Run the Risk

Both Logan and Reese gave chase, but they hit the front walk and…true enough, she was nowhere in sight.

Logan turned a circle, looking up and down the street, searching over the parking lot, toward the garage. He saw pedestrians, he saw traffic, parked cars and a bus.

But he didn’t see Pepper.

Humid night air enveloped him, adding to his heat of annoyance and rage.

She could have gone in any direction: behind a parked car, up and over the retaining wall to the lots beyond, down the street, up the street. Hell, she could be in a car right now, watching him as he floundered.

“To have disappeared so fast,” Reese mused aloud, “she had a plan. She came here with it all laid out. How long to stay inside, when to leave and exactly where to hide when the time came.”

Logan locked his hands behind his neck and turned again, searching, trying to decide—

“You can’t start looking for her,” Reese said before Logan headed off to do just that. “You made the lady a promise about her brother. But the longer Rowdy Yates is here unattended, the less likely it is that you can keep that promise.”

Irritation boiled over. From the get-go, this whole sting had gone upside down on him. Logan headed back in with a purposeful stride. The worry on Pepper’s face had been something he couldn’t ignore. “She thinks someone here will hurt Rowdy.”

“That’s what I got from it, yeah.” Keeping pace beside him, Reese said, “We both know there are dirty cops. Who, that’s the question.”

Logan cut his gaze over Reese. “She doesn’t trust you.” And neither did Lieutenant Peterson.

“She doesn’t know me,” Reese reasoned. “But you do, and that’s what matters. Besides, I get the feeling the only person she does trust is her brother.”

“She trusts me.” No, she didn’t want to. Logan got that. But she did. Otherwise she wouldn’t have asked him to ensure Rowdy’s safety. “She’s furious, but she’s smart enough to understand why I—”

Reese clapped him on the back. “Yeah, keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel better.”

Without slowing his pace, Logan thought of how Pepper had looked. Not shy. Not withdrawn. Definitely not plain.

Bold. Sexy. Living, breathing temptation.

Yes, he knew what she’d been hiding: herself.

“Now what?” Reese asked.

Logan rumbled low, “Did you see her?”

“No man would miss her—including the cutthroat bastards who murdered Jack.”

Jesus. Was that her intent? To draw attention? He just didn’t know. “This whole thing is f**ked three different ways.”

“It occurs to me that we have those few years where Pepper was entirely off the radar.”

Logan had assumed her timid personality explained that. He had so easily pictured her staying behind while Rowdy took the lead.

Now? He didn’t know what to think. “Your point?”

“I don’t really have one,” Reese said. “It’s just that maybe you don’t know her at all. Maybe you should scrap any and all assumptions and start over at ground zero.”

Though he’d already had that thought, Logan dismissed the possibility. He had to believe that some part of her was real.

The vulnerable woman who talked of her painful past.

The messy housekeeper who liked late-night movies and pizza.

The runner. The cook.

The incredibly inventive lover…

“Why did she risk coming here when she obviously didn’t want to stay?” Reese asked. “She could have called you with that message for her brother.”

Logan saw the officer standing outside the interrogation room where he’d left Rowdy. “Part of her motive was to make me suffer.” He’d felt it, witnessed it in her light brown eyes. “She wants to hurt me like I hurt her.”

“By showing you that she’s smoking hot?” Reese snorted. “That was a gift and you know it.”

Actually, her appearance had shocked him, but it didn’t make him want her any more than he already had. Such a thing wasn’t even possible.

He shook his head at Reese. “After I talk to Rowdy, I’ll know more.” He stopped in front of the officer. “Did he give you any trouble?”

“Hasn’t made a sound.”

“Anyone else come by?”

“No.”

Logan thanked him, then asked Reese to take up the guard duty. “I don’t want to be interrupted again.”

“Sure thing. But let’s not take this too late, okay? I’m now a responsible pet owner. I can’t be out all night.”

Seriously? Reese was worried about his dog when they finally had Rowdy Yates in custody, and when Pepper was out doing God-knew-what?

Or maybe there was more to Reese’s impatience.

Reese shook his head in resignation. “I’m here as long as you need me. You know that. But let’s not drag it out, okay?”

Logan accepted that and went into the room.

Calmer now, he pulled out his chair opposite Rowdy.

The man’s enigmatic gaze bored into him. “How long are we going to do this?”

“Why?” Logan asked. “You have somewhere to be?”

Rowdy shrugged. “I’m getting hungry, I need to take a piss, and I left a warm woman waiting in my bed.”

“Did you tell her you were leaving to break into my apartment?”