by Jen Talty
Logan let his breath out slowly. “I had nothing to do with that.”
“I beg to differ.” Mr. Vanderlin walked around his desk and patted Logan on the back. “It’s not that I didn’t like you, Logan. I wouldn’t have sat through all those baseball games with my daughter if I thought you weren’t good for her.” Mr. Vanderlin opened the office door.
Logan stood there, staring, unable to utter a single word.
“But I wanted her to chase her dreams as I wanted that for you as well. You had so much talent and a full ride, that’s a big deal.”
“Yes, sir, it was. Unfortunately, the injury put an end to that.”
“I’m truly sorry you lost your scholarship.” Mr. Vanderlin lowered his chin and arched a brow. “You’re a good man and I think I’ve been treating you poorly because of one incident and not the entire picture.”
“I appreciate that,” Logan managed to reply with a high-pitched sound like he’d just hit puberty. “I want you to know that I cared a great deal about Mia…I still do.”
“That’s apparent.” Mr. Vanderlin ushered Logan into the hallway.
“That was weird,” Logan whispered after the door to the office clicked closed.
***
Mia glanced up over her kindle hearing footsteps coming down the hallway.
Her mother appeared at the door.
“Hey Mom.”
“Mind if I come in for a bit?” Her mother made herself comfortable on the other wing back chair next to Mia, giving them both a good look at the Ocean. “Are you okay?”
Mia set the Kindle on the coffee table. “I’m holding it together.”
“You always do that, but it had to have been scary, knowing someone was in your place.”
“It was…it is.” Mia had never been good at showing emotion, keeping it tucked up under sleeve. She never wanted the mean girls to know how they affected her, but with her parents, she wanted to protect them from the pain that had been her childhood. “I think I was more freaked out by Logan carrying a gun.”
“I don’t like having that thing in the house, but it’s necessary.” Her mother leaned, placing a protective hand over Mia’s. “I’m worried about you and have been long before all this other stuff happened.”
Her mother had always had the ability to read Mia’s emotions and moods, but she didn’t always express them, letting Mia figure things out on her own. That used to bother Mia, but not anymore. Her mother gave her a gift by forcing her to either figure it out, or ask for help. It was rare her mother had to push like this.
“My head hasn’t been in the game for a while,” Mia said twirling her hair. “I find no joy in what I do anymore. I think I’m burnt out.”
“Your brother would agree,” her mother said, leaning back. “Only he says he’s been watching you slowly back away since your father’s illness.”
Mia closed her eyes. “It started before that.” If Mia was being totally honest with herself, her restlessness started the moment she’d graduated from college. But she dived right into starting her business with her brother and for a while, her heart raced with the same passion she’d had when she first went to Poly-Tech, or the year she spent in Logan’s arms.
“Are you unhappy?”
“No.” Mia opened her eyes and rolled her head. “But I’m not completely happy either.”
“Do you think you’re missing something in life?”
“I don’t know, but having Logan around is making me crazy and I can’t figure out why he affects me so much. It’s not like we’ve kept in touch over the years.”
Her mother smiled. “Maybe he’s why you’ve always been restless.”
“What does that mean?” Heat flashed across Mia cheeks.
“Logan became your best friend. He was your world and he also brought you out of your shell. I don’t think you would have made it at Poly-Tech—”
“I graduated top of my class and I did that all on my own.”
“That’s not what meant.” Her mother shifted. “Come sit here.”
Mia slid to the floor, and snuggled in between her mother’s legs while her mother’s fingers glided through her hair. When she was in grade school she rarely got invited to a birthday party, so when her mother knew she’d been left out, she always made a point to spend the day either shopping, or going to the salon, or just hanging out watching old movies, braiding Mia’s hair.
“You struggled socially and we worried you wouldn’t be able to leave home. Three weeks before school started your senior year, Logan knocked on the door to pick you up for your first date. Your father did his rendition of the happy dance the moment the two of you pulled out of the driveway.” Her mother grabbed Mia’s shoulders and shook.
“No way. Daddy was so mean to Logan that day. Every day.” She rested her cheek against her mother’s thigh. “I was so embarrassed, but Logan took it in stride.”
“Because Logan was a good boy and he’s turned into quite the man.”
“I wish Dad would stop giving him the evil eye. He might not like Logan, but—”
“Your father likes Logan. Always has.”
“He sure has a funny way of showing it,” Mia muttered.
“Well, right now he’s worried about our safety.”
“That’s an excuse for him to be a jerk because of what happened years ago.”
“That’s not true. You and Logan became inseparable and he would have hated it if Logan gave up his shot at the major leagues and college. Young love can be intoxicating.”
“Logan and I weren’t in love.” Mia let out a long sigh.
“Are you sure about that?” Her mother kissed her forehead.
Mia laughed. “Logan and I promised we’d never get in each other’s way. We wanted each of us to have everything.”
“Oh, honey, that’s love.” Her mother wrapped her arms around Mia. “I suspect you never stopped loving him and that is why you are so restless, but the practical side of you sees the man and what he’s made of himself and you think he’d be giving something up to be with you.”
Mia’s skin tingled with goosebumps. “That’s a stretch.”
“Logan’s a good man, but he’s lost and I suspect that started before his father died.”
Mia hugged her mother’s leg, much like she did when she’d been a little girl. “You’re trying to tell me that Logan and I have been in love with each other all this time?”
“Tell me this, little one. How does he make you feel now?”
“Like I’m the most special person in the world.” Mia left out the most desirable as well. “It is like we’ve never been apart.”
“I’d say that’s worth exploring.”
Mia tilted her head, looking up at her mother. “Daddy would have a heart attack.”
“That’s where you’re wrong.” Her mother smiled. “It’s hard for a dad to actually see his little girl all grown up. The morning he found Logan in your room drove that point home.”
“That was so embarrassing for Logan and Dad is still rubbing it in his face.”
Her mother laughed. “Did you ever think half of that is a game your father is playing to make sure Logan understands that you loved your father before you loved Logan?”
“No.” Mia scrunched her face.
“Your father admires and respects Logan. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t have sought out his help.”
“What do you mean by that?” Mia twisted her body, staring at her mother. “Dad didn’t know Logan worked for…”
Her mother smiled, nodding.
“Daddy knew?”
“He specifically asked for Logan.”
CHAPTER 8
LOGAN LEANED BACK on the sofa in the side patio and stared up at the skylight. The moon and stars danced in the dark sky. Thin white puffy clouds drifted casually across the window.
Markus sat across the room in a wicker chair with matching ottoman, where he had set up his laptop. “STEALTH isn’t taking any credit for the hack on DANA Corp.
” Markus’s earphones now covered only one ear.
How he managed to hold a conversation with music barreling into one side of his head, Logan had no idea. “That doesn’t mean anything.”
“Actually, it does.” Markus ripped off his headphones, tossing them on the table next to him. “You’re IT person has quite an extensive file on that group and they’ve never let anyone else take credit for anything they’ve done.”
“But we’re giving them credit.” Logan kicked off his shoes and put his feet up, clasping his hands behind his head.
“And they are denying the hack. If it were them, they’d be shouting it across cyber space. Not only that, I’ve read pages and pages of the original cyber-attack on DANA Corp and it doesn’t add up.”
“What do you mean, exactly?” Logan pinched the bridge of his nose. He’d always enjoyed Markus’s company, just not when he got his computer geek on.
“I’ve been following the flow of the stolen information, along with how the hackers replaced the data. It’s not very sophisticated and what bothers me more is that the cyber trail ends in Canada. Who the fuck routes top-secret defense plans to fucking Canada?”
“Don’t they route it all different places, so you can’t trace it?”
“Sure, but one of the things Mia and I do is embed code that can be traced when we do work for any government agency. It’s why they use us. Mia’s trail ends in Canada. Then there is the ‘no chatter’ problem. Usually, people talk before and after. The attack on DANA was quieter than a mouse.”
Logan rubbed his unshaven face. “No intel on buy/sell of the data?”
“Nothing,” Markus said.
“So, if it’s not STEALTH, which would be a good thing, then who?”
Both men said, “Raisin.”
“But why?” Logan asked.
“Well, I suspect to ruin Mia,” Markus said, his leg bouncing up and down, rattling the floor. “Every time he came at us, it was more Mia than me. In college, he managed to hack into the school system, changing some of Mia’s work and plagiarizing someone else. Took us a couple of weeks to straighten things out, but it nearly cost Mia an award.”
“How do you not know who this Raisin guy is?”
“Most hackers are anonymous because most of them aren’t ethical. They are usually a recluse with little or no friends. An invisible person even when visible. Or, might have a different persona on line.”
“Do you have a different persona?”
“Both Mia and I will use different names depending the situation.” Markus tapped on his computer. “We’re often looking for hackers wanting to do damage, so sometimes we end up in the underground world, poking around.”
“But if you each have a signature won’t people know it’s you?”
“On these sites, we act like wanna bee’s, playing stupid.”
“Mia doesn’t know how to play stupid.”
“She’s gotten better at it.” Markus shut his laptop down. “But it’s been a while since we’ve had to go underground.”
“What do you think about Theresa having worked for your father and blaming Mia for the cyber threat?”
“Other than she was Rock’s girlfriend until he disappeared, I don’t think anything of it.”
“Where is she now?”
“No idea, but we can find out.”
Logan dropped his hand to his chest, tapping the center with his forefinger. “Mia seems disinterested in the cyber world. Why is that?”
“I really don’t know.” Markus stood. “She’s been restless for a while. I thought the DANA Corp job might help her get her groove back. Between the hack, the threat, and you being back, she’s even more distracted than before.”
“It’s definitely been a trip being in this house and seeing her again.” Logan thumped his chest to the beat of his heart. He understood restless. He’d been that way most of his life. “You think she’s just bored? Wanting something different in life? Pretty much why I keep changing jobs every six years.”
Markus shook his head. “I think she did what she thought she was supposed to be doing. What had been expected of her, instead of following the faint whisper in her heart that told her she wanted something else.”
“And what’s that?”
Markus burst out laughing. “Seriously? You both have always had your heads in the sand.” With that, Markus strode out of the room, leaving Logan to wonder about things he never let himself wonder about, until his phone rang.
“Hey Nick, tell me some good news.” Logan put in his ear buds, then tapped his phone, pulling up a few images of Mia that had been in the case file.
“Don’t know if it’s good or bad, but it’s interesting.”
“Lay it on me.”
“The chick I let smash my old pick-up was hired for a few hundred bucks a day to follow Mia.”
“By who?”
“Says she doesn’t know, some woman with a fake blonde wig in a bar a few months ago,” Nick said.
“She’s been following her that long?” Logan bolted upright.
“Not every day. She gets texts with a schedule and is to report who Mia’s with and where she goes. But the interesting part is that she was given a key by this woman the other day and told to make a phone call from Mia’s apartment.”
“Well, I’ll be damned.” A text from Mia flashed on his screen.
Where r u? Haven’t seen you in hours…
He smiled. “Do me a favor and see what you can dig up on Rock and his ex-Theresa.”
“Sure thing. Talk tomorrow.”
Logan pulled the buds out of his ears and tapped the text thread from Mia.
Side porch and have interesting news
He was getting ready to send her a text with all the intel when she responded.
Come to my room and tell me
Without thinking he typed:
Only if u wear that dress…
The moment he hit send, he regretted it. Well, no he didn’t. However, this wasn’t going to be the brightest thing he’s ever done, but it might be the most exciting thing in a long time.
He pulled up Dylan’s text thread.
You good to watch the perimeter for the next few hours?
Logan took the steps slowly, staring at his phone. It seemed like an eternity before his brother responded.
Sure…why?
I need to talk to Mia, fill her in on a few things.
Fill her in? Yeah don’t get caught.
Logan shook his head, shoving his phone in his pocket while tip-toeing down the hallway. He gripped the door handle to Mia’s room and sucked in a breath. Quickly, but quietly, he turned the knob and pushed back the door, closing it gently and twisting the lock. He shook the door, just to make sure it had been secured.
Terrified or not of her father, Logan needed Mia.
“Logan?” Mia stepped from her gigantic walk in closet he’d been intimately familiar with as a half way decent hiding place. The light spilled out into the dark room, casting a shadow on her face, but lined her perfect body with curves everywhere a woman should have them, especially in that red strapless dress. What little cleavage she did have was enhanced by her mounds being pushed out of the top of the dress. Her tiny waist looked even thinner between her breasts and hips.
“Fuck,” he whispered, staring at her feet that were tucked into four inch red heels that had been stained to match the dress.
“Will you zip me up?”
“Screw that.” He closed the gap, ripping his shirt off and tossing it to the floor. “Drop that dress, baby.”
“What? No foreplay?” She lifted her hands to the side and the red fabric pooled at her feet.
He growled. “There will be plenty of foreplay.”
Her nipples puckered as he fanned his thumbs over them, then glided his hands across her stomach to her back, cupping her bare ass.
“Lots of foreplay on one condition.” He hoisted her up, her legs wrapping tightly around his waist. Her fingers digging into
his back, nails scraping his skin with an electric sizzle.
“What’s that?”
“You leave those god damned shoes on.”
“I’ll do that if you take these pants off. Not a good feeling against my cleanly shaven you know what.”
He groaned again, dropping her to the bed, while he stood at the end, undoing his belt. “You still can’t say that word, can you?” He smiled.
“If you say it, all bets are off.” She sat up, shoving his hands aside, whipping his belt off and tossing it…somewhere in the room. Her fingers deftly working at his fly, gliding it gently over his erection.
He sucked in a deep breath as she brought her mouth to him, taking as much as she could while she slid his pants to the floor.
She looked up at him as she lapped at the tip. “You like that, don’t you?”
“You’re still a dirty, nerdy girl.”
She cupped him, squeezing as her thumb fanned the base of his cock and her hot mouth nearly swallowed him whole.
He fisted her hair, watching her move over him, her hands following her mouth, doing his best to maintain some control. “Jesus Christ,” he whispered. His pulse roared in his ears and his chest heaved up and down. He pressed one hand against her cheek, feeling himself inside her hot mouth. “Stop,” he commanded, but she sucked him harder and faster. His leg muscles tightened and his skin erupted like hot lava.
He twisted her hair tightening his grip, giving her a good tug.
“No,” she said as her mouth slid off him. “I’m not done yet.”
He pushed her mouth to him, gliding inside slowly, letting her have her fill. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been this hard.
Or this excited.
Her hands roamed his thighs and ass while she continued to take him to new heights of pleasure. Her fiery lips slid over his sensitive skin and he could feel his pulse inside her hot mouth. She looked up at him with laden eyes.
