He watched her ass sway in her tight skirt. She was a loose end.
She’d been useful over the years. Jana Evans had been more than willing to report what he told her to report. He’d always been careful with her. He used disposable cells to call her and never the same one twice. He gave nothing of himself. It had been mere coincidence that his rabbit had been involved with such a piranha.
Of course, piranhas had nothing on sharks.
He turned and followed the redhead and her escort. It was time to announce that the Marquis de Sade had arrived in Bliss.
Chapter Fifteen
“I don’t see why I can’t go to the bathroom, Logan.” Laura had to glare up at the deputy. This close, she could see the tired look in his eyes. Lately he’d taken to wearing a pair of aviators everywhere he went, but tonight he’d left them off, and there was no denying the red rim to his eyes. Logan Green was on the edge of something, and damn if Laura could figure out how to help him.
“Because you could be brutally murdered.”
“In the ladies room?”
He shrugged. “I don’t see why not. I was almost brutally murdered in my boss’s office. It happens.” And that was the trouble. Months before, Logan had been tortured by members of the Russian mob who had come to Bliss looking for a painting of Jen Waters’s. Logan had endured hours of painful questioning. It was a miracle he’d survived, but the sweet boy who loved comic books and napped at work was gone. That Logan Green had died, and Laura wasn’t sure how to get to the one who had taken his place. “Logan, you can stand outside, if you like. All the other women are allowed to go to the bathroom.” He looked down at her, an unmoving slab of granite. “I’ll let you go, but I stand outside the stall.”
She closed her eyes in frustration. She didn’t really need to go.
She just wanted a minute alone.
“All the other women are not being hunted by a serial killer,” he said without inflection.
He had been like this for thirty minutes. He followed her around, not speaking unless he needed to. He’d just been a hulking presence as she talked to Stella and her husband, Sebastian, about the wedding, and then Brooke Harper about how they were going to get Nell into a bra before Stef and Jen’s wedding. Not once had the deputy cracked a smile.
“Logan, do you want to talk about it?” she asked quietly. It looked like she wasn’t going anywhere until Nate Wright decided to un-sic Logan.
There was only the fine tightening around his eyes to let her know he’d even heard her. He looked older than his twenty-three years. The last six months had given Logan a body to die for. It had toned and tightened him until even his face had lost its boyish charm and was replaced with a hard masculinity. But he’d also lost his joy.
“I know what it’s like,” she said. “You feel utterly helpless. You know what it means to be in someone else’s power, and it’s horrible.
It changes you, but it doesn’t have to ruin your whole life.” But wasn’t she letting it ruin hers? Hours she’d spent agonizing over letting Rafe and Cam go. Was she doing it for the right reasons?
Or was she just afraid?
No. She couldn’t think that way. It was selfish. She wasn’t afraid of them anymore. She had loved them once, but she’d proven that she could live without them, and happily at that. This was her home, and her friends were her family. Rafe and Cam would give up eventually, and they would find a life that made them happy, too. Rafe would go back to the FBI, and Cam would find someone to build a family with.
Logan simply stared at her as though he could read her thoughts.
“Sure. Voice of reason, huh? You’re totally adjusted, Laura. I’ll take that under consideration.”
“There she is!” Jana’s flat Midwestern cadence broke through the chatter surrounding Laura. Laura knew she’d cultivated that accent.
Jana was from Jersey. “You look…fine. I think the whole small-town girl thing will really sell this story.” She stared at Jana, wondering what to say. Laura had been reconsidering this little plan of hers. Maybe Rafe and Cam were right.
De Sade would come after her anyway. All she was doing by taunting him was bringing Bliss back into the spotlight. She was just about to open her mouth to tell Jana to go to hell when Rafe and Cam walked back into the hall, looks of grim determination on their faces. Stef, Nate, Zane, Max, and Rye walked after them. Every man walking in looked at her.
What the fuck was going on?
Whatever it was, Laura had the feeling it was going to be interesting.
Cam walked straight up to Jana. “You, go away.”
“I will not. I have an interview. Laura promised me. If I don’t get my interview, I’m going to run the story anyway. I can make her look good, or I can make her look like the cowardly FBI agent who doesn’t care that women are being killed.” Jana’s perfectly sculpted lips curled into a sneer. “I can make her look like the hero, or I can make her a complete pariah. It’s up to you.” Laura was just about to defend herself when Cam stared down at the reporter. “And I promise that if you attempt to smear her in any way, I will find a way to make your life hell. I am damn good with a computer. I got a stern talking-to from the government at the age of twelve because I managed to hack into several of their systems. They were kind enough to decide I wasn’t a criminal and took an interest in getting me into the FBI. I will turn criminal if that’s what it takes to fuck with you.”
Rafe turned to her as well. “And I have connections. I will use those connections to ensure that you are not hirable.” Her eyes narrowed. “You can’t do that.” Stef Talbot smiled lazily as he stepped forward. “Oh, I assure you I can. I happen to know that several of the heads of the networks are great lovers of art. A well-placed word and your career is in the toilet.
If I can’t influence them with my status as an artist, I assure you my status as a billionaire and the heir to Talbot Industries will influence them.”
Laura saw the minute Jana knew she was defeated. She turned the burgeoning scowl into a placid smile. “Mr. Talbot, I think there’s been a misunderstanding. Laura is a dear friend. I’m just surprised that these men would think to curtail her freedom as a woman.” Oh, not even Nell would have been fooled by that one.
“Well, if you think we’re cavemen now,” Cam said with a grin just before he leaned over and shoved a shoulder in Laura’s midsection. Laura found herself in a fireman’s hold before she could think to protest.
“Cam, put me down!” Laura shouted, although she was shouting it to his butt. It was a really nice butt encased in some fairly tight blue jeans. She had the sudden, wicked urge to cup that ass because it belonged to her.
That was a dangerous thought.
“No can do, baby,” Cam said with an easy confidence. “We’ve decided we outvote you.”
“I didn’t realize we were a democracy,” Laura shot back.
Rafe was suddenly on one knee. He gently pulled her head back so she was forced to look into that gorgeous face of his. His olive skin practically glowed in the low light, and those dark eyes of his got her every time. “There are many things we intend to make you understand tonight, bella. The first of which is you will not be speaking to that woman.”
Cam started to carry her out. She bounced against his body, straining to see as he walked. “Damn it, Cam. Put me down. You can’t manhandle me like this.”
“Yes, I can,” he said, a weird cheeriness to his voice. “I’m doing it right now.”
She heard the door open and close, and the world around her got a lot darker as he left the building and walked out into the parking lot.
She saw Rafe walking behind them. Maybe he was going to be more reasonable. “Rafe, this is not exactly legal.”