by Dianna Love
Logan stood when she reached the table. “Put your coat on.”
“Yes, Dad.” When she had it zipped, he reached for the hood and pulled it up on her head.
Then he kissed her, a quick touch that tasted like french fries and her man. Before he pulled back, he said, “Start slowly toward the door with me until I say now.”
Halfway to the door, a taxi sitting outside burst into flames. The diner sat on a corner. Cars running through the traffic light slowed to look. Traffic dropped to a crawl, clogging the intersection.”
Logan’s grip on Margaux tightened. “Now.” He pulled her into a run. She was with him every step.
Outside, they pushed through the crowd huddling close enough to see the car burn.
Logan whispered at her ear, “It’s pyrotechnics. Won’t explode.” He paused at the curb then gave a tug and they were out in the middle of cars parked everywhere. Sirens whined in the distance, coming fast.
Two black crotch rocket motorcycles wove between cars with a high-pitched whine. They cut across the intersection and whipped up to Logan, both doing stoppies with the rear wheels picking up off the ground.
Logan shouted to Margaux, “Get on that one. We’ll meet up later.”
She climbed on behind her driver and wrapped her arms around him a second before he blasted into traffic again, juking right and left like a pro running back. Icy air blasted her face. He reached down and covered her freezing hands with his jacket. She kept her head tucked against his back.
The whomp, whomp, whomp of a helicopter closed in on them.
A searchlight beamed down, spotlighting them.
She had a feeling this was Nitro driving and he wouldn’t panic. He spun through turn after turn, finally forcing the helicopter to peel off when he turned the bike down a narrow street bordered by tall buildings. He pulled under an overhang where deliveries were made at the back of a building and spun around to face out.
She heard him saying, “Boxed in on the west side.” He was quiet, then, “Ten four.”
Had the Banker sent someone to follow Logan back to his men? If so, why? He needed Logan to do this job.
Margaux played everything back through her mind from the point of being dropped off, eating and making the call to Nick.
Nick had asked if she was still in Colorado.
She hadn’t told him where she was specifically. Not even the address of the house in the mountains she’d called from.
That didn’t mean Sabrina had a team here. Between Margaux and Logan, there were a lot of people after them.
“Get ready,” Nitro told her.
“For what?”
“To make a run. Logan’s doubling back to grab the helicopter’s attention to give us a chance to escape.”
“What about him and Angel?”
“He dropped Angel off to get the truck. Logan’ll lose those clowns in the chopper.”
He might not.
She didn’t get a chance to argue. Nitro gunned the motor and she wrapped up against him again. They flew out of the opening. She caught sight of the chopper buzzing down a street going in the opposite direction.
Following Logan who was alone. No backup.
An hour out of the city, Nitro pulled off the side of the road and let her get off before he stashed the bike behind a pile of boulders.
Less than a minute later, Angel pulled up in a dual cab truck.
Nitro took the front passenger seat and Margaux climbed into the back this time. “Where’s Logan?”
Angel answered. “Lost contact. He’ll show up later.”
She grabbed the back of Angel’s seat and pulled herself forward. “You lost contact? What if he’s caught?”
Nitro was peeling out of his jacket with the heat running high. “He’s not caught. He’ll be fine.”
“We should go back.”
Angel shook his head. “Cuz gave orders to get you back to camp.”
She understood why these men thought Logan was invincible, but Logan was a man who could bleed and die.
CHAPTER 40
Logan was a human popsicle by the time he walked into the camp. He’d left the street bike with Moose at the base of the last hill rather than fight his way up the ruts on a motorcycle designed for highways. Dual sport motorcycles were better suited for the terrain up this mountain, but in downtown Denver he’d take a crotch rocket any day.
Margaux stood near the fire with a mug of coffee. She was staring off into the woods.
But she was safe. He’d had no doubt that Nitro would get her back here, but that hadn’t stopped him from worrying about all the things that could go wrong.
Like a coyote crossing the dark road out of nowhere.
Nitro could ride anything on two wheels, but sometimes bad luck happened to the best of them.
Not this time. Logan eased up behind Margaux, wanting to hold her and feel her safe in his arms, but not in front of his men. He wasn’t fooling anyone when it came to her, but they had a mission and she was going to be in the middle of it.
Party Man looked up and grinned at Logan, causing Margaux to turn.
When she did, her eyes told the tale. She was wracked with worry. She dropped the mug and dove at him.
He wrapped her up and the hell with what anyone thought. He hugged her to him.
They stayed that way for several minutes with her drawing hard breaths and him feeling at peace.
Then she hit him in the abs.
He grunted. The woman had a punch. “What was that for?”
She pushed away and unleashed her anger. “Taking off without backup. Don’t put your life at risk like that. I’m not fragile dammit. Pull a stunt like that again and I’ll make you pay.”
She stalked off to her shack.
“You’re welcome,” he called out.
He got a middle finger salute for his trouble.
“You two should get a room.” Party Man chuckled.
“They did,” Nitro said. “Doesn’t look like it did them any good.”
Logan cut his eyes at Nitro. “Shut up.”
“Hey, I’m on your side, Cuz.”
Logan rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hand. “I know.”
“But I don’t think you’ve got a snowball’s chance in hell with her right now.”
Party Man laughed. Angel snickered.
Logan gave up. “Start packing. We leave in an hour.”
All joking ceased. He got a round of, “You got it, Cuz,” in response and everyone was moving. He’d thought about giving them a couple of hours sleep before they took off, but the helicopter that followed him wouldn’t have been the Banker.
Who was the new player in this game?
He didn’t know, but anyone entering the fray at this point would end up collateral damage if they got in the way.
CHAPTER 41
“Why are we meeting the Banker before we go into the convention center?” Margaux wondered aloud from the corner seating she and Logan had chosen. They had a secluded spot in the Wild Rye Café, which was doing a booming business. Location was everything in real estate and this café had the Washington State Convention Center next door.
Outside, people walked past the front windows with not a concern that their world could change in an instant if the Banker threw a kink in Logan’s plan.
“I don’t know why, but meeting him here ten minutes before we go hot was a stipulation spelled out in the envelope,” Logan answered then downed his coffee. Eyes rimmed with exhaustion, but sharp as a predator’s, constantly watched everything and focused on no one person or object. Not yet.
Margaux sat next to him in the booth, and kept her eyes on the door and the foot traffic.
Spring was coming in slowly to the Pacific Northwest, but these people were used to the cold. Some walked around in shorts with a sweatshirt, enjoying their sunny fifty-three degrees.
She snuggled up against his throat, drawing the glimmer of a smile until she asked, “How does all this work to get you
r brother free?”
“You’ll see when we meet to make the trade for Wilder.”
She bit down on the urge to push him for more. He appeared calm to anyone watching, but she could feel the tension vibrating off him. He was ready to get moving.
“What’s plan B?” she whispered. She didn’t have one for herself, but Logan should since he wasn’t looking at disappearing as soon as the Banker was brought down.
That was her plan A.
No second chances. Going for broke with this one.
“Plan B would end my brother’s life. Even so, I’d like to think my men would use the exit strategy we created if I order them to, but they’re a hardheaded lot determined to be heroes.”
She smiled over the warmth in Logan’s voice when he spoke of his men. All of them a Cuz to each other. She missed Sabrina and her team. All Margaux’s efforts to remain alone had failed. She’d grown attached to Slye Temp for more than her own survival.
If that had been her only failure at maintaining total independence, she could have lived with it. But she’d given in to that same weakness when Nanci was still hunting for her after Margaux returned from Paris.
Sabrina had sent Margaux to North Carolina to snoop around for intel the DEA wanted on a suspected meth operation. Nanci’s FBI team was in town at the same time to investigate an abortion clinic bombing.
Nanci was worse than a dog with a fresh bone when she was after something. Worried for her cover identity, Margaux had broken into Nanci’s hotel room while the FBI was in North Carolina.
Margaux had only gone to warn Nanci to stop looking for her, that Margaux was dead to everyone back home and needed to stay dead. But Nanci screwed it up when she’d walked over and hugged Margaux. No one had hugged her in so long she hadn’t known what to do. Nanci got in her face after that and said she’d protect her secret but family was family.
They’d stayed in touch only by Margaux showing up unannounced. Nanci was fine with it. She cared too much, loved too deeply, and it had cost her.
No, you got her killed. Margaux wiped at her burning eyes. I’m sorry, Nanci. And Nanci would say, “Don’t make the same mistake twice. Never make decisions based on emotions. Always keep the goal in sight.”
Margaux had botched that when she went after the Banker in a haze of bloodlust. She’d ended up putting even more people at risk. That idiocy had been done for a while now, but the fallout was still a danger to everyone she cared about.
Now the goal was simple. Stop the Banker and save lives.
No emotion. No vengeance. No mistakes.
“There he is,” Logan murmured, sitting up, alert.
Margaux’s Sig Sauer 1911 hid beneath the light jacket she’d chosen for better mobility in a fight. Her hand itched to hold it right now, to gently squeeze the trigger. Two shots between the eyes and he’d be dead.
But so would Logan’s brother and any intel on other operations would be lost. More innocent blood.
She brought her hands up, folding her fingers together on the table.
The Banker sat down. What a ballsy fucker. That meant he had backup somewhere in here, ready to kill her and Logan if they so much as twitched.
“My people are in place,” Logan said, letting his anger push the words out hard. “What do you need so I can get moving?”
“Do you have enough manpower to insure success?” the Banker questioned.
“This isn’t the time to second guess the choice you’ve made. If I couldn’t do this, I wouldn’t have accepted the job.”
“Yes, but you have not had a woman on your team until now. I’ve had some time to reconsider this.”
Margaux clamped her jaws shut to keep from asking him if he’d like a demonstration.
She’d promised Logan she’d follow the plan and that plan did not call for her grabbing the Banker by his neck and slamming his head down on the table hard enough to crack his skull.
“What are you getting at?” Logan asked.
“I want to know if you’re capable of completing this mission without her.”
What was the bastard up to?
Logan answered with a sharp, “No.” He must have read between the lines quicker than she had and realized where the Banker was going with this. “You’re the one who insisted she be here. Her role now is integral.”
“That’s a shame.” The Banker leaned back, arms spread over the backs of chairs next to him. “Because she’s coming with me.”
“Deal’s off.”
Margaux froze, wanting to shake the daylights out of Logan. He couldn’t call this off now.
The Banker showed his first sign of anger when his eyes narrowed to two slits.
“Wait a minute.” Margaux caught the threatening slash of Logan’s glare and shoved one right back at him. “I didn’t come all the way here to walk away from a big score.”
A smile of satisfaction shone on the Banker’s face. “See? A reasonable woman.”
“What do you need her for?” Logan asked, throat muscles tight and pumped up. One wrong move and he looked ready to pounce on the blood broker.
“Insurance that you will hand over Wilder when you have him. I did not make it to this point in my business by leaving myself vulnerable at any point. She comes with me and when you have successfully completed both operations, we’ll meet to exchange payment and Wilder for your woman.”
“That wasn’t part of the deal,” Logan argued.
Margaux might have a better position for taking down the Banker if she was with him. The idea of spending any time in his presence while he still drew a breath turned her stomach, but she’d waded through sewers to catch a fugitive before.
Breathing the same air as the Banker couldn’t be much different.
Logan could set up a fake terrorist attack and snatch Wilder without her help. He had Party Man, Ty and Moose already in place inside the convention center.
Margaux broke the tension with two words. “How much?”
The Banker quirked an eyebrow. Amused. “For what?”
“I only accompany a man to bed or to bodyguard, which in your case would be a bodyguard detail. I get paid well for that. If you’re pulling me off this job and I can’t earn my part, I want my guard fee.”
“I have bodyguards.”
“Not like me. I could have killed you three times since you walked in that door and neither your boy over there or the woman in the black power suit behind us could have stopped me.”
The Banker glanced at a young man dressed in grunge with iPod earphones who was rocking back and forth, but his eyes had given him away as soon as the Banker entered the cafe.
Determined to sell him all the way, Margaux made another educated guess. “The woman took too long to make a decision once she entered. Her job was to appear as if she came here everyday. She doesn’t have an iPhone or Blackberry going in one hand while she’s sipping her coffee. What business person sits alone and isn’t online this time of day?”
Margaux swung around to look and blinked when she noticed a hunched over guy further back.
Nick had dressed that way once.
The guy laughed at something and talked to his buddy. Not Nick. He wouldn’t get this close and risk the op.
Correction. He would, but only if he had reason to.
She caught herself and finished telling the Banker about his female guard. “Plus, for someone with a body built for the runway, she’s wearing an unflattering jacket. It’s cut to shield her shoulder holster.”
“Well done.”
Like I care about impressing you? “To be honest, I’m good with this change. I’m better at killing than kidnapping.”
Muscles in Logan’s jaw flexed and moved. He didn’t like it, but he had to play along to back her since anything else would end with the Banker walking away.
And the Banker didn’t leave anybody in his wake who could squeal.
She turned to Logan and put heavy emphasis on her words to load a guilt trip. “You made a prom
ise on this job. You can’t change your mind now. This has the potential to be worth a lot more in the long run.”
“She’s right.” The Banker thought she was talking about contracting more jobs from him, but Logan would know exactly what she meant.
Logan looked over at her, pain riding his gaze that no one could see but her.
Oh yes, he’d gotten her message.
She was going with the Banker so that Logan could make whatever deal he had in mind to trade Wilder for his brother’s life. He hadn’t shared his end game with her, but then she hadn’t shared hers with him.
Sabrina and the team would swoop in for the capture as soon as the Banker and Wilder tried to walk away. Margaux had told Nick that was the moment to move.
Not before. Please, not too soon.
She had to believe that Sabrina wouldn’t risk moving too soon, but if Sabrina shared this with the Feds it could all blow up at any moment.
Logan looked over at Margaux and shrugged. “You can go with him.”
It was an arrogant you-belong-to-me comment that Margaux would make another man choke on, but that sold the Banker who sat forward, clasping his hands. “Excellent. You and I will negotiate your fee once I see what you can do, although I don’t expect any attacks on my person today.”
“I’m liking this job more all the time.” Margaux grinned. Please, keep letting your ego do your thinking.
Logan stopped the Banker from moving when he said, “If you ever change a deal on me in midstream again, you’ll regret it.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. If you’re successful today, I won’t require insurance from you again in the future.”
Margaux rose and as she rounded the table she caught the movement of Logan starting to stand. She shook her head and mouthed trust me.
Logan still stood and stepped over, pulling her to him. He kissed her the way a man makes a statement. The message wasn’t a warning about touching her. Logan was making it clear he would exact retribution if anything happened to her.
Her heart squirmed in her chest.
The timing sucked, but she couldn’t say for sure that she’d get a second chance. She whispered against his lips, “I love you.”
