The Boys Club (20 page)

Lying on the soft carpet, Sara
rolled toward Logan and slid her hand across his contoured torso. The scars
scattered across his skin mesmerized her. Though she had seen them before, in
the aftermath of being with him, they had a much different impact on her. He
accumulated each one of them doing his job, protecting someone, saving someone
from evils of which she knew nothing. Now she was his job, the one he
protected, the one he saved time and again, in more ways than one.

Her stomach bottomed out with the rush of memories of him
kissing her, of clothes flying off, of him picking her up. Her face flushed
with thoughts of her legs wrapped around his hips and her back slamming into
the wall, both engrossed in a never-ending kiss while her fingernails dug
through the layers of skin on his back. Sex had never been so intense with
Stephen. She wondered if it was always like that with Logan or if it was only
because of the circumstances. She really wanted to find out.

Logan raised his head. Wrapping his arm around her, he
brought her body in close to him. With her cheek resting on his warm shoulder,
he kissed the top of her head. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling of
his fingers combing through her hair.

“I’m sorry, Sara.”

She angled her head so she could see his face. “Why are you
sorry?”

“I never meant to…” His gaze wandered away from her face. “I
tried hard not to—”

“Don’t be sorry. I’m not."

“You’re not?”

Emboldened by their encounter, she inched up his body until
her face floated above his. “Not at all.”

“Then I’m not either.” His hand pressed down on the back of
her head, bringing her lips to him.

Sara lost herself in his kiss again, as if something
possessed her body and mind. Having only been with one man before now, she
didn’t know how to distinguish normal from extraordinary. Stephen and Logan
were day and night in every comparison, and she very much preferred the night.

Desire stirred in her and she lifted her head away from him.
He took her face in his hands, his thumbs moving over her skin. Her eyelids
dropped at his stimulating touch.

“Don’t close your eyes,” he said, as he brushed the backs of
his fingers against her cheek.

She opened them again and smiled. “Why not?”

“You have the most beautiful eyes.”

She laughed and shook her head. “I have dull, brown eyes,
the same as millions of other people.”

“No, you don’t. I love your eyes. I’ve always thought that,
since the first time I saw you.”

“Are you kidding? Your eyes are the ones that are worth
mentioning. They were the first thing I noticed.” Even now, she slipped away
into a hypnotic state as she stared into them. “I don’t know what to call them.
Ice blue, translucent, incredible.” She folded her arms on his chest and rested
her chin on her hands, still captivated by him.

The corners of Logan’s mouth twitched and turned upward. In
the few days she had known him, he had only given a couple hints that his lips
could move in that direction. As his smile grew, it lit up his eyes and warmed
Sara’s heart.

“You’re smiling,” she said, her own mouth evolving into a
large smile. “I didn’t know you could do that.”

He laughed and his lips parted, his smile now fully formed.
“I know how to smile,” he said.

“You should do it a lot more often.”

Something in his eyes flickered and his smile died down. The
sudden change in his expression reminded her of reality. They were still in
danger and would be until he got her into the hands of the FBI, who would make
her disappear for however long it took to put her father in prison for life.
Tomorrow could be the last day she ever saw Logan, something that passionate
sex and sweet exchanges would not change.

Logan gently rolled her over onto her back and hovered
several inches over her. “Sara, nothing about our situation is good,” he said,
as if reading her mind. “Even if it was, I don’t…” His words drifted off and he
tucked strands of her hair behind her ear.

Pain clenched her heart. She had become attached to a man
she barely knew in a complicated scenario. More than that, she was still
engaged to another man. By sleeping with Logan, she cheated on Stephen. Lying
with Logan now, his naked body covering hers like a blanket, the desire to be
with him again surged through her veins, refusing to be ignored. All of it,
cheating. There was no taking back what happened between them, though she
wouldn’t change it if she could.

Logan ran his tongue over his bottom lip and he took a deep
breath. “If our situation was different, I wouldn’t waste any time. Right now,
where I am, though, even if we could do all that, I’m not…” He looked down and
his mouth tightened as pain flashed in his eyes. “I’m not free to—”

Sara touched her fingers to his mouth. She lifted her head
and brushed her lips against his. “I’m not either, Logan. I wish I was and I
wish you were, but that’s not the way it is for us.” She lowered her head back
to the carpet and laced her fingers behind his neck. “But as much as it will
rain all over us tomorrow, for tonight, can’t we just… pretend?”

He nodded and a small smile contorted his mouth. “Until this
ends.”

Sara stretched awake on the floor of
the guest bedroom. Her eyes fluttered open and she smiled to see Logan next to
her. As she studied him, she sucked in her bottom lip. He seemed so peaceful in
sleep, unlike during waking hours, when he carried more than his fair share of
burdens.

She got to her feet and crept through the room to the
hallway. She made her way down to the restroom, grateful Logan suggested they
get dressed before falling asleep. Though he wanted to be dressed in case they
needed a quick getaway, her own insecurities made her happy to not have to walk
down the hallway naked in the middle of the night.

After using the bathroom, Sara decided to wash up before
going to bed. Excitement coursed through her body and she knew sleep would not
come easy. With every kiss, every moment spent with him, she grew a little more
addicted to Logan.

She couldn’t take back what she had done, yet she felt no
hint of guilt she would have expected from cheating on her fiancé. In the past
two days, having distanced herself from Stephen, she realized marrying him
would have been the worst mistake of her life. She never wanted to spend her
life with him, but had only agreed to the relationship because of her father.
Now that they were apart, she recognized the ridiculousness of the arrangement.

Stephen never made her feel as important, protected, and
loved as Logan did when he made love to her… whether frantic and greedy as he
was the first time, or tender and gentle as he had been the second time. Her
bond with Logan ran deep, encased in unbreakable cement, yet pulled them
together with its strong, magnetic force. She had never once experienced those
emotions with Stephen, and no matter how many years they would have spent
together married, she never would have.

More than that, she had experienced how incredible it was to
be with someone who shared a mutual attraction with her. To look into the eyes
of someone and see the reflection of her own wild, reckless desire. To soak up
the touch of a man who cared about her, and not because of her father. Logan
represented everything that was missing in her dead-end relationship with
Stephen. The passion, desire, need, urgency, respect, and care. And one day,
maybe even the love.

Sara leaned against the bathroom counter, rested her palms
on the edge, and closed her eyes. A large smile overcame her face and she
bounced up and down with her thoughts about Logan, as if a giddy teenager took
over her mind and body. She wished she could share her experiences with Mary
right now. They were too amazing to keep locked away for long.

Footsteps coming down the hall interrupted her thoughts. She
stared at the door, knowing she should go out and meet Logan, but terrified to
move. Seeing him outside the bedroom would be strange the first time it
happened, yet she desperately wanted to be close to him again.

She grabbed the doorknob and pulled the door open. A man she
didn’t recognize grabbed her arm and yanked her to him. She yelped as she
collided with him. He slapped his hand over her mouth and lifted a gun to her
head. “Quiet, darlin’. No one’s gonna hear you anyway.”

Her eyes widened and flicked to the left, toward the bedroom
where she left Logan.

“He can’t help you now,” the man said. “Let’s go.”

He dragged her down the hall to the bedroom. When her eyes
adjusted to the dark, she saw Logan on the floor with a shotgun to his temple.
She lurched forward, but the man tightened his grip on her and put the barrel
of his gun to her head.

“Let’s get them wrapped up and out of here,” the man with
the shotgun said. He grabbed Logan’s arm and lifted him to his feet.

Logan locked eyes with her. “Just do what they say,” he
whispered, “and you’ll be just fine.”

“What about you?” The words gurgled out as a whisper.

“He’ll be dead,” said the man that held her. His cruel laugh
bounced around the room and brought tears to Sara’s eyes.

“Don’t hurt him,” she said. “I’m the one you want, not him.
He was just doing his job.”

“You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” the man
with the shotgun said.

Sara heard footsteps behind her, but the gun against her
head scared her into not turning around.

In front of her, Logan’s eyes narrowed as he looked past
her. “What the—”

The man with the shotgun smashed it into Logan’s head,
knocking him to the ground. Despite Sara’s cries for the man to stop, he hit
Logan again, and Logan stopped moving.

“Blindfold her,” a man’s voice said behind her.

Sara only had a second to think about the somewhat familiar
voice before a blindfold wrapped around her head, covering her eyes. The man
next to her took her arm again, escorted her out of the room, and helped her
down the stairs. Toward the bottom of the stairs, the clunk of Logan’s body
being dragged down the steps tore into her heart.

After going outside into the cold night air, a car door
opened from somewhere in front of her. The man pushed her into the seat and she
slid over until she ran into someone else on the other side of her. The man
climbed in next to her, and the feeling of two large bodies on either side of
her made her claustrophobic.

“Put your wrists together on your lap,” the man said.

She obeyed, and someone wrapped a tight binding around her
wrists.

“Now, just sit there and be a good girl,” he said. “We have
a bit of a drive ahead of us.”

“Where are we going?”

“No talking,” the man told her. “I wouldn’t want to have to
knock you out like we did Logan.”

Sara lifted her bound hands and lowered her head, touching
her forehead to her fingers. Silently, she prayed like never before.

I’ve
been in far worse spots than this.

Logan chanted his mantra over and over until he gathered
enough strength to open his eyes. He lifted his aching head and took inventory
of his surroundings. The grey concrete beneath his boots and the concrete walls
stained from water damage told him it was an unfinished basement, but he didn’t
know where. His location wouldn’t matter until he freed himself from the metal
chair to which he was bound.

The handcuffs that restrained him to the chair bit into his
wrists, but he could freely move his head to look around. He leaned forward and
made note of the several knots in the rope that secured his ankles to the legs
of the chair. He reclined back in the chair, tensed all his muscles, and tried
to rock the chair out of position. The chair didn’t budge. He alternately moved
each of his legs up and down, but the rope was too tight to work his way out of
it. He’d have to find another way to free himself.

Looking to his left, he saw a rusty, metal tray with tools
on it. It sat too far away for him to reach it, but not so far that he couldn’t
identify each tool. Pliers, knives, cutters, a drill, a hammer, and a saw. All
useful in the art of torture. Langston would never allow him to leave this
world without experiencing a bit of pain first.

To take his mind off his immediate future, Logan searched
the depths of his memory for anything that could help him figure out his
location and who had him. He thought about his night with Sara and how amazing
it felt to hold her, touch her, and kiss her. After wanting her for so long,
the release of being with her was incomparable. He had not wanted to take
advantage of her vulnerability, but she had assured him that wasn’t the case.

He had opened up to her and allowed her inside his world. In
turn, he let his guard down and they were both taken by the very men from which
he swore he would protect her. He had failed again, in so many ways, and while
he would probably not get out of the situation alive, Sara’s future was
uncertain. He hoped Mathers and Langston would grant her life, but what kind of
life would that be, married to a man who used her for his own gain and could
turn on her at any time when he decided he had no more use for her? How would
she ever feel safe again? How could she ever trust anyone? Sara deserved so
much more.

A memory sparked in the back of his mind, of lying on the
carpet with the shotgun barrel flush against his temple. Sara had come in with
the other man holding a gun on her, a terrified expression on her face. Then,
another man walked in. Someone familiar. Someone he knew.

No.

“Good to see you’re awake,” a man’s voice came from behind
him.

Logan squeezed his eyes shut, not wanting to believe his
ears. He knew to whom that voice belonged, knew it almost as well as he knew
his own voice. But surely his eyes and ears had deceived him. It wasn’t possible.

It couldn’t be.

The man walked around to the front of him and Logan opened
his eyes, bracing himself to finally face the mole, the leak in The Boys Club.
The man who had betrayed him, betrayed Karen. The last person on earth he
expected to see standing in front of him.

“You don’t look very happy to see me,” Jack said. “I thought
at the very least you’d be surprised.”

“I am surprised,” Logan said with a strangled voice. “I saw
your body—”

“But you didn’t stop to check, did you? That’s 101 stuff,
Logan. Always check the bodies. Make sure someone is dead.”

“I shouldn’t have had to check to make sure my best
friend—my brother—was dead. I never thought he would do something like this.”

“Then maybe you didn’t know me as well as you thought.”

“What did you… I mean, why? How?”

Jack let out an incredulous laugh. “Well, I wasn’t dead.”

“Clearly.”

He pulled a chair up in front of Logan and sat down. Resting
his elbows on his knees, he said, “After you left your undercover job working
with Langston, he spent a lot of time searching for you. Once he learned your
identity, he also found out I worked with you. That’s when he approached me.”

“You’ve been working for him all this time?”

“Not at first, of course. A lot of threats were made, but I
eventually came around to his way of doing things. Plus he pays a hell of a lot
more.”

Logan forced his next question out. “You knew about Karen?”

“No,” Jack said, remorse crossing his face. “Karen was never
a target. She wasn’t supposed to be there—”

“You
knew
he was
coming after me?” Logan’s stomach churned. “That he would do it at my house?”

“She wasn’t supposed to be there!” Jack walked around behind
his chair and rested his palms on the back. “You talked so much about how she
was going to her parents’ house for the week. You said she was leaving the day
before—”

“But she didn’t leave!”

“That’s not my fault!” Jack stared at Logan, his anger and
hatred emanating from his eyes. “That wasn’t the plan.”

“Your plan backfired.” From the angry expression contorting
Jack’s face, it was as if Jack blamed Logan for Karen’s death just as much as
Logan blamed himself. “You were never one to complain about the pay, so why the
hell would you work with Langston?”

“You are always the hero,” Jack said. “Everyone always looks
to you to solve a problem, to take on the tough jobs. I grew up in the shadow
of the great Gabe Logan, knowing I’d never be good enough to be at the top.
Didn’t matter how hard I worked or how many times you messed up. Schaffer
always elevated you and left the rest of us scrounging for scraps.”

“So you wanted me dead over what amounts to little more than
a jealous temper tantrum? Daddy loved me more than you, or something immature
like that?”

“You can joke all you want, but you’re the one tied up right
now, not me. You always were on top. Work, Karen, everything. You had your
perfect life, married with a kid on the way. The rest of us had to pick up the
slack when you left, and all Schaffer could talk about was how he wanted to get
you back so that you could take over one day. You didn’t even work there
anymore! And then Karen was in the car instead of you.” Jack stormed over to
him and pushed his finger in Logan’s face. “You were supposed to die that day,
not her!”

Something in the way Jack responded twisted Logan’s gut. A
strange, jealous rage punctuated his words and consumed his face.

As much as he didn’t want to, Logan kept his eyes locked
onto Jack’s. “So, kill me and leave her alone, pregnant? Or what
was
the plan there, Jack? Were you trying
to eliminate me so you could take my place with Schaffer and with Karen?”

“You were never good enough for her,” he said.

“You’re right. I wasn’t. But you sure as hell weren’t,
either.”

Jack’s fist connected with Logan’s cheek. Logan straightened
out his neck from the blow and ignored the pain. He had to somehow get through
to Jack, to make him realize he could still turn around and make the right
decision.

“Whose body was in the safe house in your stead?”

“One of our guys you killed in the woods.”

“Yeah, sorry about that.”

“He was a nobody. Expendable.”

“Except everybody that works for Langston eventually becomes
expendable.”

Jack chuckled and shook his head. “I see what you’re doing.
Trying to make me think that one day, Langston will get rid of me. That’s not
going to work, Logan. Langston needs me too much.”

The black hole of his situation swirled around Logan,
swallowing him up the more Jack spoke. “What does he need you for?”

“What do you think?” Jack asked, throwing his hands out to
the side. “To take down Schaffer. Take down The Boys Club.”

Logan closed his eyes and gave up on Jack. He was lost to
Langston’s cause, brainwashed by the scent of money and the promise of revenge
against Logan for whatever perceived wrongdoing. He had to find a way to get
out of his restraints and get to Sara, but that wouldn’t come through Jack.

“You see, Logan, with you gone, there’s nothing stopping me
from rising to the top and giving Langton the information he needs to get rid
of Schaffer and his band of vigilantes.”

“And just how do you explain that you’re not dead?”

“I miraculously escaped the safe house, but you were
captured with Sara. Schaffer needs someone new to take your place, and I’m next
in line.” He walked around behind Logan, leaned over, and spoke in Logan’s ear.
“Of course, Doctor Connors has an opening for someone new, too, doesn’t she?”

Logan clenched his teeth and jerked on his bindings, but the
cuffs only dug further into his skin.

“You broke her heart and then ran off and died on her.
She’ll need someone to console her through the late nights, to let her know
that there are much better things on her horizon.”

“Leave her out of this,” Logan said.

Jack rose back to his full height and sat back down in his
chair. “I don’t think you have a say in it any longer.” He leered and his eyes
widened in an innocent manner. “I promise to treat her right.”

“You son of a—”

“Speaking of which,” Jack said, “I see you treated someone
right just as soon as you were alone with her.”

Logan froze. How could Jack possibly know about his night
with Sara? “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Ah, come on, now. When we were tying you up, the back of
your shirt slipped down a bit and I noticed what I thought was a cut. Turned
out, they were fingernails, running straight down your back. Only one way that
happens.”

Logan’s heart stopped. If Jack told Mathers or Langston
about his time with Sara, it would not end well for either of them.

Jack propped his elbows up on his knees. “You thought your
team was dead and you just broke Doctor Connors’s heart. You couldn’t even wait
until we were in the ground and the good doctor wallowed in her pound of
consolation ice cream before jumping in bed with Sara? She was the
job
, Logan. Guess you decided not to
follow that straight and narrow after all.”

Logan tightened his lips and remained silent, while staring
Jack down. Yes, he had screwed up, and he was a bastard for it. He had toyed
with Allie’s heart and then slept with Sara. No matter how he justified his
actions, he was wrong. But Jack’s statements also made him realize how hard he
had fallen for Sara to do those things.

“Don’t worry,” Jack said. “I won’t tell Mathers about any of
this. If he knew, he just might shoot you and take away all my fun.”

“I don’t know what it is that I did to you,” Logan said,
“but whatever it is, I’m sorry. I always regarded you as my closest friend, as
family. I would never intentionally hurt you, Jack. Not now, not ever.”

Jack’s expression turned serious. “It’s a little late for
that now, don’t you think?”

The door behind Logan opened again, and Jack rose to his
feet. A hefty man of about 250 pounds of muscle spread out over six feet of
height walked up to the tray with the tools. Logan made note of the key ring on
his belt, along with the key that appeared to belong to the cuffs on his hands.

“Logan,” Jack said, “I’d like you to meet my friend Xander.”
He turned to the goliath. “Xander, this is Logan, my former friend.” Jack
grinned at Logan. “You two will be spending some time together. In fact, Xander
is going to get to know you very intimately over the next several hours.”

Watching Xander fumble with the tools on the tray, Logan
tried to remain stoic, but failed in that task. Unless a miracle happened, the
only thing he could hope for was a quick death.