“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.”