AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“No, thanks.” He hesitated, then dropped into one of the stools at the island. “I’m sorry.”
“Are you just saying this because I’m a client?” she asked.
He met her eyes. “I’m saying it because I had no business speaking to you the way I did.”
She wanted something else from him, wanted him to say he hadn’t meant it, but that, she knew, she didn’t have the right to ask.
“I’m sorry too,” she said.
“Emotions were high,” he said. “That’s perfectly understandable on your part. It’s my job to stay calm when things go sideways, and I didn’t do that. It won’t happen again.”
She considered her next words. “Will this work, Logan? Because if it’s too much, you can leave Ford and go back to California.”
“Ford is a systems specialist,” Logan said. “He’s trained for fieldwork, but it’s not his area of specialty.
“Beck or Ryker then?”
He looked at her. “If you want someone else heading up the job, just say so.”
“That’s not it.” She rested her forearms on the counter. “It’s just… a lot.”
“Defineit,” Logan said.
She sighed. “All of it. The past, what happened between us, what I did…”
Logan thought about it. “It doesn’t have to be a lot.”
“It doesn’t?”
He took a deep breath and looked into her eyes. “Listen, we both know I was wrecked when you left, but that was twenty years ago. I should have moved on then, but I didn’t, and that’s why I was such an asshole when you told me you were getting married and having Leo.”
“I deserved it,” she said softly.
“No.” His voice was firm. “You have never deserved to be treated badly, and that’s what I did — then and again this morning at your office. You were right in the car the other night. We were both young. We made mistakes. I didn’t ask, you didn’t tell. But right now…”
He shook his head.
“Right now?” she prompted.
“Right now, you and Leo are in real danger, and that has a way of making everything else seem pretty damn insignificant,” he said.
She thought about the man in the garage, the barrel of the gun against her cheek, the weight of the man’s body pinning her against the pillar in the parking garage. She couldn’t even think about a monster like that getting his hands on Leo. “I agree.”
“Good. So let’s just put the past behind us. I’ll focus on keeping you and Leo safe. You focus on the case.”
For the first time since he’d shown up at her door, the coldness was absent from his eyes. He wasn’t exactly warm, more like professional, but that was okay. She could work with professional, even if it wasn’t all that she wanted.
“Do you really think we can do that?” she asked.
“I can do it if you can do it,” he said.
“I can do it,” she said firmly.
He stood. “Great, so let’s get to work shoring up your security situation.”
Would it be this easy? She didn’t know, but she had to try. For Leo’s sake she had to try.
And if there was still some part of her heart that remembered Logan, well, she could tuck that away someplace where it wouldn’t get in the way.
