Page 27 of Harbored by the SEAL
She turned to Leo, her eyes full of concern. “Are you okay?”
“He’s fine,” snapped Logan. “Because this is his job. This is what he’s trained to do. But you have no business being here, Charlotte. None at all.” He turned to Cowboy. “Where the fuck do you get off bringing my sister on a HERO Force mission? She could have been killed, for Christ’s sake. She still could be.”
Charlotte interrupted. “It’s not his fault. He—”
Cowboy held up his hand to stop her. “You’re right, Doc. I screwed up. I made a mistake, and it won’t happen again.”
24
Logan searchedthrough hundreds of lines of code, looking for a back door into the ship’s computer system. He was so angry he could spit. It was one thing for him to be on the ship risking his life, but his sister had no business being here.
All because she went behind his back and did something she knew full well he wouldn't appreciate.
“Are you going to talk to me?” she asked. “Or do you need me to be quiet so you can work?”
He could do what he was doing now in his sleep. Until he managed to find a way in, this was nothing more than the tedious work of a hacker. “Why did you do it?”
She was quiet, and the tap of his fingers on the keys was harder than it needed to be, each movement a staccato peck of frustration.
“I'm sorry, Logan.”
“I asked you why.”
“I can't explain it to you. You wouldn't understand what it's been like for me lately.”
He shot her a look before turning back to his computer screen. “I wouldn't understand? Who's been by your side since Rick walked out of your life? Who's been trying to make it better?”
“It isn't your problem to fix. It’s mine.” She took a deep breath and exhaled loudly, resigned to the need for this conversation. “Being married to him did something to me, Logan. It made me think I was less than.”
“Less than what?”
“Less than everything. I wasn't good enough anymore. I wasn't pretty enough. I wasn't funny. He didn't want to be around me. Our friends were his friends, not mine, and they made it clear they didn't really like me. Sometimes they even made it clear my husband didn't, either.”
“Then why did you stay with that son of a bitch? You could have left him any time, but you didn't.”
“That's the problem. When I was there, living like that, I didn't understand it was him. I really thought it was me, that everything I believed before was the lie. That's what abuse does to you.”
Logan stared at her again. “Did he hit you?”
“No. But this was just as bad.”
“What does any of this have to do with Cowboy?”
“He’s a good guy, and he likes me.” She looked at her hands. “I guess I just needed a good man to like me.”
It made a strange kind of sense, and Logan felt some of his anger begin to dissipate. But he knew too much about Cowboy and his teammate’s relationships with women to feel that his sister's fragile heart was safe with that man. “He dates a lot of women, Charlotte.”
“I know.” She shrugged. “I guess I just wanted to be one of them.”
“Is that enough for you?”
“It's a little late to be worried about that now.”
There was just enough sadness in her voice that Logan knew his biggest fear for his sister in dating Cowboy had already been realized. She was falling for him, and Logan had the sudden desire to punch Cowboy squarely in the jaw.
“I know you worry about me, Logan. But I'm not a little kid.”
“You just said yourself you made a bad decision by marrying Rick. That he treated you like crap. How can you expect me not to worry?”
