AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Happier,” Willow said.
“Was he unhappy before?” Gabriella asked.
“Not unhappy, just… lonely.”
The thought of Logan being lonely pinched at Gabriella’s heart. Somehow she’d imagined him living a bachelor’s dream all this time in California, but now that she was here, she could see the truth in Willow’s words.
As far as Gabriella could tell, Logan had never even come close to getting serious with someone. She was sure he’d dated, but there was no evidence of a woman in his beautiful house, which seemed to be silently waiting for something, like an audience sitting in the dark, waiting for the curtain to rise on a production that never came to pass.
“Anyway!” Willow hopped up. “I have to get to work. I just wanted to make sure you’re coming to the baby shower.”
“When is that again?” In the past two weeks, Gabriella had been thrust back into the lives of Hawk and Logan. She’d met more of the men, had reunited with Sarah and Willow McGregor, had met Hawk’s fiancee, Laurel, who was pregnant with their first baby.
It was a lot to keep track of along with filing deadlines and work meetings for the trial.
“Saturday,” Willow said. “At our house. Logan’s coming, and it’s for everybody, so feel free to bring Bea and Leo.”
Gabriella nodded. “Text me the registry info so I can buy a gift.”
“There’s no registry,” Willow said. “They don’t need anything, but I know you’ll get something anyway so just pick out something you like.”
“See you then.”
Willow bent to kiss her cheek and left the way she arrived — as a breath of fresh air. Gabriella didn’t know how she stayed so positive. She spent all day rehabbing sick marine animals and then went home to take care of Sarah, who had M.S., and she was still as optimistic as she’d been as a kid.
Gabriella needed some of that. She was running low on optimism these days.
She lay her head back on the lounger. She should go inside, get her laptop, organize her calendar for the week.
But Logan was at the office and Bea and Leo were gone. The ocean crashed onto the cliffs below, a rhythmicshushthat soothed her frazzled nerves, her disorientation.
She was in uncharted territory — with the trial, with Logan, with everything. She felt unmoored, cast off from her work and the other touchstones that gave her stability, thrust into a life that wasn’t her own.
It was the thing that scared her most, the reason she’d spent so little time in California since going to college. She’d worked ferociously to leave it behind, to become someone new, but she’d always felt stalked by the past, like it was a wolf in the shadows, waiting to drag her away from the woman she’d become, back to the girl she’d been — young and afraid and insignificant.
She drew in a deep breath and rose to her feet. She would get her laptop after all. Get to work. The Vitsin case had become a beast, but it was nothing compared to the demons of her past.
30
Logan spent the day at the office, catching up on administrative details he’d missed while in Chicago. It had been a crazy two weeks, and Ella was still reeling from the near-miss with Leo, from the necessity of packing up her life and work to decamp to California for the next few weeks.
Logan had sensed that she was struggling with the adjustment, and he’d been trying to give her space, going to the office even when he didn’t really need to so she could have the house to herself.
He’d been surprised when she agreed to come, surprised that Nathan agreed. The tension in the other man’s face had said he wasn’t thrilled with the idea, but even Nathan couldn’t argue with the fact that it wasn’t safe for Ella and Leo in Chicago anymore, and they were better off in California with Logan and Hawk than in Florida with Gabriella’s mother or sister, which would require an entirely new security protocol they didn’t have the luxury of establishing.
Logan’s house was already secure. Imperium had made sure of that.
Bea understood the need for the security protocols. Gabriella was less sure her parents and sisters would comprehend the danger, and she didn’t want to put them at risk anyway.
He’d been proud and a little nervous to show her his home, but she seemed to enjoy the spaciousness of it, had gravitated to the terrace overlooking the water in the days that she’d been there.
Leo was happy too. It had been close enough to the end of the school year that he hadn’t had to bring along any school work, and he loved racing across the big lawn, pretending to fly in the ocean breeze, and visiting the cove where he liked to feed the seagulls and let the tide chase his feet.
Logan liked knowing they were waiting for him at the end of the day, and after a few hours of phone calls and paperwork, Imperium’s team leaders arrived for a meeting to review the current security protocols.
A key part of the plan was to minimize movement anywhere but Logan’s house, Hawk’s house, and the cove, but Logan still had Beck and Ryker assigned to his street and Jag assigned to drive Bea if she needed to go anywhere alone or with Leo.
They’d also greased the palms of a handful of FAA sources and provided them with a list of names to watch for on incoming charter flights. The sources would let Hawk or Logan know if a known associate of the Baranov bratva arrived in L.A.
