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“Stay put,” Chad called into the room. “Police are on their way. I know the security guys at the building across the way. We’ll get with them and sweep, see if we can catch him. Chances are, he’s already gone, but stay here until we can be sure.”
Logan could feel Sam begin to tremble beneath him and his heart ached for her. She was trying so hard to hold it together, but he knew it couldn’t be easy for her. She wasn’t used to battle the way he and Chad and Zach were.
“It’s all right, Sam,” he whispered, dropping a kiss to the top of her head as he cradled her. “I’m not going anywhere, baby.”
Chapter 24
Two days later, Logan and Sam were still arguing over whether she could ever leave the house again, but she’d called in reserves. Jack and Kelly arrived and Logan was surprised to find Monique Cain, his lawyer, with them.
Kelly kissed Sam on the cheek and hugged her loosely, careful of her chest. The stitches had torn open when Logan tackled her to the ground, and she was more sore than ever.
They all traipsed upstairs to where Chad and Zach were waiting. Sam had tried to send Chad and Zach home to their wives, but neither would budge.
Their wives had called and told Sam they’d never forgive her if she sent them away while she was still in danger. Logan had been tight with all the men he’d served with, and this group of friends reminded him of that feeling of being more than friends, of being family without the blood relation.
They were all there for Sam, and he had no doubt they would continue to be for as long as she needed them. They sat in the living room while Logan carried the drinks Sam had offered everyone. He wasn’t letting her lift a finger at the moment.
When they finished, she settled in next to Logan on the couch, but he tugged her in more tightly to him. Since the minute he’d seen that laser on her temple in the office, he hadn’t been able to be far from her for long. The closer the better.
When the police searched the building across the street from Sutton Capital’s offices, a newly leased office revealed an abandoned sniper rifle. It was a model that was poorly chosen for the job at hand, and Chad suspected the person who had tried to shoot Samantha was not a trained sniper, but an amateur, at best.
The police found a number of prints in the room, but running them would take time.
“Monique,” Sam said, “It’s not that I’m not happy to see you, but…” Sam began, but Monique laughed and waved her words away.
“Yeah, yeah. No one ever wants to see the lawyer,” Monique said with a wink at Kelly.
Kelly was in her third year of law school, but she was also pregnant. She was trying to decide if she wanted to practice law when the baby got a little older, stay home with her kids, or possibly look for a part time associate spot somewhere.
“Logan,” Jack said, “it looks like Westbrook is going to push the issue and question whether you acted reasonably in defending Sam. Monique has a couple of friends on the force—”
Logan raised an eyebrow, prompting yet more hand waving from Monique. “Yeah, yeah, funny man. Not every cop hates every defense lawyer. Get over it. The point is, Westbrook has two of New Haven’s finest coming over here today to take you in for questioning. From what I understand, even the detectives he’s assigned to the case are pretty unenthusiastic about questioning a veteran for defending a woman from a brutal attack, but Westbrook has latched onto the idea that deadly force wasn’t necessary. He has a pro-states’ rights election agenda and he’s going to push it.”
“That’s crazy!” Sam cried out. “Logan was only saving me when he acted. How can they possibly think he did anything wrong?”
Monique wiggled her head back and forth as though weighing the debate. “Well, technically, he can bring it to trial over the issue of whether deadly force was necessary.”
“Not if I have anything to do with it,” Sam said, and crossed to pick up her phone. The group watched as she furiously texted someone with one hand while she brought her laptop to life with the other and began pulling up screens and typing furiously.
“Uh,” Jack said, “do we want Sam bringing this out to the media, because I have a feeling that’s what she’s doing.”
Monique nodded. “I’m okay fighting this on all fronts. I’ll take care of the legal side of things. If Sam wants to play this out in the public eye, I’m all right with that if Logan is.”
They all looked to Logan who had to fight not to squirm. The idea of even the people in this room debating the merits of what he’d done or talking about his service record made him uneasy. Having everyone in the tri-state area do the same?Hell.
Before he could answer, a photo on Sam’s computer screen snagged his focus. “Is that me?”
Of course it was. There he stood in full tactical gear beside two of his teammates. He recognized the photo. It was actually one released by a SEALS Facebook page awhile back. They hadn’t identified him and his team in the photo so he had no clue how Sam knew it was him, but he wasn’t surprised. Sam blacked out the faces of the men standing next to him and now inserted the photo into a page with a few highlights of his career.
“Don’t worry. I’m not releasing anything that’s not already a matter of public record.”
“Sam,” he warned her.
“I know, it’s rude,” she said with the same wave of the hand Monique had been giving him. “I shouldn’t hack into your personnel record. Sorry, babe. Desperate times and all that.”
She hit a few keys and turned to him. “Sorry, honey. I’m not letting you go to prison. If that means I have to make a big deal out of the fact that you’re a veteran and a hero, I’ll do it. I know you hate that. I get it. You don’t think you deserve the Medal of Honor. You only did what you had to do when you served your country, but they don’t give those things out like peanuts, my friend. They only give you that if you deserve it. And, the fact of the matter is, we need to play up that part of the equation. We need to make a big deal out of the fact that Westbrook is going after a war hero.”
Hell.He sensed Sam needed this. He’d suck it up for her, because something told him she needed to do this for him so that she could heal. So that she could feel like she wasn’t powerless against what was happening to her or to him.
