Logan's Woman (27 page)

She went about getting ready for bed like a
robot. The second she was out of the shower, she towel dried her
hair, slipped into a pair of pajamas that she’d left in Logan’s
room, and then went to hers. The outfit she picked out was simple
and comfortable. Black tighes and a gray UnderArmor jacket with a
pair of socks and grey tennis hoes. Simple and, if push came to
shove, easier to run in.

When she was back in Logan’s room, she laid
them on the couch and searched for a piece of paper and pen. She
was leaving the second she was dressed in the morning, and she
didn’t want to forget, in her haste, to write to Logan.

She finally found a piece, and sat down on the
bed, the stationery clenched in her hands.

Claire stared at it.

What the hell did she put?

His face came into her mind on its own
accord.

For several seconds, she stared at the paper,
just seeing his face.

God...

Claire stood up suddenly.

Throwing the paper off of her lap, along with
the pencil, she flung open the bedroom door and in seconds, she was
running through the house. She couldn’t not tell Logan. Was she
actually that dumb that she wouldn’t tell him? He could do
something. He had the strength and the minds – and she obviously
didn’t.

What had she even been thinking,
doing this alone? She wanted to be strong for him – but getting
herself
killed
?

Claire’s throat closed up. She turned the
corner and the next thing she knew, her face was smashed against a
large bulking chest and hands were on her shoulders.

“Claire?” the familiar deep voice was
muffled.

“Blake! Where’s Logan?”

She met his eyes frantically. He pulled the
apple out of his mouth, pointing down the hall. “Talking to Nathan.
Listen, is everything okay? What’s wrong?”

“I just – thank you,” she said quickly,
slipping around him and running down the hall. God, when had this
house gotten so large?

The last door on the right was where she heard
the deep tenors. She flung open the door, heart in her chest.
“Logan!”

At the sight of him leaning over a table, thick
arms braced on the edge, face concentrated, it all came crashing
down around her. Her little charade of strength from earlier and
crumbled. She ran over to him and flung her arms around his
shoulders, holding on, forgetting about the audience.

“This guy,” she said quickly against
his chest. “He called and said he had my cousin and I had to meet
him in town tomorrow at ten and I couldn’t bring anyone with me. He
said that if I did, he would shoot my cousin in the head and then
you and I don’t want you to die or him either, but I can’t just
leave like that and I
don’t know what to
do
.”

“Hey, calm down.” His arms came around her
tightly and she curled into his chest, drawing in his comforting
scent.

“What do I
do
? This thing has my cousin!” It was
so hard to keep the tears at bay, to not cry in front of Logan and
the gathering crowd in the room. Blake had come in, along with
Eric, Luke, and Chase.

“I need you to calm down first, Claire. Breathe
and tell me what happened, slower this time.”

She pulled back from him slightly, looking
around the room.

What had she been thinking, doing this alone?
One person against a small militia. Her heart clenched in her chest
and her hands went numb. “My cousin Andrew, he was the one who
would send me money when I needed it. Like for food and gas and
stuff. I don’t know how this freak found out about him…but he has
my cousin. Logan, Andrew is like my big brother!” She looked at him
desperately.

“When did you get the call?” Nathan asked this.
Logan just stared at her silently.

She swallowed, looking away from him. He knew
she had lied to him.

“A couple of hours ago, right before dinner.
The voice was all squeaky?” she frowned, not knowing how to explain
it. “And watery, like he was gurgling, but then it was also raspy.
I don’t know how to explain it. But he said that I have to meet him
behind the hotel across from the diner at ten o’clock tomorrow,
alone, or he’s going to die.”

Nathan took her elbow, guiding her to a chair
and sitting her down. She’d never been in this room before. There
were gun safes lined up along the wall, the table in the room was
metal and had a spread out map with a small computer screen built
into it. In the far left corner of the room, there was a stand that
reached the ceiling filled with black devices. Opposite of that
stand was a large black box. It had cords running out of it that
led to twenty or so black styluses, which were connected to the
side of the box and had a small LED light that blinked every once
in a while.

She looked back at Logan, who was
again just watching her. His eyes were hooded and his arms were
crossed over his chest. He was
furious
with her.

He stepped toward her. “You had planned on
going there alone?”

His voice was soft, yet the sound of it was
like a whip against her ears. Claire nodded, staring him straight
in the eyes with pressed lips. “I wasn’t thinking. I was scared and
he said he would kill whoever went with me.”

“You were going there
alone
?” he snapped again,
slamming his hands on the table. “Claire, what kind of idiot
are you
.”

“Logan…” Chase placed a hand on his
shoulder.

“Get the fuck away from me, Chase. I
cannot even believe for a
second
that you could be that stupid as to even
think
about going there.
What the
hell
were
you thinking?” he roared. Later, she would swear that the room
shook because he was so loud.

Her vision clouded and she got to
her feet, hands clenched. “I was
thinking
that I didn’t want to see
anyone die because of me!” she shouted back. His head fall back as
his cold, short laugh shot around the room.

“You didn’t want to see anyone die because of
you,” he repeated, laughing again. She closed her eyes for a
second, forcing herself to keep calm.

“I should have thought it through, I know. I
wasn’t thinking straight. Andrew is like my big brother and I don’t
want him to die –“

“And I don’t want to see
you
die, Claire. What
would have happened if you hadn’t come in here and told me the
truth? Tomorrow, you would have been on your merry little way to
meet someone. Not only would he be dead, but so would you be.” His
voice was nothing but a ragged growl as he faced her. He shoved his
hand through his hair, and she could only watch him
helplessly.

“I came to you, though, didn’t I?”

His eyes shot fire at her from across the
room.

“Did you doubt me? Was it because of how you
had to run for your life the other night? Is that why you didn’t
trust me enough to come and tell me this?”

At that question, every single eye shot to her.
Her face paled and she shook her head, moving to reach for him. He
stepped out of her grasp. “No, Logan. And it hurts that you would
even think that,” she whispered, dropping her hand. She was going
to break her promise to herself. The tears were already stinging
her eyes.

“Then why wouldn’t you come to me?”

“I already told you,” she said, crossing her
arms over her chest, looking away from him. “I don’t want anyone to
get hurt. I was just going to go there, get my cousin, and then
come back here.”

“God
,
Claire. It’s
never going to be that
simple
.”

She jerked away from his shout, turning away
from him completely.

“Logan,” Nathan interrupted. “I think we should
focus on the problem at hand instead of arguing over this. You two
can take care of it on your own time.”

She heard him breathe out roughly, and then a
short, “Fine.”

“Claire,” Nathan said, his voice soft. “Do you
want our help?”

She stared at the wall, blinking
tears away rapidly. “I
need
your help. I can’t lose Andrew, too.”

“Alright. It’s that simple.” The gentleness in
his voice was odd, but comforting. She turned around and looked at
him, catching the reassuring look in his eyes. “We’ll have your
cousin back and you won’t even have to worry.”

She frowned at that. “I still have
to go, though. He was really serious about me coming
alone
.”

“No,” Logan grated, staring at her. “You won’t
be going.”

Claire looked at him.

“If you’re going to be an overbearing douche
bag, I might as well do it myself.”

“Douche bag?” Blake cut in,
laughing.

She bit her lip, ignoring the comment, and just
watched Logan as he completely cut her out. His eyes were
unreadable and she remembered seeing him like that the first day
she had come here. Dark, dangerous, and looking like he was ready
to kill something.

Chapter 29

Claire didn’t sleep at all last
night.

She slept in her own bed, the one
she’d been in before Logan and her had gotten married. She hadn’t
been able to find a reason
why
she should sleep with him last night – after all,
he’d done nothing but snap and glare and tell her what she could
and couldn’t do for the rest of the night.

He was short with her, barely looked at her,
and when she woke up at five in the morning to get a drink of
water, he’d come downstairs, saw her, and then left.

Thinking about it now, as she got dressed in
the clothes that she’d brought over from Logan’s room, had her
heart clenching. She prayed to God that everything went perfectly
fine and that, once they had her cousin back, everything was back
to normal. She’d hurt his pride – lied to him, flat out told him
that she didn’t trust his ability to take care of her, and she
hadn’t slept in their bed last night.

What kind of person was she?

It was ten till seven. She hadn’t had a wink of
sleep since yesterday at ten, her nerves were frayed, and she felt
like a cloud was settling around her. She’d taken her pill –
actually two of them, just because she felt that she needed to –
and now she was in the kitchen again, just sitting at the
island.

She didn’t have to wonder if anyone else in the
house was awake. Marla would be showing up in a couple hours, and
by then they would all be gone. Claire was positive that she wasn’t
the only one that hadn’t gone to sleep last night.

All night long, she’d been waiting for Logan’s
steps to whisper across her door, waited for him to go to his own
room. Either they hadn’t, or he had just been more quiet than usual
– she was guessing the later.

Even though it was seven in the morning, it was
dark out. The rising sun was covered by thick rolling clouds and
she’d even closed the back door in case it rained. Adjacent to the
back door was a floor-to-floor glass window. She knew Logan was
tight on security, so she guessed ruefully that it was probably
bullet-proof glass.

There was still a whole in the marble
counter-top – she’d asked Blake about it right before going to bed
because Logan had been refusing to talk to her, and he’d said that
it was just an accident. Claire knew better than that,
though.

She stood to stiff feet, thinking that the
least she could do was make coffee for everyone. Last night, Logan,
Nathan, and Luke had come up with a plan to get Andrew back while
still keeping Claire safe. There was no way that she couldn’t show
up – the second the thing saw any one other than her, her cousin
was, as they said, fucked.

Claire was just about to pour herself a cup of
coffee when she heard someone behind her.

She turned around sharply, gasping.

It was Blake, reaching for an apple from the
center of the island. “Holy God,” she breathed, clenching her hand
around the handle of the cup. “You scared me.”

He flashed a cocky grin and took a crunching
bite of the apple. “Of course I did. You’re tighter than a bow
right now, little lady. Didn’t you sleep at all last
night?”

She set the cup down, sighing. “How can I? I
feel like someone is digging bamboo up my finger nails right
now.”

Blake nodded knowingly. “I know how that feels.
Not very pleasant. But you have no reason to worry. Logan and us
would never let anything happen to you.” He grinned
again.

Oh, she had no doubt about that. It
was
them
and
her
cousin
that she
was worried about.

“I doubt Logan would care much right now,” she
mumbled, turning back around to pour herself a cup. Maybe the
coffee would wire her nerves so badly that it worked like ADHD
pills. Work you up so tight that you’re calm.