by Lori Ryan
Sam glared at the woman she’d once thought of as her friend. “You need to stop doing me favors if we’re going to keep up this friendship. We can’t go on this way.”
Jennie just laughed and pulled the locker room door open, letting Sam shuffle past her into the room.
“Shower. I need a shower.” Samantha walked down the rows, turning into the one where she’d locked up her belongings. Jennie went to the locker opposite and slipped her member card into the slot at the same time Sam slid hers in to open her locker.
“So,” Jennie said, drawing the word out. “I noticed you and Logan have been having lunch together a lot.”
Sam fought to control the blush cruising up her cheeks, but even she wasn’t foolish enough to think she could control blushing. Stupid physiological responses.
Jennie laughed again. “Anything you want to tell me?”
“Nope, not a thing.” Samantha turned away and opened her locker door.
She stopped and stared at the contents of her locker. It was wrong.
“What’d you say?” Jennie asked over her shoulder and Sam cringed. She wondered when she would ever learn the difference between voicing something in her head and saying it aloud. You would think a grown woman would have mastered that skill.
“It’s wrong. My stuff is in the wrong spot.”
Jennie turned and looked at Sam’s locker with a frown. “What do you mean? Wrong how?”
“My jacket was hung on the front hook not the back one. And the zipper of my purse was facing the front when I left, not the back.”
Jennie didn’t question how Sam knew this. They’d spent enough time together for her to know Sam had an exact picture of her locker and how she’d left it in her head. She wasn’t going by some fuzzy memory as anyone else might. She wasn’t confusing it with the last time she’d come to the gym with Jennie. She had an exact image in her head to compare to the set up presented before her now.
“Is anything missing?”
Sam pulled her jacket out and fished in the pocket. Her car key was where she’d left it. She pulled down her purse and checked for wallet, cell phone.
“Doesn’t seem like it,” she said as she fished out her wallet and opened it. Cash and credit cards were all where she’d left them. “Nope. Nothing obvious.” Even her pack of gum was where she’d left it in the small zipper section on the side.
Jennie and Sam both looked at the locker, frowning for a minute, ideas of a shower long gone. Jennie finally turned and tugged her own clothes out of her locker.
“I wonder if someone started to go through your things and was interrupted. We can tell the staff on the way out. I know they had some wallets stolen in the past. That’s why they went to the member card locks on the lockers. So no one would forget their locks. I wonder if someone figured out a way to get around the keycards.”
Sam grinned and grabbed her clothes, launching into an explanation of how easily one might get through the keycard locks with the right tools as she dressed.
Jennie rolled her eyes. “Come on, Gadget Girl, I’ll buy you a donut.”
“I deserve two donuts after what that sadistic, crazed spin witch just put me through. That woman needs to be stopped before she hurts someone.”
Jennie rolled her eyes again, but a smile split her face as she pushed Sam toward the door.
Chapter Six
The group laughed as Andrew detailed his newest method of killing Logan. At this point, they’d dropped all mention of the game being related to Logan hurting Samantha; it had simply become a game to see who could come up with the most creative way of taking Logan out. Earlier in the week, someone had taped a picture of a baby seal to the copy room wall and the whole office had been playing darts on it.
Samantha walked into the room and took the chair Logan had saved her at the conference table. Sara, Kaeden, Andrew, Logan, Jennie, Chad, and now Samantha, had all gathered for lunch.
The new members of Sutton Capital were settling in with the rest of the group pretty well, so far. Kaeden and Andrew had apparently attended the same camp, only at different times, when they were younger. Sara and Samantha had bonded when Sam found out that Sara was designing her own robotic prosthesis to take the place of the traditional prosthesis she wore on her left arm. They were using a 3D printer to create parts and had been brainstorming ways to make the hand not only perform all the tasks a natural hand could, but also function in ways a typical human hand could not.
“What did I miss?” Sam asked, surveying the group with her gaze as she hung her purse over the arm of one of the chairs and tossed a takeout bag on the table in front of Logan. If anyone noticed that Sam now delivered his lunch to him more days than not, they didn’t comment on it.
Jennie spoke up first. “Andrew was just telling us how he was going to kill Logan with a staple gun and plastic wrap. I’m not convinced it will work,” she said with a grin.
“Oh!” Sam sat up straight and grinned at Logan. “I figured out how I’d kill you.”
Logan groaned but returned her smile. “Uh oh. Why do I have a feeling I’m going to regret letting this game continue?”
“Let’s hear it, Sam. How are you going to take the big guy down?” Sara asked.
“I’m not,” she said, as though she’d just announced something brilliant. “I’d make him do it.”
There was a collective stilling of everyone at the table, and Logan felt a creep of unease crawl up his spine. Even in his screwed up state, no way he’d take his own life? Right?
Chad spoke first. “You wanna spell that out, Sam?”
“First, I’d figure out who mattered the most to him—family, friends, whoever he cared about. Then, I’d set those people up, slipping into their lives and planting evidence. I’d set it up to look like they were dealing drugs, or involved in an affair, or something criminal, anything that would destroy them if it were discovered. A lot of that can be done by computer, and if you’re good, you can do it without leaving a trail. When everything is in place, I’d contact Logan and let him know he had forty-eight hours to commit suicide or I’d release the info on his friends and family. Even if the people were never convicted of the crimes I set them up for, their lives would be destroyed, or at least interrupted in a pretty significant way. He’d do anything to keep them from that fate, including taking his own life. It’s perfect.”
Jennie cleared her throat. “Why give him forty-eight hours?”
“What am I, a monster? He needs time to come to grips with it. A chance to say goodbye.” She smiled and looked around the room. “Did I win?”
Dead silence met her until Logan cleared his throat. “Yeah, Sam. You won.”
Jennie was the first to break the tension as she burst out laughing. “Holy crap, leave it to you to take this thing seriously. You scare the crap out of me, girl.”
When everyone stopped laughing and Sam shrugged, seemingly satisfied in her standing as queen of the murder conspirators, Jennie spoke up again. “Hey, Sam, did you tell Chad about your locker yesterday? At the gym?”
“Nope. I figured it was just someone trying to grab some wallets, like you said.”
“I think you should tell him, just in case,” Jennie said, biting her lip as though uncertain.
The group collectively sat forward in their seats, looking at Sam. Logan was more than a little aware of the way his breath seemed to be anchored to his lungs right now. He didn’t move as he watched Sam squirm in her seat.
“Spill it,” Chad said and he seemed to be dividing a look between the two women as if he didn’t care who told the story, so long as he heard it. Logan felt the same way. He wanted to know what was going on and he wanted the story now.
“When we came back from spin class yesterday, someone had been in Sam’s locker. Nothing was missing, but her things weren’t where they’d been,” Jennie said.
No one seemed to question that Sam would know whether or not things were moved, and Logan didn’t question it either. He already
knew her well enough to know that she had a spot-on memory. If she said things were moved, they were moved. Logan caught Chad’s eyes and the men came to a silent agreement.
Logan tipped his voice into a more casual register. “Probably nothing. You just left things a different way than you thought you did,” he said at the same time as he brought his hand up to cover Sam’s mouth, cutting off her objection before she could voice it.
He gently moved her head in a nod for her, before slowly releasing her mouth.
“You’re right,” she said, catching on as he lifted her purse from her chair and began searching it. “I was pretty tired after the spin class. I probably imagined it. I told Jennie she was overreacting.” Sam smirked at Jennie, who rolled her eyes and laughed.
Logan began to run his fingers over the straps of the bag, and then searched its inside lining. He moved his hands slowly, keeping his search as silent as possible. Luckily, the bag was already unzipped—otherwise, the sound of the zipper being opened would have given his search away immediately. Just inside the zipper, close to the seam, a small tear had been made in the bag.
As Logan’s fingers worked, Chad started up casual banter in the background, in case anyone was listening, but all eyes remained on Logan. It didn’t take long for him to work a small device free of the fabric. He held it up for Chad before lifting Sam’s jacket from her chair and going through a similar search, yielding the same results. Two listening devices had been planted on Sam’s belongings.
“All right, guys, lunch is over. Back to work,” Chad said casually, motioning for the group to leave the room. He took the devices from Logan and took some photos of them before slipping them back in place in Sam’s purse and jacket. He scribbled a quick note to Sam and showed it to her.
Take your things to your office and leave them there. Meet in my office.
Sam nodded and she and Logan walked to her office together to drop off her belongings before meeting Chad in his office moments later, sans bugs. When they entered, Chad was using a small handheld instrument to check the office for listening devices. Apparently not finding any, he turned it off and sat behind his desk as Sam and Logan sat in chairs opposite him.
“I assume you check the office fairly routinely, Chad?”
Logan received an answering nod from Chad. It made sense to do routine sweeps. Sutton Capital’s offices held a large amount of proprietary information, not only on their own company, but also that of the companies they funded.
“Yes, but I’ll increase it now. Can you follow Sam home today and check her house for her?” Chad asked, handing Logan the device he’d been using moments before.
“Why did you guys put those bugs back?” Sam’s mind was only half on the discussion as she thought about the fact that Logan would be coming to her townhouse when they left work. Not that he was coming for any reason other than work, but still. The thought had thrown her off balance. She was doing an inventory of the number of pairs of underwear hanging in her bathroom when Chad answered.
“We don’t want whoever planted them to know we found them until we decide how to proceed. I’ll look into who might have put them there, but with this type of device, tracing them won’t be easy. In the meantime,” he said drawing a small black box from his drawer, “carry this on you. I want you to turn it on anytime you’re talking about something we don’t want anyone hearing. Let them listen to any conversations that aren’t important.”
Sam raised her eyebrows. “You’re putting a lot of faith in my ability to remember to turn this thing on and off.”
Chad grinned. “I’m pretty sure you can handle it. Besides, I only need a day or two to look into this. I want to talk to Jack, see if he has any idea who could be behind it. Hopefully, he’s got some idea who would want information right now. It’s probably related to a deal he’s got coming up or something.”
Sam fidgeted a little with her hands and cast a glance at Logan. He had a brief thought that she might want to talk alone with Chad but he wasn’t about to walk out without her directly asking him to. If something was going on that involved Sam, he wanted to know about it. He couldn’t help her if he didn’t know what was going on and Logan damned well was going to help her. Sam had done nothing but help him since he’d started here. In fact, he had a feeling she had no clue how much she’d helped him just by ignoring his obvious hang-ups and quietly letting him adjust to life with her support.
“Chad, do you, um…do you think it could be related to Alonzo?” Sam sounded genuinely nervous.
Chad’s eyebrows shot up and Logan could tell he wasn’t taking Sam’s question or her apparent anxiety over the issue lightly.
“Who’s Alonzo?” Logan divided his gaze between Sam and Chad.
The answer came from Chad. “Lazarus Alonzo. He’s the guy who was behind the human trafficking ring that took Kelly a few years ago. Sam consulted with the FBI to hunt down the rest of the women who’d been taken, rescuing all but one of them.”
Logan didn’t miss the haunted look in Sam’s eyes at the mention of the woman she didn’t save. He knew that feeling, knew the horror of knowing you’d let someone down. That you’d left someone behind.
“She also helped the FBI hack into his servers and freeze most of his assets, things he’d thought were hidden. When she found some accounts the FBI couldn’t legally touch, she drained all the money out of them. They never caught him, but Sam was able to cripple him. It’s rumored he’s rebuilding his empire, but it’s slow going without the resources Sam took from him.”
“Could it be him?” Logan figured Chad would have kept tabs on whether the FBI had any leads on this guy and whether he might be coming for Sam.
Chad locked eyes with Logan and Logan had his answer. It was possible. But it seemed Chad wasn’t going to let on to Sam that she might have an old enemy coming after her.
“Alonzo shouldn’t have access to your identity, Sam. The FBI was really firm about keeping it confidential and I know the agents we worked with. They’re good. They wouldn’t let your true identity out there,” Chad said.
Sam said exactly what Logan was thinking: “Anything can be hacked.”
The statement was ironic and neither man could argue with her, given her status as one of the best—if not the best—hackers in the country. There had to be a file somewhere that had her name on it, and if she could hack anything, there are others out there who could, as well.
Chad nodded but kept his voice even. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Sam. It’s more likely that your work here is what this person was after when they bugged you. That someone’s trying to get access to info on Sutton through you. They know you sit in on a lot of Jack’s meetings and you have access to a lot of sensitive information. They also wouldn’t think you’d realize your things had been moved in a locker, whereas Jack or Andrew or I would be expected to be more on guard about stuff like that. No one who doesn’t know you would expect that you’d spot something out of place so quickly, so they might have thought you were an easy target to bug.”
Logan watched carefully and Sam’s face seemed to ease as she took in the logic of what Chad was saying.
“I’ll head home with you and be sure nothing’s been planted at your house, Sam,” Logan said. “Do you have a security system at your home?”
Sam shook her head no.
“Okay. We can get one put in place quickly enough. Give me a day to get things lined up with Zach and we’ll get you set up with security,” Logan said.
Sam nodded but the look on her face told him she was battling nerves on the inside. The urge to wrap his arms around her and pull her in close swept through him. He gritted his teeth as they walked out, shoving away thoughts of being her hero. The drive to her house was going to take all the nerve he had in him right now. He wasn’t in any shape to be anyone else’s hero, when he couldn’t even keep his own shit together. Couldn’t even drive from point A to point B without having to force the bile down in his throat.
Chapter Seven
Sam put her key in the lock, but was startled when Logan’s hand closed over her own.
“Let me go first. Just in case.” He smiled at her but the smile was cold. He wasn’t focused on her right now. He was in military mode. Or what she assumed was military mode. He seemed more like a machine at the moment, and Sam wondered if this was normal after his ride home. If it had to do with any PTSD symptoms he experienced when he was driving or if it was because he was in protection mode for her.
He never told her as much, but she knew driving was hard for him. He arrived at the office far too early and left far too late. She had read about the trouble veterans could have with sitting in traffic or even just being stopped at a red light, and she was fairly sure he was having those types of issues. But, he’d stayed right behind her for the ten-minute drive to her town house. She had to wonder what it had taken him, emotionally, to persevere.
Maybe he’d slipped into soldier mode because of the threat, or what they all assumed was a threat, to her. Maybe this was just his protective mode. If this was how he functioned when threatened, she couldn’t imagine how hard it had been on him to live like this for years, through deployments overseas and who knows how many missions with his team. What would it take to shut down your feelings and function with such pure, calculated precision and drive?
She moved over as Logan entered the small space that her front door opened into. The town house was three levels, with the front door opening into a hallway in the basement level. There was a garage to the left and a staircase to the right. Between them was a short hallway that led to a finished room that still stood empty. Sam had never decided what to do with the room and only used it to get to the utility room where the hot water heater was housed.
Logan quickly checked the garage and backroom, looking into the utility room as well, before returning to Sam and starting up the stairs that led to the second level of the house. This level featured an open living room with a fireplace and sliding glass doors that led to a small patio and a grass common area. Another three-step staircase to their left led to a dining nook that looked out over the living room, broken up only by a half wall and the added height. Logan would easily be able to see anyone in these rooms without having to enter them because of the open concept.
