“Logan has honor and integrity and strength that you’ll never know in your entire life,” Sam said passionately, her gaze settling on the dark haired man striding to their small group. Carson Strang pulled himself up straight, backing away hastily. He wasn’t blind to the fury on Sheffield’s face at the moment.
“Get out of here, Strang,” Logan said with lethal strength in his tone, his eyes never leaving Sam’s face. “I’ll deal with you another time.”
“She’s onto you now, Sheffield,” he spit out angrily.
“Get out of here, you bastard, before I take you apart,” Logan ground the words between his teeth, ignoring the man as he vanished in the throngs of people leaving the party. It was almost midnight and things were winding down.
“Mother, can I talk to you for a minute please?” Sam looked at Logan. “Why don’t you find Anya and Ian so we can go home? I think I’m a little tired, please, Logan.”
“Sam…”
“We can talk at home, Logan,” she said quietly, struggling to keep the stinging moisture trapped behind her lashes. She waited until he disappeared into the lodge. “I want to go home with you, Mother…dad…and I want to go now, please.”
Morgan Elliott took her palm and led her quickly through the parking lot. They were on the road out of the lodge by the time Logan appeared at the entrance.
Ian heard the frustration and anger in the oath that left his brother’s lips.
“What happened?” Ian asked quietly, following Logan to the SUV.
“Strang,” Logan said flatly. “I’ll deal with it.”
“Where is Sam?” Anya looked from Ian to Logan.
“I’m not sure. I think she went with her parents,” Logan climbed behind the wheel of the SUV, driving blindly through the night streets. He pressed a button on the phone, slipping it into the cradle for hands free. “No answer, now there’s a surprise,” he growled.
“Perhaps you should give her time, Logan,” Anya said softly.
“Did she tell you anything?”
“Sam has not told me anything. But I am a woman. If she is angry about something, she will need time to think,” Anya explained carefully.
“I can’t fix it if she won’t talk to me,” Logan ground out.
“Being a pigheaded bull, crashing down upon her is not the answer at this time, Logan,” Anya threw back with every bit of strength to match his. “You both have your share of…” She mumbled to herself, a soft growl leaving her lips.
“Stubbornness,” Ian supplied quietly.
“And pride,” Anya added softly.
“I will make this right,” Logan informed them firmly.
Elizabeth held her husband’s hand as he drove, looking into the back seat now and then at her daughter. Sam was silent, her hands holding the small bag on her lap and her head turned to stare into the passing night.
“Samantha…”
“Mother, I love you…but I honestly can’t talk about this right now,” Sam’s voice quivered slightly. She laid her head against the cool window.
“Darling,” Elizabeth began quietly. “Whatever Logan has done, it can not be undone. And it can not be fixed, if you don’t talk to him. Shout at him, but…”
“When I have things sorted out in my head, believe me, I will, Mother,” Sam assured her.
“Why did you not tell me what that…that…” Elizabeth exhaled angrily. “Why did you not go to the police, Samantha? Carson Strang should be in jail.”
“Elizabeth, give Sam time, alright?” Morgan squeezed her fingers gently.
“It’s all a little confusing right now, Mother…I need…I need to reconstruct some things in my mind…before I can explain it to anyone else, I have to be able to understand it,” Sam explained honestly. “I’m okay…”
“Logan did not look okay, Samantha.”
“At this moment…I honestly don’t care.”
Chapter Fifteen
Elizabeth wasn’t the least surprised when Logan appeared at their door before nine the next morning. She stepped to the side, her face expressionless. This wasn’t going to be a pleasant visit. He was dressed in jeans and a tee shirt and looked like he’d had one miserable night.
Logan looked from Morgan to Elizabeth, their expressions concerned, but emotionless. “Where’s Sam?”
Elizabeth sighed heavily, shaking her head and flopping onto the sofa, frustrated. “I don’t know, Logan. She was gone this morning when I got up, and that was shortly after seven. I’m sure she knew you’d be here first thing.”
“She keeps a room here?” He asked, his palm up and rubbing his neck. He didn’t sleep much. He wasn’t sure he slept at all, his explanation going over and over in his mind, trying to get it right so she would at least hear him out. Every time he dozed off, his body jolted awake, swearing he heard something, swearing Sam was coming through the front door to him.
“She has some clothes and things here,” Morgan answered. “Sam hasn’t stayed here longer than a night at most in over…twelve years.”
“I checked the room,” Elizabeth told him. “She packed some clothes in a backpack and left very early this morning.”
“But you don’t know where?”
“Logan, I don’t know what’s going on. Samantha wouldn’t talk last night,” Elizabeth stood up and paced before the wide open patio doors. “I know something hurt her. I know she’s angry and I know that anger is only partially aimed at you. All she would tell us is that she has to reconstruct some things in her mind before she can deal with it. Does that make sense to you?”
“I’ll find her, Elizabeth and I will make it right, I promise you,” Logan nodded and left, the door closing firmly behind him.
Patience was something Logan always believed he had a great deal of. He would plot his course, gather whatever was needed and make it happen. Slowly but surely. He crossed the bridge and headed south. So why couldn’t he find patience where Samantha was concerned?
Because you are scared to death she won’t want to be found. You are terrified you seriously screwed up this time. He stared at the phone on his dash, tapping the button that dialed Sam’s number. Nothing.
He resisted the urge to slam his palm onto the steering wheel and continued south. Logan wracked his brain all the way to the resort site, barely registering the guard as he drove toward the hotel.
For a long minute, he was positive he had quit breathing and that he was imagining what he saw.
Parked in front of the unfinished hotel, was the dusty green Rover.
His stride was fast, heavy and determined. He’d make her listen. Somehow. Instinct took him to the room they had been using, his card pass sliding into the door reader, his palm against the cold door. He knew his hands were shaking. He knew the resolve within him stronger than ever before.
Logan found Sam curled up on the bed, face toward the open patio and breathing softly. Her shoes were on the floor. Her hair, once neatly pinned, was free and lay spread across the bed. She wore jeans and a tee shirt, her arms wrapped around a pillow. A backpack lay on the floor by the closet.
He pulled the chair closer, his feet up on the end of the bed. He put his head back, a long ragged breath easing free and his hands on the arms of the chair. His eyes caught on the ring she had slid onto his finger. It seemed like an age ago and it was only a couple nights past.
Several hours later, Logan came out of the bathroom and froze in his tracks.
It was like déjà vu all over again. Sam was perched in the center of the bed on her knees, staring at him with all the innocence and trust of the first night he’d seen her. Her hair was free, hanging over her shoulders. There were circles beneath her eyes that he knew rivaled his own. Neither of them had slept without the other near.
“We’ve been here before,” Logan said when he was sure his voice would work.
“Only this time I’m wearing my own clothes,” Sam answered without emotion, carefully watching him. Her eyes skittered to her shoes and then to her backpack
.
“Only this time you’re not soaked to the skin,” Logan returned, his eyes narrowing when he followed her eye movement.
“How did you find me?”
“It was an accident,” he admitted dryly. “I went to see your parents and then I just couldn’t go back to the house, Sam. The whole damn thing has your touch, your smell…”
“I’m sorry…”
“Damn it, Sam…”
“Stop! Stop, stop, stop!” She shouted, her hands up and on her ears. “That’s why I didn’t want to see you right now! I can’t talk to you yet and I need to think!” She squeezed her eyes tightly closed.
“And when will you be ready to talk about it? How long do I have to wait to explain what happened?”
“Don’t you dare blame me for this, Logan Sheffield!” She scrambled off the bed, her feet sliding into her sandals. “Don’t you dare!” She put her palm out when he took a step forward.
“Samantha, no one is to blame,” Logan pushed the words between his teeth. “But we damn well can’t straighten it out if you won’t talk to me!”
“Straighten it out?” She said quietly. “Straighten it out? Logan, you lied to me! Everything…since I woke up here with you…it was all one lie after another!”
“I have never lied to you, Samantha.”
“Not telling me the truth is different how exactly? Please, enlighten me,” she threw out bitterly.
“I can explain, Samantha…if you just sit down, take a deep breath and let me talk to you,” Logan took another step forward, frowning when she snatched her bag from the floor and countered his move. “Damn it, Sam…”
“I can hear you from there, Logan,” her palm was up again, a warning that ran deep in her eyes.
“You didn’t get much sleep.”
“Yeah, well, I do some of my best work on an hour or less.”
“Why were you on the beach that evening, Sam? What happened between you and Strang?” Logan decided another track might benefit his cause right now.
She stood her ground, head tipped as she considered his question.
“I was leaving my house to run to the store about seven that evening. Carson was outside, the hood of his car up. He said it wouldn’t start and would I give him a ride to his headquarters,” she frowned at the low curse that left his lips. "Yes, I was stupid. Yes, I was naïve.”
“Samantha, you are not to blame for that idiot’s behavior,” Logan heard the anger in his words.
“Yeah, well, I should be smarter than to get myself into situations like that…like this…”
“What we have is not a situation. What we have…”
“Is a lie.” She said flatly.
“What we have is real and alive and is not a god damned lie,” Logan spit out furiously. “Regardless of how it began, it’s real. What we have…what we feel…is the stuff people have killed to hold onto, Samantha.”
“I have to go, Logan,” her head shook slowly.
“What happened, Samantha? How did you end up on the beach Friday night?” He demanded passionately, dark eyes holding hers relentlessly.
“He had a gun,” Sam said quietly, wincing at the oath that filled the room. “He told me where to drive. He said he wanted to talk to me. I told him holding me hostage to talk to me was not the best way to get my co-operation on anything,” she moved back toward the door. “I don’t know what he was thinking, Logan…I honestly don’t. He’s desperate and needs funding. He…he said he thought we could make a good team if I would just come to my senses…”
“I’m going to beat him to a pulp,” Logan said without a single emotion.
“I managed to knock the gun out of his hand, but he…he backhanded me before I could push him out of the car. He tried…tried pushing me into the back seat and I kicked at him. He…he took the keys and threw them toward the water. I made a run for it, grabbed up my keys and…and just ran,” Sam leaned her shoulders on the solid door behind her, closing her eyes and fighting the shudder at the memory. “I’ve handled worse than him before, Logan…but he had this…this crazed look in his eyes. He was screaming at me…that I would marry him, or else no one would…I heard a shot and…and I think that’s when I fell. Next thing I know, I’m waking up in this room, with you, stark naked, wearing a robe that says honeymoon suite on it.”
“Are you willing to listen to my side of the story now, Samantha?” Logan felt his palms itching, felt his heart cracking when she slowly shook her head.
“I know what happened after that, Logan. I was here, remember? I know my part in it and I know how it got complicated,” Sam felt the doorknob and reached for it. “Tomorrow, Logan. Tomorrow afternoon I will talk to you. But I honestly need to think right now and I can not do that with you…with you so close. Please.”
“Tomorrow,” he repeated dully.
Sam saw the fire leave his eyes, the ache inside her increasing a hundred fold. But she turned the knob and walked out the door, closing it firmly behind her. She didn’t feel the first tears fall until she stopped the car outside her small house. Hours later, she was positive there wasn’t an ounce of water left in her body.
Chapter Sixteen
Logan listened to the message he’d missed because he was in the shower.
“The cruise ship for a three week cruise leaves at one in the afternoon. If you intend to straighten this out, you had better be at pier 49, Logan. My daughter deserves to be happy and you are the only man who can give that happiness to her. I expect to see you.”
He didn’t fall asleep until after three. It was eleven now. He shoved his legs into the jeans at the same time he worked to pull the tee shirt over his head, eyes scanning the room for his shoes. Hands patted down his pockets for phone, passkey, wallet and car keys before he hit the door at a run. He checked his watch. Noon on a holiday should give him an edge.
Elizabeth casually looked at her wrist, twisting the slender gold watch, eyes narrowed as she scanned the street. Sam was pulling a large suitcase, chatting with her father. Her palm waved in front of her face, her foot tapping on the planking. Morgan and Samantha sauntered along casually. She was about to pull her phone out when she saw the male approaching as if the people around him didn’t exist. He had zeroed in on his target and thank heavens, she thought. She applied a bright smile.
“Come along, Samantha…Morgan…I want to get into our cabin before we set sail,” Elizabeth announced happily.
“Samantha!” Loud and booming, there was pure energy and determination packed into that one word.
Sam felt her blood run cold, her foot stepping on the plank and freezing. That bellow could only come from one place. From one person. One very determined person, she turned slowly in the direction her mother was looking, shoulders back and mouth opening.
“Logan, not now. I told you…”
“You told me you would talk to me this afternoon. Exactly how is that supposed to happen from a cruise ship in the middle of the ocean?” Logan took in the scene in one abbreviated sweep.
“From…?” Sam looked at the suitcase she was wheeling to the man glaring at her. “I am not…”
“You’re damn right you’re not,” Logan took her hand off the handle of the suitcase.
“You think you can just…just show up here and…” Sam put both hands on her hips.
“I can, I did and I am,” Logan shouted back, their noses inches apart.
“Samantha, I told you that running was not the answer to solving a domestic dispute,” Elizabeth told her daughter with a scowl.
“Mother, this is not…”
“Your place is with your husband, Sam,” Morgan tipped his head to the side.
“My…he is…” Sam stopped and glared at Logan. She hadn’t told her parents the truth. “I am not going anywhere with you.”
“The hell you’re not,” Logan moved quickly and efficiently, lowering his shoulder, grabbing her arm and straightening up with his shoulder in her middle. “Elizabeth, Morgan…have a nice trip. We�
�ll see you when you get home.”
“PUTMEDOWN!” Sam kicked her legs, yelping when his palm came down hard on the backside of her jeans.
“Samantha, go home with your husband,” Elizabeth looked around at the attention they were gathering, her smile small and devious.
“I am…he is…alright! Alright, damn it, Logan put me down!” Sam went still, wobbling slightly when her feet touched the wooden planks.
“You are not getting on that cruise ship, Samantha,” Logan said, his voice low and confident.
“I am not going…” Sam looked around at the curious onlookers they’ve attracted.
“Samantha, go home with your husband.” Morgan repeated the words.
“Mother, he is…” Samantha looked at her hand and the ring that sparkled on it. She pursed her lips and tugged it free, shoving it into Logan’s open palm. “Now it’s not a problem, is it?” Shocked gasps rippled through the crowd.
“Samantha…”
“Mother, get on the cruise ship! I will deal with this…and…” Sam looked at Logan with a growl, her hand out and snatching the ring back, shoving it back on her finger. “No! You know what? I am not taking it off. You are going to have to deal with me until the day I die, you got that? I am going to haunt you and make your waking hours…”
Logan took one large step forward, framed her face and covered her mouth with his, possessive and hungry; desperate and honest, he put everything inside him into that one kiss. Neither of them noticed the applause and romantic ‘awwww’s’ going through the crowd.
“Farewell, children…take care,” Elizabeth waved from the top of the ramp, standing next to her husband.
Logan lifted his head and gazed into the brightly shining green circles.
“Let’s go home, Sam…please…” Logan let his thumbs stroke over her lower lip.
Breathing raggedly, Sam nodded slowly, her fingers twined with his as he guided her from the pier to where he left the SUV parked.
WindSwept Narrows: # 1 Samantha Elliott Page 13
