Page 121 of Two Kinds of Stranger

For a second, he thought of Bloch and Lake. Both were formidable.

‘If things don’t go as well as I’d planned tonight, I might want to go away for a while. I need a break. I need to leave the city. Would you come with me?’

‘For how long?’

‘I don’t know. A few months? A year?’

‘A year? I can’t, I have college and work. . .’

‘But you can defer college for a year. And I’ll take care of you. We could go anywhere in the world. Anywhere you want.’

‘Anywhere?’

‘I have a lot of money. We could go to Europe, Asia, the Caribbean. . .’

‘The Caribbean? Wait, wait, this is not real. This is not real life. . .’

‘It is real. We could get a boat, spend a year cruising the islands. I don’t want to leave New York, but some of the people I’ve had to deal with lately. . .I didn’t know it at the time, but they might be dangerous. I may have to leave, and I want you to come with me.’

She took a step back to study him. To read his expression. Her eyes searched his face. Looking for some hint of insincerity.

‘I love you and all, it’s. . .It’s just a lot to take in. Things have been great between us, but we haven’t known each other that long and this is all so sudden. . .’

‘You’re scared, aren’t you? You’re frightened that this is not real. I promise you, what we have is. . .You’re the best thing to ever happen to me. I want you with me. And I want to make sure you’re taken care of. If something happens to me tonight, these are my account numbers, and the passwords.’

He took a slip of paper from the notepad in the kitchen, and wrote down the details for his three accounts.

‘There’s twelve million dollars there. I have more, but if something happens to me I want you to have it. I want you to know that this is real. Hold out your hand.’

She held out her palm. Logan folded the note and placed it in her hand.

‘What kind of trouble are you in?’

‘I’m not in any trouble at the moment. The people I’ve worked for have gotten in bed with some criminal types. Bad people. I can’t tell you anything about it. All I can say is I want out. And I want out clean.’

‘Don’t go tonight,’ said Grace.

‘I have to. I’ll be back before morning. But, just in case, maybe pack a bag.’

She took hold of him, and they kissed long and passionately.

As Logan left his apartment building and stepped back into the cold, dark streets of Manhattan, he thought about the task ahead.

One target.

One location.

Two armed hostiles. Lake and Bloch.

His odds of taking out Joe Novak were not good. He had no choice. He couldn’t risk Elly being acquitted. That would mean the police would start looking for the man with the suitcase. Part of what he told Grace was the truth–whatever happened tonight, he needed a clean break. Something had to happen to make sure no one came looking for him.

He thought of lying on a beach beside Grace. The warm ocean lapping at their feet. A blazing Caribbean sun overhead. Their boat anchored in the jetty nearby. Total freedom, from the cops, from Flynn, from his crimes and, most importantly, freedom from his dark nature.

He knew going into that building was fraught with danger.

If things went wrong, he needed a back-up plan.

Logan took out his cell phone and made a call.