CHAPTER ELEVEN
Logan opened his eyes, aware of the pain that throbbed through his body in relentless waves. It was the pain that had forced him to consciousness.
The darkness hit him first. Wherever he was, there were no windows, no fresh air. He was sitting, bound with his arms pulled behind him and tied to the wooden slats in the back of his chair.
He also wasn’t alone. He heard the soft rasps of breath coming too fast. So close to him.
There was a faint beam of light on the floor to the right, just a sliver that came from beneath what Logan suspected to be a door.
He tried to shift in his chair but the pain doubled, knifing through him.
Hell, yeah, he’d been knifed all right—
“Logan?”
He stilled. That was Juliana’s voice, and when he took a breath, he smelled vanilla. Beyond the blood and dust and decay in the room, he smelled her.
No. Gunner should have been keeping her safe. He’d made a dumb move; Logan knew it. He’d seen the body falling and fear had made him reckless for a moment, but Juliana—
“Please, Logan, talk to me. Tell me you’re okay.”
“I’m…” He cleared his throat because his voice was no more than a growl. “I’m okay, baby.” A lie, but he would have told her anything right then. He didn’t know how much blood he’d lost; Logan just knew he was too weak.
The cops have been working for Guerrero. He’d figured that little fact out too late. From the sounds of the battle that had echoed in his ears, he knew Jasper had reached that same conclusion.
Too late.
You couldn’t even trust the good guys these days. But then, maybe there weren’t any good guys.
“I was afraid… I thought you were dead.”
“Not yet.”
Her laughter was choked. Desperate. “That’s what Guerrero said.”
And Logan knew how the guy had gotten her out of the house. This time, I was the bait. “G-Gunner?”
Silence from her, the kind that told him something had gone very wrong.
Of course something went wrong. We’re both being held in this hole, and Guerrero is about to come in and start his sick games.
Games that Logan couldn’t let the man play with Juliana.
“Susan stabbed him. When we left…he was alive. He was shooting at Guerrero.”
If Gunner was still breathing, then they had hope. He’d get Sydney. They’d track Juliana through the implant.
All his team needed was a little bit of time.
Logan could give them that time. He could take torture, as much as necessary. As long as Juliana makes it out.
He’d suffered plenty over the years. It wasn’t the first time he’d been taken hostage. He’d gotten out before. He would now.
“I’m sorry.” He had to tell her that. He couldn’t stand to be there, to all but feel her next to him, and not say the words. When he’d last seen her eyes, she’d looked as if she hated him.
If they weren’t in the darkness, would that same hate glitter in her stare?
“I didn’t want to hurt you.” Truth. “I didn’t want—”
“Logan, we can talk about that later.” Something thudded—her chair. Her leg brushed his. So close. He wanted to reach out and touch her, but the rough rope just dug into his wrists and arms.
“You will get out of here.”
“We’re getting out.” Her voice vibrated with intensity. “I’ve been in this dark, you weren’t talking, I was afraid—I never want to think that you’re dead again, got it? You were so close, and I thought you had died.”
His hands fisted. “I won’t die.” But he had to warn her. He wasn’t going to lie to Juliana, not ever again. “But it’s going to be bad, baby. What comes…” He swallowed and said what she had to hear. “I can take it, understand? You stay strong and just know that I’ll be all right.”
Guerrero and his torture games. Logan had seen the bodies left behind after Guerrero’s playtime was over.
“I’m not going to let him slice into you!” Her voice was fierce. “I’ll give him what he needs. I don’t care.”
But they didn’t have anything to give him. Even if they did… “The minute you talk, we’re dead.” She was only alive because Guerrero couldn’t stand the idea that evidence was out there floating around. Evidence that could lead a path back to him.
“He’s not letting us escape,” Juliana whispered, her voice so soft in the darkness.
Logan kept pulling at those ropes. She was right. Guerrero wasn’t going to let them slip away.
“What happened?” Juliana asked. “What went wrong?”
They’d trusted the wrong local cops.
The silence must have stretched too long because she said, “Logan?”, her voice sharp.
He exhaled slowly. “The cops were working for him. When I went out, they turned on me instead of fighting off his men.” Those who’d been left alive, anyway. The cops on their side had been taken out or injured instantly. Money could talk, and Guerrero sure had a lot of dough. “Guerrero probably had a contact at the P.D., one who knew just which cops would turn for the cash.” Enough cash could make even the strongest men weak. “Hell, some of ’em might not have even been cops, just plants who were sent in.”
But he’d been fighting them back. He and Jasper had been holding their own against them all.
Until he’d lost his control. He’d seen the body and… “I thought it was you.” He’d never forget the fear. How could he? Echoes of it still burned in his bleeding gut.
“What was me?”
“When the body fell, for an instant…” He wished he could see her through the darkness. His eyes had adjusted, and he could make out the outline of her body, but that wasn’t good enough. He wanted to look into her eyes. To see her while he had the chance.
Time was all they needed. Hurry up, Syd.
His breath expelled in a rush. “I thought it was you, and I’ve never been so scared in my life.” Not even that horrible night when his father had destroyed three lives.
The night that was between them. Always would be.
His fear, that crack in his control, had cost them both. Guerrero never would have gotten the drop on him if he’d stayed focused.
But with Juliana, focus had never been his strength.
“Logan, I need to tell you…” Juliana began, her voice soft.
He wasn’t sure he could stand to hear what she had to tell him. He heard footsteps coming in the hallway, heading toward them.
“Lean toward me,” he told her.
He heard the rustle of her clothes. The creak of her chair. She was bound just like he was, but when they leaned forward, they were just close enough—
To kiss.
Logan’s mouth took hers. He kissed her with all the passion he felt. The need. The hunger. But he kept his control. He just wanted her taste on his lips. Wanted the memory to hold tight and to get him through the pain that would come.
His lips slipped from hers. “I always loved you.” He hadn’t meant for the confession to come out, but as soon as the words rumbled from him, Logan didn’t regret them. It was the truth, one he’d hidden, one he’d carried, and in case Syd didn’t get there fast enough, he wanted Juliana to know.
“What?”
“You deserved better than to be with a killer’s son.” No, he’d tell her everything. No more lies. “You deserved better than to be with a killer. That’s what I am. What I’ve always been, inside. My father, he knew. He saw it in me. Told me I’d be just like him, and when I got in the military…” It had all been too easy for him.
He pulled in a breath. Still tasted her. “You’re the one good thing that I’ve known in my life. I walked away from you because…hell, Julie, how could you not hate me knowing what happened? But I carried you with me every place I went. You were there.” She’d gotten him out of more hells than he could count.
Silence. Then “Logan…”
The footsteps were closer. Their time was up. “Just remember that, okay?” He wanted to touch her, so he kissed her again. “Remember.” No matter what came.
The door creaked open. Light poured onto them. He saw Juliana’s face then, pale, beautiful, but marked by dark bruises near her forehead and on the curve of her left cheek.
“You son of a bitch,” he snarled and turned his head. His gaze locked on the man advancing in that bright light. A man with dark hair, dark eyes and a grin the devil could wear.
“Hello, Mr. Quinn,” Diego Guerrero said, his voice calm and flat. “I was wondering how much longer you’d be out.”
Because he’d been drugged. Yeah, Logan had figured that out fast enough. He remembered the slice of knives, but he also remembered the prick of a needle that had taken him down during the battle. Guerrero had wanted a live hostage. So you could use me against Juliana.
Guerrero was a man who knew how to plan well. Just not well enough.
Logan smiled at him. “Tonight, your empire’s going down. You’re about to lose everything.”
Guerrero laughed at that. Two men followed him into the room. Men who already had knives in their hands.
“No, Mr. Quinn…or shall I just call you Logan? Logan, tonight, you’re the one who’s going to lose…” Guerrero walked over and stood behind Juliana. His hands wrapped around her throat. “You’re going to sit there and watch while you lose everything that matters to you.”
* * *
SHE HADN’T EXPECTED a bloodbath. Sydney Sloan raced through the senator’s mansion, her gun in her hand. Jasper hadn’t been outside. He should have been out there, waiting for her.
Instead, she’d just found the ground littered with bodies. Some still alive, some way past dead. Cops. Men in ski masks. Men with pain contorting their faces.
But she hadn’t seen the two men that she needed most. Gunner and Jasper. Where the hell were they?
She’d called her boss, Bruce Mercer. Federal agents were minutes behind her. Whatever screwup had happened with the local law enforcement, it wouldn’t be happening again. The agents would take care of the cops and men who still lived. She just needed—
A ragged groan came from the right. Sydney tensed as adrenaline spiked through her body. She flattened her body against the wall, sucked in a deep breath.
Then she rushed into the room with her gun ready to fire.
“Freeze!” she yelled.
But the men before her didn’t freeze. Jasper was crouched over Gunner, and they were both covered in blood. Gunner wasn’t moving. He barely seemed to breathe.
She grabbed for her phone. “Where’s the ambulance?” Sydney demanded. This scene—it was too similar to one she’d seen before. Only, that time, she’d lost her fiancé.
She wasn’t losing her best friend.
Sirens wailed outside, answering her question before the other agent on the line could.
“Get those EMTs into the house,” Sydney ordered. “Second floor. First room on the right. We’ve got an agent down, and he’s priority one.”
The only priority for her then.
Sydney dropped to her knees. Jasper had his hands over Gunner’s wounds, trying to keep the pressure in place. She added her hands, not caring that the blood soaked through her fingers. “What happened?”
Jasper grunted. “Susan—she was working with Guerrero. She got too close to Gunner.”
Because Gunner always had a weakness for the helpless damsels. She shook her head and blinked eyes that had gone blurry. When would he learn?
“Guerrero took Logan and Juliana.” Jasper’s voice vibrated with his rage. “I tried to stop them, but…”
Then she realized that all of the blood wasn’t Gunner’s. Her eyes widened.
“I knew if I didn’t stay with him he’d die.” Jasper didn’t even glance at his own wound. He came across as a tough SOB.
And he was.
But he also cared about his team.
“We’ll get them back,” she promised. There wasn’t an alternative for her. She’d lost others she cared about over the years. She wasn’t losing any of her team.
Shouts came from downstairs and drifted up through the broken window. Sirens yelled. The ambulances had arrived. Backup.
“Hurry!” she screamed.
Soon there was the thunder of footsteps on the stairs. The EMTs pushed her back, but…but Gunner grabbed her hand.
His eyes, weak, hazy, opened and found her. “Syd…”
She swallowed and tried to pull back. “It’s all right, Gunner. You’re going to be fine.” He’d have to be.
He tried to smile at her, that disarming half grin that had gotten to her so many times, but his lashes fell closed and his hand slipped from her wrist.
Her heart slammed into her chest but the EMTs were working on him. They got Gunner out of that room, into the ambulance. The lights were swirling. Agents were racing around the scene.
She wanted in that ambulance, too. She wanted to be with Gunner, holding his hand.
But she stood back and watched the lights vanish.
Jasper was behind her. He had barely let anyone see his injured shoulder. He’d just growled, “Back the hell off.”
That was Jasper.
She swallowed and hoped the mask she usually wore was back in place. “You ready to hunt?” she asked him. Not waiting for his answer—she already knew what it would be—Sydney yanked out her phone, punched in the code.
The GPS screen lit up instantly.
Got you.
Because Guerrero might have taken Logan and Juliana, but they were going after them. They would get them back.
And Guerrero would get exactly what he deserved.
* * *
GUERRERO BROUGHT HIS blade against Juliana’s throat. “You have proven to be so much trouble…”
“Then maybe you should have just killed me in Mexico.”
Logan blinked, surprised by the rough words that had tumbled from Juliana’s lips. No, no, she didn’t need to be antagonizing a killer. Logan wanted Guerrero’s anger directed at him.
Not her.
The blade bit into her flesh. A rivulet of blood slid down her pale throat. The lights were on now, too bright, too stark. “Maybe I should have,” Guerrero agreed.
“But then, you knew you’d never get your hands on that evidence!” Logan snarled at him. “And your house of cards would fall on you.”
Guerrero looked up at him. “I’m beginning to think that evidence doesn’t exist.” But he lifted the blade from Juliana’s throat.
Logan’s heart started to beat again.
But then the goon on his right shoved his blade into the wound on Logan’s side. Logan clenched his teeth, refusing to cry out as the blade twisted.
“I mean, if Juliana had the evidence, if she knew anything about it…she’d say something…now, wouldn’t she?” Guerrero asked, glancing down at the blood on his blade.
“Stop!” Juliana screamed. “Stop hurting him!”
“Oh, but we’re just getting started.” Guerrero nodded to his henchman, and he shoved that blade in even deeper.
Logan’s hands fisted and he yanked against the ropes. “Have your…fun…” he rasped. “When I’m free…I’m…killing you.”
“Promises, promises,” Guerrero muttered.
“Yeah, it’s a…promise.” One he intended to keep. Guerrero and his torture-happy guards weren’t getting away.
The knife slid from his flesh. Logan sucked in breath, but he hadn’t even brought it fully into his lungs when Guerrero waved his hands and said, “Cut off his fingers.”
“No!” Juliana lurched forward in her chair, yanking against the binds that held her. “Don’t!”
Logan braced himself. The guard came around him and—
Logan kicked out with his feet. Idiots. They should have secured his legs. One kick broke the hand of the guy with the bloody knife. The weapon flew away. He caught the other guard in the knee and there was a solid crack that made Logan grin.
He stopped grinning when Guerrero put his knife to Juliana’s throat once more.
Guerrero glared at him and said, “Always the hero…”
The guards scrambled back to their feet. They lurched forward as they came for Logan again, only this time, they stayed away from his legs. One slugged him in the jaw. The other grabbed his fallen knife and charged at Logan.
That’s right. Focus on me. Leave her alone.
“Stop!” Guerrero’s order froze the men.
And Logan realized…Guerrero was still focusing on Juliana. He’d grabbed her hair and tangled it around his fist. That knife was pressed against her throat, and Juliana’s eyes were on Logan.
There was fear in her stare. But more, trust. Faith. She thought he’d save her.
I will.
There was more emotion burning in her eyes. But he didn’t want to let himself believe what he saw. Not then.
Guerrero yanked back hard on Juliana’s hair. “You both have information that I want. She has my evidence.”
“I…don’t,” Juliana gritted. A tear leaked from the corner of her eye.
“And you…” Guerrero’s eyes narrowed on Logan. “You’re EOD.”
Logan shook his head. “What the hell is that?”
The blade dug into Juliana’s skin. “Don’t lie, agent,” Guerrero snapped. “I can see right through lies.”
Oh, right, because he was clairvoyant? No, just your standard sociopath.
“My men have been digging into your life. Ever since Juliana here was so helpful in sharing her lover’s name. A SEAL, but you’re not working in the field any longer. At least, you’re not supposed to be.”
Because he was with a new team now and had been for the past three years.
“The pieces fit for you. The more I dig, the more I know.”
Guerrero’s eyes reminded him of a cobra’s watching his prey, waiting for a moment of weakness so he could strike.
Come on. Strike at me. Leave her alone.
“The EOD has dozens of teams in operation.”
Guerrero’s intel was good.
“I want to know about them all. Those agents…their names…their lives. I can sell them all to the highest bidder.”
And there would be plenty of folks willing to pay. “Don’t know about them.” He tried for a shrug, but the ropes pulled on his arms. “I’m just an ex-SEAL who did a favor for a senator.”
Guerrero’s laugh called him on the lie. “And after the senator died, you stuck around because…?”
“Because I asked him to!” Juliana tossed out before Logan could speak. “I was scared. After the explosion at the cemetery, I asked him to stay with me.”
She was protecting him.
But Guerrero wasn’t buying it. “He took out my men at the cabin. Eliminated them in an instant.”
“What can I say? Once a SEAL…”
Guerrero lifted the knife from Juliana’s throat. His eyes were on Logan’s arm. On the blood that dripped to the floor. Logan wasn’t moving, not making a sound.
“Trained to withstand anything, were you?” Guerrero asked.
Just about.
“She wasn’t.” Then he put his blade just under Juliana’s shoulder, in the exact spot the guard had sliced Logan’s arm. “So when I start cutting her, I bet she’ll scream.”
He sliced into Juliana’s arm.
“Stop!” Logan roared.
Juliana gasped but made no other sound.
Guerrero frowned. “Interesting…”
“No, it’s not.” Rage was choking Logan. “Get. Away. From. Her.”
Guerrero lifted his knife. “Juliana, I believe you were wrong about him. I believe your lover does care…and he’s about to show you just how much.”
Juliana’s eyes met Logan’s.
“Two things can happen here,” Guerrero said, and there was satisfaction in his voice. “One…I start cutting her, and she breaks. She can’t handle the pain—no one ever can—and she tells me where I can find my evidence. I mean, she has it, right? That’s what she told the reporters.”
Juliana was still staring at Logan. Keep looking at me, baby. Don’t look away. Everything’s okay.
“Or we have option two…” Guerrero walked behind Juliana and the blade moved to her right shoulder. “I start hurting her, and you talk, Logan. You talk…and I make her pain stop.”
Logan’s teeth ground together.
Guerrero sighed. “You think I don’t know about the EOD? Those agents have caused plenty of trouble for me and my…associates over the years. I know I’d enjoy some payback time.”
Too many would.
“You talk, you tell me about the agents, where I can find them, any aliases they have, and I’ll make Juliana’s pain stop.”
The ropes were cutting into Logan’s flesh. Thick, twisted, they held him so tight.
“Tell me, and I’ll make her pain stop.” The blade dug into Juliana’s arm. Her teeth sank into her bottom lip, and Logan knew she was trying to hold back her cries.
He’d never loved her more. “Let her go.”
Guerrero bent near her ear. His lips brushed over the delicate shell when he asked, “Where’s the evidence, Juliana? What did you do with it?”
“We…lied to the reporters,” she whispered.
“Where is it?” he pressed.
Juliana shook her head.
Logan marked Guerrero for death. He stared at him, knowing this was one target that wouldn’t be brought in alive. “You made a mistake,” Logan told him.
Guerrero yanked that bloody blade from her flesh. Juliana’s shoulders sagged.
“You should never have brought me in alive.” Guerrero had let him get close, and Logan definitely intended to kill El Diablo.
“So tough.” He lifted the blade again, and drops of blood fell to hit the floor as he turned back to Juliana. “Now, where were we?”
“Mexico,” she said, voice trembling.
The guards weren’t looking at Logan. They were focused on Guerrero. On Juliana. There was eagerness on their faces.
They liked the torture.
Guerrero was still crouched near Juliana’s side, his mouth too close to her ear. “What about Mexico?”
“Why didn’t you just…torture me then?”
“Because getting under your skin was half the fun.” His fingers slid down her arm, sliding over the blood. “You’ve got such lovely skin.”
“Guerrero,” Logan snarled.
“She does, doesn’t she?” Guerrero murmured. “A beautiful woman.” Now the knife rose to her face. “But you won’t be that way for long.”
Logan’s vision bled red. He heaved in his chair.
“I don’t think you wanted to hurt…me.” Juliana’s fast words froze Guerrero—and his knife. “We talked in Mexico for so long. Had you done that before? Ever gotten close with…someone like me?”
“I’ve lied to more men and women than I can count.” He glanced at his knife. “Pain tells me what I want to know. But sometimes, lies are easier.”
“And less bloody,” Juliana whispered, swallowing. “Because I don’t think…I don’t think you wanted blood. I don’t think…you wanted this life.”
“This is the only life I want.”
Juliana shook her head. Her eyes weren’t on Logan any longer. They were on Guerrero. “You told me… You said you weren’t perfect…. You said I didn’t deserve what was happening to me…. You meant that, didn’t you?”
A muscle flexed in Guerrero’s jaw. Juliana kept talking, pressing her point as she said, “You didn’t want to kill me then. That’s why you kept me in that room…why you talked to me for so long.”
“I was using you, getting intel from you. Keeping you alive long enough to make the senator squirm.”
“Was John all a lie? Or was he…was he the man you could have been? What happened…” she asked him, speaking quickly, keeping the man’s focus on her and keeping that knife off her body, “to change you? Why did John die…and El Diablo take over?”
“Because only the strong survive.” A flash of pain raced over Guerrero’s face. “I learned that lesson when I walked in my mother’s blood.”
Juliana flinched at that revelation.
Then Guerrero straightened, moving back a bit from her. “It’s a lesson you’re going to learn now, too, Juliana.” He frowned down at her, seemed almost lost an instant, then he said, “I’m sorry…” and lifted the knife to her face.