Bounty Hunter- Logan

by Kim Fox

  “Redemption Creek has always been nice to shifters,” Logan answered. “It wasn’t so much what drew me here, but what drove me away from my old town.”

  “What drove you away?” Elodie held her breath as she waited for an answer.

  “The trigger-happy Sheriff,” he said as he parked the van in an empty spot on the main road. “He didn’t want any of my kind in his town.”

  He threw the van into park and turned the key. “What about your parents? What did they do?”

  “My mother wasn’t in the picture.”

  “And your dad?”

  “The Sheriff was my dad.”

  Elodie’s mouth dropped open as he opened the door and stepped out. She turned back and looked at her mother who shrugged. “Let’s go.”

  They climbed out of the van and began walking down the street. Elodie whipped her head from side to side, trying to take it all in. The colorful flowers hanging from the old-fashioned street lights, the storefronts that each had their own unique charm, the interesting-looking people walking by—there was so much to look at.

  “The grocery store is just up here,” Logan said, leading the way.

  They turned the corner and nearly crashed into two women who were each pushing a baby stroller. Elodie’s heart swelled when she saw the babies inside, each probably about four months old.

  “Aww,” her mother gushed when she saw them too. “They’re so adorable.”

  “Thank you,” one of the women answered with a smile.

  Elodie was taken aback when she saw her face. Four long jagged scars ran down across her face from her forehead to her chin. But even with the scars, she was still beautiful. There was a confidence and peacefulness about her that Elodie could feel radiating off her.

  “This is Kennedy,” Logan said, introducing them, “and Nora.”

  “Hi,” Nora said as Logan introduced them back. She was pretty with big ears and an even bigger smile.

  Logan explained that these women were the mates of their neighbors. Kennedy was Maximus’ mate, and Nora was Kneecap’s.

  “And who are these little guys?” Elodie’s mother asked as she bent over to get a closer look at the smiling, drooling babies.

  “This tough guy is Marlin,” Nora said, pointing at Kennedy’s baby, “and this sweet girl is Jenna.”

  “Cute cubs,” Logan said with a grin.

  “Hold her, Logan,” Kennedy said as she reached over to pull the baby from the stroller.

  “It’s okay,” Logan said as he took a step back. “I’m good.”

  But the young mother was fast. “No, I insist.”

  Before Logan could refuse again, Kennedy had thrust the baby girl into his arm.

  He held her up and laughed as the baby swatted his nose and tugged on his beard.

  Wow. Could he be any hotter?

  Seeing him holding that cute baby was stirring up something deep inside of Elodie.

  He handed the baby back and they chatted for a bit before they were all on their way.

  “I knew you had it in you,” Elodie said to Logan once they were alone. The women and babies were gone, and her mother had stopped to look in the window of a cute bookstore that had some books on display.

  Logan turned to her with a curious look. “What?”

  “A smile. You can try to hold it in as much as you want, but an adorable baby will always draw it out of you.”

  He looked amused as he watched her. “Is that so?”

  She nodded. “Babies are like kryptonite to somber moods.”

  He smiled as he turned away. “I’m sorry if I’ve been a little…”

  “Rough around the edges?”

  “Yeah,” he said with a nod. “I’ve been going through a hard time.”

  “I know,” she said, taking a step closer to him as they walked. “But we’re beautiful people in a beautiful town on a beautiful day, so let’s have a beautiful time.”

  He nodded as his mouth curled up into a smile. “Sounds beautiful.”

  His step seemed a little lighter as they walked. Getting out and enjoying the fresh air seemed to have been doing him some good.

  “What do you need at the grocery store?”

  Elodie laughed. “Everything. I had a bowl of stale Graham crackers for breakfast.”

  “There’s a butcher up there that has the best steaks. Mack would kill me if I touched his barbecue, but I guess he owes me one so I can cook them up tonight if you’re interested.”

  “Definitely! My mom makes a killer Caesar salad and I can bake a potato like a motherfucker.”

  He laughed and the sound sent a flood of warmth trickling through her. “Sounds perfect.”

  They walked the rest of the way in a comfortable silence as Elodie’s mother bounced from one shop window to another, smudging the glass with her fingers as she peered inside. After they stopped for the groceries, they had to stop for some new clothes.

  “Oh no,” Logan muttered under his breath when he looked ahead.

  Elodie followed his gaze and saw two large men who were definitely shifters standing outside the grocery store. They were trying to hand out flyers to any large person who passed. They didn’t look too successful since there were a bunch of discarded flyers littering the sidewalk in both directions.

  “Who are those guys?”

  Logan sucked in a deep breath as his body tightened. “Two new grizzly bear shifters in town. Colton and Rigs. They were friends with our neighbors a long time ago, but now they’re trying to start their own crew.”

  “Logan,” the good-looking one said as they arrived. He immediately shoved a flyer into his hand. Elodie stepped on her toes and craned her neck to look at it.

  Are you a lonely shifter?

  Well, don’t be blue!

  Come and join the NEW Bedlam Bears Crew

  “We’re holding auditions in a few weeks for our new crew,” he said. “You should stop by.”

  “I don’t think so, Colton,” Logan said, looking at the good-looking one.

  “We heard what happened,” the other one who must have been Rigs said with a sigh. “If you want a new start, you can get one with us.”

  Logan glanced down at the flyer and quickly looked it over.

  “Bedlam Bears?” he asked. “No lions?”

  “We’ll take any animal,” Rigs said. “We’re kind of desperate. So far no one has applied.”

  “Will you stop?” Colton snapped. “No one will want to apply if you keep telling people that!”

  “But we expect the phone to start ringing off the hook any day now,” Rigs said, trying to recover.

  “I’m sure it will start ringing any second now,” Elodie said as she looked down the street at all of the flyers bouncing along the sidewalk.

  Rigs smiled at her.

  “I’m going to be the alpha,” Colton said proudly as he puffed out his chest.

  “We still haven’t worked that out,” Rigs said, elbowing him as he stepped forward.

  Colton nodded and silently mouthed “I’m alpha,” behind his back.

  “Well, good luck, guys,” Logan said as he pushed past them into the grocery store. Elodie expected him to crumple up the flyer and toss it on the sidewalk along with the others, but he carefully folded it and slipped it into the back pocket of his shorts.

  Chapter Five

  Logan

  “Tangerine? Why would it be tangerine?” Logan stared at the pretty girl beside him as the van rolled down the mountain road.

  “I don’t know,” she said with a shrug. “You’re the musician, you tell me.”

  “I am telling you,” he said. “It’s tambourine, not tangerine. Tangerine doesn’t make any sense.”

  “You don’t make any sense.”

  Logan rolled his eyes and laughed as Dancing Queen by Abba played over the speakers. He waited for the chorus and then turned up the radio. “Listen. Feel the beat of the…”

  “Tangerine,” she said, nodding. “I heard it again.”


  Logan laughed as he shook his head. “You’re messing with me, aren’t you?”

  Elodie turned around to look in the back. “What do you think, Maman? Tangerine or tambourine?”

  “I like French music,” Louise replied with a dismissive wave of her hand. “This all sounds the same to me.”

  “Thanks for the backup, Maman.”

  They listened to the rest of the song but still couldn’t agree on the lyrics.

  Logan took a deep breath, desperate to convince her. “The song is called Dancing Queen, correct?”

  “Correct. We can agree on something.”

  “It’s not about a fruit queen, correct?”

  “The song doesn’t specify.”

  “Oh, my God. You’re impossible. Feel the beat. The beat. There’s no beat from a freaking tangerine.”

  “There’s no beat from a tambourine either.”

  “Yes, there is!” Logan took a deep breath as she laughed at him. “Why am I getting so frustrated over this?”

  “That’s Elodie’s specialty,” Louise said from the back. “Try living in a tight cell with her for a year and a half. She does stuff like this for fun.”

  “I knew it!” Logan narrowed his eyes on her, but she suddenly saw something interesting out the window and turned her head.

  He shook his head as he flicked the radio off. “I hate that song anyway.”

  Elodie had a grin on her face. “Me too.”

  Logan drove the rest of the way back with a smile on his face. They got some raw steaks, a fresh sugar pie from the bakery, and a nice bottle of wine for dinner. It was going to be a good night.

  He stole a quick look at Elodie as they turned around a bend. Her blonde hair was whipping around with the open window, and she made no effort to tame it. She seemed to enjoy it wild.

  Logan smiled as he watched her. This was why you lost an arm. So this beautiful girl could be free.

  He still wasn’t sure if it was worth it or not, but he did know that she was really helping him get out of his funk.

  Keeping his lion caged inside for so long had been exhausting him and draining every last ounce of energy he had. He couldn’t seem to stay awake at all.

  Logan had been sleeping all of the days away and at first, it was nice to hide from the pain of losing his arm, of losing Bryce, of losing his dreams, or losing his place in the world, but he was starting to realize that this was nice too. Driving down a beautiful mountain road with an even more beautiful girl by his side wasn’t the worst way to spend a summer afternoon.

  “Who is that?” Elodie asked when they pulled into the ranch.

  Logan’s pulse started to race when he spotted three expensive looking cars parked in front of the Bounty Hunter storefront.

  His first thought was General Hunt, but that’s not how General Hunt usually rolled up. He liked to storm in with a helicopter.

  This was a whole other threat.

  “I hope it’s not who I think it is.”

  He swallowed hard as he parked Jordy’s van beside the cars and killed the engine.

  There were five surveyors on the west side of the ranch with their equipment out. Grant hadn’t even lost the property yet and they were already measuring the land and drawing up their plans.

  “Hey!” Logan shouted as he stormed over. He was going to make sure these guys wouldn’t be back.

  “Mr. Clayton?” a deep voice called out from his side. Logan spun around and then jerked his head back when he saw who had said it.

  The man looked to be about in his fifties with salt and pepper hair and an easy smile. But it wasn’t his smile that got Logan’s attention. The man was enormous with a chest so wide that you could land a plane on it. His arms were the size of boulders, his legs the size of tree trunks and he must have been a foot taller than Logan. At least.

  Logan’s lion perked up inside his chest and rumbled nervously. For the first time in days, he wasn’t trying to get out, he was trying to escape by hiding even deeper.

  This guy was definitely a shifter, but the smell emanating from him was unfamiliar. It wasn’t something that Logan had ever smelled before, but whatever it was, it was scaring the crap out of his lion.

  “Nice to finally meet you, Grant.” The man stuck out his strong hand. “William Reyes.”

  So, this was the sleazy Governor of Montana who had been trying to rip Grant’s land out from under him with every trick in the book.

  “Logan Barnes. I’m afraid Grant isn’t here.”

  Logan slapped his hand into his and Reyes nearly crushed it as they shook. He swallowed a wince as Reyes’ iron fingers clamped down on his hand.

  “This is private property, Governor,” Logan shot back. “I didn’t give you or your men permission to be here and I know Grant sure as hell didn’t.”

  “Private property,” he repeated with an amused laugh. “Yes, for the time being.”

  “I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to leave. Now.”

  Reyes grinned as he looked down at Logan. That dark look was not only making Logan’s lion uneasy, it was making him a little nervous too. Maybe a month ago, Logan could have held his own against a shifter like him, but losing his arm had changed things.

  In the past, Logan would have taken his lion in a bet against any animal, but this shifter was something special. The mysterious animal had his lion cowering like Sloth at bath time and Logan still didn’t even know if his cat had four legs or three. Without his crew, he didn’t seem to stand much of a chance.

  “Of course,” Reyes said with a grin. “This is your land… For now. Although, I do have a gift for you.”

  He pulled a paper from his pocket and handed it to Logan.

  “What is it?” Logan asked as he unfolded it. “You’ve got to be kidding me? $92,000? For what?”

  “It’s a new tax, I’m afraid,” William Reyes answered. He had a fake look of sympathy on his face.

  Logan scanned the paper. “Soft water tax? What the hell is a soft water tax?”

  “It’s been revealed after testing, the water in your ranch has low concentrations of calcium and magnesium ions. I’m afraid there’s a tax for that, and it’s quite expensive.”

  “Is that even English?” Logan snapped back as he scanned the text. “What water? What are you even talking about?”

  “The rainfall on your ranch is below standard.”

  “You’re taxing us on the rain?” Logan wanted to knock this guy out, if he could.

  Reyes shrugged. “I don’t make the laws.”

  “Actually you do,” Logan shouted, throwing the paper back at him. It bounced harmlessly off his massive chest. “You keep making up these bullshit laws and implementing these phony taxes so you can take this ranch from Grant!”

  He just answered with a grin.

  “You need to get the hell out of here,” Logan said, barely able to control his anger.

  “And your alpha, Grant Clayton, needs to pay the state of Montana 1.6 million dollars by the end of the month or the ownership of this land gets transferred to the state.”

  All of the anger and rage just rushed out of Logan like someone pulled the drain. 1.6 million dollars? Grant would never have that kind of money. Especially considering he wasn’t working and spending all of his free time searching for Bryce.

  “The end of the month,” Reyes repeated before he walked back to the cars, whistling for his boys to follow him.

  Logan watched with a look of dread on his face as they got into the cars and drove away. His legs nearly buckled when it hit him. They were going to lose the ranch. Grant was going to lose his family’s legacy, and the Clayton Rock Bounty Hunters were going to be homeless.

  The three cars disappeared onto the main road and Logan’s lion only returned from hiding when the cars were out of sight.

  “What the hell was that?” he muttered to his lion. “What are you so afraid of?”

  He could still feel that his lion was shaken, and Logan’s lion was never shak
en. What kind of animal was hiding inside that asshole?

  Logan walked back to the van with an empty feeling in the pit of his stomach. Grant was counting on him to protect the ranch, but there wasn’t a whole lot that he could do.

  “Are you okay?” Elodie asked, nearly dropping the bags when she saw him. “Your face. It’s so pale.”

  “I’m just not feeling well,” Logan said, wiping his forehead. He was surprised to find it all sweaty.

  “Who was that guy?” Elodie asked, looking back at the road.

  “That was the Governor of Montana,” Logan answered. “He’s trying to take the ranch from Grant.”

  Elodie looked confused. “Why would he do that?”

  “Probably because he’ll make a few million dollars.” Logan needed to sit down. He leaned against the hood of the van and then sat on the metal bumper. Elodie joined him. “Grant estimates that he’ll make at least twenty-five million dollars if he gets his hands on the ranch. There’s big money in chopping it up. He’ll be drowning in kickbacks from all of the developers that are just waiting to slice it up. With the view of the mountains, the river flowing through, and the forest over there… this is prime real estate and Reyes has had his greedy eye on it for years. He’s finally about to play his final hand and then, it will be checkmate for Grant’s family legacy.”

  “His legacy?”

  “This ranch has been in Grant’s family for hundreds of years. His ancestors were the first to settle here and they never left.”

  Elodie put a hand on his shoulders and started rubbing his back. Surprisingly, it made him feel a lot better. “I’m sorry, Logan. That sucks.”

  Logan dropped his head in his hand and sighed. It was going to kill Grant to lose this place, and it was going to kill Logan to watch him lose it.

  “Then we’ll have to save it.”

  He raised an eyebrow as he turned to Elodie. She was actually serious.

  “And how are we going to do that?”

  She perked up. “I think I may have something.”

  “1.6 million dollars in your back pocket?”

  She shook her head and then jumped up. “No, but it may be something. Wait here.”