“Are you the stripper?”

Some things that happen in life come completely out of left field. Serious things, like car wrecks or cancer. Even mundane things, like finding out your bartender is the son of your kindergarten teacher can send a person reeling.

Some people react well to the curveball, depending on its severity. Either they’re good with emergencies and are steady in a storm or they tend to the people that others turn to when they need a hand. These people would be the cops and firemen of the world—there when you need them and steadfast.

Some people freak out and totally lose their cool when the unexpected pops up, blocking their path. Maybe they get off track or hell, totally jump ship when it happens.

Beth Walker tended to be in the middle of the road, between the two extremes. She’d had some moments when she let the curveball sideline her entire life and some where she let it roll right off her back, staying strong in the face of adversity.

Moments like the one she was currently standing in, she could handle with a smile. The stakes were low and she didn’t stand to lose anything. She’d knocked on the door with nothing, basically holding her proverbial hat in her hands.

“Are you the stripper?” the man standing in front of her asked again.

When the question came a second time, she could do no more than nod her head yes.

There was a party going on, not one of those small classy ones where they play jazz and people talk softly about the benefits of solar panels. No, this was the kind of party where men beat their chests after seeing which one of them could do the longest keg stand.

It was a little immature for her tastes, but she wasn’t living in the subdued world of jazz just yet either.

All she knew was that this is where Logan Hallowell was staying and she wanted to see him. She needed to see him with her own eyes.

That was the story of how she found herself holed up in a bedroom in some house she’d never been to, changing into what she knew were Logan’s navy fatigues. She knew they were freshly laundered because she’d ripped them out of the plastic bags herself, the scent of detergent but not Logan wafting out of the bags. They were far too big for her, but she rolled them up as best she could.

If they wanted a show, she’d give them a damn show.

Thing was, there was no way Logan was expecting her. Their last meeting, over six months ago, at her sister Andy’s wedding, had ended on a sour note and they hadn’t spoken since.

Not once had he returned any of her phone calls or texts, as if they’d never even happened.

But they had happened, on more than one occasion, and their relationship, or whatever anyone wanted to call it, had been one of the most powerful things in her life. Logan was her brother-in-law’s best friend and the first time they’d met, Beth had felt like she’d been hit in the gut with a bag of sand. The air had rushed out of her lungs as she’d taken him in, her eyes wide as their chemistry nearly melted everything in the vicinity.

They’d burned up the sheets that weekend. Enough that Logan had started talking long-term. Beth knew that would never work, so, instead of telling him face-to-face that things weren’t going to work, she did the one thing she was good at.

She ran like hell. Turns out, it had been one of those things in life she couldn’t let roll off her back or take with a grain of salt. No, she’d let that tidal wave of feelings knock her back a decade or so, back to when she was no more than a kid who’d just lost her mom and was running away from home.

Not long after their first weekend together, when she’d been struck dumb with a heap of feeling she didn’t understand, Logan had been shipped overseas and the fear that ballooned inside her had been like nothing she’d ever felt. It was then that she realized just how much trouble she was really in with Logan Hallowell, how deep she’d fallen for him.

But not to worry, she’d screwed that up too by getting drunk, sleeping with some dude in a bar, and calling Logan in tears to confess.

He hadn’t taken it well.

After that, she went back to work on the cruise ship for a six-month stint and Logan went back to saving the world, or whatever it was he did out there. They spoke sporadically in that time, but it had been stilted and awkward. He’d been angry with her, and rightfully so. His words had turned short and closed off, but he’d never cut those ties with her. He’d always left a tether for her to grab onto, a life preserver to reach for if she needed him to pull her to safety.

But it was their last hookup that had hit them both the hardest and now he refused to speak with her. He greatly underestimated the lengths she was willing to go to get to him, just to see him.

There was a knock at the door and a handsome male face poked through the crack. “You done in here?”

“Well, if I wasn’t you’d have gotten a show early,” she complained. “It’s knock and wait, not knock and walk.”

Whoever he was, he smiled, and it was sickly adorable. Dimpled with a false air of boyish innocence, she got a sense that he loved to have a good time. She bet he got a lot of women with his smile, his humor, and charm filling the room around her.

“Sorry,” he apologized, still smiling. “Want me to start over?”

He was teasing her and it solidified her initial thought. She bet he got tons of women with that easy attitude. There was something to be said for easy, she admitted to herself.

“Please,” she agreed, crossing her arms over her chest and dipping her chin in his direction. “I’ll wait.”

He didn’t hesitate to shut the door and knock again. When she called out, he popped his head in.

“How’d I do? Did I pass muster?”

She looked down at herself in Logan’s military clothes and wanted to laugh. This was going to go one of two ways. He was either going to be furious with her and throw her out, or he was going to be happy to see her.

It was a crapshoot, especially with the way they’d left things last time.

“Nice work,” she told him, sticking the cap on her head. “What are my orders?”

The man came in and leaned against the dresser, his dark brown eyes narrowing as he gave her a once-over. “Where did you find those clothes? I thought you’d bring your own costume.”

“I found them in here,” she said, playing the conversation by ear. “I just assumed they were for me to wear.”

“Not sure my cousin will appreciate you going through his stuff.”

Her sister Andy had told her Logan was staying with some cousins in Connecticut. He’d never mentioned them to her, though their conversations hadn’t ever been very deep, had they?

“Why? He have boundary issues or something?” Beth asked, wasting time until she had to do her thing.

Acting was kind of fun in the right scenario. It was just another mask she got to wear, another person to be, when you didn’t want to be yourself. She could be stripper Beth for this guy and not bat an eye at the deception.

“He’s just going through a rough patch. It could go either way on if he likes it or not.”

“Well, I don’t plan on wearing it long so there’s that.” She smiled sarcastically.

“There is that,” he murmured in agreement, pushing his shiny brown hair off to the side.

“What’s this rough patch? Divorce? It’s always divorce.” Speaking of hair, she turned to check herself in the mirror, making sure her red hair hung artfully out of the camo hat on her head. She pulled a few strands out on the sides to frame her face.

“Not divorce,” he said firmly. “He’s got some other stuff going on.”

“He’s not going to like, Hulk out on me or anything, right?” she asked, knowing Logan well enough to know that he was far too self-contained for that. Not that he didn’t know how to let himself go and have some fun, but he was a level-headed guy. He thought things out and looked at things from every angle. It was one of the things she…liked a lot…about him.

He laughed again, distracting her from saying those words, even in her own head, that she was in love with Logan. Had been from the very beginning. “No, he’s cool.” He took a few steps and held his hand out to her, which she shook. “I’m Cole.”

“Nice to meet you,” she said.

His dark eyes sparkled and he let out a laugh. “And you are?”

“Who do you want me to be?”

Both of his eyebrows shot up. “Is that how it is?”

“Isn’t that how this works?” His eyes narrowed. “Quite a party you’re having,” she commented, before he could call her out for being a fake, which she totally was. “What’s the occasion?”

“Just celebrating that we’re all still here.”

She began idly folding her own clothes and putting them on the bed.

“So, a party just for party’s sake?” she asked, knowing it wasn’t the truth.

“Something like that.” He shrugged. “But we mostly called you here to cheer up our cousin.”

“Ah,” she said with an understanding nod. “When’s my big moment?” she asked. “How do you want me to make my grand entrance?”

“You have some music or something?”

She shook her head. “You can play whatever you want. I can dance to anything.”

That was the truth. She’d taken dance classes for years and had even taken a few pole-dancing classes. She was like, ninety percent sure she could wing a strip routine.

“No requests?” He stood from resting on the dresser.

“I’m good,” she told him. “I’ll come out when I hear the music.”

“Just come straight into the living room. He’s camped out on the couch.”

“Waiting for me?” She smiled in question.

“He has no idea.” Cole returned her smile. “It’ll be a surprise.”

Cole had no idea how much of a surprise it was going to be.

“Follow the music and dance for the man on the couch. Got it.” She saluted, though she was sure she screwed it up.

“It’ll be a couple minutes, okay.”

“Sir, yes, sir.”

Cole left with a laugh and suddenly, Beth felt her grip start slipping.

What in the holy hell did she think she was doing? She wasn’t a stripper. She wasn’t Logan’s any damn thing. What made her think he’d want her here in the first place?

In a panic, she grabbed her phone and dialed her sister.

When Andy answered, she went off. “I’m about to do something either really stupid or epically stupid. Either way, this is going to be the worst mistake I’ve ever made.”

“Well, that sounds promising.”

That was not her sister Andy. It was her sister Alexa, Andy’s twin.

“I called Andy,” Beth complained. “And I still got you. Why does this always happen to me? I just need to vent to someone who will give me good advice.”

“I give advice,” Alexa defended herself.

“Good advice,” Beth clarified. “I need someone to talk reason to me and you’re never it. Where’s Andy?”

“She and Owen are out to dinner. She took my cell phone by mistake.”

“How does that happen?” Beth asked, annoyed.

“We have the same phone and bought the same cell phone case by accident. It could happen to anyone.”

“It could, but it doesn’t,” Beth pointed out. “Only you two would do something like that.”

“Back to your dilemma,” Alexa said, ignoring Beth. “Let’s talk about this ridiculously stupid thing you’re about to do.”

“I’m about to impersonate a stripper.”

Her statement was met with nothing but silence.

“That’s what I thought,” Beth muttered.

“No.” Alexa coughed. “Keep going. You just caught me off guard with that one.”

“I’m about to see Logan for the first time since Andy’s wedding, and I’m impersonating a stripper that they hired to entertain him at some ridiculous keg party they’re having.”

Alexa let out a laugh.

“It’s not funny,” Beth whined. “What the hell did I get myself into?”

“Oh, Beth,” Alexa said. “Just back out.”

“I can’t back out now!”

“Well, you could,” Alexa pointed out.

“In some ways, I think it might be good. Break the ice, you know?”

“You think taking off your clothes and flashing Logan’s friends and family is a good way to break the ice? Beth, I know you and I don’t always see eye to eye, but girl. No.”

The strains of a terrible eighties metal song bled through the closed door.

“Oh, my God,” she whispered. “They just started the music.”

“Is that your cue? What’s your stripper name, by the way? Little Red? Oh, it could be like Little Red Riding Hood. This could be fun—”

“Shut up,” she whispered and then gave herself a little pep talk. “I can do this.”

“Then what the hell did you call me for?”

“To listen to a voice of reason?” She immediately argued against her own comment. “When have I ever done that?” Beth joked.

“Not even once, little sister. Not even once.”

And wasn’t that the truth? Beth had spent her entire adult life avoiding talking to her sisters about real-life problems; pretending the problems couldn’t touch her was far easier. Listening to the advice of others was not her strong suit.

“Well,” she said. “Seems silly to start now.”

“Good luck out there, Red,” Alexa said, her voice serious. “Break a leg and make sure to call and check in once in a while. We love your pig-headed ass.”

The insult nearly made her cry.

“I love you, too, you bossy bitch.”

Alexa disconnected and despite their insults, Beth felt closer to her sister than she had in years.

* * *

Logan loved the hell out of his cousins but they had something up their sleeves; he just didn’t know what it was.

Cole and Tucker were conspiring about something, whispering behind their hands and eyeing him. Not much different than the last two months, but somehow more suspicious that before.

Whatever they were planning, it had to do with the cheesy eighties music they’d been blaring for the last few minutes. He was about ready to turn in for the night—the party they’d planned a nice gesture—but not something he was enjoying at the moment.

Elliot, Cole and Tucker’s older brother, was clearly not in on the plan as he was sitting in the kitchen, scowling at nearly every person in the room, his eerie gray eyes piercing in their intensity. That was usually Elliot’s default expression, a cross of something that fell between angry and furious. It didn’t necessarily mean he was feeling either emotion, it was just how he looked most of the time.

Elliot had been adopted into the family as a child, and Logan knew his life before adoption had not been kind. He’d taken to his new family much like a mother bear takes to her cubs. He was protective and fierce and right now, Logan was one of his cubs. Elliot had been hovering for months, not in an overbearing way, but enough that everyone knew he was there.

Logan didn’t need a watchdog. He wasn’t sure what the hell he needed, but a watchdog wasn’t it.

A smile spread across Cole’s face and Logan’s eyes narrowed.

What the hell was his little cousin up to?

The music got louder and the partygoers behind him let out a raucous applause. When the wolf whistles started, Logan suddenly got the distinct feeling he knew exactly what was going on.

Cole’s face was pure mischief, his brother Tucker a mirror image as laughter and cheers exploded out of them.

“No,” Logan said quietly, glaring at them. “You didn’t.”

They couldn’t hear him, but they both read his lips easily enough. They nodded and cheered, and Logan knew, any minute, some woman would be standing in front of them all, ready to take her clothes off.

He wasn’t against naked women. On the contrary, he’d seen many and had loved it every damn time. Tall, short, big, small, he liked them all.

He just wasn’t in the mood, hence the party they were throwing him. They just didn’t get where he was mentally. They were just trying to help him get out of the funk he was in.

Hell, they’d let him come stay with them for months and hadn’t batted an eye. The least he could do was let them throw a naked woman at him. So, he pasted a half-assed smile on his face to play along.

The cheers got louder, the men he could see all riveted at her approach. He idly wondered how scantily clad she was to hold their attention so closely.

When she rounded the couch and into his sights, he knew why they’d watched her so damn intently.

It was because she was one of the most stunning sights he’d seen in all his life. He’d seen the landscapes of countless countries, by land and sea. He’d seen priceless paintings in museums around the world. He’d seen women, in all shapes and forms.

None of them held a candle to Beth Walker and somehow, she was standing in front of him at his cousin’s house, wearing his fatigues and slowly swaying to a terribly out-of-date song, ready to take her clothes off.

“Take it off,” someone yelled from the kitchen behind them.

Beth’s blight blue eyes flicked up, but came right back to his, a million emotions playing out across her face.

He was happy to see her; deep inside, his soul warmed at being in the same room with her again. But his anger lived too close to the surface these days and it was hard to hold in.

His face turned down as his resentment bubbled up like water coming to a boil.

Had she planned it like this? Wait until he was finally recovering and then drop in on him like a bomb?

Had his cousins planned this? He’d told them many times that he and Beth were over and that he didn’t want to talk about her.

The music got louder, and he wasn’t sure if someone turned it up or his senses were heightened because he could suddenly smell her around him, something cool and clean and everything Beth that he couldn’t describe. Fury prickled under his skin that they would bring her here, a place he felt safe, to see him like this.

“What are you doing?” he growled, sending a scowl not just to her, but to his cousins behind her, as well.

The smile that lit her lips made him want to melt inside, but he was far too hardened to do that these days. Instead, he looked down at the spot where his left leg used to be, now amputated above his knee.

Yeah, he was way past being that jovial guy he once was. The guy that didn’t care that Beth couldn’t stay in one place. That guy who was content to take Beth’s scraps because he was confident she’d come back to him when she was ready.

That guy was long gone.

In his place, was the shell of that man sitting before her, now filled with emotions that were far darker and harder to reign in. As she stepped up onto the coffee table in front of him, the cheers only getting louder around him, and he felt lost. Adrift in an emptiness where who he used to be once stood. That was what his insides looked like. A black hole of nothingness.

Between losing Beth that last time and then losing his leg, he was nothing.

He felt like nothing.

Her smile lanced through him and he wanted to look away. He scolded himself and tried to talk himself out of it, but he was riveted by her. That was just how they were with each other.

When she was around, she was the only thing he could see, like magnets that couldn’t be separated.

It wasn’t until they were apart that he saw how pathetic he was and all the ways she’d shown him that she wasn’t interested.

In sex, yes. In him as a person, no.

“Just came to visit,” Beth said, her hips swiveling as she dropped into some kind of squat that pushed her ass out. She went to her hands and knees, sticking that round ass up in the air.

His cousins couldn’t take their eyes off it.

Logan seethed, furious with her for being there, furious with himself for still wanting her. He was furious with his cousins for daring to look at her like that.

But she wasn’t his and she’d gone to great lengths to not be his. If she wanted to play this game, he was going to let her.

“Good timing on your part,” he said, his eyes on hers. “Wouldn’t want you to miss a party.”

She cat-crawled off the table and onto the couch, over his legs—or leg as it may be—and straddled his waist, tossing the hat aside and shaking out her red hair.

Hands on his shoulders, she leaned in, her lips against his ear. “I do like a good party, though this one isn’t as fun as the last one I went to.”

“Screw anyone worth mentioning or just another one of your regular nights out?”

That had been a direct hit. She stiffened on his lap, the smile falling from her face.

“I bagged the best man at my sister’s wedding,” she said, her voice steady, despite her body language.

“Take it off!”

“If you don’t mind,” she whispered. “I’m in the middle of something here. Not sure when the real deal is going to show up, so I better entertain you now before I get called out for being a fraud.”

“Fake it till you make it,” Logan said, his smile not even close to meeting his eyes.

She crawled herself backwards on her hands and knees, until she was kneeling on the coffee table, sitting on her heels.

“I’ve found that faking it only takes you so far. Tough to make it when you can’t figure out who you really are,” she told him, her fingers slowly working the buttons of her top.

She was being so casual about the whole thing, like they could have been talking over coffee, but with every passing second, the skin of her chest was exposed.

First one button. Her eyes flicked up to meet his and her lips turned up.

The second button. He could see the swell of her breasts.

He wasn’t sure he could do it; sweat beaded in his hairline as the men in the kitchen had all crowded into the living room and the noise level grew off the charts. The idea of them seeing her naked was enough to make the top of his head blow off. It was just unthinkable.

But they weren’t together and she was her own woman. If this was what she wanted to do, then he was going to let her do it.

When the third button came loose and her lacy little bra, if you could call it that, came into view, Logan hardened.

The fourth button was near her belly button and when she brought her arms down, the top gaped open. He was millimeters from seeing her perfect nipples and he almost couldn’t drag his eyes away. He remembered in exact detail what her body looked like. He didn’t need her to take the top off to see her breasts; he just needed to close his eyes and recall the memories. In a minute, every man in the room would be able to do the same thing.

The fifth was a mere formality and when it opened, Beth held her arms out.

“I could use a hand with the sleeves,” she said, her blue eyes locked on his.

He didn’t move, two of his cousin’s friends doing the honors. They each grabbed one sleeve and pulled. Within seconds, Beth was kneeling on the coffee table in nothing but her bralette and his fatigue pants.

He’d yet to see her wear anything that didn’t make her look sexy and this was no exception. Her skin was tanner than when he’d seen her last, but would still be considered pale. Her body was fit and muscled, moving under her skin as she paraded around for everyone to see.

She stood, much to the crowd’s delight, and danced around on the coffee table a bit, then she stepped to the floor and wrapped her arm around someone’s neck and gyrated against him. She turned her head to watch Logan the entire time.

It was sexy and exhilarating, but also infuriating.

The man put his hands on Beth’s hips and she slapped him away. “No touching,” she chided. “You know how this works.”

She moved away from him and on to the next guy. This time she pressed her back against him and slowly slid down, one arm above her head, one on her tightly muscled stomach. Logan watched as her red hair stuck to the guy’s shirt as she slid down, covering his chest.

A wave of jealousy, so sharp it could have cut him open, lanced through his gut.

Eyes still locked on his, she stepped to him like she was a model on a runway.

“Would you like to do the honors?” she asked, her voice low as she gestured to the button on her pants. His pants.

“If he doesn’t, I do,” someone called from the kitchen.

Without a word, his fingers made quick work of the button, and she stepped back up on the coffee table.

From there, everything happened fast. She didn’t tease or draw it out. He may have felt more prepared had that been the case. No, she just opened them up and let them fall, her tiny white panties in plain view for everyone to see.

And they did see. They may as well have been in a strip club with a bunch of bikers for as rowdy as the crowd suddenly got. They’d gone from subdued townie carpenters and the like, to frat boys in zero point two seconds.

All it took was one look at a mostly naked Beth Walker.

He knew how they felt.

She kicked the pants away and asked. “You want me to keep going?”

“I thought you came to entertain me,” he said, faking a calm he didn’t feel.

Beth shrugged and hooked her thumbs in the sides of her panties. “Up to you. Harder for you to kick me out this way.”

“I’m sure someone here would take you home.”

“I could ask them,” she challenged. “See if someone would be so hospitable. Or you could just stop punishing me.”

His cousin Cole’s head suddenly appeared at Beth’s side as he stood next to the coffee table. “Everything okay over here?”

“Cole,” Logan began. “Meet Beth Walker. Beth, my cousin, Cole Williams.”

“The Beth?” Cole stage whispered, his eyes cutting from Logan to Beth and back again. “She said—”

“She says a lot of things,” Logan finished. “Beth’s gonna do whatever it is Beth wants to do, Cole.”

“And Beth wants to strip for a room full of dudes?” Cole asked, sounding rightfully disbelieving.

“Beth’s right here,” she interrupted, turning and resting her hands on Cole’s shoulders and dancing for him. He looked as uncomfortable as any man would when the nearly naked woman dancing against you was most definitely, spoken for. “I couldn’t get Logan to call me back.” She pouted at Cole. “Wouldn’t call. Wouldn’t text. What’s a girl to do?”

That was skimming the surface of the backstory, Logan thought, annoyed.

“Take it all off!”

The crowd laughed at the persistent yeller.

Beth shrugged and slipped her bra up, over her shoulders and then her head, and turned to the crowd. She did that thing she did with her back against Cole’s front, sliding down and rubbing her hands down her chest, her naked breasts on display.

Logan nearly saw red. He jackknifed into sitting upright and grabbed his damn crutch, struggling to get the thing on his arm.

Beth watched him, goading him by squatting all the way down the floor, her head at Cole’s crotch level, her legs spread wide open.

“I don’t think this is helping,” Cole said, grabbing Beth under the arms and hauling her up. “Everyone out!” he yelled. “Elliot!”

For the first time all night, Elliot looked like he was about to have some fun, a dark smile spreading across his face. Without hesitation, he began clearing the entire house, yelling all the while for everyone to vacate the premises. Elliot was a bit of a bull; older than them all by at least ten years and bigger by far, he cut an imposing figure.

Logan appreciated his effort when the disappointed crowd filed out and the cooler, March, New England air blew in.

Beth still watched him and he watched her. The longer their stare-down lasted, the more her humor seemed to grow. She took some kind of pleasure in the situation, and he wasn’t sure anymore if she was laughing at him or the situation.

Losing a leg had made Logan rethink everything he thought he knew in life, Beth being at the top of that list.

“Here,” Cole said, handing Beth the fatigue shirt and averting his eyes.

Tucker stood by wordlessly, also studiously looking away.

“I’m good,” Beth said, digging her heels in as usual. She stood hands on hips, her breasts jiggling with the movement, glaring at him.

“Put the damn shirt on, Beth,” Logan growled, standing from the couch and struggling to gain his footing with the crutch.

“Make me,” she shot back.

“She’s a pain in the ass,” Elliot complained after he slammed the front door behind their last guest. He stalked over, ripped the shirt from Cole’s hand and nearly wrestled her into it.

“Hey!” she squawked.

Logan was equal parts thankful and irritated with Elliot for touching her.

“So, this is Beth?” Tucker said, filling the awkward silence. “I’m Tucker. That’s Elliot and Cole.”

“What are you doing here?” Logan asked, feeling steadier on his foot.

“Seriously?” she shot back, pulling a face. “That’s how you want to play this?”

Cole laughed under his breath and guided her to sit in a chair.

“Why don’t we all just chill for a few minutes?”

“I’m going to bed,” Logan growled and then glared at Beth. “Don’t follow me.”

“Like I’m that desperate,” she argued, her cheeks heating.

“You could have fooled me,” Logan’s quiet reply hit its mark and Beth shrank back. He felt like a jerk for saying it, but she had to see that whatever they had before, was over.

Between her issues and now his, they were too different and life had taken them too far apart. Even if he had wanted to fight for her before, forcing her to get stuck with him now wasn’t worth the effort. He’d be nothing but a burden for her. For anyone.

Unable to leave her there, looking so forlorn, he checked his watch.

“It’s late. Sleep on the couch.”

“Good idea,” Tucker agreed. “I’ll get some blankets.” He scurried off.

“You could sleep in my room,” Cole offered. At Logan’s glare, he corrected himself. “While I sleep on the couch. Take my room while I take the couch.”

Beth shook her head and stood. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll just grab my stuff and get out of your hair.” She looked to Logan. “I know I’m an asshole for what I did to you and I know you hate me. I don’t blame you, but I had to see you for myself.” Her eyes filled with tears and she looked away, blinking them back. They were nearly gone when her gaze met his again. “Owen told me you were going to be fine, but I couldn’t get myself to believe him until I got to see you with my own eyes.”

“You saw him,” Elliot said, his voice harsh and grating. “I think you’ve done enough damage for one night. Time to hit the road.”

“Jesus, El.” Cole shook his head. “Stop being such a hard-ass. Where’s she going to go? The motor inn? She’ll stay here overnight—”

“No,” she argued. “I’ll just head to my sister’s.”

“That’s what, almost three hours from here? It’s already past midnight. I can’t let you do that,” Cole argued.

“He’s right,” Logan agreed, resigned. “Stay the night.”

Without another word, he turned and headed down the hallway to his room, passing Tucker whose arms were loaded with blankets and pillows.

* * *

They all turned when there was a knock at the door.

“I hate your friends,” Elliot complained, glaring at Cole.

“Someone probably just forgot something.” Cole laughed. “Don’t get your undies in a bunch.”

Tucker trotted to the door and swung it open, only to find a cop on his doorstep.

“I’m looking for a Logan Hallowell,” the officer said.

Tucker looked back into the living room and then out onto the porch. “Uh, he went to bed. Is there something I can help you with?”

The officer then whipped her hat off and shook her hair out, the Velcro of her shirt ripping open.

“Oh, I heard he’s been a very bad boy. I’ve come to take him in,” the woman cooed.

* * *

Tucker’s loud laugh was the last thing Logan heard before snapping his bedroom door shut for the night.