by Lori Foster
And yes, the look on Logan’s face was worth it.
Logan opened his mouth but then closed it again to move nearer to her. Eyes flared, body tensed, he said again, “Pepper?”
“I’m not talking to you.”
“Typical female response,” Reese said.
“Is that really you?”
She held silent.
“Damn. What did you do with yourself?” Logan reached for her, and she popped him hard in the shoulder.
More in surprise than pain, Logan drew back.
“Or,” Reese said, almost laughing, “maybe not so typical.”
After glaring at him, Pepper gave her attention back to Logan. “No touching, neighbor.”
“She sneers well,” Reese said, and they both ignored him.
“I don’t understand.” Logan visually devoured her. “What are you doing?”
“Being me.” She thrust up her chin. “What? You thought you were the only one undercover?”
“Jesus.”
Logan couldn’t seem to stop looking at her long enough to speak coherently, so Reese said, “She’s plotting something, obviously.”
“I’m only here for my brother.”
Confused and now annoyed, Logan shoved close despite the threat of her hostility. “I’ve been worried about you.”
She didn’t back up an inch. “That’s a joke, right?”
Molars sawing together, Logan all but heaved. “It’s true, damn it. You were supposed to be safe and sound at your apartment. I left men to watch over you. I told you I’d be back to talk.”
She snorted. “You also told me you were a neighbor. You told me…a lot of things. All of them lies.”
Logan softened. “Not all.”
“Screw that! I won’t believe anything you have to say.” Almost desperate, she zeroed in on Reese. “Will you tell Rowdy something for me or not?”
Reese opened his mouth—and Logan rudely elbowed him aside. “I already told you, if you have something to say to your brother, you can damn well go through me.”
Nose to nose with him, Pepper said. “Fine.” It was Logan who got poked in the chest this time. “Tell him I’ve got it covered. Tell him not to worry.” And then, more tentatively, she added, “Tell him…it’s my turn.”
Reese didn’t understand that cryptic message at all, and he doubted Logan did, either. Whatever she meant, it couldn’t bode well for anyone.
The sounds of the station escalated as five men came in together to file complaints. Drunk and disorderly, somewhat battered from an apparent brawl, they shouted and caused quite a disturbance while sharing accusations, the occasional shove and threats both physical and verbal.
As if oblivious, Logan and Pepper continued to watch each other.
Finally Logan nodded. “I’ll tell him.”
She turned to go.
“Stay.” Logan reached out for her, but at her killing glare, he let his hand drop without making contact. “After I talk to Rowdy, I’ll let you know what he has to say.”
She shook her head. “I already know what he’ll say.”
“Pepper.”
She stopped again.
“I don’t want you to worry.”
“No, you just want me to be a pawn, to play my part without getting in your way.”
“No—”
“There’s a lot between us, all of it bad.”
“No,” Logan said with more force.
“But I’ll tell you what, Detective.” She gave him a hard stare. “Give Rowdy my message, and we can call it even.”
“Not that easily.” Logan flexed his fists. “I know you’re pissed, Pepper. I get that.”
She laughed, shook her head and began backing up.
Reese almost felt sorry for Logan as he struggled with impotent frustration. Before it got better, it was going to get a whole lot worse for him.
He had tried to tell Logan that. He’d tried to head off the inevitable. But Logan wouldn’t be derailed from his hunt for justice.
And now they’d all have to improvise.
*
“YOU AND I ARE GOING to talk.” Careful not to spook her, Logan closed the distance between them. Even while trying to think ahead, to plan ways to keep her close, he marveled at her makeover.
He’d known that on the inside, she was as hot as a woman could be. But standing there now in skinny jeans and a tank top, no bra, her hair loose and mouth shiny, she all but took his breath away.
Now he knew what she’d hidden from him, and he could even guess why.
“Whether you want to hear it or not,” Logan said while sidling nearer, “I need to explain a few things to you.” Like how he’d gotten caught in his own trap, and how much she’d come to mean to him.
Pepper kept him in her sights, always maneuvering so that he couldn’t move alongside her. “Believe me, it’s clear enough. I might be disgustingly gullible, but I’m not totally dense.”
“You’re not gullible.” But she had been eager for affection—and he’d abused that need.
“Not anymore, no.”
She looked ready to bolt, so he said, “I have no plans to hurt your brother.”
“Another joke, right?” Her laugh held no humor. “You’ve already hurt him, probably more than you’ve hurt me—not that you’re keeping track, are you?”
Her sarcasm wore on him. She looked so different, acted so different. Did he actually know her at all? “As soon as I get my answers, Rowdy can get on with his life. You have my word.”
She glanced at Reese, then back at Logan. “If you actually believe that, then you’re in over your head and just don’t realize it. But do me another favor, okay?”
She seemed to have softened her stance; she looked less wary, maybe even exhausted. Right now, he’d promise anything to ensure her safety. “Name it.”
“Don’t trust anyone. If you truly mean for my brother to get out of this whole-hide, then you watch over him. You, and only you.”
Reese pretended affront. “Miss Yates, are you accusing me of something?”
Her attention stayed on Logan—and she backed farther away. “Keep your cell on you, Logan, okay? I’ll be checking back off and on.”
“Give me your number and I’ll call you after I talk with Rowdy—”
“Not happening.”
Logan gave up with a sigh. Gently, hoping she wouldn’t cause a scene, he said, “I’m sorry, honey, but you’re not leaving.”
This time her laugh almost scared him.
Still smiling, she said, “The thing is, Logan, I’m already gone.”
*
BEFORE EITHER OF THEM could move, Pepper bolted. Being slender and fast, she easily ducked through the chaos of the drunks who’d come in and the additional officers who’d shown up to help straighten out the confusion. They were close enough to the front door that she’d exited the station in seconds, her long legs covering a lot of ground.
Both Logan and Reese gave chase, but they hit the front walk and…true enough, she was nowhere in sight.
Logan turned a circle, looking up and down the street, searching over the parking lot, toward the garage. He saw pedestrians, he saw traffic, parked cars and a bus.
But he didn’t see Pepper.
Humid night air enveloped him, adding to his heat of annoyance and rage.
She could have gone in any direction: behind a parked car, up and over the retaining wall to the lots beyond, down the street, up the street. Hell, she could be in a car right now, watching him as he floundered.
“To have disappeared so fast,” Reese mused aloud, “she had a plan. She came here with it all laid out. How long to stay inside, when to leave and exactly where to hide when the time came.”
Logan locked his hands behind his neck and turned again, searching, trying to decide—
“You can’t start looking for her,” Reese said before Logan headed off to do just that. “You made the lady a promise about her brother. But the longer Rowdy Yates is here u
nattended, the less likely it is that you can keep that promise.”
Irritation boiled over. From the get-go, this whole sting had gone upside down on him. Logan headed back in with a purposeful stride. The worry on Pepper’s face had been something he couldn’t ignore. “She thinks someone here will hurt Rowdy.”
“That’s what I got from it, yeah.” Keeping pace beside him, Reese said, “We both know there are dirty cops. Who, that’s the question.”
Logan cut his gaze over Reese. “She doesn’t trust you.” And neither did Lieutenant Peterson.
“She doesn’t know me,” Reese reasoned. “But you do, and that’s what matters. Besides, I get the feeling the only person she does trust is her brother.”
“She trusts me.” No, she didn’t want to. Logan got that. But she did. Otherwise she wouldn’t have asked him to ensure Rowdy’s safety. “She’s furious, but she’s smart enough to understand why I—”
Reese clapped him on the back. “Yeah, keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel better.”
Without slowing his pace, Logan thought of how Pepper had looked. Not shy. Not withdrawn. Definitely not plain.
Bold. Sexy. Living, breathing temptation.
Yes, he knew what she’d been hiding: herself.
“Now what?” Reese asked.
Logan rumbled low, “Did you see her?”
“No man would miss her—including the cutthroat bastards who murdered Jack.”
Jesus. Was that her intent? To draw attention? He just didn’t know. “This whole thing is fucked three different ways.”
“It occurs to me that we have those few years where Pepper was entirely off the radar.”
Logan had assumed her timid personality explained that. He had so easily pictured her staying behind while Rowdy took the lead.
Now? He didn’t know what to think. “Your point?”
“I don’t really have one,” Reese said. “It’s just that maybe you don’t know her at all. Maybe you should scrap any and all assumptions and start over at ground zero.”
Though he’d already had that thought, Logan dismissed the possibility. He had to believe that some part of her was real.
The vulnerable woman who talked of her painful past.
The messy housekeeper who liked late-night movies and pizza.
The runner. The cook.
The incredibly inventive lover…
“Why did she risk coming here when she obviously didn’t want to stay?” Reese asked. “She could have called you with that message for her brother.”
Logan saw the officer standing outside the interrogation room where he’d left Rowdy. “Part of her motive was to make me suffer.” He’d felt it, witnessed it in her light brown eyes. “She wants to hurt me like I hurt her.”
“By showing you that she’s smoking hot?” Reese snorted. “That was a gift and you know it.”
Actually, her appearance had shocked him, but it didn’t make him want her any more than he already had. Such a thing wasn’t even possible.
He shook his head at Reese. “After I talk to Rowdy, I’ll know more.” He stopped in front of the officer. “Did he give you any trouble?”
“Hasn’t made a sound.”
“Anyone else come by?”
“No.”
Logan thanked him, then asked Reese to take up the guard duty. “I don’t want to be interrupted again.”
“Sure thing. But let’s not take this too late, okay? I’m now a responsible pet owner. I can’t be out all night.”
Seriously? Reese was worried about his dog when they finally had Rowdy Yates in custody, and when Pepper was out doing God-knew-what?
Or maybe there was more to Reese’s impatience.
Reese shook his head in resignation. “I’m here as long as you need me. You know that. But let’s not drag it out, okay?”
Logan accepted that and went into the room.
Calmer now, he pulled out his chair opposite Rowdy.
The man’s enigmatic gaze bored into him. “How long are we going to do this?”
“Why?” Logan asked. “You have somewhere to be?”
Rowdy shrugged. “I’m getting hungry, I need to take a piss, and I left a warm woman waiting in my bed.”
“Did you tell her you were leaving to break into my apartment?”
“Actually, I wasn’t really breaking in since I own the building.”
At Logan’s pause, Rowdy laughed.
“Yeah, you gotta wonder who the bigger fraud is, right? You undercover as a tenant, or me as an absentee property owner.”
“You own the building?”
“That’s right.”
“Why?”
“I needed a safe place for Pepper. A place where I could touch base with her, where she could be easily overlooked.” Rowdy leaned forward. “But you can get that look out of your eyes. She’s long gone from there now, and she won’t be back.”
If Rowdy spoke the truth, he’d gone above and beyond to keep Pepper off the grid. “She’ll have to go back there eventually.”
“No.”
“She left with nothing. All of her belongings are still there.”
For a short beat of silence, Rowdy considered things, then he shrugged. “There’s nothing there that she needs, believe me. I didn’t count on someone like you tracking her down, but I didn’t leave it to chance, either.”
“Meaning?” In order to figure out where she might be now, Logan needed to learn more about how she and Rowdy had operated.
“I had contingency plans in place. Pepper has already covered her tracks.”
That sounded far too final, so Logan pressed him. “Your tracks, too?”
“Yeah, mine, too.” Slowly, Rowdy grinned. “I just thought of something.”
Hopefully a clue he could use. “Let’s hear it.”
Rowdy actually laughed. “I was staying at a dump motel for a few days, and I really did leave a naked woman in my bed.”
“Who?”
“I don’t remember her name, but she had a world-class rack.”
Logan’s temper ratcheted up another notch. This was the man closest to Pepper, and it made him sick. “I don’t give a shit about—”
“Odds are, Pepper went there first.”
It took all Logan’s concentration not to show his rage. “To cover your tracks?”
“That’s right.” He shook his head, still amused. “Pepper would have found her there, and knowing my sister, she probably tossed her out.”
An image Logan couldn’t quite fathom. “When the hell did she have time for a makeover?”
The humor fled Rowdy in a heartbeat. “What are you talking about?”
“She’s only had a few hours, and if she spent part of that time cleaning up your messes—” The ringing of Logan’s cell phone kept him from finishing that question.
“What do you mean, a makeover?”
It was curious how Rowdy’s tone dropped, how his entire demeanor darkened.
After giving him a long look, Logan glanced at the phone. A private call, without a number or name listed. The entire night had been filled with disturbances. He flipped open the phone. “Hello?”
“Did you tell him yet?”
Pepper. Hearing her voice reassured him. For this instant, at least, she was still safe. “Where are you?”
“None of your business. So did you tell him or not?”
“He’s been so talkative, I haven’t had a chance to say anything yet.”
Rowdy went perfectly still, listening in with interest.
“Yeah, right,” Pepper said. “So tell him now.”
“Soon.” She’d said she would check in. How often? If she called every half hour, he might be able to track her cell. “If you’d stop running off, I could tell you a few things that you might find interesting.” Like how he hadn’t been pretending to care about her, and he definitely hadn’t pretended to want her.
What he felt for her was as real as it could get, and it ate him
up to think of her out on her own, playing hide-and-seek with a ruthless murderer like Morton Andrews.
“You want to talk about interesting tidbits, Logan? Here’s one for you—you arrested the wrong person.”
His heartbeat slowed. “That’s as confusing as your transformation. After all, he did break in.”
Rowdy sat forward. “Let me talk to her.”
Logan ignored him.
“My brother is a saint,” Pepper said. “Everything he’s done, he’s done for me. He’s protected me when no one else could. He’s cared for me when no one else did.”
That truth hurt. “Pepper…”
“I have to talk to her,” Rowdy insisted. He reached for the cell, but the restraints held him back. “Damn you!”
Logan stood to move out of range. “Come back to the station, honey. You can help me to figure this out.” And this time I won’t let you get away.
“She was here?” Rowdy came to his feet so fast, he half lifted the heavy table.
Reese stepped in, but Logan waved him back out. Reluctantly, Reese withdrew.
“In an hour I’ll call again. One hour, Logan, you got that?”
“Why an hour?” he asked her, hoping to keep her on the phone.
“Everything should be done by then. If you haven’t yet told Rowdy, I won’t call you again. And you’ll never get the answers you want.”
“Don’t let her hang up,” Rowdy shouted. He thrashed against the cuffs. “Pepper! Goddammit, Pepper, don’t you dare—”
“She’s gone.”
“Gone?”
“Hung up.” Closing the phone, Logan leaned on the table toward him. “You will stop shouting at her, do you understand me?”
“Do you know where she is?” Fear colored Rowdy’s face, filled his tone. “You have to stop her!”
“I’d love to.” His urgency became Logan’s. “Why don’t you tell me what it is she intends to do? Something else in your contingency plans?”
“You have no clue.” Rowdy leaned across the table to speak to Logan in a harsh whisper. “You want answers about that city commissioner that was killed? You want to rein in the fucks who shot him in cold blood? You want to know why he was shot?”
Ice filled Logan’s veins. “Yes.” Yes to everything.
“Well, I’m not the one who saw it all go down.”
“Bullshit. The reporter said—”
