Marie tapped her fingers against the steering wheel thoughtfully. Her turn for a question, and she wanted to make it a good one. Finally, she decided. “Favorite kind of pizza?”
Logan’s stomach growled at the thought. “Loaded. Everything.”
“Really? Vegetables and everything?”
He quirked an eyebrow. “Yeah. Why?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never seen you eat a vegetable.”
“You’ve seen me eat french fries. Potato’s a vegetable.”
“Those don’t count!”
He seemed to consider. “I like spinach. And broccoli. And onions, and olives. Don’t like peppers.”
“Huh. Good to know.”
They were two hours into their nightly four-hour stakeout of the Claremont Hotel. Scott’s file on Stryker had been extremely thorough. The General lived on base, and after much discussion Logan and Marie had agreed that even with considerable stealth and luck it would be near impossible to approach him there.
Scott’s records had revealed, however, that once a month the General checked into a room at the Claremont. The hotel’s doorman had reportedly divulged that despite bringing his own car to the hotel, the General took a cab the morning after his visit and was gone all day. Marie wondered if they had bribed the information out of the doorman or if Jean had simply fluttered her eyelashes a bit.
In Scott’s thorough manner, he had tracked the cab logs coinciding with the morning after Stryker’s hotel check-ins, tracing his destination to a private residence owned in the name of Stryker’s mother. Either Stryker was a dutiful son, visiting his elderly mother every month, or he kept the place as a love nest. Either way, when they scouted it security around the house seemed minimal, and they had decided to target him there.
Unfortunately, there seemed to be no pattern to the day of the month Stryker chose for his visit, and the streets around the residence were too quiet to hide their presence for long. The only consistency was his check-in at the hotel, sometime around 8 p.m. every visit. They had decided to stake out the hotel from 6 until 10 every night to be safe. Two nights in, Marie had invented the little question game to get Logan talking.
“Your turn.”
Logan grinned wickedly. “Favorite sexual position.”
Marie blushed. Dammit, how could he still do that to her? She gave it serious consideration. The four-hour nightly stakeout had left them with twenty other hours a day to fill, and Logan had been very creative in finding ways to pass the time.
“I like being on top,” she said. She could feel her blush intensify. “I like having you spread out underneath me, knowing I can touch you wherever I like, whenever I like.”
Logan growled low, shifting uncomfortably in his seat, causing Marie to burst out laughing. “Well, you asked!”
“I didn’t know your answer would be so hot,” he grumbled.
Marie smacked him on the leg. “Hey, look,” she breathed. A car was pulling into the hotel’s semicircular driveway, under the awning. A silver metallic Lincoln towncar. “Can you see the plate?”
She could tell the answer by the tension in Logan’s body before he even spoke. “Yeah. It’s him.” Marie held her breath as the man got out of the car. It was Stryker all right. He seemed older, frailer than she had expected. He seemed to have difficulty levering himself out of the car. Once he stood, however, his back was ramrod straight. He moved with intrinsic authority, not even sparing a glance for the bellhop who scrambled behind him to carry his bag. The hotel doors closed behind them, and Marie suddenly found herself able to breathe again.
She looked at Logan. He was still staring at the doors through which Stryker had disappeared, naked hatred in his eyes. “Hey,” she said, and sucked in a breath as the force of that cold predatory gaze focused in on her for a moment before Logan blinked and his own familiar hazel eyes looked back at her.
Damn. Just an instant of that gaze had frozen her to the core. Her heart was still racing, her breath still short. She knew Logan could sense her fear, too. He avoided her eyes, adjusting his seat all the way upright, fastening the seatbelt he had grown accustomed to wearing at her insistence. “So, tomorrow then?” Marie said, embarrassed to find her voice a little wobbly.
“Yeah. Tomorrow.”
Logan was distant and quiet during dinner, and Marie was careful not to push him. When they returned to the motel he gave her a short, urgent kiss. “I’m takin’ a walk.”
He returned hours later, seeming much calmer. He made love to her for hours that night, first with slow tenderness, and then with a desperate urgent passion. She woke several times during the night, and each time she found him still awake, watching her sleep, his hands moving tenderly in her hair and over her body, gentling and soothing. “Go to sleep, baby,” he said, and each time she fell asleep again to the sound of his steady breathing.
The next morning, they showered and dressed in near silence. “Did you sleep at all, sugar?” she asked.
He managed a hollow unconvincing smile. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
He got behind the wheel of their SUV, and she saw the white-knuckled tension in his hands as he drove.
“I think we should switch motels,” he said suddenly. “We’ve been in one place too long. I packed the duffel while you were in the shower. I want a safe place for us to meet up if something goes wrong.”
“Nothing will go wrong, sugar. We know the security system. We have a plan.” He didn’t respond. She searched his face, but saw only a firm resolve there, a muscle ticking in his jaw. “Okay,” she said. It did make sense.
He drove them to a new motel, to her surprise parking directly outside a room rather than going to the office to check in. He saw the question in her eyes as he pulled the key from his pocket, the duffel over one shoulder. “I checked in last night,” he mumbled. “Didn’t want them to see us together.”
“Oh.” She walked into the room, flipping on the light. She felt him close against her back, and then suddenly he was lifting her, kissing her desperately, pushing her up against the door. She automatically wrapped her legs around his waist. “Hey -- sugar, it’ll be all right.”
She felt him walking, his mouth still invading hers, tongue warm and slick, teeth nipping gently at her lips. She clung tighter to him, trying to keep a steady head. “Sugar, we don’t have time for this.”
She felt him lean her up against another wall, another swift deep searing kiss sending warmth flooding through her body as he let her slowly slide down him to stand. He pulled his head back and looked in her eyes, and she shivered at the intensity of his gaze. “Marie...” he said. He stopped, ducking his head into the crook of her neck, taking a deep breath. “I love you, Marie,” he said, speaking the words hoarsely against her skin.
She felt her heart thumping wildly. “I love you too, Logan. Of course I do.” He looked up at her again, and she felt a chill run through her. There was something in his eyes she couldn’t read, and she furrowed her brow, trying to figure it out.
“I’m sorry, Marie.”
Before she could react there was a sudden empty space where his bulk had been, and she was abruptly aware as the door slammed in her face that it had been the bathroom wall he had leaned her against. “What...?” she started, as the realization hit her, sinking into the pit of her stomach. She heard the click of several latches, and then the snap of a padlock. Still stunned, she placed a trembling hand against the door.
“Logan -- what are you doing?” she said, already knowing the answer.
She heard his weight rest up against the bathroom door, his voice hoarse with emotion. “I can’t let you go with me, Marie. You’re the only good thing I’ve ever had. Whatever happens, I can’t let Stryker get you too.”
Marie snapped out of her daze, rattling the door. “What -- you can’t keep me here Logan. What are you thinking?”
He sighed. “There’s food and stuff in the tub.” She looked at the tub, her mind still spinning. The locks, the food -- he had set this all up last night. He had never intended for her to go with him. “I’ve got the rooms on either side, and I’ve given the manager enough cash that he’s not going to come around for noise. I’m moving the dresser in front of the door. You can’t freeze it, and I know you’re not going to burn your way outta there. You wouldn’t put other people at risk.”
She put her forehead against the door. “Logan. Don’t do this.”
She heard the hitch in his breathing. “I’ve called Scott. He doesn’t know why, but he’s agreed to come pick you up. He’ll be here in about three hours. It’ll be done by then either way. If I’m not back...” He stopped, and she heard him take a shuddering breath. “If I’m not back, it’s all gone wrong and Stryker will be on full alert. You won’t be able to come near him, even with the team. I don’t want you to try. I know better than to try to talk you out of it, so I’ll have to trust Scott to keep you in line.”
She heard the scrape as he pushed the dresser up against the door. She slammed her hand against the door, and then kicked it for good measure. “Logan, don’t do this to me. Don’t do this to us.”
A long silence, and she thought maybe he had left already, before she heard his low voice. “It’s done.”
She heard a click as he turned on the clock radio, finding a music station and cranking it up loud. Another moment and she heard the motel room door close behind him. In a sudden flash of comprehension, she recognized the look in his eyes she had been trying to decipher before he slammed the door on her. It had been goodbye.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Happy snow day! A day like this deserves a bonus update! Getting to the end here...if you're still with me, please review!
This one is dedicated to Oracle13, WhiteDove, Shuttlelauncher, RebelQueen, WiseWords and WitchBaby. I know I've dedicated to most/all of you before, but you deserve extra mentions. :-)
This one is dedicated to Oracle13, WhiteDove, Shuttlelauncher, RebelQueen, WiseWords and WitchBaby. I know I've dedicated to most/all of you before, but you deserve extra mentions. :-)
Chapter End Notes:
Please review, even just to tell me what an ass Logan is being! ;-) Is he at least a believable ass? Did you see it coming? Inquiring minds want to know!