Page 24 of Stitch & Steel
I turned to face him. “Cartel?”
He nodded once. “Most likely. Or someone trying to look like cartel to keep heat off themselves. But either way… not a good sign.”
Gran sat hard in her chair. “That’s close.”
“Too close,” Logan said. “I don’t think they’re looking for you two specifically. Yet. But they’re sniffing around our county line—and I’m not waiting for them to get bolder.”
“So you’re here… just in case,” I said quietly.
He met my eyes. “I’m here because it’s my job. But also because it’syou.”
My breath caught. “You don’t even know me.”
“I know enough. I know you care about Gran. I know you fix things when they break and cook even when you burn it. I know you can’t stop pushing your sleeves up and you hate asking for help.”
I swallowed.
“And I know,” he continued, “that when trouble finds this cabin, I’d rather be here to meet it first.”
We stared at each other for a long beat.
Then Gran cleared her throat. “You two want me to go water the tomatoes so you can get all that sexual tension out of your systems?”
I dropped the spatula.
Logan laughed.
And for a second, even with the fear still coiled in my gut, I smiled too.
Because this was insane.
But maybe... it was also exactly where I was supposed to be.
Logan was pacing the porch like a man with a war plan and too much testosterone.
“Back door’s useless,” he muttered, boot tapping the threshold. “Lock’s a joke. Windows are too exposed on the first floor. Hell, this whole place is a sitting duck.”
I folded my arms across my chest, standing barefoot in the doorway, feeling very much like I was watching a military takeover of my grandmother’s cozy cabin. “You say that like we’re expecting a full-blown siege.”
He looked at me, that serious furrow in his brow set like stone. “Bella, I’m not saying it to scare you. I’m saying it because there’s a body in a ditch with no ID and two bullet holes in his skull. That kind of thing doesn’t happen this close to home unless it means something.”
I swallowed.
He leaned down, checking the window locks. “If it were just me, I’d risk it. But it’s not just me. It’s you. And Gran. That makes it different.”
“Different how?” I asked, quieter this time.
His jaw flexed. “Means I won’t let anything happen to you.”
And just like that, my lungs forgot how to work.
He stood, grabbing his keys off the hook by the door. “I’m going to town. I’ll be back with what we need.”
“You mean, like... groceries?”
He paused, one hand on the knob. “Deadbolt. Steel-bolted door. Maybe motion lights. And something for the bedroom windows.”
I blinked. “Bars? You want to put bars on my bedroom windows?”
