Alpha One (Shadow Agents #1)(26)
Author: Cynthia Eden

She wouldn’t have been happy. The words were stubborn, but they weren’t his, not really. Her father had been the one to first speak them.

You can’t make her happy. When she finds out what you did, how do you think she’ll ever be able to look at you again?

His teeth ground together, but he managed to say, “Come on out, Jasper. I know you’re in there.”

After a moment, he heard the slow approach of Jasper’s booted feet. Then the Ranger was there, filling the doorway, shaking his head even as he crossed his arms over his chest. “You are one dumb SOB,” Jasper said.

“Don’t push me now,” Logan ordered. Jasper was always pushing. In the field, in the office—everywhere. Death wish? Yeah, he had one.

Jasper’s mouth lifted in his usual sardonic smile. “Left her there all alone, huh? Didn’t even go to see the pretty girl at the bus station. That’s cold.”

He stared at Jasper but didn’t see him. “A blue dress that fell to her knees. A ponytail pulled to the side. A small black bag at her feet.” He forced his hands to unclench. “She was sitting five feet from the front desk, turned so that she could see the entrance.”

But he’d been there long before she’d arrived, hidden in the shadows, watching what he couldn’t have.

A furrow pulled up Jasper’s brows. “You were there, but you didn’t say anything? Man, what are you—crazy? Why’d you let a woman like that walk?”

“You know what I am.” Jasper had seen him at his worst, covered in blood, fighting for his life. More animal than man. He’d seen Logan when his control broke and the beast inside broke free.

Born to kill.

He’d been told that for so long.

“No, man, I know what you think you are,” Jasper said with a sigh. “But I tell you this…if a woman like her ever gave me the look—the kind of look I saw her give you—I’d do anything for her.”

He had done anything. He’d given her up. That had been everything. “Don’t push me on this,” Logan warned. He’d hate to have to kick his friend’s butt again.

But Jasper just blinked slowly and kept his smile. “Maybe I should be talking to her, comforting her.”

“You stay away from her.”

“Like that, huh?” Before he could answer, Jasper gave him a long, considering look and said, “At twenty-two, I can still see you being a dumb kid who could manage to give her up. But now, after everything you’ve been through, after all we’ve done, I’m betting that sweet slice of paradise is pretty tempting, isn’t it?”

She’d tempted him from day one and was still tempting him. When he’d had her beneath him at that cabin. When he’d been touching her skin, feeling her soft flesh beneath his…

“You really think you can let her go again?”

Logan didn’t speak.

Jasper nodded. “Thought so.” Whistling, he stalked away.

This time, Logan didn’t look at his reflection. He didn’t want to see the man who stared back at him. The man who just might be desperate enough to try to force Juliana to stay with him.

Even when he knew she deserved more.

* * *

JULIANA SAT ON THE small bed in the lab room, her head down, staring at the tiled floor. Logan stood in the doorway for a moment, watching her.

But then her head tilted back, and her gaze found his.

Silence, the kind that said too much.

He hesitated, then said, “I’ve got clothes for you. Shoes.” Logan strode forward and put the bag down beside her. Then, because he couldn’t help himself, his hands rose toward her.

She tensed.

“Easy,” he whispered. “I just want to check…” He brushed back her hair, knowing exactly where Liz would have placed the implant. His finger slid up her neck, then slipped around beneath the heavy weight of her hair. The bandage was small, barely an inch long, and flat.

“I’m fine,” Juliana said. He stood close to her, intimately close. And Logan didn’t remove his hands.

He didn’t want to. “Are you sure? Any pain, any—”

She shook her head.

Step back. He pulled in a breath and dropped his hands. “Once you’ve changed, we’ll head out.”

Her hand grabbed his arm. He was the one who tensed then. “Where are we going this time? Another cabin in the woods? Another safe house?”

“No.”

Confusion filled the darkness of her gaze.

“No more hiding.” The order had come from above. From the man who’d formed the EOD. Syd had picked up rumors online that Guerrero was on American soil. Rumors they suspected were fact. He was close…they just had to make him come in even closer.

And Logan’s boss wanted them on the offensive.

“We need to make Guerrero afraid. We want him to worry that he’s been compromised.” Mercer’s words. He’d talked to Logan on the phone less than five minutes ago. “When the woman is hiding, he knows he has the power. Get her out. Put her in public. Make Guerrero think we’ve got the evidence on him. He needs to be the one running.”

Easy for Mercer to say. He didn’t know Juliana. She was just a witness to him. An important one, no doubt, but the idea of putting her in danger wouldn’t rip his guts out.

“Where are we going?” Juliana asked again, then her eyes widened. “Unless…maybe there’s no ‘we’ now, maybe the EOD—”

“We’re staying with you.” As if anyone could pry him away when she was in danger.

She nodded, exhaling.

“But we’re not hiding. Guerrero’s power is fear. He wants you afraid. Pulling you away from everything you know. He wants to isolate you. That’s key for him.” The man knew how to intimidate and control his enemies.

And his friends. Luis Sanchez…hell, he still couldn’t believe the guy had chosen to shove a knife into his heart instead of talking.

“Marie…”

He pushed the memory away, just like he did all the bloodstained memories that wanted to haunt him.

As far as the EOD was concerned, it was time for a new tactic with Juliana. “My boss—Mercer—he wants you seen in public. We want to make Guerrero become the one who’s afraid. We want him to think that we’ve found the evidence. That we’re secure. The idea is that he’ll get desperate when he thinks we’re closing in, and desperate men make mistakes.” He’d seen it happen over and over again.