by Avery Duncan
“And this deal is…” Whereas Chase had been begging for help before, it was Logan’s turn.
“I’m very good at math. I know a lot of accounting and transactions go on, being a ranch and all. I used to keep my father’s accounts when he would be too busy to, and I want to be a part of the ranch. Not just the ranchers wife, but as someone who actually helps instead of wasting her time every day, doing nothing to help.”
Silence. A long, terrible silence. Logan and Chase both froze, staring at her as if she’d lost her head. She felt her composure crack a little, and she bit her lip to keep from saying anything that would ruin whatever gain she’d made with them.
“You want to handle the money?”
That came from Chase, and she heard the suspicion in his voice.
She lifted her chin. “No, I want to keep track of it. I want to order whatever we need for the ranch, when we need it, and take that part of the job out of Logan’s hands. Since I know nothing about horses yet, this would be a good way for me to get involved…”
Her heart pounded in her chest. “I’m good at being organized and keeping track of things. Plus, it would let you get more done in a day so that you aren’t swamped and working till late at night.”
Logan still hadn’t said anything about her proposal. Claire tried to stop the rambling, but she couldn’t. Her face burned near painfully. “And I noticed we have a lot of room in the dining room. Maybe enough to have the guys eat with us sometimes? I don’t mind cooking a lot, it keeps me busy and I’m really good. My father and I had lessens from a gourmet chef. He came in from Paris just to meet me and I learned a lot of good tips…”
“Claire. Calm down.”
“Wow,” Chase commented. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone talk so loud. How much did she cram in two seconds? Maybe an hour’s worth of conversation?”
Claire let out a nervous laugh, then quieted when Logan stood up.
“Chase, go get something to eat,” he commanded, watching Claire with unreadable eyes. Chase left with a nod in her direction.
“I should have just stopped talking, right?” Claire sighed, her shoulders slumping in the seat.
Logan was silent. He walked around the desk and turned the chair so that she was facing him. The look in his eyes made her heart stop.
He smiled. “I think that would be great, Claire. We—“
She cut him off when her arms flung themselves around his neck, her squeal sharp in the room. Claire hadn’t noticed how nervous she’d been until just then. “Thank you! I was so scared, I didn’t know what you would say. When I was outside, I didn’t have anything to do and you had kept kicking me out and wouldn’t even talk to me and I had no one to –“
“Claire, you’re doing it again,” he chided. His voice was soft, taking the sting away. Even so, her cheeks burned.
“I just felt so useless today,” she explained, dropping her head.
“Chase and I had a lot of things to take care of. He’s having some problems and they need to be taken care of as soon as possible.”
She didn’t ask Logan about what kind of problems – if it was between Chase and Logan, she had a feeling that it should stay like that until he was willing to share. Claire wasn’t going to complain though. After all, he’d just agreed to let her take part in his life.
Her smile was blinding as she hugged him again, tighter this time. “Just show me what to do to get started, and I can be off like a rocket.”
Logan laughed, a sound that lifted her heart. Things weren’t going to be so bad after all.
Carl picked up the phone, debating. If he did this, it was going to be a one-time-only thing and he only had to pray that Ms. Campbell was as stupid and as ditzy as Joey said she was. He’d gotten the ranch’s number from the local directory, so all he had to do now was dial it up and hope that she answered.
If she didn’t, he’d simply hang up. No big deal. It was just her actions that decided whether she was going to die or not. He smiled a little bit, leaning back in the hotel bedroom. He’d told Joey that he’d gotten another phone for them to call on, and he had. With just a quick scratch of everything that was on the phone he’d been using for the past week, Carl knew he was good to go as he pressed the first number into the screen. The small square box lit up, the only source of light in his room.
It was a dinky little thing, cheap and plastic, nothing like the smartphone that he’d wanted to get. After all, it was Joey’s money that was taking care of all the expenses. But, he knew, smartphones could be traced a lot easier than a small, cheap pre-paid phone.
He pressed in the rest of the numbers, staring up at the ceiling as he listened to the dial tone. He’d never done something like this before, but he had a good feeling about it. Claire wasn’t very smart – marrying someone and being the talk of the town spoke enough for that. He chuckled a little.
As he lay there, waiting, it seemed like forever. Maybe no one would answer? He frowned, and then the dial tone stopped, replaced by a breathless voice. “Hello, Claire Marshal speaking.” Carl sat up a little straighter.
Her voice, even though breathless as if she had been running, was beautiful. In the restaurant, it had been had to hear her with the whispers of the restaurant and the distance between them.
“Hello?” she asked again, this time her voice coming over the line as confused. His eyes closed.
Ms. Campbell sounded like an angel. Anger flared inside of him. Logan did not deserve this woman – and she was stupid enough to go with him. She deserved to die, no matter how much she sounded like a living harp.
“I think I have something that you want,” he said, making his voice as low and threatening as possible.
She laughed through the phone. “Is this some kind of joke? I hope your mother knows what you’re doing, hun.” God, even her laugh was like music to his ears… Then he realized what she’d said.
Fury and shame flashed through him.
He quickly racked his brain for something, anything that he could remember of what Joey had told him about her.
“Your cousin… You remember him, right? Andrew?”
“What…” she trailed off. The static silence told him enough.
“You do, don’t you?” Andrew was the cousin who was taking the time to load up her money. He’d just recently found out who it was, but he hadn’t told Joey. It would only cause the fat man to do something irrational and he really didn’t need any more of that.
“What have you done with him?” she whispered.
He hummed loud enough for her to hear, taking his time. “Oh, nothing. Yet.”
“Who are you? Where is he? Tell me!” Her voice broke on the demand.
Carl smiled, pleased. “How about this, Ms. Campbell. You meet me tomorrow morning behind the hotel across the diner. There’s a nice little shack there. When you meet me there, I’ll let you have your cousin.”
“What… oh god,” he heard her whisper. “What do I bring?”
Carl clenched his hand around the phone. “Nothing. You bring nothing. If Logan Marshal shows up with you, the first thing you’re going to see of your cousin is his head – with a bullet in it. Just you and that’s it.”
“But… I have no way to get there.”
“Of course you do. The truck, take his truck. And I’ll know the second he shows up—and your cousin won’t be the only one with a bullet in his head. Oh, and any calp[ls you make to your family? Being tracked. One little call and one little bullet in his head… If any of Logan’s men show up, you can guess what’s going to happen, can’t you?”
Stark silence. He heard nothing but the static over the line. Carl couldn’t help the stupid grin that lit his face. Sounding smart and threatening had worked on the dumb, beautiful Ms. Campbell.
He heard a shuddering breath, and then, “I’ll be there alone. What time?”
“Oh, how about ten-ish. I think he’ll be strong enough for the trip by then.”
What a dirty little lia
r he was. Carl laughed at himself as he hung up the call.
Chapter 28
“Hey, what’s wrong with you?”
Logan caught up to her as she was making her way to their bed. She’d left dinner early, too sick over the conversation she’d had over the phone to talk to anyone.
“Nothing’s wrong,” she said over her shoulder, forcing a smile. “Today was a long day, that’s all.”
His arm came around her waist and he stopped her from walking farther down the hall. On it’s own accord, her body leaned into his and she breathed him in. She wanted to tell him. She needed to tell him. But the thing on the phone had said he couldn’t show up or her cousin would be dead… and if he knew what she was planning to do tomorrow, he would not let her go alone – if he let her go at all even.
“Are you sure that’s all it is?” he asked. His voice washed over her, calming her. She nodded into his chest and stood there, drinking in his warmth and comfort.
“Yeah,” she whispered, knowing they both knew it was a lie. “I need to nap. Do you think that maybe, tomorrow I can take the truck into town? I need to get things for lunch and dinner.” Her tongue burned with the lie, but she forced it past her teeth.
Logan pulled back from her, looking at warily. “Marla normally gets our groceries. She’ll be here tomorrow so I can just call her before she gets here to pick up whatever you need.”
Her head shook quickly. “No, I want to. If I’m going to be here I might as well show my face around, right? No one here knows me. Plus, I’d like to see Darla and get some of her delicious pie.” Her throat closed up, actually swelled as she lied to him.
It was for his own good.
For her cousins own good.
For her own good. What would that freak do to her, if she brought Logan? She trusted in his ability to keep her safe, and himself as well – but even she didn’t know where her cousin was, if he was okay, if he was even alive. She couldn’t risk Logan’s life on the chance that Andrew wasn’t even there.
She remembered the sound of the thing’s voice clearly. Raspy, high-pitched, and some-how managing to get a small gurgle in it. If she hadn’t known any better, she would have thought she were talking to a dying goldfish or something. Her skin crawled as she thought back to it.
“If that’s what you really want,” he said slowly, peering into her eyes. Finally, with a frown between his brow, he let go of her. “Why don’t you go lay down.”
She missed his warmth immediately, wanted nothing more than to crawl right back into them and cry her eyes out. But she promised herself she wasn’t going to cry anymore. She knew how much it killed him to see it. Instead, Claire smiled as best she could and nodded. “I think I’m going to get to bed early.”
“Alright, love. What time to you plan on leaving tomorrow?” he asked, kissing her temple gently.
She leaned into the kiss, breathing in his scent, drawing whatever strength she could.
“Nine-thirty, maybe ten.”
He nodded, looking her over one last time before leaving her alone in the hall.
The second she got into the room, she flew herself on the bed and screamed into one of the pillows.
“God!” she cried out angrily, punching the bed. “Why does this always happen to me? Why am I always the one that get’s put through this shit?”
She lay there silently.
Claire was going to die tomorrow. Or get taken back to Joey. Or maybe she was just going to get her cousin back and leave. Even while the last option sounding amazing, she knew it didn’t make sense.
Why would the thing take her cousin, and then call her to town with no money, nothing as a ransom? Just herself? She closed her eyes on an angry scream, forcing it down. It was Joey doing this; it had to be. Her father had kicked her out of his life – couldn’t someone go to the fatass and just tell him that? Whatever happened to her would be pointless because her father wouldn’t know or care.
Claire sat up, holding her head in her hands.
Things with Logan were great right now. Amazing. He’d shown her the basics of what they needed per month, they’d spent time together and laughed together, and he’d even helped her prepare dinner for the ranch-hands first dinner at the house. And now….now this.
Could she never win? Could she never just be happy?
She wrapped her arms around her stomach, fighting off tears. She didn’t know what she was going to do tomorrow. Maybe… Maybe she could write Logan a letter. He’d be lucky to find it in time, but at least she could say she’d given him a warning. Claire couldn’t risk Andrew’s life, not after he’d risked his countless times for her.
Maybe she could meet with the person, find out where her cousin is, take him, and then leave?
It sounded so simple, so easy. God, she wished it could be.
Claire got up from her spot on the bed, walking to the bathroom. When she turned on the shower, the room was steaming in minutes. She stripped down and climbed in, wishing it was that easy to relax. Too bad a simple shower couldn’t relax her mind as much as it relaxed her muscles.
She went about getting ready for bed like a robot. The second she was out of the shower, she towel dried her hair, slipped into a pair of pajamas that she’d left in Logan’s room, and then went to hers. The outfit she picked out was simple and comfortable. Black tighes and a gray UnderArmor jacket with a pair of socks and grey tennis hoes. Simple and, if push came to shove, easier to run in.
When she was back in Logan’s room, she laid them on the couch and searched for a piece of paper and pen. She was leaving the second she was dressed in the morning, and she didn’t want to forget, in her haste, to write to Logan.
She finally found a piece, and sat down on the bed, the stationery clenched in her hands.
Claire stared at it.
What the hell did she put?
His face came into her mind on its own accord.
For several seconds, she stared at the paper, just seeing his face.
God...
Claire stood up suddenly.
Throwing the paper off of her lap, along with the pencil, she flung open the bedroom door and in seconds, she was running through the house. She couldn’t not tell Logan. Was she actually that dumb that she wouldn’t tell him? He could do something. He had the strength and the minds – and she obviously didn’t.
What had she even been thinking, doing this alone? She wanted to be strong for him – but getting herself killed?
Claire’s throat closed up. She turned the corner and the next thing she knew, her face was smashed against a large bulking chest and hands were on her shoulders.
“Claire?” the familiar deep voice was muffled.
“Blake! Where’s Logan?”
She met his eyes frantically. He pulled the apple out of his mouth, pointing down the hall. “Talking to Nathan. Listen, is everything okay? What’s wrong?”
“I just – thank you,” she said quickly, slipping around him and running down the hall. God, when had this house gotten so large?
The last door on the right was where she heard the deep tenors. She flung open the door, heart in her chest. “Logan!”
At the sight of him leaning over a table, thick arms braced on the edge, face concentrated, it all came crashing down around her. Her little charade of strength from earlier and crumbled. She ran over to him and flung her arms around his shoulders, holding on, forgetting about the audience.
“This guy,” she said quickly against his chest. “He called and said he had my cousin and I had to meet him in town tomorrow at ten and I couldn’t bring anyone with me. He said that if I did, he would shoot my cousin in the head and then you and I don’t want you to die or him either, but I can’t just leave like that and I don’t know what to do.”
“Hey, calm down.” His arms came around her tightly and she curled into his chest, drawing in his comforting scent.
“What do I do? This thing has my cousin!” It was so hard to keep the tears at bay, to not c
ry in front of Logan and the gathering crowd in the room. Blake had come in, along with Eric, Luke, and Chase.
“I need you to calm down first, Claire. Breathe and tell me what happened, slower this time.”
She pulled back from him slightly, looking around the room.
What had she been thinking, doing this alone? One person against a small militia. Her heart clenched in her chest and her hands went numb. “My cousin Andrew, he was the one who would send me money when I needed it. Like for food and gas and stuff. I don’t know how this freak found out about him…but he has my cousin. Logan, Andrew is like my big brother!” She looked at him desperately.
“When did you get the call?” Nathan asked this. Logan just stared at her silently.
She swallowed, looking away from him. He knew she had lied to him.
“A couple of hours ago, right before dinner. The voice was all squeaky?” she frowned, not knowing how to explain it. “And watery, like he was gurgling, but then it was also raspy. I don’t know how to explain it. But he said that I have to meet him behind the hotel across from the diner at ten o’clock tomorrow, alone, or he’s going to die.”
Nathan took her elbow, guiding her to a chair and sitting her down. She’d never been in this room before. There were gun safes lined up along the wall, the table in the room was metal and had a spread out map with a small computer screen built into it. In the far left corner of the room, there was a stand that reached the ceiling filled with black devices. Opposite of that stand was a large black box. It had cords running out of it that led to twenty or so black styluses, which were connected to the side of the box and had a small LED light that blinked every once in a while.
She looked back at Logan, who was again just watching her. His eyes were hooded and his arms were crossed over his chest. He was furious with her.
He stepped toward her. “You had planned on going there alone?”
His voice was soft, yet the sound of it was like a whip against her ears. Claire nodded, staring him straight in the eyes with pressed lips. “I wasn’t thinking. I was scared and he said he would kill whoever went with me.”
