by Lora Leigh
It was the only thing that made sense.
Skye had considered it from every angle she could find, and it all led back to the fact that there was only one thing that could have tied all the women together.
They all had the potential to conceive heirs to the Callahan trusts.
“My sister was killed,” Crowe retorted then. “She was only two weeks old.”
“Perhaps they were unaware she was in the SUV with them,” Skye mused. “If your parents were murdered, and I believe they were, then it’s possible the murderer was unaware she was in the vehicle.”
Crowe’s gaze was filled with such ice, it was so hard and blank, that for a moment she wondered if he had even heard her.
“They’ve targeted our lovers to implicate us in their deaths,” Rafer said then. “And to torture us. There’s no reason to believe we’d risk impregnating them.”
“That doesn’t gain them anything other than the possibility that you’d be easier to kill. Having you imprisoned would result in the same end. You’d be out of the county for at least a year, longer if you’re imprisoned for murder. The only way to gain what it seems they want, is to force you to leave the county, have you imprisoned, or if you die in a way there’s no possible suspicion of foul play. At this point, no matter how you die, it would be suspicious simply because of the psychological profile that would be done on each of you and the fact that it would prove suicide was not in your nature. And they only gain it then if there are no heirs conceived before you left or before your deaths.” She glanced at Cami. “She won’t be safe until you’re out of the county for the required year. That’s a full year that they have to kill her. You won’t be able to keep her safe that long,” she said gently. “The only answer is to place her in federal protection until you can resolve this.”
“Hell no,” Rafer snapped then. “Whoever’s doing this obviously has political ties. It’s too big a risk.”
It was a slight risk, Skye admitted. A risk she knew the Callahans would find unacceptable.
But there were no other alternatives. Unless—
If she called in a single favor from a source she had promised herself she would never contact.
Staring at Logan, she realized that ultimately he would give up his life, die, for each of his cousins or any of the women he’d ever known in his life. Just as Crowe or Rafer would. And at the moment, Cami’s life was in grave danger. The cousins would die, or they would kill whoever they had to kill, to save her.
She was a part of all three of them. A part of their pasts and, through Rafer, a part of their hearts.
Skye breathed in deeply.
“I know someone who can’t be bought and his men can’t be bought,” she said, her voice low. “Someone with no political ties that count and all the resources needed to keep her not just safe and alive but close enough that you won’t have to worry about her because you’ll know she’s safe.”
Federal protection would take her completely out of Rafer’s life. Skye’s contact would delight in keeping Cami close enough, and safe enough, that it would drive whoever was attempting to kill her completely mad with rage. Such games were the spice of his life and he practiced them diligently.
Skye’s contact had the ability to do that. To enrage even the most calm, mild-mannered people.
The three cousins watched her suspiciously now.
“Criminals?” Logan guessed. “I don’t know about that—”
She shook her head. “He calls himself a legal misfit. But to my knowledge, he’s no criminal.”
She just suspected that he was.
“Go on.” It was Crowe who encouraged her to reveal her contact’s identity.
“He delights in driving deserving souls insane with rage. He’ll keep her close, well-protected but in plain sight. His men aren’t bound to him by money, but by blood loyalty and ties created in ways that ensure he would never be betrayed. And if anything happens to the three of you, he’ll ensure her safety. And the safety of any child she’s conceived. Trust me, Rafe. No one could touch her if she’s under his care.”
“And who could have that kind of power at his fingertips, owe you a favor, and be willing to put himself out to such an extent?” Rafer was still suspicious.
Skye licked her lips, nervous, uncertain not because she didn’t trust her contact but perhaps because she didn’t trust his ability not to deliberately antagonize these three men.
And she couldn’t say they weren’t already suspicious.
“So who is he?” Logan was the one to ask the question, his expression carefully bland. “And why would he do it?”
Because he owed her. Because for one horrible moment, something had been out of his control.
“Why?” She sat back on her heels where she had been kneeling next to him. “I’m the agent who saved Amara Resnova’s life two years ago when she was targeted by the DC Vigilante because of her father’s suspected activities. He gave me a onetime, unlimited IOU.”
Crowe gave a soft whistle, his eyes widening as Logan’s narrowed. “An unlimited IOU and a very serious marriage proposal is the rumor in the alleys. And that comes from some damned high-level sources. Son of a bitch, no wonder I couldn’t gain any information on you. You’re part of a new, elite group of undercover bureau agents who are targeting the rise in stalker activity.”
She inclined her head in acknowledgment. “You know things you shouldn’t.”
“I was offered a position,” he informed her gruffly. “I politely declined.”
“Interesting,” she murmured. “I heard the position was only offered to those agents in training whose parents were part of the bureau.”
“Or whose parents or themselves were in select circles in the military,” he reminded her. “I was.”
Ah, that made more sense then. It also explained why the three cousins were treated with kid gloves when it came to the Corbin County Slasher. If Crowe had been offered a position in the same unit she was in, then his abilities far exceeded those that the Slasher possessed.
She nodded somberly then. “It makes more sense now why the bureau profilers placed a definite ‘no way’ on the suspicion that one or all of you were involved in the Slasher’s killings.”
“There’s also the rumor that most of the agents, even those who turned the position down, were being groomed for it from the womb,” Crowe stated. “Is that true?”
She stared back at him then. “Were you groomed, Crowe?” she asked him.
His smile was tight, hard. “We were definitely groomed to beware of our enemies.”
She shrugged, careful to keep her tone even, her voice soft. “As was I. I was ten when my parents were killed. So who’s to say if I was being groomed or not? The rumors that swirl around the inception of the new department are no different than any others. It’s something I take with a grain of salt.”
She turned to Rafer then. “It’s your call. Ivan Resnova has the power, as well as the ability, to ensure nothing or no one touches her. I can provide his help. But not without your willingness to place her there.”
“If he’s so good, how did the DC Vigilante almost get to his daughter?” Logan growled.
“Because Amara was a teenage girl who wanted to see her boyfriend. A boy her father didn’t approve of, and she was secretly seeing. She slipped away from him and gave the Vigilante a chance to get to her.”
Rafer stared down at his sleeping lover, his face lined with pain, with the decision facing him. “He doesn’t have to keep her close if it’s a risk,” he whispered then, his voice echoing with such love that for one aching moment Skye felt her own chest tighten in pain as well. “She wasn’t close before; I was just, thankfully, in the area.”
Skye nodded to that. “Rafer, Ivan could keep her in Logan’s backyard and keep her safe,” she stated ruefully, knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that he could do just that. “I’ll make the call in the morning.”
She made the mistake of turning to Logan then, just in
time to catch the look on his face.
A look that sent both trepidation and pure, fiery lust surging through her. A look she had never seen on a man’s face in her life.
At least, not where she was concerned.
Pure possession and the pure male intent to enforce his claim.
That was the look on his face, and only one emotion could inspire that look.
Love.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Saturday, June 19, 4:30 am
The day had fully begun before Skye and Logan returned to her house to attempt to sleep once again.
At least, sleep was what she was considering.
The attempt anyway.
With Rafer and Crowe camped out in the living room of Logan’s house, the heavy curtains pulled securely shut, they were reasonably confident of providing the security Cami needed until Ivan could be contacted.
Once he had been contacted, it wouldn’t take him long to arrive.
Cami was still sleeping under the effects of the injection Logan had given her, and for once Bella hadn’t howled when Logan moved from the house without her.
She had instead climbed onto the heavy mattress that had been pulled from one of the upstairs beds and placed in the most secure corner of the room. She’d then curled up on the pillow at Cami’s uninjured shoulder and laid her wrinkled face against it as she stared back at Logan sadly. She’d then turned and swiped Rafer’s face with a puppy kiss as she lay on the pillow beside Cami’s.
Bella was going to watch over the young woman she’d never met, and one she must have sensed Logan was deeply concerned about.
Swallowing tightly, Skye had followed Logan back to her house, sensing with a soul-deep knowledge that the coming confrontation was one she might not be ready to face.
“Ivan Resnova.” Logan’s tone was merciless, his expression so arctic, Skye actually had to suppress a shiver as they reentered the bedroom. “Russian military, I believe. Gained his millions from his French father and his unique ability to embezzle a country already fighting to feed its people.”
She breathed in slowly. “That’s what the world was led to believe.” She shrugged. “His money came from his American father and his French grandmother. He didn’t embezzle from his country, because he was never Russian to begin with.”
He had always been American. The day he was born his citizenship papers had been filed with the bureau to ensure his citizenship when his CIA parents gave birth to him. Once he’d turned eighteen and his father learned he’d been funneling CIA handler information from the low-level military position Ivan had held at the time, he’d been given the truth of who and what his parents worked for.
“I really don’t give a fuck how he lines his pockets,” Logan told her, his tone dangerously soft. “Resnova does nothing for free, Skye. What makes you think he won’t expect more from you than a simple thank-you once all this is finished?”
“Because he already feels he owes me. There is nothing or no one that means as much to Ivan as his daughter,” she stated, fighting for patience. “It’s an all-inclusive IOU. There are no strings attached.”
The look Logan gave her was filled with derision. “Men like that only understand strings, Skye. And that proposal he made to you meant he is serious about adding those strings.”
“Perhaps he was at the time, but only because he felt he owed me, Logan, and Ivan believes there’s nothing a woman wants or needs more than a husband. In his mind, marriage was the greatest gift he could give me. That and because Ivan wants a mother for his daughter. One he knows he can trust. He felt he could trust me. That’s all.”
“And he had no intentions of sleeping with you?” Logan questioned disparagingly. “Is that what you believe?”
“No, I don’t,” she answered, keeping her tone low, pushing back that instinctive need to get as confrontational as he was and just as horny.
He was filling out the front of his jeans like nobody’s business.
For a moment, she wondered if she would ever get enough of him.
Nervous anticipation began building within her, and with it a sense of sexual excitement that she couldn’t seem to tamp.
There was something so arrogantly male, so possessive, in his expression that it was as if a shield suddenly snapped over her senses, pulling her back with a force that left her almost staggering.
A sense of panic threatened to rise inside her, a dark, ugly shadow of fear building through her emotions. Not a fear of Logan. A sudden fear of the unexplained emotions that were tearing at her, that, despite the panic, were only building inside her.
“He’s a friend, nothing more, Logan.” She fought to keep her voice even and wondered why it was suddenly such a battle. What was that tremble that threatened to overtake it?
What was the hunger that had her hands trembling? That had her stomach tightening not in dread but with the sure knowledge that something was about to change between them. Something she wasn’t certain she could handle.
When he said nothing more Skye turned and moved to the closet doors. Pulling them open and stepping inside, she drew in a deep breath as silently as possible as her lips parted and she licked her dry lips quickly.
The door to the monitor room opened smoothly as she keyed in the code on the remote. Checking each one carefully for any present movements, she then set the controls to view any past movement in the time between their departure and present return to the house.
She felt him follow her. Felt his presence as he paused at the entrance to the closet, his silence weighing heavily between them.
“There he is,” she murmured as the shadow waited until dark to move from the tree line to the back door.
Once there, he drew a small black box from inside his jacket, inserted a slender line into the first lock, waited, then repeated the procedure on the second.
“What the hell is that?” Skye looked closer, frowning.
“Hell if I know.” Logan watched over her shoulder, his gaze narrowed as she glanced back at him. “Definitely military, though. There’s nothing like this on the market or Rafer’s source would have picked it up for him. Hell, anything like that in the regular military channels and my source would have apprised me of it.”
“What about Crowe’s source?”
Logan shook his head. “If it were available to his source, then Crowe would know about it. It would have to be damned new, likely CIA. Whoever it belongs to, we’ll have a line on it soon. Can you print this?” He indicated the device as the attacker pulled back.
Giving a quick nod, Skye moved to the keyboard and, using the control monitor, typed in the commands. Seconds later a series of printouts slid from the small printer beneath it.
“Here you go.” Handing the photos to him, Skye turned her gaze to the monitor showing the attacker’s movements.
He punched the code into the device and waited a few more seconds.
A green light blinked on the device and a drawer popped from the side.
There was a key lying inside.
Removing it, he inserted what appeared to be a blank key and repeated the movements.
“The alarm wouldn’t have gone off if the key was used and the code put into the control panel once he was inside. The device, or another he’s using, must have decoded the security.”
As he moved into the house, she turned to another camera and watched as he punched the code in, without the use of anything.
“Could the device he was using have found the code?”
Logan shook his head. “Trust me, when I find him, I’ll find out.”
She had no doubt he would, but Skye also knew there was no other way to get that code.
“I’m going to shower.” Gathering her gown and robe together, she turned and left the closet, moving past him as he watched her broodingly now.
“Were you in love with him?” he asked as she passed him.
She paused, looking back at him somberly as she asked in turn, “Does it matter, Logan?”
The look on his face earlier had been one, she’d convinced herself, might have been love. Now, she wasn’t so certain, just as she had no idea how she would handle the pain of loving him if he walked away from her.
She didn’t know why it should matter. He’d let her know from the beginning that this wasn’t a relationship. It was no more than a few one-night stands.
She had accepted that. She was dealing with it. It was the story of her life, and she’d finally decided that there was no reason it should be any different with Logan.
Everyone in her life had been a version of a one-night stand.
Including her parents.
She hadn’t loved Ivan. She didn’t love him now.
She liked him. She respected him, and personally, she trusted him with her life.
Sleeping with him hadn’t been a desire she’d had, though. And it was one Ivan would have eventually pushed for if she’d continued her friendship with him or with his daughter, Amara.
Showering, Skye had to force herself to push back whatever emotions were building inside her at the show of possessiveness Logan had displayed.
She hadn’t expected this. She’d expected that non-relationship thing. Just as she expected that once the Stalker was identified and taken into custody, Logan would gently cut things off.
That look on his face before they had come back to the house, the one that assured her he would make damned certain she knew whose bed she was sharing, had triggered something inside her, though. Something she had no idea how to identify.
Something that was pulling at her, tormenting her, tightening her chest, her stomach, and, strangely enough, creating an arousal unlike any he’d inspired yet.
Pulling on the long black vintage silk gown that cupped her breasts like a lover’s hands and smoothed to her waist with elastic silk lace before flaring out in yards of silken fabric to the tips of her toes, Skye admitted she simply wasn’t prepared for a man like Logan.
