Alpha One (Shadow Agents 1)

“He’s coming...he’ll kill you, and he said he’d kill your lover.” A fast glance toward Logan. “He knows what Logan did. I told him, I had to tell him! He was cutting me and I wanted him to stop. I didn’t have any information on Aaron, and it was the only thing I could say—”

Juliana shook her head, lost. “What did Logan do?”

Silence. Then the grandfather clock began to chime.

Susan’s jaw dropped. “I don’t...” She fired a wild glance at Logan. Then Gunner. Then Juliana.

Juliana gripped the back of the leather sofa. “What did Logan do?” Something was off. Wrong. She could see the fear in Susan’s eyes, and Logan...

Why had the lines near his mouth deepened? Even as his gaze had hardened.

“We should talk,” Logan told her softly.

Susan was still crying. “He knows...” she whispered. “I told him what Aaron...how he kept you away from her...”

Her father had kept Logan away? Since when? Logan had walked away. Hadn’t he?

“The man who took me, he said—” Susan was talking so quickly that all her words rolled together “—he would kill Juliana...make you watch...”

Logan’s gaze seemed to burn Juliana. “No, he’s not.” He jerked his head toward Gunner. “Take Susan upstairs, then call Syd. I want techs out here to check her out.”

But Susan tried to push against Gunner. “No, I don’t want anyone else to see what he did! No!”

Gunner lifted her into his arms once more. “Shh. I’ve got you.”

She’d never expected him to be so gentle. So...easy.

Susan’s cries quieted as she stared up at him with hope in her eyes. “He won’t come back?”

“No.”

Juliana didn’t speak while they climbed the stairs. Her palms were slick on the leather sofa. Logan’s face had never looked so hard, so dark before.

He knows what Logan did.

She pushed away from the couch and marched to him. “What’s going on?”

“The sins of the past...Guerrero thinks he can use them against me.” His smile was twisted. “And he can.” His hands came up to rest on her shoulders. “When I tell you...you can’t leave. You’re going to want to leave. To get as far from me as you can. That’s what Guerrero will want.”

He was scaring her. What could he possibly have to say that would be so bad?

“I can’t let you leave me. Guerrero will be out there, just waiting for the chance to get you. He’s trying to drive us apart, and I won’t let him.”

“Tell me.”

He braced himself as if—what? He were about to absorb a blow? Did he actually think she’d take a swing at him? If she hadn’t done it before, it wasn’t as if she was going to start now.

“It wasn’t just chance that led me to that diner all those years ago.” His voice was flat, so emotionless. “I was there because I’d been looking for you. I wanted to talk to you. I needed to.”

She remembered the first time she’d met Logan. She’d been at Dave’s Diner, a dive that high-school kids would flock to right after the bell. She’d been home from college on summer break, hanging out with some girlfriends. Juliana had been leaving the diner and she’d run into him, literally. His hands had wrapped around her arms to steady her, and she’d looked up into his eyes.

She’d always been a sucker for his sexy eyes.

Juliana held her body still. Inside, a voice was yelling, telling her that she didn’t want to hear this. Susan had been too upset. This wasn’t good. But she ignored that voice. Hiding from the truth never did any good. “Why?”

“I came to find you...because I wanted to apologize.”

That just made her feel even more lost. “You didn’t know me. There was nothing you’d need to apologize for.”