a curtousy of the nation?” Nathan asked drolly, moving to
the door.
“I don’t think that’d fly very
well.”
“I didn’t either.”
They exited the room, both armed. Now all they
had to do was face Claire with their new information…
“What?”
Claire watched through furious eyes as Logan’s
face became, once again, stony.
“I
said
, you don’t have to come with us.
We can take care of it.”
“But…but my cousin!” she gasped, hands
clenching into fists. Were they really going to be so arrogant as
to risk her families life?
“Isn’t even in this state. He’s safely in New
York.”
“How do you know?” she asked, snapping her arms
over her chest. She glared at the five men standing in front of
her, eyeing them.
Luke raised his hand, grinning. “I got the info
just a couple of minutes ago. There’s no reason for you to be put
in danger, Mrs. Marshal.” Right them, she wanted to shoot his head
in with the riffle he had slung over hi shoulder. They all had
them, wearing them like some warrior with a prize, strutting around
like they owned the place.
She took a calming breath before shaking her
head. “I want to go.”
“That’s not going to happen
—
“
“In all defense, there really is no
reason for you to
—
“
“Wouldn’t you rather be here eating some
pie?”
“I don’t are
,” she snapped above their tirade of voices. Claire swept her
hair back from her face with a huff. “I want to go. I won’t believe
it till I see it.”
“Claire,” Logan growled, taking a step forward.
She met him halfway there, stabbing a finger into his chest. “If
you guys don’t think he’s much of a threat, then I can
go.”
“That’s not how it
works
, Claire. Why can’t
you just accept that you aren’t going?”
He grasped her wrist, jerking it away from him.
“I can’t just sit here while you go out there,” she said with
force, yanking her wrist out of his grasp.
“That’s too bad. If you want to get anywhere,
you’ll be walking. And it’s too hot out to do that, so I guess
you’re stuck with the option of just sitting here and waiting till
we get back. We won’t be long.”
He gave her one final, hard glare before
stalking out of the back door, leaving her there. The men followed
and she as left in silence.
Furious, painful silence.
So that was how it was going to be? Him
fighting the bad guys and leaving her to sit here by herself,
alone?
Claire didn’t think so. She waited until she
was sure that they had left. The truck hit the gravel road in less
than five minutes. Outside of the window, the gravel kicked into
the air, leaving a trail behind them.
Yeah, Logan didn’t know her that well at all if
he thought she was just going to sit here.
She was running upstairs to get jogging shoes,
trying to think of a way she could get into town, when she heard
something downstairs.
Her eyes flickered to the clock. Marla had an
hour yet before she had to show up, and she never came this early.
With unease settling in her stomach, she slipped off her jacket and
quickly dressed into a short-sleeve Nike T-shirt that said, “Too
much game.”
Another sound, louder.
What the hell… It was Saturday.
Marla wouldn’t be here for a while, the cowboys were out doing
their own things and never came into the house
—
even if they did, she always had a
warning call from them
—
so what was going on downstairs?
Looking around for something to
defend herself with, just in case, she saw a large marble
horse
—
just big
enough to be as long as her forearm, and light enough that she
could carry. The thing could have cost two-hundred dollars, but she
promised herself that if she actually had to break it on someone’s
head, she’d buy him another one.
Taking a deep breath, as if the
action would cause any sound around her to halt immediately, she
began her creep down the stairs. She could hear shuffling from
inside the kitchen
—
where the back door had been left open, like it always
was.
Holding the marble horse ready, she
turned the corner and
—
“Oh
fuck
,” she gasped, a second before the
horse was knocked from her hands with a clatter. As marble
shattered onto the tile of the kitchen, Claire barely had time to
register the bulbous figure that was somehow managing to stand
above her
—
Her head slammed into the floor and she was out
like a light.
Chapter 30
Logan moved in, pressing his body
against the roof of the hotel that they’d planned on finding
Claire’s threat. The sun was beating down on him, and he knew it
was probably just as bad for the other’s. Thing was, though, that
they were used to it. Being overseas meant you did a lot of
missions in the heat
—
and this was no different.
He could consider it hunting
—
because whatever he was
going after wasn’t human.
To be human, you had to have morals. A soul.
The ability to comprehend wrong from right. If you didn’t have
those qualities?
You were nothing more than an
animal.
Eric and Nathan were, with permission from
Darla, on her diner. She’d made sure to evacuate anyone in the
restaurant the second she’d seen them coming in. Darla knew him,
was practically his second mother, and she knew what his friends
represented. Shit was about to go down, and she didn’t want any
liabilities.
In fact, it seemed as if the whole town somehow
knew. It was barren, to the point that there was no one on the
streets. The only thing with any movement was the dust bunny that
rolled around the road just outside of the hotel.
Logan checked his watch, Luke
getting into place beside him. They were five minutes early, which
meant they had better time to scope out the surroundings. He knew
the backdoor and every ladder to the decrepit hotel was blocked
off, unsafe for people to use, so the only way the fucker could get
outside was through the front door. He’d make his way to the back,
and that was when Logan planned on shooting
—
but not to kill. Seriously injure,
but not kill. He had questions that he wanted answered, and since
he knew the thing wasn’t much of a threat, the “shoot first, ask
questions later” rule didn’t apply.
He was glad that Chase had stayed on the ranch.
Claire hadn’t been aware of this when they’d left, of course, but
the knowledge that his brother was there to protect her made this a
lot less worrying. He knew that with situations like this, all it
took was one little slip-up to have spiraling out of
control.
Still, though, as the sun beat down on his back
and the riffle heated up in his hands, an uneasy shift slid through
his back, up his neck, and right into his stomach.
He didn’t have time to think on it
though
—
at that
exact second, Nathan hissed into the comm. link. “Target
out.”
That meant action time. Feeling
cool, deadly intent slide through his body, replacing any worry
he’d had over Claire, he trained his riffle and waited. If he did
plan on going to the back of the hotel, which Logan was certain he
was, he would show up in their sight
right…about…
now.
He almost smiled when the blond hair
came into view
—
but froze.
Logan knew that figure, that hair.
It was choppy and messed up around his head, like burnt straw. And
he knew that the second he got down there, he’d hear that damn
voice.
Should have
figured
, he thought, aiming. Luke shifted
beside him, apparently getting the go-ahead from Nathan to begin
moving.
He watched the hulking figure take a discreet
place near the far back corner of the alley.
This guy had tried to take Claire form
him.
Carl Smith. Such a plain name for such a fucked
up person. Images of their encounter flashed through his mind as
his finger tensed on the trigger. His anger had his eyes flashing,
vision turning red.