by Lori Ryan
Chapter 30
Four days and three nights at an all-inclusive resort passed all too quickly. While in Mexico, they called Samantha’s parents and all of her siblings to tell them about their engagement. They also talked more about wedding plans and set some very tentative ideas in place.
For the most part, Logan wanted whatever would make Sam happy and Sam wanted whatever would make her mother and sisters happy. So it looked like Sam’s family was really in charge of the whole thing.
They’d spent one day of their vacation playing Tangled Legacy online, each of them making new profiles so they started from the beginning and battled each other in quests. When Sam had sufficiently kicked Logan’s ass, she showed him the two higher levels that would be added at the next update to the game and told him about a third she was working on.
The flight back went more smoothly than the flight out, primarily because Logan was better prepared for it mentally. He said it was easier when he knew what to expect and implemented several of the calming methods Ernie taught him, as they made their way through security and onto the plane.
And, of course, Billy had been there, his head in Logan’s lap whenever he needed it.
Sam and Logan drove to work together on Tuesday morning, slightly earlier than Sam would normally go in, but a bit later than Logan’s typical commute. He was getting better every day. Handling traffic and day-to-day interactions with crowds more easily. It wasn’t perfect, but things were improving.
Sam stepped out of the office building at one thirty, Billy’s leash in hand and her purse over her shoulder. In addition to running out to grab lunch for herself and Logan, she planned to take Billy for a little potty break on the green a couple blocks from the office.
Turning left, she looked up at the sun and smiled. It wasn’t the tropical sunshine and blue, cloudless skies they’d had in Mexico but it was pretty nice out. And life was fantastic. She smiled down at Billy, but was surprised to hear a low growl come from the dog.
Then she noticed the woman walking much too close to her on the other side. No wonder Billy was growling.
The woman grabbed Sam’s arm in a tight hold and smiled a bright, but creepy smile. “Tell the dog not to blow this, Samantha,” the woman said through her toothy smile. “We’re going to walk and talk a bit and believe me, you don’t want the dog drawing attention to you.”
“It’s all right, Billy,” Sam said, but she didn’t sound convincing to herself. Billy seemed uneasy so she tried again, lightening her tone. “Don’t worry, Billy, this is just a friend. We’re going to talk.”
She hoped that was true, but she had a feeling the woman who had a death grip on her arm was also holding a weapon on her. Sure enough, within seconds, the woman pressed something hard and sharp into Sam’s side.
Sam wished she was wearing the bulletproof coat Kelly had gotten her. If it stopped bullets, surely it would stop a knife? But it was a raincoat and since she didn’t have to wear it out of necessity each day, she’d decided to leave it at home.
“Good girl,” said the woman and Sam tried to place the accent.
It wasn’t one accent. There were several. British, but something else underneath. Maybe something Slavonic? Serbo-Croatian? Russian? Czech?
“Now, cross to that bench over there and we’ll sit and chat.”
Sam walked stiffly over to the bench, sitting when the woman gestured to do so. How was it possible she was now sitting here with a knife to her ribcage when Alonzo was dead?
Maybe whoever he’d paid to come after her was still trying to complete the job for the sake of their own reputation? But then, why was she sitting here having a chat in the park at knifepoint instead of lying dead on the sidewalk outside of Sutton Capital where the woman had first approached her?
“What do you want?” Sam hoped if she could get the woman talking she could figure things out.
“What I want isn’t going to happen,” the woman said and there was a profound sadness to her voice. It was thick with … grief. The realization startled Sam.
“Did your Logan tell you about his last mission?”
Sam’s breath caught and she nodded jerkily. “Some.”
“Did he tell you of the family he slaughtered? The children? My brothers? My mother and father? I want you to know my name. My name is Diya Bogolomov. My brothers were Nikolai and Vadic and they were babies. They were innocent.”
Sam wanted to argue. Instead she swallowed her throat dry and threatening to seize up.
“And,” Sam said, not at all feeling the calm she was attempting to display, “to what do I owe this visit?” Visit, attack, whatever.
“Oh, I’ve just got some news to deliver to you. You see, Samantha, it seems that several of your friends have found themselves in a bit of trouble.”
Sam felt her blood churn to a frozen halt in her veins. The acid in her stomach leapt up her throat and she tried to take a deep breath.
“Excuse me?” Sam’s friends were everything to her. Her friends and family.
A sly shrug from Diya answered her and Sam had the urge to smack the woman. She controlled it, but only just. She needed to find out what the woman wanted.
Diya stuck her hand in a large tote on her shoulder and Sam stiffened. But the woman drew out only papers.
“I have to admit. Your plan is ingenious. It has a certain sick, twisted perversion to it,” Diya said.
Sam felt a wave of dismay as she realized what Diya was doing.
“You were listening. The listening devices were yours. It was you, not Alonzo.”
Diya laughed. “You wrote the plan for me. It was really quite brilliant.” She handed Sam a stack of papers. “It’s all there. You’ll see.”
Sam flipped through the stack. Kelly and Jack and the kids. Diya had planted evidence pointing to child abuse. Dear God, they could lose their children. Their children could end up in foster care.
Jennie and Chad. Drug use. Sam wanted to close her eyes but she kept reading.
Sam’s sisters and brothers all had pages, too. Everything had been set up to frame them for some criminal act or to drain money from their savings accounts.
All the money from her parents’ retirement savings.
Logan. Oh, Logan. Diya had set him up to look like he was leaking classified information. Information that might put his former teammates at risk. Information he would die to protect, she was sure of it.
Sam felt tears sting her eyes and she pressed her lips together for a minute, fending them off.
Diya’s laughter was cruel, unrelenting.
“What do you want?” Sam asked, rubbing the tears with the back of her hand, but she knew what Diya would say.
It had been Sam’s own plan, although she’d come up with it as a joke. It wasn’t meant to be someone’s sick game to get back at Logan and his team for some imagined crime. Logan and his team were not responsible for what happened to this woman’s family. That was on her father and no one else. He’d been killing people. Hundreds of people. Someone had to stop him.
“You’ll leave Logan immediately. You may have two days to say your goodbyes to your family. This was more than I was given, but I’ll give that to you. But no more than that. At the end of forty-eight hours, either you’re dead or all of this goes public. Accounts drained, evidence released. Your friends and family might eventually get out of some of the trouble this puts them in, but not before the damage is done.”
No, Sam knew. Not before they suffered irreparable harm.
Sam wanted to argue with the woman. She wanted to rail against her and tell her this was sick. She wanted to shake the woman and tell her Logan and his team were not to blame. Only her father was to blame for his family’s deaths. He was the one who put his children in danger. He was the one who had been a criminal, a terrorist. A murdering coward.
Sam’s despair was silent but no less cutting than if she had been able to cry out and yell. She sat cold and alone with tears streaming more freely now.
Even if he was only arrested pending a trial, Sam knew he couldn’t handle prison right now. The close confinement. The lack of freedom. The need to defend himself constantly against attacks. He would lose it.
He needed to be working on getting his life back, on rebuilding ties with his dad, and on getting well again. He needed to keep up with sessions with Ernie. She wouldn’t allow any of that to be stalled again. He’d sacrificed enough. No more.
Sam took a deep breath. She knew what she had to do. She nodded robotically to the woman, then stood, speaking softly to Billy as she walked him back to the building. She didn’t get lunch or even stop to speak to Logan. She went straight to the receptionist’s desk.
“Amanda, can you take Billy for me?” Everyone in the office had been introduced to the service dog in the last week. “I’m not feeling well. I’m going to go home and lie down. Can you watch him until Logan comes to get him?”
“Sure, Sam,” Amanda said, worry creasing her brow. “Do you want me to call Logan and have him walk you to your car or take you home? You don’t look so good.”
Sam wanted to laugh. No, she imagined she didn’t look very good. All she’d wanted in life, all she’d ever hoped for—Diya had ripped it from her. She imagined she looked like she felt. Nauseated. Run over. Desperate.
She wanted to run to Logan and bury herself in his arms. She wanted to run to her family and see them, let her mother tell her everything would be all right. But, she couldn’t do any of that right now.
“No, thanks. He’s actually in a meeting for another hour at least. Maybe more. Can you let Billy lie out here with you? I’ll text Logan and let him know to come out for him when he’s finished.”
“Yeah, no problem, Sam.”
“Thanks,” Sam said and turned and walked out. With any luck, that would buy her a little time.
She felt numb on the drive to her house. She didn’t stay long. Just long enough to grab her laptop and write a note saying goodbye to Logan. She told him she needed space to think things over. That she loved him, but things had moved quickly. Too quickly. Writing the words brought on a fresh wave of tears, but she brushed them away and walked out, grabbing the raincoat Jack had bought her on the way out.
Logan looked up at the clock and blinked. He was trying to catch up after their mini vacation, but he was pretty sure Sam had left at one thirty to walk Billy and grab lunch for them. It was two forty-five. She should have been back a while ago. He looked at his cell phone and didn’t see any missed calls or texts.
He pulled up his messages and fired off a quick everything all right? text to her, and then went back to his computer, saving the file he was working on before sending another file to the printer. Turning back to the phone, he picked it up with a frown. No response.
Maybe she stopped to talk to Chad or Jennie. He texted each of them, asking if they’d seen her. Negative replies came back in quick succession, followed by an everything all right? from Chad. It seemed they were all still a little on edge after all they’d been through the last few weeks.
Sam was most likely fine. She’d probably just gotten into a conversation with someone at the park and forgotten the time, just like he had.
But that grating at the back of his neck said otherwise. The fact that she wasn’t responding to his text supported his gut. He walked to the lobby to see if Amanda had seen her and stopped short at the sight of Billy sitting at Amanda’s feet. Billy came over immediately, circling his legs as Logan walked closer to Amanda. God, he didn’t want to know why his dog was out here without Sam anywhere in sight.
“Hey, Amanda.” He tried to keep his tone light. “Where’s Sam?”
“Oh, are you done with your meeting? She said not to bother you, but she wasn’t feeling well. She went home an hour or so ago.”
Logan cursed and took off back down the hall toward Chad’s office. Something was wrong. Very, very wrong. No way in hell Sam would leave without telling him, even if she did feel sick. Not unless she had a reason to. And for her to actually lie to Amanda and make sure someone was watching Billy, well, that didn’t add up.
He dialed Sam’s phone number as he and Billy made their way to Chad’s office.
“We have a problem,” he said to Chad as he entered his office. Jack and Chad both looked up from where they stood over Chad’s desk, looking at something.
“What’s up?” Jack asked.
“Sam. She took Billy for a walk an hour and a half ago and didn’t come back. I just discovered she left Billy with Amanda and told Amanda not to bother me since I was in a meeting.”
Chad raised his brows. “No meeting?”
“No meeting,” Logan confirmed. “I have a really bad feeling about this. She’s not responding to texts or calls.”
Chad dialed his phone and asked Jennie to come into his office. Since her office was only two doors down, she appeared quickly.
“Can you try to call Sam? See if she picks up?”
Logan tried not to freak. He knew what Chad was thinking. Maybe Sam was avoiding Logan for some reason. Maybe he’d done or said something to piss her off. Some part of him knew he hadn’t, though.
He recognized the feeling churning in his gut right now. It was one he’d often felt out on deployments. He had learned to heed it. The one time he hadn’t, too many people had died.
Jennie tried both texting and calling, but got no answer, either. They all looked at each other and Logan’s heart hit the pit of his stomach. They had been wrong somehow. When they’d thought this was all over, when they’d thought Sam was safe. They were wrong.
He pulled up the Find My Friends app and checked for Sam’s location on his phone.
“Says she’s at home,” he said as they all walked out. There wasn’t any discussion about what they needed to do or who was staying and working. They would all go find Sam.
Jack gave instructions to Amanda as they all left the office. They wouldn’t be back until they found Sam. All meetings and appointments needed to be cancelled for the next few days.
Chapter 31
Sam’s first stop was the bank for cash. She’d left her phone at her town house on purpose, knowing that would bring Logan there. She went to the bank and took out cash, then went to a nearby hotel and holed up in a suite.
She logged on and got to work.
First step, find out who had done the legwork for Diya. No way was she able to do all of that herself. Planting all of that evidence had taken skills your everyday person simply didn’t have.
Sam began to troll hacker chat rooms and look for telltale little brags. Anyone talking about something big they had done or anything remotely looking like the kind of hack this would require. She also pulled up all of the info they’d tracked down that had pointed toward Lazarus Alonzo earlier. With any luck, if that info was fake, she’d find a footprint somewhere.
She dumped the stash of candy she picked up on the way over onto the bed, crossing her legs crisscross-applesauce-style on the bed. Using her teeth to open a Kit Kat wrapper, quickly followed by a Twix wrapper, she began to scan.
It might take her hours, but she’d find out who helped Diya and then she’d fix it so none of them could touch her or Logan or the people she loved, again.
Thankfully, Sam was quite used to spending hours in front of a computer screen, trawling for one small piece of information, one tiny clue to lead her in the right direction. She knew how to battle the eye fatigue and grogginess. She cranked her music up in the background, chugged a soda, and kept on going.
And that’s when she saw the first telltale signs. Damn it. She should have seen it before. She should have realized the trail leading to Alonzo was too clean. When she looked closely, she saw tiny traces that something was wrong.
The money that supposedly went from Alonzo’s account through a number of cover compani
es, eventually landing in the account of one of the men who attacked her? The trail actually had one other stop, but it hadn’t been a stop along the way. It was the originating account. Alonzo hadn’t sent that money. Diya Bogolomov had.
Sam cursed under her breath and kept digging. She knew whoever was doing this would have left a clue somewhere. That was the thing about most hackers. They wanted credit. They craved it.
Even if this guy had been paid to keep his mouth shut, somewhere there would be some little slipup. She’d bet on it.
Logan cursed as he picked up Sam’s phone and scrolled through the alerts. No sign of her in the town house, no sign she’d been around to receive any of the alerts.
“Is her computer here?” Chad asked as they made their way through the town house.
Kelly had just arrived, over Jack’s objections. Jennie was filling her in on all they knew—which was, basically, nothing. A whole lot of nothing.
“No.” Logan knew Sam kept her laptop locked in her desk drawer when it wasn’t in use. The drawer stood open and empty at the moment.
Chad shook his head. “I wonder if that means she took off voluntarily or—”
He didn’t finish the thought.
Logan looked around the living room. He didn’t know what to think and he honestly didn’t know where to start.
“Logan?” Jennie’s voice was soft and laced with … pity? She came down the small set of stairs that led from the kitchen to the living room and glanced at Chad. Kelly and Jack hung behind her.
“What is it?” He had a feeling he sounded a hell of a lot harsher than he wanted to.
She handed him a slip of paper. Christ, he didn’t want to look at it. He didn’t want to know what it said. Because suddenly he had doubts. He was wondering if maybe, just maybe, Sam had simply left.
He looked down and read the lines, read her saying she needed space and time to think. He felt the kick in his gut all the way down to his balls. Chad came and quietly took the note from his hands and read it.
