Belong to Me (44 page)

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Authors: Shayla Black

BOOK: Belong to Me
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“I don’t love Brad.”
Inside, he rejoiced . . . until he realized that didn’t necessarily mean that she was willing to admit that she loved him. And even if she did, now there was a whole new obstacle in front of them. Fuck. No way was he leaving Cherry alone with Adam again, but he also had no way of keeping them apart without telling her about his suspicions. Since he couldn’t prove it and she didn’t trust him, where would that leave him?
“Knowing that makes me really happy, baby.” He kissed her softly, hoping like hell it wasn’t the last time. “Stay here. I’m going to see if I can find Xander. Use the sat phone to check in with Bocelli.”
Tara grabbed his hand. “You seem really upset. Please be careful.”
Everything on her sweet face said that she cared—deeply. He’d never loved another woman in his life and knew that he never would. What the hell was he going to do if his suspicions were right?
“You be careful, too. Don’t go anywhere. Don’t open the door for anyone.”
With her nod, Logan slipped out. At some point, he had to get a call out to his dad, tell him what he’d discovered, see if someone on the Tyler P.D. would reopen his mom’s cold case, get the latest threatening note he’d received at Dominion into their hands. He needed to ask the Colonel if he could think of any reason that Adam would want Mom dead. And he needed to figure out when and how the hell he was going to approach Tara about this—while keeping her safe.
Because, above all, that was his first priority.
 
TEN minutes after Logan’s departure, a knock sounded at their door. Tara jumped, fearing that Jordan had been waiting for an opportunity to get her alone. He’d been eerily absent since last night. Or
worse, that Kantor had somehow discovered that they’d broken into his office and had come for retribution.
Taking a taper out of the decorative candlestick on the nightstand and cursing the fact that she’d been unable to smuggle a weapon onto the island, she gripped the candlestick behind her back as she opened the door. But it wasn’t Jordan or Kantor standing on the other side.
“Xander? You’re okay.” He looked mussed and slightly heavylidded but unharmed.
“Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be?” He sauntered in.
“We overheard Kantor say they’d killed a man and to screen the employees more carefully. When we got back and Logan couldn’t find you, he freaked out.”
The bad-boy Dom repressed a smile. “That’s actually kind of sweet, but I’m fine.”
Clearly. But if Xander hadn’t been their victim, who had?
“Why didn’t you answer your phone when Logan called?”
“I had to occupy Marciela so she wouldn’t notice that her access card was absent.”
“Occupy?”
A very wicked grin crossed Xander’s face. “Do you have it?
Dear God, he’d slept with one of the maids to swipe her access card? Wincing at the thought, Tara set down the candlestick and fished the card out of her back pocket before handing it to him.
“Were you going to hit me?” He didn’t look intimidated in the least.
“If I had to. All of today’s shit has made me a little jumpy. Kantor almost found us in his office. If it hadn’t been for that kitchen fire that sent him running . . .”
“I’ll have to pay Alfredo his hundred bucks. Sounds like he performed on schedule.”
That implication flattened Tara. “You paid someone to start that fire?”
“I knew Kantor was going to need a well-timed distraction.”
Tara stared at Logan’s friend. He’d made the entire search not only possible, but run smoothly. They weren’t out of danger yet, and until Bocelli’s analysts had sifted through the data, they wouldn’t know if their break-in had accomplished anything. But without Xander, they certainly wouldn’t have had that opportunity.
“Thank you.”
“You’re done being suspicious?”
She shrugged. “It just—Your reasons for helping didn’t seem . . . obvious. It’s not your problem or your fight.”
“I need a reason to not want women to be sold as sex slaves to monsters likely to abuse or kill them?”
“I hate to sound cynical, but most people would give a great big ‘awww’ and say that the girls would be in their prayers or tell us to nail the bastards responsible. They wouldn’t go out of their way to help, much less uproot their whole lives.”
“I can afford to do more. I don’t have a job or the need for a paycheck holding me back.” He wandered over to the plush easy chair in the corner. “I don’t have anyone who loves me worrying. Getting involved was easy and had minimal impact on my life.”
“Unless you’re caught and they kill you.”
Xander raised a dark brow. “Kantor’s not stupid. He knows I come from a very wealthy family and that there would be a lot of questions if I disappeared or died here. He won’t want that wrath raining down on his head. Now, will he make my life uncomfortable in the hopes that I go away? Sure. And I’ll let him when you don’t need my help anymore.”
Wow, Xander had it all figured out. Tara had to give him credit. He seemed to be on the up and up. Perhaps she should have trusted Logan’s instincts . . .
“I guess I was wrong. Sorry if I offended you.”
“It’s not the first time someone has mistaken my motives.” He shrugged. “But Logan is a really good friend—one of the few I trust—and you’re the woman he loves. He’d do anything for you, so I’m going to do the same.”
When he put it like that, Tara felt almost ashamed about how suspicious she’d been. Ditto for how much difficulty she’d given Logan since he’d become her trainer for this mission.
“I’m not sure what’s up with us, but I should probably thank Logan for all he’s done to help me through this mission and educate me so I could stay safe. And as much as I was pissed off at the time, I should probably also thank Mr. Thorpe.”
Xander frowned. “Mitchell can be a real asshole. Don’t make the mistake of thinking he’s a nice guy. The FBI paid him to get you trained.”
“Yes, but when I screamed my safe word, he must have known that I was more angry at Logan than genuinely afraid. Even though I all but begged him to give me another instructor, he didn’t deviate. I wouldn’t have done as well with anyone else.”
Looking distinctly uncomfortable, Xander leaned forward. “Thorpe didn’t do that for you, sweetheart. He did it because Logan made him.”
“How? I can’t picture Thorpe bowing to pressure from anyone.”
“Doms can be victims of their own rules sometimes. When you screamed your safe word, well . . . a rule is a rule, and he was going to reassign you until Logan came in and threw one of the club’s own rules in his face, the prior claim clause. Mitchell didn’t have a choice but to give in. He gave Logan seven days to either collar or marry you, or he’d have to give up his membership.”
Xander’s words hit her like a blow to the chest. After the initial impact, a dozen thoughts crashed through her head: He’d made a
secret deal
to stay with her. Because he truly wanted her? But why not just tell her about his “prior claim”? Why be underhanded?
They weren’t sixteen anymore, and she desperately wanted to believe that Logan had entered into this agreement with Thorpe because he wanted to keep her safe, at the least. The fact that he’d left her in high school to protect her proved that he cared about her well-being. But was it more than that? Had Logan put himself in the position to be her trainer, come hell or high water, because he’d known that he could teach her what she needed to know? Or had Logan used the week Thorpe had given him as a way to keep her with him because he wanted to win her back? She didn’t want to think he’d kept the truth from her just to hurt her, not after all his tenderness and his avowals of love.
But he hadn’t said a word about any such bargain. He hadn’t let on for a second of their time together that he had more on the line than his heart and their future.
“Shit, I shouldn’t have said anything.” Xander winced. “Forget I mentioned it. Damn it, you look pissed.”
Yes, very much. He’d plotted to change the course of her mission—and maybe even her whole future—without consulting her. Did he think that she was a pawn in some fucking game?
But underneath, Tara was somewhat touched that he’d risked his membership at a club that was vitally important to his psyche to either keep her safe or win her heart.
Xander stood. “I think I’ll leave now before he returns and realizes that I’ve screwed the pooch. Go easy on him, huh? Bye!”
Tara barely got her mouth open before Xander was out the door. She tried to talk herself out of this weird sense of both tenderness and betrayal. Did he really have anything but her best interests at heart? Probably not. But damn it, if she was as important to him as he swore, then why didn’t the bastard just
talk
to her? Why did he continue making decisions without her input?
She might have let him top her in the bedroom, but there was no way she’d let him top her in life. And as soon as he returned, she was going to make that absolutely crystal clear to him.
 
LOGAN dashed back to the suite he shared with Cherry, anxious to return. Since he’d run into Xander and seen for himself that his buddy was in one piece, he prayed the same was true of her. Xander had said she was fine, but until Logan saw her, held her, he’d worry.
Stuffing the key in the slot, he shoved the door open and found Tara pacing. Relief poured through him. Worrying about Xander had made him edgy, as had breaking into Kantor’s office. Hell, the fact that Jordan hadn’t pursued Tara all day even made him edgy. The slimeball had slobbered on himself, drooling all over Tara when they’d arrived at the resort. Logan had been certain that he’d soon issue them an invitation to the VIP room as a means of testing her out. But they hadn’t seen or heard from Jordan since he’d hurried away from their safety scene last night, and that was feeling mighty odd—along with their formerly bugged remote. Xander had asked the maintenance guys to stash it in another guest room. Logan had to hope that no one noticed they were hearing someone else’s conversations.
Something was definitely fishy. If the management here at Fantasy Key knew that Tara was FBI, it was in their best interest to lay low, not do anything to raise red flags and invite further investigation. But being stonewalled frustrated the hell out of Logan. Time was running out to rescue Darcy and capture these predators.
“I found Xander,” Logan said into the odd silence. “He’s alive, though at the moment, I’d like to kill him myself.”
She nodded coolly. “He stopped by and picked up the access key.”
Tara’s mouth was a thin, angry line. She leveled a dark, brittle stare at him.
Logan frowned as he closed the distance to take her in his arms. She backed away. All his warning flares shot up.
“What’s wrong, Cherry?”
Fiery hair clinging to her shoulders, she paced, not bothering to hide her agitation. “Forget it. We don’t need drama right now. I’m working, and we’re supposed to be saving Darcy.”
“Yeah, but if something is bothering you, I want to know about it. We’ll communicate better if you do. Tell me.” He reached for her hand.
Tara jerked away. “Bocelli said he’d get back to us on the data. He’ll have to do some digging on Jordan. Still no progress on the identity of the resort owner. That’s not surprising. The FBI has been trying to untangle the legal paperwork to figure out who really owns this place, but it’s like a labyrinth. Do you think he’s here?”

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