Page 53 of Logan

She nodded slowly. “Okay,” she said, dragging out the word.

“What is it, Viv?”

She let out a long breath. “Up till now, it’s been playacting—watching a computer screen or out the window—pretending to be something we’re not—even setting up my lab in the shed. But this”—she pointed at Zaman’s house—"you going in, hoping you don’t get caught—actually going into the bad guys’ lair.” She swallowed audibly. “Now this seems real. And scary.”

Turning toward her, he placed his hands on her face, his warmth surrounding her cold cheeks. “Babe, I got this. This is nothing compared to what I used to do. This is easy, and honest to God, I promise nothing will happen to you.”

“I’m not worried about me,” she whispered, her dark eyes still wide as they stayed pinned on his.

“Then you got nothing to worry about,” he promised, pulling her in for a kiss.

Cakewalk. A fuckin’ cakewalk.

Logan slipped into the back door of the Zamans’ house ten minutes after they left. The grocery was only a few minutes away, so if they had forgotten anything, they would have already returned. With Vivian casually hanging out on the front porch as the lookout, he knew she would call if needed. She had insisted on taking a cup of tea out on the porch and sitting in the dilapidated chair with her e-reader in her lap, keeping watch with her phone in her hand.

He wasted no time as he entered the kitchen, going directly to the cabinet. Opening it, he found two bottles and cataloged the location of them in his mind before turning them to face the front. Snapping pictures, he then opened each one and photographed the pills, knowing a different drug could be contained in the prescription bottle.

Replacing them exactly the way he found them, he made a cursory check through the bathrooms and bedrooms. He had cameras in every room—fuck privacy when dealing with terrorists.

Seeing nothing else untoward, he moved back through the kitchen and out the back door. Rounding the corner, he observed Vivian on the porch, her eyes never leaving the driveway. Sunglasses covered them, but he knew they would be filled with worry. It struck him how he already knew so much about her—not just the facts they’d shared but also her moods, emotions, and expressions. He jogged over, making it to the porch, and she let out a long sigh of relief.

Leaning over her chair, with his hands on the arms of the wobbly, wooden structure, he kissed her faster than he wanted. “Jesus, babe, is this thing strong enough to hold up?”

“Barely for me, and I’m not sure with your weight on it.”

He grinned long and slow, loving the blush that danced across her cheeks.

With his face still so close, she whispered, “Did you get anything?”

“Yeah.”

“I was scared.”

“I know. But I’m fine. Gonna stay fine. Come on, let’s go see what I have.” He stood and offered her hand, loving that she didn’t hesitate to allow him to pull her from the chair. Once inside the house, they moved to the laptops, where he uploadedthe pictures he’d taken. Soon, she studied the bottle labels and matched them to the pills inside.

“Okay, they match the labels. We’ve got doxycycline and ciprofloxacin. Both are antibiotics, but I’ll have to do some research to see how they are possibly being used.”

“Right. I’m going to keep working here this afternoon, as well. Let me know what you find, and then we’ll get ready for tomorrow’s trip.”

When the trip was mentioned, her gaze jumped back to his. “Do you think we know enough about each other to pull off our cover with Iggie and Sally?”

“First of all, I think they’ll be so excited about their mini-vacation they won’t give a fuck what we know about each other. Second, for newlyweds, all we have to do is keep kissing, and our cover is complete.”

“You are such a man,” she quipped, rolling her eyes.

“You know it, Viv.” Lifting her chin with his fingers, he kissed her, moving his mouth over hers, reveling in her sweet taste.

He then stalked into the kitchen to grab a leftover slice of pizza, and when he turned to offer Vivian a slice, she was ogling his ass. Catching her, he grinned, and as her gaze jumped to his face, she smiled in return. He carried the pizza and beer over to the table where they worked as they ate.

An hour later, she stretched her arms above her head, her neck and back aching from her inactivity.

“You got something, babe?”

Nodding, she waited until he leaned over before she began her dissertation. “Okay, doxycycline is an antibiotic that fights bacteria in the body. It belongs to the class of tetracyclinedrugs. It’s common and is often used to treat many different bacterial infections, such as acne,urinary tract infections, and even venereal diseases. Dentists use it to treat gum disease. Since itwas in Farrah’s name, I have a feeling it was used for a minor infection. How she’s managed to get so much…I have no idea.”

“Go on,” Logan said, focusing on her discoveries, knowing there was little a terrorist could not get their hands on.

“Doxycycline is also used as a prophylaxis and can be used by researchers working with tularemia, among other bacteria. I even used it when doing some of my studies. It’s FDA approved and safe. Now, ciprofloxacin is completely different. It is also an antibiotic, but it is used to treat people exposed to anthrax or even certain types of plague.”

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