“Does that matter?” Lana gripped the sides of the cardboard box, what was left of Gil’s life scrambled inside. “They took the books. They took my notes.”
“They didn’t take my phone.” Logan placed his gun on the kitchen table within easy reach. “And more importantly, they didn’t take you. They’re not going to know what to make of that code. Not even an experienced code breaker can figure that out without input from you first. You are the key to Gil’s code.”
She held on to the box even tighter, the edges cutting into her palms. “That does not make me feel good. In fact, that makes me feel sick to my stomach.”
“What makes me feel sick to my stomach is the fact that someone waltzed right onto this property, right up to your house and somehow got inside without raising an alarm—all under the watchful eye of Jaeger, who saw us leave.”
Jerking her head to the side, she said, “What are you implying?”
“I’m not implying anything.” Logan smacked his hand on the counter next to his gun. “I’m saying Jaeger, or someone with his approval, allowed Dale’s kidnappers back onto this property and into your home.”
“Why would he do that?” She sat back on her heels, still not willing to release the box containing Gil’s possessions.
“I have my suspicions, but I’m going to find out for sure since Jaeger’s lurking around your house right now.” Logan strode across the room and threw open the front door. “Jaeger, where are you going so fast?”
Lana scrambled to her feet and came up behind Logan on the porch. She peered around his broad back at Jaeger, his head cranked over his shoulder, his thin face pale.
He spit into the dirt as he turned slowly to face Logan. “Whaddya want?”
“Why’d you let Dale’s kidnappers back on this property? Bruce isn’t going to be too happy when we tell him.”
A thin smile stretched Jaeger’s mouth as he hunched his shoulders. “Don’t know what you’re talkin’ about, buddy.”
Logan launched himself off the porch, advancing on Jaeger, who took a step back. “He ordered you to do it, didn’t he? You don’t make a move without the boss’s approval, do you? Why’d he do it?”
“You’re crazy.” Jaeger’s hands curled into fists at his side. “If you’re trying to impress Lana, don’t bother. That girl don’t give it up for nobody. Gave it up easy enough to some rich boy back in Salinas ten years ago, but hasn’t opened her legs since.”
White-hot anger whipped through Lana’s veins but before she could even open her mouth, Logan flew at Jaeger and the sickening sound of flesh pounding flesh thudded through the air.
Jaeger staggered back, his nose spouting blood, but like a bowling pin he swayed forward and threw a punch at Logan. With lightning speed, Logan shifted to the side while swinging his left fist up and making contact with Jaeger’s chin.
Jaeger choked and made a dive at Logan’s midsection, wrapping his arms around Logan’s body, throwing all his weight against him to take him down.
Logan kneed Jaeger in the groin and as he doubled over, releasing his opponent, Logan linked his hands and brought them down on Jaeger’s back like a sledgehammer. Jaeger collapsed to his knees, his hands clutching his stomach.
“You bastard. I’ll kill you.”
Jaeger scrambled in the dirt, reaching for Logan’s legs, but Logan retaliated by kicking the other man in the chest.
“That’s enough, Jaeger. Stop.” Bruce charged forward and grabbed a handful of Jaeger’s shirt, dragging him back—not that the broken and bloody man posed any kind of threat to Logan, who stood over him, his fists still clenched, Jaeger’s blood on the sleeve of his shirt.
Lana skipped down the steps and hooked her fingers through Logan’s belt loops. “Did you hurt your hand?”
“A little.” Logan shook out the reddened fingers of his right hand. “Why did you allow your wife’s abductors back on the ranch, McGowan? You should’ve called the police instead. Are you stupid?”
Bruce shoved a handkerchief at Jaeger and shook his head at his condition. “I didn’t do any such thing, Hess. You’re lucky I’m not going to call the police right now—on you for assaulting my employee.”
“Your...employee—” Logan kicked his boot in Jaeger’s direction “—let those men into Lana’s house. They stole her brother’s journal. They could’ve done worse.”
“Oh, is Gil’s journal gone, Lana? I thought you didn’t have it.”
“You know damned well it is. That’s what you planned all along, isn’t it?” Standing beside Logan filled her with strength, and she pulled back her shoulders. “You made some kind of deal with those men to let them have what they wanted—men who kidnapped your wife, terrorized your children.”
“You and your friend live in some kind of fantasy world.” Bruce gave Jaeger a shove in front of him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. If someone broke into your house, I can have the locks changed before Dale and I leave. You know we’re leaving, don’t you? You brought danger to our home, to my wife, to my children.”
Lana snorted. “You and your wife brought danger to those kids every day with your behavior.”
“We’ve given Carla a lot more than you ever could—and you know it. If you want to keep living in this sweet setup, keep seeing your daughter every day, you’re going to have to find yourself a better class of friends.” Bruce nodded toward Logan.
Logan’s muscles tensed, and Lana ran a hand down his back as if calming a stallion. “He’s not worth it, Logan.”
“I’ll tell you what, girl. We both know there’s not much work for you do to with the horses, but when Dale and I come back we can look into having you help out Rosa at the house.”
Jaeger guffawed through his broken nose, and Bruce smacked him on the back as they turned and walked back to the big house.
Logan growled, “I can have another go at him if you like.”
“Don’t bother.” She trailed her fingers along the veins standing out from his forearm and could feel the rage pulsing there. “Besides, if he thought he could insult me with that comment about working alongside Rosa, he’s way off the mark. Rosa is worth twenty of him and his wife put together.”
“He invited those men back onto his property to give them Gil’s journal and get rid of them.” Logan curled his bruised hand into a fist.
“In a way, you can’t blame him.” She pulled at Logan’s arm. “Let’s go inside, and I’ll get you some ice for that hand.”
“Can’t blame him? Is this whole ranch crazy?”
“Bruce gave them an opportunity to find the journal so they’d leave and not bother him or his family again—or me, come to think of it.” She finally got Logan inside the house and slammed the door behind them.
“If he knew how to reach them—and I wonder how he did—why not just call the cops on them and have them arrested for assaulting his wife?”
“Jaeger has a lot of contacts with the underbelly in this town. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if he sent out feelers to contact these guys. Bruce figured, give them what they want and get them off the ranch.” She patted a cushion on the couch. “Sit.”
Holding his wrist, Logan sank to the couch. “But you and I both know that’s not the end of it. They’re gonna need you eventually, Lana.”
“Well, Bruce doesn’t know that...or doesn’t care once he has his family off the ranch.” She put a glass beneath the ice dispenser on the front of the fridge and filled it to the top. Then she dumped the ice in a plastic bag, and wet down a cloth.
Logan eyed her as she returned to the living room. “I can’t believe you’re making excuses for his behavior when he put your life in danger.”
“I’m not making excuses for him.” She extended her hand and wiggled her fingers. “Let me see that hand, Tex.”
He flexed his fingers and held his hand out to her. “It
sure sounds like you’re letting him off the hook.”
With the damp cloth, she dabbed the droplets of Jaeger’s blood staining his hand. Then she rubbed at the sleeve of his shirt. “If you get this off right now and soak it, that blood will probably come out.”
Logan unbuttoned his shirt and sloughed it off his shoulders. “It was dirty, anyway.”
Lana snatched it from him, her gaze greedily wandering across the white T-shirt stretched across his chest. “Thanks for standing up for my honor, by the way.”
“I despise guys like Jaeger.”
Logan clenched his jaw and Lana figured he had a million questions about what Jaeger said and about Carla’s father. Maybe she’d tell him that story one day—if they had more days together.
She held up the bag of ice. “Put this on your hand while I dunk this shirt in some soap and cold water.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Draping the shirt over her arm, she walked into the kitchen. As she filled the sink with cold water, she leaned toward her reflection in the window to study her bright eyes and flushed cheeks. The excitement of the fight still thrummed through her veins, and the fact that Logan had done it for her made her heart swell.
She placed a wet hand on her chest. This heart had been in danger ever since she laid eyes on the tips of Logan’s black cowboy boots. She hadn’t felt so susceptible to a man’s charms since Carla’s father had pinned her with his baby blues. But when push came to shove, Blaine’s armor had been made of tin and his promises proved as hollow as a papier-mâché piñata.
She added a little soap to the water and scrubbed at the bloodstains once or twice before leaving the shirt to soak.
When she returned to the living room, Logan was pacing the floor, the ice pack discarded on the coffee table.
“Come back here.” Lana crooked her finger at Logan. “You landed a couple of solid punches, and that hand needs ice.”
Logan perched on the edge of a stool at the counter that separated the kitchen from the living room and doubled as her dinner table most nights. “You really need to get out of here, Lana.”
“And I told you, I have no place else to go.” Shaking the bag of ice in front of her, she strolled toward him. “Hand.”
He flattened his hand on the counter, his knuckles already red. “I have an idea, a place where you can go.”
“I’m not going to Mexico.” She settled the ice pack on his hand and patted it into place. “Do you want some ibuprofen to go along with that?”
“Texas.”
“What?” She turned from the cupboard where she’d been retrieving a glass. “I’m not going to Texas.”
“It’s perfect. Think about it.” He patted the phone in his pocket. “We can work on the journal together. I have four out of the five books right here, and you can start re-creating your notes. More importantly, you’ll be safe, away from this ranch where others are so quick to sell you out.”
“The ranch?” She widened her eyes. “At first I thought you meant Texas, as in your place, but you want to bring me to your family’s ranch? You’re just going to show up on their doorstep with a stranger?”
“I wouldn’t want my family to know what you were doing there, so you could come there under false pretenses.”
“That’s even worse. Crashing at someone’s home while lying to them?” She snatched the glass from the shelf and filled it with water. Shoving it in front of Logan along with a tablet of ibuprofen, she said, “You probably need something stronger than ibuprofen if you think I’m going to do that, because you’re loco.”
“What’s the big deal?” He caught the ice pack as it slipped from his hand and readjusted it. “My family’s ranch is huge, the house is huge and the people there are not going to notice another...employee.”
“Employee?” She hunched over and planted her elbows on the counter, burying her chin in one palm.
Did she expect him to smuggle her onto the ranch as his girlfriend? Maybe he already had a girlfriend there. He hadn’t copped to a wife and children, but he didn’t say anything about a significant other.
“You train horses. We have horses.” He curled his fingers and inspected his knuckles. “Lots of horses.”
A flutter of hope stirred in her chest, and she coughed. “If the ranch has lots of horses, I’m sure it already has lots of horse trainers.”
“We do, but the woman who was giving riding lessons to kids is pregnant and taking a break. My parents were just talking about that before I went on my leave—and then there’s that.”
“What?” She studied his perfect face framed by his thick, light brown hair—a look straight out of central casting for the heroic young cowboy who saves the day.
“My parents weren’t expecting to see me this time and they’ll gladly accept anyone I bring with me.”
“Oh, that’s comforting.” She straightened up from the counter and brushed her hand across the tiles. “They’ll welcome any stray you drag along with you?”
“Why interpret it that way?” He shoved the ice aside and pointed a finger at her. “You have a chip on your shoulder.”
“No, I don’t.” Gil used to tell her the same thing and hearing it from the lips of another man she admired caused a knot to form in her stomach. “I’d feel out of place, like an intruder.”
“You’d be coming as my guest.”
“Correction.” She held up one finger. “Employee.”
“How about a combination of the two? I don’t want anyone to question why I’m bringing a...friend to the ranch. I don’t want anyone to know what we’re working on, but a friend who also trains horses and can pick up Charlotte’s lessons? That would work and not raise any suspicions.”
“I’m not going to Texas, Logan.”
“You can bring your own salsa.”
Her mouth quirked into a smile. “Even that’s not enough to lure me.”
“What would be?”
His green eyes seemed to smolder, and a tingling sensation crept through all the right parts of her body—or the wrong ones.
She spun away from him and swung open the door of the refrigerator, burying her head inside. “Nothing’s going to lure me, Logan.”
“Money?”
“What?” The pleasurable tingles she’d been enjoying bubbled into anger, and she slammed the fridge door, rattling the condiments.
He splayed his hands on the counter. “Money? I mean for giving lessons. I know you send everything you earn to your mother, so if money would help, we can offer you a good salary for the lessons. It’s not like it’s charity or anything like that.”
“No, thank you.” Why did everyone think she could just be bought off? She must be giving out some kind of vibe. “Do you want to take Alma’s leftovers back to the hotel with you for lunch?”
“I’m sorry if I offended, Lana. You keep saying you can’t leave the ranch and your job. I’m just trying to make it easier for you to do that.”
“Leftovers?”
“No, thanks.” He slipped off the stool. “I’ll get some lunch when I get back to town. Do you need any help cleaning up? They did a number on your place.”
“Nope. It looks like they found what they wanted pretty quickly.” She waved a hand at the box, as tears stung her nose.
She’d lost Gil’s books, Carla was leaving and now Logan would leave. Everyone left, eventually.
“You’re sure?” Logan took a step toward her, raising his hand and then dropping it.
“I’m sure.”
“Before I leave, I’m going to have a talk with Humberto and Leggy about keeping an eye on you.”
“You’re going to get them in trouble with Bruce.”
Logan squared his shoulders. “Bruce is already in trouble with me. He allowed the men who beat up his wife access to your house. He can now spare a couple of his guys
to make sure those men don’t come back.”
“I’m sure Humberto and Leggy already heard what happened and have their own plans.”
“I knew I liked those guys.” Logan grabbed his jacket and flexed his fingers. “Thanks for the ice. It helped.”
“Keep it up when you get to the hotel.”
“Lana—” he shrugged into his jacket “—we’re still going to work on the journal together, right? Even if you don’t come to Texas?”
“Of course.” She couldn’t let him go that easily. “Maybe you can print out those pages from your phone and I can go through them again and write out the events. It should go faster this time.”
“Good. Maybe we can start up again at my hotel when you bring me my shirt.”
She covered her mouth with one hand. “I forgot about your shirt.”
“That’s fine. Leave it. The longer it soaks the greater the chance I can get rid of Jaeger’s blood, right?”
“Probably.” She sprang forward and got the door for him. “Thanks for everything today. Thanks for being here and...sticking up for me against Jaeger.”
“It’s about time someone stuck up for you, Lana Moreno.” He walked outside and waved from the porch.
She shut the door and locked it. “Get a grip, girl. You’re going to see him again. It’s not like he’s disappearing forever—not yet.”
She swooped through the living room, closing drawers, straightening pillows and restacking books. Had they made it into the bedroom? She hadn’t even checked.
She stood at her bedroom door, holding on to the doorjamb on either side. They’d tossed a few drawers and rummaged through her closet but must’ve realized early on that the books in the box, along with her notepad, contained Gil’s account of his time at the outpost.
They should’ve never left the box unsecured, but who would’ve thought Jaeger would be letting Dale’s abductors back onto the ranch?
Once she put her bedroom back together, she stepped into the bathroom, where they hadn’t bothered to disturb anything.
Enemy Infiltration Page 11
