Page 69 of Fast Kill

Taylor swiveled to face the man as the driver sped away from the scene, and found her voice. “Did Dillon send you?” She was shaking all over, nausea rolling in the pit of her belly. Chris had just been killed point blank right in front of her.

The one who’d kidnapped her stared back at her, his expression eerily blank. “No.”

Someone else from the cartel, then. “What do you want?”

“You’ll find out soon enough.”

Blood pounded in her ears as the car sped along the street and blew through a red light. She bit back a yelp and grabbed behind her for the door handle to steady herself as the driver whipped the car to the side to avoid oncoming traffic.

Her spine smashed into the door handle and the back of her head hit the glass with enough force to make her see stars.

****

Above the bar on the big flatscreen, the baseball game was in the top of the fifth inning. But for the first time in forever, Logan wasn’t interested in watching. Didn’t even care what the score was.

He took another swig of his beer straight from the bottle and resisted the urge to check his watch again. His knee was so damn sore he’d had to resort to using his crutches again. He’d have to find a way to be patient and let it heal more before he jumped back into training with the guys.

“Yo. Earth to Granger.”

It took a second for him to realize Kai was speaking to him. And that both Easton and Jamie were staring at him too. “Sorry?” he asked Kai.

The big guy gave him an odd look before reaching for yet another wing on the enormous platter of appetizers he’d ordered for himself. And he hadn’t offered to share with the rest of them. “You’re totally spaced out, dude.”

“That’s because he’s thinking with his little head instead of the big one,” Zaid remarked dryly from between them, taking a pull from the bottle in his hand. The guy never drank alcohol, so Logan wasn’t sure what he was drinking.

Kai cracked a grin at Logan. “Yeah? Well good for you, man. Is she hot?”

Retina-melting hot, especially when she was in the throes of release or when she gave him that sweet, unguarded smile she’d shown him a few times over the last couple of days. Both made his heart damn near explode. “I don’t wanna talk about it.”

Kai’s eyebrows went up. “Oh, so you’re all protective of her too? Well then it’s gotta be pretty serious, huh?” He munched on a piece of celery without looking at it, his gaze leveled on Logan.

His neck and cheeks flushed, and not even his beard could hide all of it. He swallowed another mouthful of beer and answered without looking at him. “You could say that.” He didn’t know exactly what the future held in store for him and Taylor, but the idea of seeing anyone else wasn’t the least bit appealing. Actually, it was repulsive.

And he sure as hell didn’t want to think about Taylor seeing anyone else, either. Some guy putting his hands and…other parts all over her? No fucking way. It made his hackles rise. She washis. He wasn’t perfect, and he’d made a lot of mistakes throughout his marriage, but he was also grateful for the lessons it had taught him. He was sure as hell not going to repeat those mistakes with Taylor.

Oblivious to his thoughts, Kai kept going. “Yeah? You gonna bring her here sometime, so we can meet her?”

Logan didn’t know Kai all that well yet, but from what he’d seen and heard, the guy was a closet romantic and liked to know everyone’s personal business. It would be annoying as shit if Logan and the others didn’t like him so much.

“You already know her,” Jamie said to Kai, his eyes on the ballgame.

Kai blinked. “I do?” He leaned his big upper body forward to peer around Jamie at Logan. “So who is it?”

Jamie darted a questioning glance at Logan, and Logan bit back a sigh and answered. “It’s Agent Kennedy. Okay?”

Kai lowered the hand holding the celery stick to the bar, a wide smile forming on his face. “Well all right,” he said, nodding in approval. “I dig her. Not inthatway,” he rushed on when Logan aimed a dark look at him, “but I can totally see why you’d be into her.” He waved the celery stick at Logan and winked. “I like it.”

“Well, glad I’ve got your blessing,” Logan muttered, wishing someone would change the subject. Taylor was on his mind constantly. He wanted to do something nice for her tonight, something out of the ordinary. A heartfelt gesture to prove he wasn’t just after sex. Although, yeah, he definitely wanted more sex, because the woman lit him up like a Christmas tree with a single touch.

He couldn’t stop thinking about her, about how tough her life had been and how she’d overcome all the odds to make it to where she was. She amazed him.

There was a specialty ice cream place a few minutes from her building. Maybe he’d stop and pick up a carton of some gourmet flavor she couldn’t find anywhere else. He could feed it to her spoonful by spoonful in bed while they were both naked.

And if he should happen toaccidentallyspill some on her in certain places, he would make sure he did a damn good job of cleaning her up. With his tongue. Until every sweet, sticky bit was gone and she was coming against his mouth.

Zaid coughed into his fist and failed to smother a grin. Then his expression sobered and he half-turned in his seat to look at something behind them.

Logan swiveled on his barstool and followed Zaid’s gaze across the bar. The woman from the other day’s briefing was walking toward them, and Hamilton was behind her. Agent Rabani, right?

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