by Sierra Rose
“Lacy?” She leaned back to gaze up at him, confused by the sudden look of fear dancing across his face. “Where did he get those pictures?”
A wave of nausea ripped through her, as she turned her head towards the bedroom. It was an automatic gesture, but one that seemed to cut him to the core. He followed her gaze, visibly shaken, then knelt calmly to the floor and took Peter’s face in his hands. The man reached for a knife and lunged. Logan kicked the weapon out of his hands, accidentally kicking the man’s head. Her attacker slumped as his eyes fluttered shut.
Only after he was confident their assailant was unconscious, did he take Lacy by the hand, and walk them purposely back to the bedroom. They paused a moment outside the cracked door, then Lacy nodded slowly, and they both walked inside.
It was a strange feeling. Like going back to the set of a horror movie after the cast and crew had already finished and gone away. The memory of it remained. The look of it remained. But it was different somehow. Empty. Diminished.
Except that it was all fresh and new in Logan’s eyes.
He stared up at the window in complete disbelief—freezing with the same expression that Lacy must have had on her own face. His eyes widened slightly, especially when they saw some of the closest and most sexualized shots, but a second later, he cleared his face of all emotion.
“I’ll take these down,” he said quietly. “You call the police.”
“You can’t. It’s evidence.”
“I’ll take the naked ones then.”
“Fair enough.”
Lacy nodded quickly, but found herself unable to move. The smell of incense and caviar washed over her, and instead of going towards the phone, she found herself backing away.
Logan caught her a second before she could reach the door.
“Sweetheart.”
Something about the way he said the word broke through her dark trance. She stopped shaking and lifted her chin to meet his eyes. They were waiting there with a comforting smile.
“It’s all over now. I promise.” His lips brushed against her forehead with the lightest, sweetest kiss. “It’s all over.”
One final shudder ran through Lacy’s body, before she nodded with a shaky sigh.
He was right. It was over. It was time to go home.
Chapter 29
It might have been time to go home, but that didn’t mean that either Lacy or Logan was going to be leaving police custody any time soon. For the first time in her entire life, Lacy walked into the City of Cleveland Police Department, not as a gloating warrior—bringing in her prize—but as a victim. A scared, shaken victim still clinging to the arms of her boyfriend.
Instead of stopping at the front counter to chat over coffee with the receptionist, she was led to one of the rooms in the back hallway—one of the rooms she’d always subconsciously assumed were reserved for people who had committed a crime. She was separated from Logan almost immediately. She declined both drinks that were offered to her, and was then gently interrogated by officers who were polite, but not exactly friendly.
Of course, they got a lot more comforting once they realized what was going on.
“I just want to apologize again, ma’am.” Officer Derek Henley, the man who’d been in charge of taking her statement, led her protectively down the long hallway back to the front of the building. “I know it doesn’t seem like it now, but considering the statistics of how these situations usually play out, I think you can count yourself very lucky.”
He was right. It certainly didn’t seem that way now.
“What’s going to happen to Logan?”
She’d been asking the question, but had yet to get a straight answer from anyone. It had been suspicious enough that her boyfriend was visiting the city under a set of rather strange circumstances. Between that and the fact that when the officers arrived, Peter Schilling was bleeding and unconscious on the floor? She didn’t know what would happen.
Officer Henley shifted automatically forward to open the lobby door. “Between what you were able to tell us, as well as the emails we recovered and the hard evidence found at the scene, we’re not going to be pressing any assault charges against Mr. Chase. If anything, it was fortunate that he arrived when he did. And that he showed at least a bit of restraint...”
The officer trailed off, and for the first time all afternoon, Lacy stifled a bit of a smile. It would be impossible to accurately describe the policemen’s faces when they burst into the hotel room and saw the bizarre scene. The way Logan had lashed the man to the bathroom safety rails with his own belt. The way he’d gagged him with a washcloth for good measure. Or the way he and Lacy had proceeded to eat the entire tray of room service in front of him as they waited. They also burnt all the naked pictures.
Needless to say, it was going to make for a rather interesting case report.
“At any rate, he should be released from questioning soon.” Henley gestured to the chairs in the lobby. “You’re free to wait here.”
“Thanks.”
Lacy wrapped her clothes tighter around her and took a seat. She’d been in and out of police stations enough to know that there was a lot the officer wasn’t telling her. For example, what exactly was going to happen with the ‘hard evidence’ he’d described finding back at the hotel. Logan had gotten a fierce reprimand for tearing down the pictures and ‘tampering with a crime scene’ when the officers first arrived, but they softened slightly when they saw the content. Logan just told them he wasn’t thinking and burned them without a thought. At least the other pictures were still up to help prove their case that her attacker was a nut.
“Hey you.”
She looked up suddenly to see Logan sweeping towards her from down the hall. He was escorted by two officers, who hung back at the entrance to the lobby, and was wearing a look of utter exhaustion that matched her own.
“How is it only one in the afternoon?” he asked as he pulled her into a tight hug.
She laughed shakily, closing her eyes as she pressed her face into his jacket. “I was just thinking the same thing. It feels like this day has been going on forever.”
He pulled back, looking her up and down. “What do you say that we end it early? Call it a day and head home?”
“Home.” She nodded automatically, glancing around the police department with a little shiver. “Yeah, that sounds pretty much perfect.”
Chapter 30
It’s always a strange thing—trying to come back to earth after a trauma. Strange and highly individualized. There was no predicting what might happen, except to know that everyone involved was bound to react in different ways.
The first thing Logan did when they got back to Dylan’s house was to ransack the place himself. The naked pictures of him and his girlfriend might be locked away in evidence, but they were burned forever into his mind. He pictured every one—remembering the distance, gauging the exact angles. Then he tried to recreate them. Tried to imagine exactly where Peter must have been hiding when he took each one.
Those select places—usually closets or storage spaces—were torn apart with the voracity of a bloodhound. As Lacy waited patiently in the kitchen, Logan single-handedly dismantled his brother’s entire house. Unsatisfied with the security. Looking for hidden cameras, broken locks, or anything else that might explain how such a massive violation of privacy was able to happen.
But while her boyfriend was propelled into a whirlwind of action, Lacy had gone very still. She bustled around only long enough to heat up a pot of coffee, then perched in the center of the kitchen counter. Sipping it slowly. Watching Logan work. When he was finally satisfied, she simply cocked her head and the two of them headed upstairs to the bedroom.
Logan had torn that place apart as well, but the bed, at least, was clear. He and Lacy settled in the very center, nestling deep beneath the covers in each other’s arms.
“You’re going to have to explain all of this, you know.” After almost a half hour of quietly lying there
, Lacy finally broke the silence. “You’re going to have to tell your brother why his house looks like a tornado ripped through the center.”
Logan glanced down at her in surprise, then his lips turned up into a reluctant smile. “Does Cleveland have tornados? I might just go with that.”
“No tornados. But no hurricanes either,” she added as a quick afterthought. “So it still has that going for it over Florida.”
“Florida,” Logan murmured under his breath, so soft she almost wasn’t able to hear. His arms tightened around her, but his eyes were distant as they stared out the window. “Florida is starting to sound pretty good right about now.”
Lacy said nothing. Much as she wanted to, she could think of nothing to say.
To start, she didn’t know how he meant it. Did he just mean that he wanted to be as far away from this house and these horrible memories as possible? That he wanted to put an entire country between him and the Cleveland Police Department? That he wanted to take her with him?
Or did he mean something else? Had something broken between them today? Something that no amount of time or good intentions would be able to fix?
The room quieted into a charged silence, but neither one of them had the strength or energy to break it. Not today. Instead, they curled even deeper beneath the blankets and fell asleep in the middle of the afternoon. Not to wake again until morning.
Chapter 31
When Lacy woke up the next morning, Logan was nowhere to be seen. There was evidence of him, of course. The house had been straightened. The mouthwatering scent of coffee was drifting up from the kitchen. Spartacus was barking happily in the backyard. But Logan himself was gone. And that wasn’t even the worst part.
His bags were missing too.
A wave of panic stole through Lacy’s heart as she started pacing from room to room. Throwing open the doors, only to see an immaculate but empty space in front of her. Looking for any evidence that the man she loved hadn’t gotten spooked and jumped on the nearest plane.
She couldn’t find any. His cell phone went straight to voicemail, his wallet was gone, and despite the fact that he’d been living in the house, not one of his belongings had been left behind.
Finally forced to admit the truth, Lacy threw open the front door and marched down the steps. She stopped on the last one, burying her head in her arms as she started to quietly cry.
I can’t believe it. I can’t believe he’s actually gone.
“Lacy?”
Her head snapped up with a gasp, and she whirled around to see Logan staring at her with a look of wide-eyed concern. He was perched in the center of the swinging bench. The same bench they’d fallen asleep on together one of his first nights there. A slew of papers was scattered around him, an open laptop was humming on the armrest, and there was not one, but two phones glued to each ear.
“Hang on gentlemen,” he ended every conversation at once, “I’ll have to call you back.”
The next second, he dropped the phones—shoving everything aside to make room as he pushed to his feet and rushed to join her on the steps. The crying had yet to stop and he sank down slowly—eyeing her with a worried sort of caution, afraid to set her off.
“Sweetie, what is it? What’s wrong?”
For her part, Lacy had yet to speak. Not only was she still reeling from the shock of seeing that he hadn’t fled the state, but there was something different about the man in front of her. No longer was he the carefree vacationer she’d grown accustom to, there was a fiery sort of passion about him instead. An instinctual sort of confidence in the way he’d handled the people on the phone. A strange kind of determination that she didn’t understand.
“I thought...” She could hardly bring herself to say the words. Looking at him now, staring into those beautiful eyes, it was almost too absurd to imagine. “I thought you’d left.”
Logan nodded slowly, not understanding himself.
“...like to get breakfast?”
“Like the state.” She pulled in a shaky breath, more relieved than she would have thought was even possible. “After what you said yesterday, about Florida...I thought you’d gone back to Miami. That you didn’t want to be here anymore. Or have anything to do with Cleveland...or me.”
She couldn’t help but tag on that last part, even though she was suddenly having trouble meeting his eyes. When she finally did dare to look, he looked as surprised as she’d ever seen him. For whatever reason, his eyes flickered back to the mess of papers littering the porch, before returning to hers with a rather guilty expression.
“It’s actually...quite the opposite.” She looked at him curiously and he ran his hands back through his hair, taking a deep breath before laying it all out in the open. “I called up my CFO today and started making preliminary plans to open a resort in Cleveland. I also called up my personal business manager and had him start transferring funds to a local branch.”
He grew suddenly quiet, shooting her nervous glances all the while, but for her part, Lacy had no idea what to say. She simply stared at him—her mind going completely blank.
“A local branch?” she repeated in a daze, not understanding. “What do you mean?”
His eyes tightened anxiously as he studied her every micro-expression, trying to interpret them as best he could. “Local to here. To Cleveland. So that I could live here permanently.”
There was a lengthy pause. Followed by another blank look.
“...I’m sorry?”
This time, the tension on his face melted away into a tender smile. He reached over and pulled her gently onto his lap—kissing the tip of her nose before he explained.
“I’d like to move here, Lacy. To move my business headquarters from Florida to Ohio. To maybe buy a house here. Somewhere that I could live...with you.”
...oh.
It was starting to click. Starting to make sense. But Lacy still couldn’t believe that it could possibly be true. After everything that had happened yesterday morning? After the stalker, and the pictures, and the visit to the police station? He still wanted to move?
“Are you serious?”
It was the only thing she could think of to say, and he replied with a little laugh. “Yeah, I’m serious, but...but only if you want me to.” His face grew abruptly solemn, not a trace of the smile that had been there a moment before. “Lacy, what happened yesterday...I can’t even begin to...” He trailed off then took another deep breath, forcing himself to continue. “If you wanted to take a break, get a little space away from me...I would completely understand.”
Lacy blinked up at him, before pulling back with an incredulous frown.
“If I want to get a little space from you?” she repeated in a daze. “Why the hell would I want to do that—”
“You were attacked,” he said quietly. “Placed in a horrible situation...because of me. I didn’t think of it yesterday, I was too wound up, but when I woke up this morning it all hit me at the same time. I wasn’t sure if...I wasn’t sure if you’d even want to see me again—”
“Okay—stop!” She actually put her hand over his mouth, unable to listen to this lunacy for even another second. “To start, not a single thing that happened yesterday was your fault. The guy was crazy. And he was angry with me because of my job. And if it weren’t for you...”
Her eyes swam with tears, but she refused to let them fall.
“Logan...you were the only thing that got me through it. First, it was just the thought of you, and then you actually burst through the door.” She shifted around so that they were facing each other, staring deep into each other’s eyes. “You coming to Cleveland, the thought of us starting a life together—one that doesn’t have a two-week expiration date...it’s all I’ve ever wanted.”
The flickers of doubt and hesitation fell away, as he beamed back at her. For a second, he looked too overwhelmed to speak. Then his head bowed with a little laugh.
“Lacy, that’s really good news...because I kind of bought a ho
use already.”
“You what?!”
The two of them burst out laughing as their new reality began slowly settling in. Yes, this was a whirlwind romance if ever there was. Yes, it was a case of mistaken identity to the utmost degree. But yes...they had truly fallen in love with each other. They were ready to take this step.
...almost.
“There’s just one thing that we might have to take care of first.” Logan winced apologetically as the two of them locked eyes. “My wayward brother. Apparently, he’s made a bit of a mess of things back in Florida. I’m going to have to go over there and fix—”
“We are going to go,” Lacy interrupted firmly. He looked at her in astonishment, and she gave a swift nod of her head. “We do these things together now. Agreed?”
Logan’s lips curved up in a radiant smile.
“Agreed.”
They would get their blissful future. They just needed to settle his past first.
And on that note...
“So what do you say?” Logan asked with a quirky grin. “You ready to fly to Miami? And take down my brother? Help me get my life back?”
Lacy shook her head, pushing to her feet with a smile.
“Sure. It can’t be any stranger than here...”
Dylan’s story is next! And that will complete this series, The Construction Worker & The Billionaire: Swapping Lives. See how it all ends!
