Logan's Need

by Sloane Kennedy

  By the time they were on the elevator and Dom had entered the code for his floor, they were on each other again, their mouths fused as Dom pressed Logan back against the smooth wall.

  “Do you think it’s always going to be like this?” Logan asked, as Dom sucked hard on his neck, then soothed away the sting.

  “Yes,” he answered without hesitation. He knew without a doubt that the need he had for this man would never go away.

  They barely made it inside the door before Logan was working at the buttons of Dom’s shirt. A discrete cough had them jumping apart.

  “Vin,” he breathed when he saw his brother standing in the living room, his obsidian eyes flickering from him to Logan. The relief at seeing his brother was instant and it took him only a few strides to reach his older brother and drag him into his arms. “Where the hell have you been? You said you were coming home two weeks ago!” Dom growled into his ear.

  He and Vin had the same build and Vin only had about an inch on him in the height department. But life had been harder on Vin between trying to take on the responsibility of being the family patriarch at the tender age of eighteen and carving out a life after a bullet had taken away his career as a SEAL. The search for Ren had only heaped more weight on his brother’s already crowded shoulders.

  “Yeah, well, we got hung up in a little turf war that was going on,” he muttered as he returned Dom’s hug. “Then Banner broke his fucking ankle…” he said. “Merry Christmas, little brother,” Vin finally said softly before releasing him.

  It took Vin’s shifting eyes to a place behind him to remind Dom of Logan and he turned to see his lover standing stiffly by the door with a deer in the headlights look. He instantly dismissed Vin and went back to Logan, his hands going to the other man’s face.

  “Logan, baby, look at me.” Logan tore his eyes from Vin, then focused them on Dom and relaxed. “We knew this would be the hardest part,” he reminded him and Logan nodded. “You come first…no matter what.”

  He felt the rest of the tension drain from Logan’s frame and he didn’t give a shit that his brother was watching as he leaned down to brush a kiss over Logan’s lips.

  Logan bent down and grabbed both their bags. “Why don’t I give you two a few minutes while I go put our stuff away?” he said.

  “Come meet Vin first,” Dom said.

  Logan nodded, then stepped past Dom and extended his hand to Vin.

  “Logan Bradshaw,” he said as Vin accepted the greeting.

  “Vin Barretti,” he countered and Dom bristled at the way Vin seemed to be trying to dissect Logan.

  “Welcome home,” Logan said. “I’ve heard a lot of great things about you,” he added before he retrieved their bags from where they sat next to Dom. Dom felt marginally better when Logan squeezed his hand as he walked past him.

  He turned his attention back to Vin who was making his way to the kitchen. He pulled out three beers and handed one to Dom. Vin screwed the top off the other one, then took a long drink. He handed the third beer to Dom.

  “For when he comes back out,” Vin said as he motioned in the direction Logan had gone.

  Dom was pleased that his brother wasn’t freaking out, although he could see the questions lingering in his eyes. His attraction to men wasn’t something he’d shared with any of his brothers and Vin had already been deployed by the time Dom had actually done any exploring. By the time Vin had come home, Sylvie had already become a permanent fixture in his life. He felt a twinge of pain go through him as he remembered the first time Vin and Sylvie had met.

  “What is it?” Vin asked.

  Dom chuckled. His sharp eyed brother never missed a thing. “I was thinking about when you and Sylvie met for the first time.”

  Vin laughed. “Man, was she a little firecracker. She looked like this sweet, innocent young thing, but you couldn’t pull one over on her,” he mused.

  “I miss her,” Dom said.

  “I wish I’d been here for you,” Vin said. “Is he one of the people you had?”

  Dom looked up at him in confusion.

  “When I called, you said you had people that were helping you get through it. He one of them?”

  Dom nodded. “His family too…but mostly him.”

  Vin chugged down some more beer.

  “You think it’s too soon,” Dom said. “Sylvie hasn’t been gone long enough for me to be in love with someone else.”

  Dom nearly jumped when Vin slammed his beer down. “Don’t put bullshit words like that in my mouth!”

  The outburst was unusual for someone as calm and controlled as his brother. “You get a chance for anything like what you had with Sylvie, you fucking take it, do you hear me? Not everyone even gets one chance, let alone two. And there sure as shit isn’t some magic number out there that says how long you have to live with the loss of one love before you’re allowed another.”

  Dom watched in stunned silence as Vin chugged the rest of his beer. He couldn’t ever remember a time his embittered brother had spoken about love before, let alone defended it so passionately. The man was notorious when it came to his own bitter attitude towards women. Dom knew it had started with their mother and her betrayal of her vows to their father. But a subsequent, doomed relationship with a cruel, heartless woman who had claimed to love Vin even as she fucked an endless line of men behind his brother’s back had ended any romantic notions Vin would ever have towards the opposite sex.

  “Go get him,” Vin said as he searched out another beer. “I want to meet the guy who was lucky enough to snag my baby brother’s heart.”

  Chapter 14

  “I need to go home,” Logan said as Dom shifted on top of him so their cocks were lined up. Even through their clothes, he could feel the extreme heat that Dom’s body always seemed to give off.

  Dom stilled at his comment. “Why?” he asked almost suspiciously and he thought he saw a little bit of fear there.

  “Because I can’t walk around naked while I’m waiting for the single pair of jeans I have to run through the wash cycle in that big-ass fancy machine you call a washer.”

  “Who says you can’t walk around naked?” Dom asked as he kissed him again.

  Logan thrust his hips up so he could increase the pressure of Dom’s length on his own. Dom humped against him and Logan used the moment to roll Dom underneath him. He ground against him once, then stopped and said, “I’ll come right back.” He felt the tension in Dom and knew he’d guessed correctly that Dom was worried if Logan left the safety of Dom’s apartment, that he’d get cold feet and do a one-eighty like he’d already done once before. “I’ll come back,” he said again and Dom nodded.

  “I’ll go with you,” he offered.

  “You have to go back to work. And I have to find work. We need to get back to normal, Dom.” Dom tried to push up, but Logan pinned him by the wrists and settled all his weight on the other man. They both knew Dom could easily unseat him, but he didn’t. Logan released his wrists and joined their hands instead. “A normal that includes this,” he said as he sipped at Dom’s lips until the man was squirming beneath him. “I’m not running,” he murmured. “Never again,” he whispered as he settled his mouth fully on Dom’s.

  The visit with Vin had gone better than Logan had expected and he’d ended up liking Dom’s brother a lot once Logan got past his fear of being judged for being a part of Dom’s life so soon after Sylvie’s death. He also wasn’t sure what to expect from Vin in terms of seeing his brother with another man. But that hadn’t stopped Dom from holding his hand or resting his big palm on Logan’s thigh as Vin told them about his attempts to find Ren. When Dom heard the details of yet another failed effort to bring Ren home, Logan had been the one giving comfort in the form of soft touches. And if it bothered Vin in any way, the man hadn’t shown it. After Vin had left to return to his waterfront home just north of the city, he’d held a somber Dom in his arms as Dom shared memories of his childhood before his parents had died.

&nbs
p; They’d spent the next few days just exploring each other’s bodies and lives with no talk of the future, but Logan knew it was time to figure out how to be together when things weren’t so safe and easy. He pulled back from Dom and started undressing him.

  “I can’t lose you too,” he heard Dom whisper.

  “You won’t,” he promised, then proceeded to back up his words with his body.

  ***

  Dom heard his phone ding and saw the text from Cade that he and Logan had left Logan’s apartment. His tension eased knowing Logan would be waiting for him when he got home, but he also felt guilty for still even worrying that Logan would freak out and walk away from him again. He knew that fear would ease over time and he just hoped his anxiety wouldn’t cause strain on their newfound relationship.

  His intercom beeped and Cecile’s voice came over the speaker as she said, “Detective Hale is here to see you, Mr. Barretti.”

  Dom sighed and said, “Show him in please.” Declan shuffled in and Cecile closed the door behind him. The big man looked like shit and Dom’s initial anger faded as he remembered how much Declan had cherished his sister. Declan had just turned twenty-two when Sylvie had gotten sick the first time and he’d taken a leave of absence from his new job as a police officer to take care of her. He’d been there each time the cancer came back and when Sylvie had slipped away, Declan had been there to hold her hand just like he had when she was little. Logan had told him of Declan’s visit, but Dom wasn’t completely sure of Declan’s motives. He hated not being able to trust the other man, but he wouldn’t risk his relationship with Logan for anything.

  “I don’t have anything new,” Declan said as he stood in front of the desk. Dom nodded towards the chairs on the other side of his desk and Declan finally sat.

  “What do you want, Declan?”

  “Besides my sister back?” the man said bitterly. He ran his hands through his hair and seemed to try and shake his anger off. “Sorry,” he muttered. He sat back in the chair and studied Dom. “It was hard to see you like that,” he began. “He walked into the room and you lit up. Like you did whenever Sylvie came into the room.”

  Dom didn’t respond. After all, what could he say? What Declan said was true.

  “I know you didn’t betray her. Not then, not ever.”

  Dom sighed. “I love him the way I loved her, Declan. The way I still love her,” he said. “If you’re asking me to choose-”

  “No,” Declan interrupted. “No, I don’t want that.”

  “Then what do you want?”

  “I want someone I can keep her memory alive with…someone who will help me remember all the good things when I can’t,” he said quietly. “I don’t want to just remember her when she was sick or hurting. But that’s all I see right now. What if I never see anything else?” Declan whispered.

  “You will. Like the time she stole your police badge so she could show it off to her friends at school. Like when she made you take her and her friends to that princess movie and you had to go dressed as a prince because it was her birthday.”

  Declan smiled at that.

  “Or when you walked her down the aisle – you nearly broke my hand when you shook it before you gave her to me.”

  “If the priest hadn’t been so close, I would have threatened to kick your ass if you didn’t treat her right,” Declan admitted.

  Dom laughed. “We won’t forget her, Declan. How could we?” he asked. “She was anything but forgettable,” he murmured.

  Declan nodded, then stood. He reached his hand across the desk.

  “Fuck that shit,” Dom said as he got up and went around the desk and pulled Declan into his arms.

  “I’m sorry, Dom,” came the muffled words.

  He slapped Declan on the back and said, “It’s okay, Declan. Everything’s going to be okay.”

  ***

  “Riley’s on her way up,” Logan said from behind him. Dom looked over his shoulder to see Logan coming out of the bedroom, his hair still damp from his shower and his phone in his hand. Dom glanced at the clock on the stove as he flipped the last pancake. It was barely eight. He felt Logan wrap his arms around him from behind and then kiss his neck. “She’s got Eli with her – she said he wanted to show you something.”

  Dom turned off the burner as he let the food finish cooking, then turned to greet Logan properly. Their kiss grew heated quickly and Logan finally broke free and shook his head. He went to the refrigerator while Dom stacked the final pancake on the huge stack he’d already cooked and put the whole plate in the microwave.

  “What are she and Eli up to today?”

  “Shopping, I think,” Logan said.

  Dom flinched at that, remembering his last attempt at taking the kid shopping. He’d checked in on Eli and his mom, Mariana, a couple of times and the pair seemed to be thriving. Eli was set to start school in January and with the help of a tutor, everyone was hopeful he’d be caught up with his grade level by the end of the year. Mariana had been thrilled at the prospect of working in the billing office for Dom’s firm and was slated to have her first day on Monday.

  “You talk to your sister?” Dom asked.

  “Yeah. She’s going stir crazy – she really wants to come home and get back to work.” Logan came to a stop next to him, a glass of orange juice in his hand. He took a sip, then handed it to Dom who took a quick drink before handing it back. Sharing a glass was such a domestic thing to do and it was ridiculous how much Dom loved the little things like that that had become a part of his and Logan’s routine in the last week.

  “You tell her it’s not safe yet?” Dom asked.

  “Yeah. But it’s hard, especially since we don’t have any new leads.”

  Dom’s trip to Portland a few weeks ago hadn’t turned into anything and the trail had gone stone cold since then. If Sam was out there, he was damn good at hiding.

  “Did you guys talk?” Dom asked, emphasizing the last word. Things between Savannah and Logan had been stunted since their conversation at Christmas. Dom suspected the distance wasn’t helping the situation, but he also knew that Logan was struggling with some of the things he’d said to his sister and his extended family.

  Logan shook his head and when Dom forced his eyes up from the juice he’d been staring just a little too hard at, Logan sighed and said, “We will.”

  Dom nodded and released him as the doorbell rang. He went to the door and opened it and Eli walked in unabashedly. “I found this,” he said as he held out a piece of paper in his hand.

  Riley smiled as she followed Eli in, then hugged Dom – one of her big, all-in hugs that Dom was coming to love. “Hi, Dom,” she said before she trotted into the kitchen to throw her arms around Logan as well. Dom sent a quick nod to Raul who stood near the elevator before he shut the door.

  Eli waved his hand in front of Dom, the small scrap of paper barely missing his nose as Eli thrust it at him.

  “What is it?” Dom asked as he took it and turned it over. It wasn’t actual paper, but a receipt. There was a number scrawled on the back and he stiffened when he saw the name “Cy” written above the number.

  “Where are you guys headed?” he heard Logan ask Riley.

  “I told Mariana I’d help Eli pick out a few things for school while she goes to the salon to get a haircut.”

  Eli piped up. “After that Riley’s gonna take me to her work so I can see all the dogs and cats. She says she might be able to get me a job there a couple days a week after school,” he said happily.

  “Eli, where’d you get this?” Dom asked, careful to keep his tone even.

  “Mama and I found it when we were going through Elena’s stuff. Mama still thinks she’s coming back,” Eli added sadly.

  Riley put her arms around him and said, “Come on, Eli. Let’s go find you some clothes. We can grab some donuts on the way. How does that sound?”

  “Then we get to see your work?” he asked.

  “Absolutely,” Riley replied as she herde
d Eli out the door. “Bye guys,” she called as she pulled the door closed behind her.

  “What is it?” Logan asked as he looked over his shoulder at the receipt.

  “It’s a fucking receipt,” Dom said, smiling as he handed it to Logan. The other man’s eyes widened when he saw the name Sam had used around Elena and then the number below.

  “It’s Sam’s number,” he said. He turned the receipt over. “It looks like it’s for a gas station. He paid cash though,” Logan said.

  “There’s an address,” Dom said as he pulled out his phone. “Desi? Hey, it’s Dom. I need you to run an address for me, then check that against a topographical map.” He glanced at the receipt and read the address to the woman on the other end. “Check the surrounding area for properties with a hill that overlooks a lake. Also check for any property owned by someone named Cy or any variation of that. Yeah, thanks.” He kissed Logan hard and said, “We just got our new lead!”

  ***

  Logan fidgeted as he leaned back against the car and waited for Dom to come out of the gas station. It had taken them less than two hours to get to Summer Hill, a small town between Seattle and Portland. Vin had met them on the road and his big black SUV was parked behind Dom’s Mercedes. Vin was pacing, clearly not happy about Dom’s insistence that only one of them question the clerk so he wouldn’t clam up. That had been almost ten minutes ago and Logan was nearing his breaking point. The possibility of being so close to finding Sam – no, Cy – was nearly too much. The lust for vengeance was eating him from the inside out.

  “We’ll get him,” he heard Vin say as the man stopped next to him. He was wearing some type of holster under his suit jacket because Logan could see the butt of the gun. He’d watched Dom pull a couple of guns from a locked cabinet in the living room before they’d left and the reality of the danger they were facing was starting to wear on him. It wasn’t just his or Savannah’s life on the line anymore. An image of Dom on the receiving end of a bullet like the one that had nearly killed him had Logan sucking in a harsh breath.