by Angie Martin
The cup bounced off the ground, as Xander reached for his neck. He pulled out the knife, and blood spurted with every beat of his heart. Xander fell to the floor.
Logan angled his body down and reached for the retractable key holder on Xander’s belt loop. He pulled it up and unlocked his other cuff. With a functioning hand, he snagged the saw off the tray and worked on the rope restraint around his ankles. Jack wouldn’t be gone for much longer, and while Logan had hoped he wouldn’t have to deal with him, there didn’t seem to be a way around it.
Freed from the last of his restraints, Logan retrieved the knife he used on Xander and wiped it free of blood. He stood on the side of the door, waiting for the doorknob to turn. His mind flashed to his childhood with Jack, their later teenage years playing baseball together with some of the other kids from the Church. He shook the memory away, knowing it wouldn’t help him do the inevitable. The man that helped torture him was not the same kid he grew up with. He wasn’t even the same man that stood next to Logan at his wedding as his best man. Now, he was the enemy, and he stood in the way of saving Sara.
The knob rotated and the door flung open. Jack stopped after taking only a few steps. Logan held the knife at the perfect angle to strike, and brought it down without hesitation.
Jack whirled around, and the knife scraped across his arm instead of burying itself in his body. He knocked the knife out of Logan’s hand and stunned Logan with a quick punch. Jack reached for his gun, but Logan rushed him, knocking him into the metal chair. Logan ignored the pain in his left hand, as he held Jack down and pummeled him with his right.
An arm wrapped around Logan’s neck from behind and dragged him away from Jack. The arm tightened against his throat. Logan used his good hand to pull down on the arm, and racked the man’s ribs with his other elbow. As Logan’s vision blurred, the man gave into the assault on his side. His hold on Logan lessened. Logan turned around and threw a knee into the man’s stomach. The man doubled over, and Logan brought his head down into his knee. He threw the man back against the wall, just as Jack knocked Logan off his feet.
Logan scrambled back up, jumping to the side as Jack fired his gun at him. He tackled Jack, and the gun clanked against the floor. Logan grabbed the gun and shot Jack in the chest. He turned at the sound of footsteps running toward him and shot the other man in the head. The man fell, and Logan looked back at Jack, who coughed up blood.
Throwing the gun to the side, Logan instinctively pressed down on the bullet hole, which gushed blood like an erupting volcano. Despite knowing the wound was fatal, Logan still held out hope he could stop the bleeding. That he could somehow save his friend. Jack tried to say something to Logan, but his head fell limp and his body stilled.
Logan kept his hands on Jack’s chest for a moment, then sat down on the cold concrete beside his friend. He pushed back his emotion and reminded himself that Sara was still somewhere in the house.
He wiped streaks of blood from his hands across his jeans and grabbed the gun. He found a rag on a workbench in the back of the room and secured it around his throbbing hand as a makeshift bandage. Checking the clip in the gun, he found it full, minus the two bullets he expended. He made sure a bullet was in the chamber and left the room in search of Sara.
Chapter Forty-four
Logan crept up the stairs to the main floor of the house with the gun leading the way. He remained alert for any sound that would pinpoint Sara’s location, but none came. Mathers most likely heard the sounds of the gunshots in the basement, but Logan hoped it hadn’t caused him to run off with Sara in tow. If they had left, Logan’s chances of ever finding her were slim.
Logan took the last stair through a door and into a hallway. His feet silently crossed over one another, only stopping to check out the rooms he passed. Just as he started upstairs, a noise on the main floor toward the back of the house caught his attention. He changed direction and moved toward the voices, one of which was Sara’s.
He stepped into the kitchen, where Mathers had his hand on Sara’s back, pushing her toward the back door. “Running away from me?” Logan asked. “I knew you were afraid of me.”
Mathers wrapped his arm around Sara’s neck and whipped around. Sara yelped when he thrust a gun against the side of her head. “You don’t want to test me, not with her life on the line.”
“Stephen—”
He slapped his hand over Sara’s mouth before she could say anything else.
Logan took another step toward them, his gun steady in front of him. “Oh, I don’t have a problem testing you. You always were a bit of a pansy when it came to confrontation. Always had to do things behind the scenes so you didn’t have to face the consequences.”
Mathers narrowed his eyes. “I’m not screwing around with you today.”
“Sure seems like it.”
“Your problem is that you can’t take any situation involving death seriously. Never could. You always had some smart remark for the person on the other end of the gun.”
“Maybe that’s because their incompetence level was just that ridiculous.”
“Put the gun down, Logan,” he said. “I know you don’t want to see her pretty little brains all over the wall.”
Logan held up his hand, but kept the gun pointed at Mathers. “Are you really going to shoot her?” he asked.
“If you force me to, yes.”
Sara squealed under his palm.
“Won’t that screw up all your plans?” Logan asked. “You need her alive so you can marry into the family and become an heir to Langston’s empire. If you don’t have her, you’re not legitimate in his eyes.”
“I’ll take over whether or not I have the little whore to help me.”
Anger swelled in Logan’s chest, but he didn’t let it distract him.
“Now, put down the gun,” Mathers said.
Logan crouched, as if complying. “We both know you’re not going to shoot her,” he said. “But I will.”
He quickly aimed and fired off a round into Sara’s shin. She screamed and slumped down. As soon as her head fell away from the gun, Logan raised his gun and shot Mathers in the forehead. He raced over to pull Sara away from Mathers, so he wouldn’t land on top of her.
Gathering her into his arms, he said, “I’m so sorry, Sara.” He brushed back her hair from her pained face.
“You shot me,” she whispered.
“I know, and I wouldn’t have if there was another way.”
“Is he dead?”
Logan nodded.
She exhaled and closed her eyes. “This really hurts.”
“I know it does, but you have to hang in there for me. You’re losing blood, but I can’t tie it off not knowing if anyone else is here.” He glanced around the floor, but did not see the bullet that he shot into her.
“Your finger… we have to get it.”
“It’s too late,” he said, moving to her side. “Put your arm around me. This is going to hurt a lot, but we need to get out of here.”
Sara wrapped her arm around his neck and he held up as much of her weight as he could. He kept the gun raised at his side in case they ran into anyone else. She moaned every time she put a bit of weight on her leg.
Logan stopped walking, bent at the knees, and lifted her up, with his left arm propping her back up and his right hand holding the gun underneath her knees. “Hold onto my neck,” he said.
She wrapped her arms around him and rested her head on his shoulder.
He stumbled a few times, but made it to the front door. A man stood next to an SUV, and Logan pulled the trigger beneath Sara’s body before the man could get to his own gun. Sara jumped, but Logan held onto her.
“Just a few more feet,” he said.
He set her down at the passenger side door of the SUV. She held onto the door, while he went over to the man and fished the keys and a cell phone out of his pocket. Logan helped her settle into the front seat, and walked back over to the man’s body. Ignoring the pain in his
hand, he worked quickly to remove the man’s T-shirt. His teeth tore through the material so he could rip the shirt down the middle.
Back at the SUV, he used the shirt as a tourniquet around Sara’s leg. She cried out a couple times, but he made sure to tie it tightly around her leg. Once the blood slowed its leaking, he moved over to the driver’s side. After climbing in, he helped Sara with her seatbelt.
Sara leaned her head back and groaned.
“We’ll get you some help,” Logan told her. “Just try to sleep.”
She turned to him, tears running down her cheeks. “It hurts.”
Taking her hand, he said, “Hang in there, okay? It won’t be too long.”
Her eyes closed. She released his hand and folded her arms over her stomach.
Logan started the vehicle and called up their location on the GPS built into the dashboard. He sighed with relief when he saw they were less than two hours away from the Church.
After maneuvering onto the main highway, he checked Sara. She had fallen asleep, but her breathing seemed a bit shallow. Logan knew the pain could cause that, but it still worried him. He grabbed the cell phone and punched in Schaffer’s emergency number. Schaffer answered on the second ring.
“It’s Logan.”
“Where the hell are you? I sent some men to the safe house in—”
“Mathers found us at the safe house. He had some help, but we managed to get away.”
“Did you at least get to find out who the leak is?”
“Jack.”
Silence came from the other end of the line.
“Are you there?” Logan asked, thinking he had dropped the call.
“How did he… how is that possible?” Schaffer asked.
“He wasn’t dead. They put another guy in his place, someone I had taken out, and burned the house down so we’d think he was dead. I never got close enough to his body to know he was still alive.”
“Where is he now?”
Logan hesitated, not wanting to rehash everything that took place.
“It’s okay, Logan. We’ll talk about it when you get here. How far away are you?”
“About two hours. I’m coming in hot, though. Sara’s been shot and I’ve been injured. I need a surgeon for her to remove the bullet from her leg.”
“I’ll have Doctor Connors get a team in now. What are your injuries?”
“I have two broken fingers and another one missing. All on the same hand.”
“I’ll let her know that as well so she can determine the treatment. Do you have the finger?”
“No. It had to be left behind.”
“Okay,” Schaffer said. “Damn it about Jack.”
“We’ll talk about it when I get there. Please make sure that the team is there when we arrive. I’m very worried about Sara.”
“It will be done.”
He disconnected the call and looked at Sara. She seemed to be in the same state, still shallow breathing, but sleeping. His own pain flared up and his eyes threatened to close, but he forced himself to stay awake and keep focused on staying in between the lines on the blacktop.
When he pulled into the Church’s parking lot a couple hours later, his vision blackened, and he had to hold still for a moment so he wouldn’t lose consciousness. He kept himself together long enough to pull the SUV up to the front doors. He jumped out of the vehicle and raced around to the passenger side.
Sara stirred awake when he opened the door. “Are we at the hospital?” she asked, her voice quiet and eyes distant.
“We’re at the Church. They have a surgical team waiting for you.”
“I don’t want surgery,” she said.
“They have to get the bullet out of your leg.”
She leaned over to try to get out of the car. Logan almost collapsed under her weight, but managed to hold her up. He carried her to the front door, just as Schaffer ran outside. Allie followed with a couple nurses, who guided a gurney through the door.
Schaffer helped Logan get Sara onto the gurney, and the nurses strapped her down.
Logan turned to Allie. “You have a good surgeon?”
“The best. Same with the anesthesiologist. We made up a makeshift operating room, everything is sterilized, and they are all ready for her.”
He watched the gurney disappear into the church and started to follow before tripping.
Schaffer and Allie caught his arms and kept him standing. They helped him into the church and in the elevator.
Allie examined his hand as the cab moved down to the basement. “I need to debride this wound. Schaffer tells me you don’t have the finger.”
All of his energy suddenly zapped, Logan shook his head instead of responding verbally.
“I’m going to have the anesthesiologist put you out for this. It needs too much work to keep you awake.”
“I’ll be fine,” Logan said. “Just go take care of Sara.”
The elevator doors opened, and Logan tried to shrug them away as he walked through the doors. He made it halfway down the hall before he fell down and passed out.
Chapter Forty-five
Logan startled awake and sat straight up in bed. He looked around the room and recognized it as being in the Church. He let out a long breath and tried to calm his racing heart.
His left hand throbbed with pain, and he examined the bandage over it. He held it up to his chest and stroked his other hand over his wrist and the bandage. He always gave Allie a hard time about trying to give him pain medication, but for the first time he needed them.
Climbing out of bed, he walked over to the dresser, where his go-bag sat. The dust and grime covering the black reminded him of his journey with Sara. He frowned, realizing he had never been woken up to find out how she did in surgery.
He wandered into the empty hallway outside his room, and made his way down to Allie’s office. She looked up from her desk as he entered.
“Aren’t you a sight?” she asked, with a lopsided smile. “How are you feeling?”
He glanced around the room, feeling a bit disoriented. “How long have I been out?”
“All night.” She glanced at her watch. “About 15 hours now.”
“I guess I needed to sleep.”
“When you woke up from your surgery, you were incoherent, confused, dizzy. You were suffering from extreme exhaustion, so I gave you something to encourage your body to do what it needed to do. Sleep and rejuvenate. Kept you hooked up to your IV for a bit and let you rehydrate as well. I took that out this morning while you were sleeping still.”
Logan touched the back of his right hand, noticing the bandage strip on it for the first time.
“You didn’t get a lot of sleep on the job, did you?”
He shook his head. “How’s Sara?”
“She’s great. She’s been up for hours now, has some pain, but nothing that we can’t manage.”
“When, uh… when are we releasing her to the feds?”
“Tomorrow morning.” Allie shuffled some papers on her desk. “She’s been asking about you. How you’re doing, if she can see you. She’s very concerned. I told her that once you woke up, you would check in on her.”
“Where is she?”
“In the room next to yours. You should probably get cleaned up and see how you’re feeling after that before you start making journeys around the Church.” She leaned back in her chair and lowered her eyes back down to her desk. “She’s a very pretty girl.”
Logan read the meaning in her tone. “Allie—”
She held up her hand. “I can tell she cares about you, with as much as she’s asked about you and your injuries. I’m sure when you spend time together in the field under difficult circumstances, you can grow attached to the person you’re with.”
Logan looked away from her, unsure of what to say.
“I’m not upset,” she said. “You don’t have to worry about me.”
He met her eyes and nodded. They stared at each other for a tense moment, and then h
e pushed his chair back. Holding up his bandaged hand, he said, “Thanks for fixing me up.” He walked toward the door.
“Hey, Logan.”
He turned around, eyebrows raised.
“I’m sorry about Jack.”
“Yeah,” he said. “Me, too.”
Back in his room, he took Allie’s advice and hopped in the shower. After dressing, he walked to the room next door and knocked.
“Come in!” Sara’s voice called through the door.
He eased the door open and went inside. Sara sat up in bed, propped up by pillows, her injured leg bandaged and on top of a wedge to keep it elevated. She threw the book in her hands down beside her.
“You’re awake!”
He smiled at her enthusiasm. Allie hadn’t been lying when she said Sara was doing great. “I’m awake.”
He sat on the edge of her bed, and she leaned over. Clamping her arms around him in a warm embrace, she whispered, “I was so worried about you.”
They parted, and he said, “You’re worse off than I am.”
“Yeah, but you slept for so long. I was worried something was wrong.”
“I didn’t get much sleep on this job. It was time to catch up.”
Her wide brown eyes searched his and he couldn’t help himself. He leaned over and forced his lips onto hers, engaging her in a passionate kiss. He had not realized until now how much he missed kissing her.
Her cheeks turned pink as they parted. “I’m glad you’re okay,” she said.
“How’s your leg?”
“It’s healing okay. Doctor Connors gave me some pain medication, but I’m managing okay without having to take too many of them.”
“I’m so sorry I had to shoot you.”
She grabbed his hand and squeezed. “You saved my life. You have nothing to apologize for.” She moved over in the bed and patted the empty space next to her.
Logan scooted up on the bed and stretched out beside her. “I hear you’re leaving us tomorrow.”
She sighed. “That’s what Schaffer says. I asked him if you could come with me.”
