I look around the club and it hits me in waves. The music, the drinks, the mindless chatter of unaware partiers. All of it brings me back to that night, but there is one difference. Logan.
I can feel the tension rolling off him as it does me. But as his hand finds mine as we wander around the club, the throbbing beat of the music doesn’t echo in my body; it’s the electric current running from his fingertips into mine that reassures me that I can do this. I’m not alone.
But I’m still cautious and a little wary. Tonight is packed and with no clue if this club is even the right one, all we can do is scout the place out and try to make a plan.
“Come on; we need to loosen up. We can’t get shit done if we’re wound up.”
Logan pulls me out onto the dance floor and once he finds a spot in the middle of the fucking floor, he starts dancing. With me. I look around and can’t help but see everyone getting lost in the music. When I find Logan again, he’s looking at me, waiting for me to make a move. Or bust one.
I pull him toward me and in no time, we’re moving to the heavy beat, together. The DJ plays song after song as we lose ourselves to the beat. Each and every song, the beat plays heavily and with each passing one, the more Logan and I can’t take our hands off each other. The closer we move together, the less time we spend without touching some part of the other – hands grasping onto arms, tightening around our hips as we dance in sync, or when my back was aligned with his front and his arms wrapped around me.
What feels like hours pass easily as we have some fun and for a minute, I forget why we’re actually here. When Logan suddenly drags me off the dance floor, I follow like a puppy. When he hands me a water without my asking, I drink it because he wants me to. And when he backs me into a dark corner of the club, trapping me between his panting, sweating body and a wall, and kisses the ever-loving shit out of me, I hold on for dear life and surrender to him for a moment.
“You know, if you keep kissing me like that, I’m bound to lose my mind. And we came here for a reason,” I murmur into his ear when his mouth moves from my kiss-bruised lips to my throat. His hips roll into mine, but after a second he stops.
“Mood killer,” he mumbles against my lips with a smile.
“Trust me; I’m beating myself up inside too. But we’re here for a reason, one I’m not sure about right now if you don’t stop doing that – Oh shit! Dammit, Logan, you horny mother fucker. Pay attention.” I try to swat his hand away as it attempts to slip past the waistband of my jeans.
“I know, I know. Sorry.” He begrudgingly pulls away and we take a seat at the empty table near us. “I don’t even know why we’re at this particular club anyway. JoJo told us that the others are casing two other clubs besides this one.”
“Because I called ahead. Those others have got nothing big happening this weekend. Intrepid basically flipped the bird at the city when they decided to celebrate the Color Run this entire week. Each night is different. See all the red? Tonight’s theme is love.”
“That’s why you made me buy this ridiculous shirt?” He looks down and pinches the shirt he’s wearing. The red muscle shirt fits him like a glove begging me to peel it off. I feel my lips roll inward as I start to relive what lies beneath.
Pec’s itching to be licked, a six-pack urging me to run tongue through every bump and dip of muscle, shoulders so thick that I can only hold on as…
“Uh, earth to Cameron.” I blink the hazy daydream away and center on Logan’s face. The self-assured look tells me he knows exactly what I was thinking. “So. Why the Color Run? It’s not even associated with us. Why this?”
“Wednesday is yellow. Similar to what the club in Denver just did, they’re encouraging people to come out and show their pride. But word is, people are freaking out after these attacks. Why clubs still continue to run, I don’t know. Even more so, why they’re doing these big shows is baffling.”
“Because people still need a place to go to where they won’t get judged and they can be themselves.”
“And I get that but –” A person creeping along the walls catches my eye. A man in a hood slowly walks the perimeter, slightly limping. Something about him seems off compared to the other people in here. Maybe it’s the hood. Maybe it’s the lack of red. Or maybe it’s the suspiciousness of his movements. “Logan, very nonchalantly, move your chair next to mine, and just play along.”
No questions asked, he does as I ask. I move closer to him, hugging him to me. I look like I’m nuzzling his throat while whispering to him, my hands playing along his stomach.
“See the man walking alongside the back wall, away from us?”
“Got him. But he’s headed toward the dance floor and I’m losing him. We need to get up.”
Acting like a pair of lovesick fools, we stand up and stumble our way to the dance floor, laughing but keeping a close eye on the man. For a half hour, we follow him around, never letting him leave our sight, until he finally turns around.
“Shit, shit, mother fucking shit.” I feel my hands go clammy and still around Logan’s chest when I realize that it’s the same guy that I’ve faced twice. “It’s him, Logan. I know that face anywhere. And he’s headed toward the exit!”
We fall into step behind him, keeping our distance but when he turns around toward us again, his mouth parts in shock. He spins around and races toward the exit in the back of the club.
“Out of the way! Move, you asshole!” Logan and I hold up our badges and scramble to get to the back, getting separated in the process as people try to get out of the way. I can hear him arguing with another patron but my mind is focused on reaching the asshole running from me. I find the back door after winding through a set of hallways but when I open the door, something metal slams into my face.
I fall to the ground, my knees crunching in gravel below me as metal clanks beside my feet. I hear footsteps running away but I can’t see where. When I finally get my eyes open, I see the man get into a car parked in the parking lot next to the alley and then speed off. The door behind me opens with a loud thud as the tires squeal.
“Cameron!”
“The fucker ran that way and got in a car.” He nods in the direction of a parking lot at the end of the alley. “Goddamnit, he clocked me in the face with something.” I try to help him up but he yanks his arm away. I see the rusted metal tube lying on the ground next to him covered in drops of blood.
Just give him a minute, Logan. I have to remind myself that Cam isn’t mine just yet. I can’t play the role of doting boyfriend until this shit is over. I have to respect his space and give it to him as much as I know I’ll need mine.
I start to jog toward the empty space but there’s nothing left. No clues, no leads, no nothing. I watch Cameron blunder toward me, the knees of his jeans ripped and bloody. But not as much as his face is.
“Jesus, Cam. We need to get you to a hospital.” His nose is freely bleeding but it’s nothing compared to the anger on his face or the disappointment nestled inside his eyes.
“I’m a fucking doctor, it’s just a break. I can set it myself.”
I watch him turn to the nearest car to him and do nothing while he kicks the shit out of the tire. “How the fuck could I let him get away for a third fucking time?”
“Hey, it’s not your fault. You didn’t know he was waiting for you and you had no clue he had a car ready.” I walk to him cautiously and lay a hand on his shoulder. Again, he shakes it off.
“I should have known better, Logan,” he screams. “I should have recognized him from the second I saw him. I’m in this so deep that all I see is red, not the actual person we’re looking for. I have to remind myself to focus, to not let my mind wander to that bad place when I think of him.” He kicks the car tire one more time and screams out a few obscenities.
I want to help him, so badly, but there’s nothing I can do. Instead, I watch him take off, mumbling about needing to be alone as he walks across the parking lot and disappearing around the corner and leaving me feeling useless.
I do the only thing I can think of and call Jo.
“Logan.” The one-word greeting sounds wary.
“Jo.”
“Give me some good news, Logan,” JoJo tells me on an expelled breath.
“It’s not good. Nothing is good. I’m freaking out, Cameron’s run off, and I don’t know the next step in this whole fucking plan.” That’s what I should have said. But all that comes out are garbled sounds.
“Where’s Doc?”
“He ran off. We came to Intrepid because he got some legit information about this particular place and sure as shit, that fucker shows up and wreaks havoc. It’s like this guy knows how to crawl under our skin, especially Cameron’s. We ran after him but I got held up in the club by some stupid drunken frat guys and by the time I caught up to Cam, Fuckface left and Cam was sporting one hell of a broken nose and bruised eyes.
“I’m worried about him, Jo. He’s been the stronger of the two of us this whole time. Now he’s falling apart and beating himself up over this guy getting away three times now, and I keep trying to tell him that it’s not his fault. I know we’ve been trained to keep it together, to reel in the emotions and not to take anything personally, but he is. I know I was an asshole for pushing him away, but what if I pushed too hard? What if this is everything finally breaking down for him?”
“Logan, what the hell is going on with the two of you? I’m no idiot and I’ve noticed the complete one-eighty in the way you two act around each other.”
“What’s going on with you and Suz? I’m no idiot either, Jo.”
“Okay, I get it. I’ll back off for now, but you two need to sit down and talk. In the meantime, go find him. Space is the last thing Doc needs and while you go look for him, I’m calling George and Irina. I need to know which of their people is missing. “
We say our goodbyes and hang up the phone. I head in the direction I last saw Cameron head down though I’ve got a feeling that that things are going to get worse before they get better.