With a sigh, Logan heads over to a table in the entry hall and sorts through the keys he keeps in a carved dish. “Here.” He holds out a set. “My Maserati GranCabrio for one month. And aye, a dent in the bumper is still a dent!”
“It just means you’ve used the bumper, like it was intended!” She snatches the keys from him with a grin. “Arabella, it was a pleasure getting to know you, give me a call if you run into any problems with the new setup, okay?”
“It was a grand afternoon,” I agree. “Thank ye so much.”
“I’m off to find Georges before he breaks into NASA’s website again,” she says, waving goodbye. A few moments later, Logan’s expression is deeply pained.
“What’s wrong?”
“I just heard Xenia make her exit. She peeled out of the garage in my Maserati, likely testing the zero to eighty feature,” he groans.
“Sorry.”
“Ye dinnae look sorry. Ye look like ye might be enjoying my suffering. Is that correct, my bride?” He’s stalking me around the center table as I collect the pile of drink cans.
“Not in the slightest,” I say primly, “though perhaps I might be a wee bit more sympathetic if you’d bothered to message me today. Ye know, a little, ‘How’s your day? Did ye sleep well? Xenia’s going to come over and set up a computer system more suited to the National Defense Agency.’ Things like that.”
His hands are already sliding around my waist and it’s very distracting.
“I’m sorry, Bella. There are parts of my work that tend to make it difficult to focus on anything else at the time. I’m not used to checking in with anyone, I see that needs to change.” His big hands are heading toward my arse and my desire to scold him is rapidly disappearing.
“Um… well. Thank ye for the computer system. It’s amazing. It’ll make remote tutoring so easy.”
“Georges installed two study booths at the school.” He’s squeezing my arse, pulling me closer. “They’ll connect to your system here, but they can be utilized for other teachers as well.”
“That’s…” What the hell was I talking about? “Oh, the booths. That’s nice.” It’s his damn eyes. That hazel, mesmerizing gaze and when he’s intent on something, his entire expression sharpens, like a falcon ready to dive on its prey.
“Xenia, she was- was-” He’s rubbing his rapidly hardening dick against my stomach. “She was telling me about the piercings.”
He pulls back to look at me, an action I note with some regret. “Whose piercings?”
“Her’s. She mentioned that ye use the same piercing studio and that ye and your brother both have… Actually, never mind. I dinnae want to talk about your brother’s piercings.”
“Thank god,” he says fervently. “Neither do I. I do have to tell ye something.”
“Aye?” I follow him into the kitchen, it looks like he brought home takeaway and the scent of fish and chips is divine.
“I have to leave tomorrow. I’m not sure how long this is going to take. A few days at least.” Logan looks so handsome in his tight black t-shirt, his biceps bulging as he dishes out the food. He hands me a plate and I see another mark on the side of his hand, next to the five from before. His skin is red and slightly swollen.
“Are ye going to be safe?” My appetite disappears.
“This is more of a fact-finding mission,” he says cryptically. “Just making certain some intel is correct.”
Looking back down at his hand and the new mark, I notice that even though it looks like he recently scrubbed his hands, there’s traces of red under his fingernails. “Was that intel taken from an unwilling source?”
“Do ye want that answer?”
Do I?
I’ve already seen and experienced so many terrible things. People that were capable of more evil deeds than I could imagine. But if I’m going to be a MacTavish - even if it’s just for a short time - I need to be able to handle this. I’ve never been one to hide from the truth, and this is not the time to start.
“Aye, I do.” I meet his gaze squarely. “I want to know.”
“Head Bastard in Charge finally broke. He gave us valuable information about the movements of the other people running the organ trafficking business.”
“I see. I dinnae need the details, but…” I swallow hard, trying to push away the thought of how Logan got that blood under his nails. “Do ye think we can stop them now? Can ye catch them?”
“Our chances are much better. They’re canny, these bastards, and it’s clear they dinnae dispense all the information to anyone in the organization, just bits and pieces, even though that man was close to the top of the food chain. But there’s a lot to work with.”
