“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?”
All relevant stuff, and if she were anyone else, Logan would leap on the change of subject. But since he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, if something was upsetting her, he wanted to get to the bottom of the issue and fix it.
“If he is and he’s smart, he’s posing as a guest or other employee. Otherwise, it’s too incriminating. So our best shot at learning his identity is the information we pulled off Kantor’s computer and the analysts back in Washington, D.C., wading through all the dummy corporations and DBAs until we find this guy. But that’s not what’s bugging you. Spit it out.”
She paced, fists clenched. “I don’t think waiting is the answer. It’s taking too long. Darcy’s time is running short. I need to talk to Adam.”
Logan’s blood ran cold. “Your stepfather?”
“Of course.” She scowled, as if that was obvious. “He’s former FBI, and I told him a bit about this case before we left so that—”
“You what?” He charged toward her. “Does he know that you’re here?”
Tara lifted her chin, daring his anger. “Yes.”
“With me?”
She hesitated, then admitted reluctantly, “Yes.”
Fuck! He’d assumed in bringing Cherry to Fantasy Key that his mother’s killer couldn’t touch her here. But Adam Sterling was now a wealthy man with former FBI connections. If anyone could do her in under this kind of security, it would be Adam.
“You’re not calling him.”
She bristled. “Despite what you think or want, you can’t tell me what to do. If I want to talk to my stepfather, I will.”
He shook his head, staring at her with a silent vow to do anything to enforce his will. No way was she giving that dangerous bastard more access to her or any more information that might help him to harm her. But he didn’t want to put more wedges between them now, before she wholly trusted him.
“You won’t. Bocelli wouldn’t want you to. Neither do I. Technically, Adam is no longer FBI.” It was a good excuse, thank God.
“You never have been, yet here you are.” She scowled at him, mouth gaping open with confusion. “What is your issue? Adam can help us. I told him about the case because he has so much experience.”
“And you didn’t tell me this earlier? Why the hell not?”
A blaze of fury suddenly darkened her eyes. “Don’t you dare go there. If one of us is keeping secrets, it’s you. Or were you going to tell me about your little bet with Thorpe?”
Logan closed his eyes. Fucking Xander. Why would he tell Cherry about that? She was taking it the wrong way. “It wasn’t a bet; it was a last resort. You’re not a game to me, but Thorpe was going to assign you to another Dom. Enacting that club rule was the only way I could prevent that.”
Tara didn’t look moved. Instead, she crossed her arms over her chest and raised a ginger brow. “Except talking to me. If you had, we might have been able to work it out. If so, I would have told Thorpe that I didn’t want anyone else near me.”
As many times as he’d tried to tell her about the reasons for their breakup, she was going to pin this on him? “Baby, I could have talked to you all day. There was no fucking way you were going to give me an inch at that point. I threatened your safe little world and that heart you’ve been trying so damn hard to protect from me.”
A flush crawled up her fair skin. “Look, you left me at sixteen because someone had threatened me. I get that. But instead of talking to me about it, you made the decision to leave me.”
“I kept quiet for your safety.”
“Maybe, but you didn’t learn. You waltzed back into my life and bet Thorpe that you’d collar or marry me in a week, again without talking to me.”
“Collar and marry, just to be clear. And I explained my reason to you. Do you need me to repeat it?”
“Yeah, you explained after I caught you, not before you made the deal. Why, so you’d have extra time to ensnare me. Why not just come clean when you dealt with Thorpe?”
Logan felt his ire mounting. He wasn’t perfect, but he’d always had her best interests at heart. “I don’t think I ever made any secret of the fact that I love you and want a future with you. What I said to Thorpe is irrelevant between us.”
Tara looked like she was about to cry, but blinked back tears. “But you didn’t ask if that’s what I wanted.”
“You’re still clinging to your pain, like it’s a life jacket, so that you don’t let yourself love me back. Please, baby, don’t do that. I know I hurt you. I’ll apologize every damn day if I have to. But I want you to push past the fear and think about our future. Deep down, you trust me with your body and your safety, or I wouldn’t be here now. I have to believe that your heart can’t be far behind.”
She paled. Bull’s-eye! Now if she’d just stop being stubborn, picking fights, and admit how she felt, they could move forward.