A massive wave of relief rolled across Seth. This was what he needed. He could handle anything as long as he knew they were going to be okay at the end of the day. But he needed one little thing cleared up. “I thought you said she was yours.”
Logan rolled his eyes. “Dude, I was balls deep. She is mine when I’m balls deep and you’re not around. I’m not going to stop in the middle of fucking our girl to say you’re mine except you belong to Seth, too, and we share you in all ways.” He made a totally juvenile vomiting sound.
“God, you’re obnoxious.” But Seth couldn’t help laughing.
“Yeah, well, you’ve known that for about twenty years, so if I’m obnoxious, then you’re dumb as dirt because you’re still here.”
And he always would be. “So you’re taking me up on school?”
“Fuck, yeah,” Logan said with a grin. “And she doesn’t know it yet, but Georgia is, too. She’s got a business degree, but she hates it. She’s going to find her passion if it kills me. I think I already know what mine is.”
Seth stared at him. “I thought you would join me.”
“Not even. Nah. That’s your business and I’ll always help out, but I’m going to do something else. I’m going to follow in some big footsteps because Mel isn’t my only role model.”
There was only one man Logan really looked up to. “You’re going to be a shrink like Leo.”
“I’m going to be a therapist,” Logan corrected. “I’m going to help dumb assholes like me. I’m going to do something good because if I learned that the world could be a bad place, then I also learned that we can make it good again. With hard work and the right people. Maybe I can make something good come out of this. Leo. He’s like Superman. I want to be, too. And I kind of torched my comic book collection. I want it back.”
Seth laughed, all of his tension leaving. “I can handle that. We’ll have fun putting it back together.” He took a long breath. He hadn’t lost. He’d fought and he’d won.
Logan’s phone went off. He looked down. “Damn. Nate. Sorry, man. It’s only for another couple of weeks.” Logan touched his finger to the phone. “Nate? What? Are you fucking kidding me? Is he alive? Where’s Georgia? She was looking for him.”
Seth felt his whole body go on alert. Where was Georgia? She’d been with Logan.
Logan shoved his phone back into his pants. “Win’s been shot. Nate said a tourist found him behind the art gallery, and Caleb and Naomi are working on him right now. They couldn’t wait to get him to Del Norte. A bus is on the way.”
Seth’s head whirled. What the hell? “Bus?”
“Ambulance. They’re going to stabilize him and then Caleb will ride with him and make sure he makes it, but there was no sign of Georgia. I have to go find her.”
Seth heard another low crunch of gravel. He rushed to the window.
“Get back, Seth,” Logan shouted. “You don’t know who that is.”
“It could be Georgia.” He ran to the front door and threw it open just in time to see an SUV he didn’t recognize pulling up to the house. The door opened and a man in dark clothes hopped out. “Fuck. Logan, it’s a bunch of guys with guns.”
He turned around, but Logan was at the back door. “How many?”
“Six, maybe seven.”
Logan’s face was tight with anxiety. “I can’t handle seven on my own. Where’s the gun locker?”
Oh, fuck. They had Georgia. She was small and pale as they hauled her out. This wasn’t about Win’s private detective. No fucking way. These were serious players, and that meant one thing. He kept his mouth tight as he spoke so maybe they wouldn’t see him talking. They had one shot at this. “I don’t have a gun locker yet. You need to get Henry.”
Logan’s mouth closed, his jaw forming a hard line. “Fuck all. They’re here for Henry, aren’t they? They’re here about Henry’s past.”
Seth nodded slightly. He didn’t speak because he didn’t want the Colombian cartel enforcers to know he wasn’t alone in the house. He’d done his homework. Henry had been trying to shut down a cartel before he’d faked his death. It was a cartel that worked with jihadist sects, money that fueled terrorism around the world. They’d found him. Somehow they’d figured out that John Bishop wasn’t dead, and they’d tied him to Seth Stark.
He couldn’t see Logan now. Not even out of the corner of his eye. “Seth, survive. Do you understand me? Don’t give them anything because they will kill you and they will kill Georgia if they have her. Fuck. I understand it all now. I want you alive no matter what they do to you. They can break you both and I swear to god, I’ll put you back together. Do you understand? I won’t let you down. I won’t leave you alone for long. Just long enough to come back here for you.”
Seth didn’t turn back, just let Logan’s words sink in. He felt his eyes widen as Georgia was hauled toward the cabin. They’d shot Win. Her brother might die. They were serious. A man in a suit stepped out of the SUV, his elegant form moving with ease. The gun in his hand was an extension of his arm.
“Hello. You must be Mr. Stark.” The blond man in front of him was cold. So fucking cold, and he had an arm around Georgia. Her blue eyes looked out at him, but he didn’t see weakness there. Hell, no. She was pissed and her will was plain on her face. “We can make this easy or we can make it very difficult. Where is John Bishop?”
Fuck. This was going to hurt. He finally turned, and out of the corner of his eye, he could plainly see that Logan was gone, his big body going out the back door. He was alone and responsible for his and Georgia’s survival. “What’s going on here? Who’s John Bishop?”
A mean-looking dude with a gun in his hand stepped up, bunching his fist. “Jefe?”
The man with a gun against Georgia’s head smirked. “Sí.”
He heard Georgia’s scream before he felt the pain hit his belly. The breath left his body and all of his senses flared in horror.
His agony had just begun.
Logan slipped out the back door and made sure he didn’t make a damn sound as he moved around the house. He had one gun on his body. One gun versus six.
Fuck. This was what Alexei had felt. The brutally painful knowledge that he was outgunned and he needed a distraction. Logan had been the distraction. He’d paid in pain and suffering, and now he was asking Seth to do the same. And potentially Georgia, because there was no way they didn’t have her. Her brother had been shot. She’d been with him. She was in danger, and he was buying time because he finally understood.
Life was worth everything. There was no pain that was worth more than life and love and a future. There was no suffering that a person couldn’t come back from if he had enough love. No situation that good couldn’t bloom from.
He’d suffered and he could choose to find good in it. He’d suffered so he could make the right choices, help people. Even his own. Would he put Seth through hell if it meant they all survived?