Page 94 of When He Plays

Anger churned in the pit of his belly. “And how does that happen?” he asked. Shouldn’t the CIA do a better job of stalking their prey? Weren’t they supposed to be professionals?

“It happens when people are very, very good at vanishing. Luckily, the tail on Pierre still has him. And I say luckily because, apparently, Pierre just tried to book a flight back to Paris. He’s trying to flee and that can’t happen.”

Logan would bet that the tail on Pierre had been her partner, Jamar. The one agent who hadn’t fucked up. Points for Jamar.

“Uh, excuse me.” Sebastian waved his hand toward them. “So many questions,” he muttered, “rolling through my head. But I’ll start with this…was I being tailed?”

Logan figured he had been. “Sucks, doesn’t it? When you find out that you’re being watched?”

“You’re both really going to screw me over,” Sebastian huffed out a breath. “And you don’t even realize it. I’m supposed to keep a low profile. To stay in the dark. I’m not supposed to have tails.” He pointed at Charlotte. “Again, can we talk about who you are? Because I’d really like to unlock that mystery.”

Logan moved to stand partially in front of her. “Charlotte’s my wife. Believe we covered that. Thoroughly.” And as far as other things that need to be covered... His head turned toward Charlotte. “Guessing our job is to make sure that Pierre doesn’t get on that plane?”

“There is no legal reason to currently stop him from leaving.” Worry filled her eyes. “But, yes, that’s our job.”

He winked at her. “I’ll get you a reason to keep him here. Don’t worry.” Options rolled through his mind. So many fun choices, and most of them involved violence. “I’ll get changed.” Not like he could just head out in his boxers. “We’ll go to him. Time to stop being nice with these assholes.” A woman was missing, and Charlotte had been drugged.

Oh, yes, there was going to be nothing nice about him from this point forward. Time to let his true self shine.

“Since when are you nice?” Sebastian wanted to know.

Logan shot him a glare. “Since when are you a freaking US marshal?”

A wince. “Fine. Noted.” Sebastian’s hands slapped together. “But we are all a team on this, right? We’re working together?”

Logan took Charlotte’s hand. “She’s my team.”

“I want in.” Demand roughened Sebastian’s voice.

“Good for you.” Logan squeezed Charlotte’s hand. “I don’t care if you have a shiny badge or not, I’m not trusting you completely.”

“But you trust her?” Sebastian seemed to be strangling.

“Of course.” What an idiotic question. “I wouldn’t have married her if I didn’t.”

“I-I thought I was the target.” Charlotte’s low voice. They were in the elevator, on the way down to the lobby. Sebastian was not with them.

Oh, the US marshal had tried to butt into the elevator. Sure, he had. Quite adamantly. Logan had just kicked his ass out. He had no doubt, though, that Sebastian would tail them. In fact, he was counting on the backup.

Even if, as he’d said, he didn’t trust the guy.

But at Charlotte’s words—and the guilt in her voice—all of his attention immediately centered on her.

“I was sure it would be me. I basically waved myself like a red flag in front of our suspects. Even did that damn, stupid bet in your back room game.” She shook her head. “If the perp we’re after had already abducted Harper, why still drug me? That doesn’t make any sense. Everything we’ve got on this jerk says that he takes one victim at a time. Why would he potentially come after us both?” Then, more determined, “I should have been the target. Me. Not Harper. She’s…she’s a civilian. She⁠—”

The elevator stopped.

Charlotte blinked. Then she hauled her gaze off the floor and looked over at him.

“Hi, sweetheart.” The elevator had stopped because he’d stopped it. His hand fell away from the control panel. “Let’s talk about how you need to stop making yourself a target for serial killers. Let’s permanently take that item off our to-do-list, shall we?”

“I did everything I could to attract his attention.” Guilt still whispered in her words. “Even showed how strong I could be in a fight when I went against Ares after your private game. I knew the kind of woman this perp liked to use as prey, so I wanted him to know that I was the victim he’d want next. His attention should have been on me.”

Sebastian whistled. “Repeat after me, baby. I will not make myself prey for a serial killer ever again.”

“I had to seem like the perfect prey.”

She did not repeat those ever-so-important words back to him.