Chapter 2
“What can I do for you Mr. Steele?” August had buzzed Logan Steele into the building after he rang up to the apartment a short time ago, but she refused to open the door any farther than the security chain would allow.
The main reason for that being, once she got home after work, she had kicked off her high heels in the hallway before going to her bedroom to remove her makeup and secure her hair in a band at her crown. She’d also changed into comfortable gray sweats and a thin black camisole—the former over the black silk panties Logan had earlier guessed she was wearing. After which, she had gone to the kitchen area and turned on the radio. After three days of being alone, the apartment felt eerily empty in Jenna’s absence.
August had yet to actually make the cheese omelet she had decided on for her dinner, not really having the appetite to eat it with Jenna still missing.
She certainly hadn’t been expecting company.
Definitely not Logan Steele’s company.
Not that she hadn’t thought about him this afternoon. A lot. She doubted any red-blooded woman would remain unaware of that bad-boy thing he had going, coupled with a muscular body and ruggedly handsome features.
He was still wearing the black T-shirt and worn jeans this evening, but he now wore a black leather jacket over them, adding to that bad-boy biker look. His overlong hair was tousled, stubble still darkening the strong line of his jaw.
He gave an unconcerned grin as he leaned against the doorframe nearest to her. “Mr. Steele is a definite improvement on arsehole, but I really would prefer that you call me Logan,” he encouraged.
“What do you want, Mr. Steele?” she came back as pointedly as he had with her name earlier today.
“Well, Aggie”—he took obvious delight in doing so again—“being allowed inside your apartment sometime this evening might be nice?”
She had always thought that nickname made her sound like someone’s maiden aunt, but Logan somehow put a different spin on it this evening, the name sounding far too intimate coming from those chiseled lips. “I’m busy,” she snapped.
“Doing what?”
“I was just about to cook an omelet for my dinner.”
He nodded. “Sounds good.”
August drew in another calming breath. “That wasn’t an invitation.”
“Pity.”
She sighed. “I’m really not dressed for receiving company.”
He waggled suggestive dark eyebrows. “Even more reason to let me in.”
She glared her irritation. “Does this type of sexual innuendo usually work for you?”
He grinned unrepentantly. “Usually, yes.”
“Well, it isn’t working for me,” she lied. This man was far too disturbingly male for her peace of mind.
“Okay,” he accepted. “Now are you going to let me in? I have some stuff to tell you about Jenna’s disappearance,” he added grimly.
August immediately slid the security chain across before releasing it completely and opening the door so he could enter. She knew Logan’s mention of Jenna had probably been deliberate, but she still needed to hear what he had found out about her missing flatmate. “Are you always this exhausting to be around?” August demanded as she closed the door behind him.
Logan looked around the hallway, noting the modern décor, along with the high-heeled shoes discarded just inside the door. “I think so, yes,” he confirmed distractedly as he took in August’s not-dressed-for-receiving-company appearance from her head to her bare toes.
She was a hell of a lot shorter without those high-heeled shoes, the top of her head only reaching to just beneath his chin. Her hair was brushed back and up and secured at her crown. Her face was completely bare of makeup, revealing a sprinkling of freckles across the bridge of her nose and giving her a more youthful appearance. The tailored business suit and blouse had been replaced with sweats that rested low down on her hips and left an inch or so of bare midriff between them and the skimpy black top she was wearing. And, if Logan wasn’t mistaken, which he and his rapidly engorging cock were sure he wasn’t, August wasn’t wearing a bra beneath that tiny figure-hugging item of clothing.
Confirming she did have deliciously full breasts, ones that he imagined were tipped with pale rose-colored nipples. Aroused nipples he could clearly see pressing against the soft black cotton material.
Jenna really had been holding out on them all in regard to her flatmate.
“Well?”
Logan dragged his gaze away from those swollen berries to see that August was now standing with her hands on those slender hips, her head tilted back in challenge as she stared at him knowingly. All of which was completely nullified by the deepening blush slowly creeping into her creamy cheeks.
He gave a grimace. “This hallway isn’t exactly inside your apartment, now is it?” His gaze sharpened. “Do you have a man in there?” He nodded at the slightly ajar door leading into the main part of the two-bedroom apartment.
“No, I do not have a man in there, or anywhere else,” she snapped.
“That’s good.” Logan pushed the door fully open before stepping into the sitting room.
August followed him. “Is it?”
“Yes,” Logan murmured as he noted the autumn-hued décor of the walls and throw rugs, the furniture big and comfortable. The open lounge was divided from the kitchen by a breakfast bar which had two stools in front of it. Probably where August and Jenna ate most of their meals. He could see three more open doors farther down a hallway, no doubt a bathroom and August’s and Jenna’s bedrooms.
“Are you flirting with me again?” August made no attempt to hide the impatience in her voice.
Logan turned his full attention back to her. “That depends.”
“On what?”
“On whether or not you’re going to agree to go out to dinner with me tomorrow evening.”
Her lips thinned. “I’m not.”
He shrugged. “Then I was merely making an observation.”
Why had Jenna never told August that Logan Steele, as well as being a pain, was exasperating beyond belief?
He was also, August acknowledged grudgingly, one of the most compellingly handsome men she had ever met, along with the sexiest, with those chiseled features and muscular body. His sense of humor, although slightly warped, was also entertaining. It would be a lethal combination to a susceptible woman.
Luckily, August wasn’t that woman.
Working at the art gallery this past year had opened her eyes to how many different ways there were for a man to flirt with her. Openly, charmingly, slyly, to name but a few. But all, without exception, coming from men who wanted to get into her panties rather than getting to know her.
The discernable bulge in the front of Logan’s faded black jeans told her he wanted the same thing.
August didn’t. She wanted the impossible, it seemed: a career, a relationship, marriage and children.
But most of the eligible men she met—and some who weren’t single and so shouldn’t be flirting with her at all—seemed to take one look at her curvaceous body, long red hair, and passably attractive features, and decide she was a woman they would like to take to bed rather than get serious about. They certainly didn’t take her seriously.
She doubted Logan Steele was any different when he seemed to have a problem being serious about anything.
Except…
There was a keen intelligence in the depths of those dark eyes, and the lines beside his eyes and mouth didn’t look as if they had all come from laughter either.
Meaning what?
That Logan Steele the flirt was merely a front?
Possibly.
August decided to reserve judgment on that until she knew him better—
What the hell?
She wasn’t going to know Logan Steele any better than she already did. In any way.
Jenna might have named Rourke Steele as the charmer in the family, and he undoubtedly was, but it was pretty obvious to August, even on so short an acquaintance, that Logan’s I-don’t-give-a-shit attitude was the one that challenged women to try to tame him.
August didn’t want a man she had to tame. She wanted one she could love for a lifetime and who would love her back as unreservedly.
“You were going to tell me about Jenna?” she now reminded.
“Oh yes.” Logan made himself comfortable in one of the armchairs without being asked, his shoulders almost as wide as the chair back. “Your three friends weren’t all that helpful, except to confirm the name of the club they were at when Jenna met the man she left with. None of them actually spoke to him, and they could only give a vague description. Dark haired and tall seemed to be the general consensus.” He grimaced. “We did, however, have a little more luck with the recordings from the surveillance cameras inside and outside the club.”
August sank onto the sofa, folding up her legs and tucking her bare feet beneath her. “Go on.”
“Well, the guy seemed to know where all the surveillance cameras were situated inside the club and mostly avoided looking at any of them directly.”
“Isn’t that odd behavior?”
Logan nodded. “Very. Except he wasn’t quite so lucky with the cameras outside in the parking area at the back of the club when he took Jenna. There’s been a spate of stolen cars in London recently, and so Nikolai Volkov—Markovic’s head of security,” he supplied at her puzzled expression, “had a couple of extra cameras installed outside the building late last week.”
Again, August wasn’t reassured by the fact he called these members of the Russian bratva by name. “Did you say this man ‘took’ Jenna?”
Logan scowled. “It looked as if initially the two of them had just stepped outside for some air, but then the guy grabbed hold of Jenna’s arm and dragged her toward a dark SUV. She fought back, of course. We taught her how to defend herself years ago. But another man got out of the vehicle, and the two of them easily overpowered Jenna and bundled her into the back of it before driving off.”
August felt all the color drain from her cheeks and sat tensely forward by the time Logan finished talking. “Jenna has been kidnapped?”
Logan grimaced. “Hard to say when no ransom demand has been made, either to you or to us.”
She gave a dazed shake of her head. “I don’t have any money.”
“We do,” he dismissed, eyes hooded by heavy lids. “But it might not have been a kidnapping.”
August felt a lurching upheaval in her stomach. “You think they might have— That they intended to—”
“Again, hard to say,” Logan stated evenly. “The number plate on the SUV isn’t very clear on the surveillance footage, which might have been deliberate too. My brother Haydn—the Nerd,” he drawled mockingly, “is working on making the image clearer. One thing still in favor of it being a kidnapping is that Jenna’s body hasn’t turned up anywhere yet— Hey, are you okay?”
“No!” That lurch in August’s stomach had now hit the back of her throat. “I think I’m going to be sick!” She scrambled to her bare feet and made a run for the bathroom, getting there just in time to hang her head over the porcelain bowl before bringing up the sandwich she’d managed to grab for her lunch earlier today after visiting the Steele Protectors offices.
Logan realized he could probably have handled that better as he rose to his feet and followed August down the hallway to the bathroom, where he could hear her being violently sick. Trouble was, he was too used to discussing things with his brothers, all of them hardened ex-soldiers with several overseas tours under their belts, and where death was just as likely in the next few minutes as continuing to live.
Yes, this was Jenna they were talking about, and all the Steele brothers loved her. But the only way Logan and Rourke stood any chance of finding Jenna alive was to treat her disappearance with the same lack of emotional involvement as the other cases they dealt with on a regular basis. Methodically and carefully was the best way to deal with a situation like this, with emotions put on a back burner until it was all over. At which time he and Rourke would ensure the two men who had taken Jenna were never able to abduct another woman ever again.
In the meantime, they would deal with one thing at a time, and for the moment, Logan had a very ill August to take care of.