Back in Bliss

Chapter Sixteen

Seth paced the floor and wished he could get the pilot back earlier than tonight. It would be perfect if he could just be gone. Georgia and Logan had made their intentions clear. They wanted each other. Not him.

Was Logan so pissed off with him for going to college that he would steal away the only woman Seth had ever really wanted?

And Georgia. She just wanted a Dom, but Logan couldn’t take care of her the way Seth could. Logan would do all the big gesture things, but he wouldn’t know how to take care of her on a day-to-day basis because Logan was still a coddled infant when it came to things like that. Sure he could top her in the bedroom, but would he remember how she liked her vodka tonics made? How she loved fresh lilies? And presents. She loved little presents because growing up she’d had all the creature comforts, but her parents never just brought her gifts. They’d forgotten her birthday half the time, the same way his parents had.

Was he doing the right thing? The situation seemed to call for a strategic retreat. Or should he start treating Logan like the enemy and come at him hard and fast and utterly annihilate him? It was what he would do to anyone else. He would zero in on a weakness and ruthlessly twist the knife.

He could point out all the ways Logan wasn’t good for her. Right down to the fact that he had a drug dealer in the past.

He heard the sound of crunching gravel and knew that he wouldn’t. Because Seth Stark had a weakness, and his weakness had two names. Logan and Georgia.

He was going to be a self-sacrificing idiot who just walked away. Maybe in a couple of years he might be able to look them up again.

Fuck.

“Seth!” Logan shouted as he walked in the back door. “Dude, what’s up with all the luggage? Did Georgia get back yet?”

Just get through the next couple of minutes. Just play it cool. They don’t need to know how much it hurt. Seth was good at masking his emotions. He was an iceman. “You’re a motherfucker, you know that, Logan? Do you know what a son of a bitch you are?”

Yeah. That was real cool.

Logan stopped, his expression going completely blank. “What are you talking about?”

Laugh it off. Tell him that your job is done here and then get the hell out. He doesn’t have to know. His inner voice was so rational, and he listened to it ninety-nine percent of the time. But not today. “I was standing right outside the door, asshole. I heard every word you said to her. Tell me something. Were you going to try to kick me out of my own cabin or were the two of you just going to use me for cash for a while?”

Yeah, that was a direct hit. He could see plainly the way Logan blanched. “What are you talking about?”

He was totally out of control. Seth knew he should be cool as a cucumber, but he was eight years old again and just lashing out. “I thought you didn’t take charity, Green. You wouldn’t let me pay for college, but you’ll let me pay for your drug habit.”

It was so clear now. Logan wouldn’t let him pay for college because he hadn’t really wanted to go with him. He hadn’t taken him up on the roommate offer because he hadn’t wanted to live in New York. Oh, sure, he’d head off to Dallas with a dude he barely knew, but he didn’t want anything to do with his best friend.

“Ah, now I know why Win is here. So big brother dug up some dirt, huh?” Logan pulled off his hat and set it aside. “Well, I was planning on telling you anyway, so I guess this is as good a time as any. Why don’t you sit down?”

“Fuck you, Logan. I’m not sitting down. I’m not listening. I’ve finally got the message. I’m the little city prick who trailed after you every summer. I’m not masculine enough for your world. I’m not the kind of friend you need, and you won’t be bought. Because that’s what I do. I buy friends because I can’t just make them. So I get it. You’re going to be Georgia’s Dom, and I’m going to go back to New York where I belong. Actions. I should have really looked at your actions and then I would have known where I stood.”

God, he sounded like a whiny chick trying to justify a breakup. He was everything his father had said he was. Not manly. Overly emotional. Useless.

Logan put his hands on the bar and stared for a minute. “What were my actions, Seth?”

Logan was so calm, but then Seth was just starting to understand that he didn’t value the friendship. Seth had managed to turn it into some mythic story. Best friends forever. Such bullshit. Real men didn’t act like that. Real men had golf buddies and shared a beer with their “friends” right before fucking the other guy’s wife. They didn’t get emotional about some other dude.

Seth took a long breath and then let it out. He needed to walk out of this with as much dignity as he could muster. “I’m sorry. I’ve been acting like a kid again. This place meant so much to me growing up and I think I’m foolishly trying to get that feeling back again. I’m using you to do it.”

“What were my actions, Seth?” Logan repeated the question, but his voice was softer now as though he felt sorry for Seth.

Why the fuck had he started this? “Fine. You got in trouble and you didn’t call me. I should have known. You had better friends. I just…you were always my best friend. I was a weird kid.”

A hint of a smile curled up Logan’s lips. “You still are, buddy.”

“It was hard to make friends, but I found that after I met you, I didn’t need them anymore. I was content to have one person.”

“And I was mad that you didn’t come back here to go to college,” Logan said softly. His face flushed just a little. Maybe he wasn’t as unemotional as Seth had first thought.

“What?”

“I was angry that you didn’t come back here so we could go to Adams State together,” Logan explained. “That was our plan. We came up with it when I was twelve and then you went to MIT. You left me behind. I was angry for years about that. You didn’t even come back for the summers.”

Seth had gotten the scholarship to MIT at the same time he’d come up with his software idea. He’d been a little obsessed with it. He’d just known that he could make computers work more efficiently. The software he’d come up with integrated systems with ease, and from there he’d been able to completely transform the way companies did business online. But he’d needed the professors at MIT, the equipment, the connections. He wouldn’t have had them here. “Logan, I thought you understood I had to go to a bigger school. I needed one that concentrated on technology. I offered to pay for you to come with me.”

Logan shook his head. “Seth, I couldn’t have made it into MIT.”

“There were other schools.” Seth had sent him about a thousand enrollment packets.

“And I was scared of them.” Logan sat down at the bar. He was calmer, more assured than Seth had ever seen him. God, Logan had grown up and Seth still felt like a kid. “I was scared of leaving Bliss. I was scared that I would get out into the real world and not fit in. I was scared that once I was in your world, you would realize what a completely inappropriate friend I am for you.”

“What?”

“Don’t play dumb. What would your parents have thought of me? The people around you? I was a hick kid from a small town who was kind of scared of his own shadow. And I was raised by lesbians. And my male role model is a guy who keeps a star chart of all the alien species he’s met. Yeah, I would have been totally accepted.”

Seth’s heart hurt a little, but Logan was right. “I would have accepted you.”

“Seth, one of two things would have happened,” Logan began. “You would have paid attention to me and not gotten your work done and you would have resented me. Or you would have ignored me and then I would have resented you. I can see that now. Everything happened the way it needed to happen. I wasn’t ready then. I am now. I’ve finally figured out that bad shit can happen to a person anywhere in the world, but that doesn’t mean you don’t take it on. That doesn’t mean a man should hide away. I didn’t take the money because I wasn’t sure I would make it through school, and I didn’t want to let you down. I’m cool with it now. I know what I want to do, and you’re the moneybags of this family.”

“What?” Seth was starting to feel like he was way behind in this conversation. He’d kind of thought this would be the place where he stormed out.

Logan leaned forward a little. “I know we’re supposed to be having this massive fight, but I don’t want to fight anymore. I’m going to lay it out and I’m going to hope that you can forgive me. I didn’t call you after the incident because I didn’t want you to see me like that. I was ashamed. I was lost. I was broken, man. I was utterly broken. I let it happen.”

“You didn’t exactly have a choice, man.”

“I did later. I chose not to call you. I chose to beg my moms to understate my injuries to you. I chose to keep taking those pills even after I didn’t need them because I didn’t want to have to feel anything. Caleb cut me off, and I went out and found some more. The asshole didn’t even charge me at first, and then he told me I had everything on credit. Yeah, I bought that. He was paying me off to not turn his ass in. I chose to do that. And I chose to buy heroin one night because I was going to go out in a blaze of glory.”

Seth felt nauseous, like he’d just been kicked in the gut. “Oh, god. You were going to kill yourself.”

“Yes,” Logan admitted. “I didn’t actually try, but I went so far as to buy it. I sat in Hell on Wheels. I had a couple of beers. I walked into the bathroom because I didn’t want my moms to be the ones who had to find me. It seemed fitting to die in a toilet because that’s where my life was.”

His best friend had nearly died—twice—and he hadn’t realized it. “What stopped you?”

“You sent me a text. I was sitting there staring at it and wondering if I would feel really good just for a few minutes before I died and my phone buzzed and you were asking if I’d seen the new Batman movie and, just for a second, I wanted to. I wanted to see the movie. I wanted to grab some popcorn and sit in a theater and do something normal. I had one fleeting second where I wasn’t thinking about what a piece of shit I was.”

He forced down the need to cry. All of his anger was gone in a rush of empathy. “Logan, how can you think that way?”

“I’ll tell you, but not without Georgia. I only want to say it once, and there are a few people I need to say it to, but I felt that way then. There’s a little piece of me that still feels that way. But that night, I knew I wanted to do one thing and that was see a movie. Silly thing, really, but it had been months and months since I wanted anything beyond feeling numb. So I dumped the drugs and I called my friend Hope, and she marched into that bar and she sat up all night with me and in the morning. I also had to pay off my dealer. I am sorry about that, man. Sawyer helped me out by making up the whole barroom brawl story so you and Nate didn’t have to know how far I’d fallen. Hope convinced me I should talk to Bernie when I paid him off. At first I was just going to drop a tip and have the bastard arrested, but Hope is really convincing. She seems to think we all deserve the chance to change. Do you know what happened? After an hour with Hope, the dumb fuck used every dime I paid him—your money—and he got himself clean and right with the law. Who does that? I remember watching him and I couldn’t quite believe it. At the end of the day, he was just a scared fuck like the rest of us. But he took the out when it was given to him. When he walked into the station house, I knew I had to go to Dallas. If a low-life drug dealer could change, I had to. I called Wolf and he talked to his brother, and I tried to get out. But there the truth is, I shamed this badge. I shamed my family.”

“You made a mistake, and you’re correcting it. Logan, you could have told me then and all I would have done was gotten my ass here as fast as I could.” He would have done anything to help his best friend.

“I know that now. And Georgia will forgive me, too. That’s not the problem. I haven’t forgiven myself, and I’m not sure how I’m going to do it, but I know what Leo was trying to tell me now. I have to figure it out because I’m not willing to lose anything more. I’ve chosen to be afraid to move, to see the darkness. I think you would have handled it better.”

“I don’t know. I’m not into pain, man. I don’t know how you survived.”

“A part of me didn’t. Georgia handled it better than me. She’s a tough one, our girl. She figured out early on that the world isn’t perfect, and she didn’t wilt under the pressure. I damn near did, but I won’t anymore. I’ve figured something out about families. If we let them, the people in our lives can get lost. How long have you planned this trip to Bliss?”

Seth knew what he meant. How long had he been plotting to get Logan into a position where he had to come home? “Over six months. If we’re coming clean, then you should know that I did pay for your membership to The Club and I paid all of Leo’s fees, too. I paid for your moms’ anniversary party because I needed an excuse and I helped grease the wheels for Laura’s adoption. I didn’t have to do much. Caleb and Stef have a lot of pull, but I’ve done a bunch of business in China, so I made it work.”

So many plots, so many balls up in the air.

A little smile tugged Logan’s lips up. “You wouldn’t let me stay lost. If I hadn’t come home, I very likely would have hung around in Dallas for a couple of years and we would have gotten involved in our own lives, and we would have drifted apart. Eventually you would have married Georgia, and we would have missed out on something amazing because we let it break down. A friendship is like a marriage. We have to work at it. We have to put energy and love and kindness and, yeah, sometimes we have to pray that there’s a ruthless prick in the relationship with a complete control disorder. I love you, Seth. I know your father told you that makes us queer, but I’m okay with that. I kind of like the hell out of my moms, so if I turned out like them, I would be damn lucky. I love you, Seth. I don’t want to get physical, but you’ve got a big part of my soul and I want to thank you for not letting me get lost again. I want you to understand that I know you’ll get lost in another project, but I’ll let you and when you’re done, me and Georgia will be waiting right there.”

A massive wave of relief rolled across Seth. This was what he needed. He could handle anything as long as he knew they were going to be okay at the end of the day. But he needed one little thing cleared up. “I thought you said she was yours.”

Logan rolled his eyes. “Dude, I was balls deep. She is mine when I’m balls deep and you’re not around. I’m not going to stop in the middle of fucking our girl to say you’re mine except you belong to Seth, too, and we share you in all ways.” He made a totally juvenile vomiting sound.

“God, you’re obnoxious.” But Seth couldn’t help laughing.

“Yeah, well, you’ve known that for about twenty years, so if I’m obnoxious, then you’re dumb as dirt because you’re still here.”

And he always would be. “So you’re taking me up on school?”

“Fuck, yeah,” Logan said with a grin. “And she doesn’t know it yet, but Georgia is, too. She’s got a business degree, but she hates it. She’s going to find her passion if it kills me. I think I already know what mine is.”

Seth stared at him. “I thought you would join me.”

“Not even. Nah. That’s your business and I’ll always help out, but I’m going to do something else. I’m going to follow in some big footsteps because Mel isn’t my only role model.”

There was only one man Logan really looked up to. “You’re going to be a shrink like Leo.”

“I’m going to be a therapist,” Logan corrected. “I’m going to help dumb assholes like me. I’m going to do something good because if I learned that the world could be a bad place, then I also learned that we can make it good again. With hard work and the right people. Maybe I can make something good come out of this. Leo. He’s like Superman. I want to be, too. And I kind of torched my comic book collection. I want it back.”

Seth laughed, all of his tension leaving. “I can handle that. We’ll have fun putting it back together.” He took a long breath. He hadn’t lost. He’d fought and he’d won.

Logan’s phone went off. He looked down. “Damn. Nate. Sorry, man. It’s only for another couple of weeks.” Logan touched his finger to the phone. “Nate? What? Are you fucking kidding me? Is he alive? Where’s Georgia? She was looking for him.”

Seth felt his whole body go on alert. Where was Georgia? She’d been with Logan.

Logan shoved his phone back into his pants. “Win’s been shot. Nate said a tourist found him behind the art gallery, and Caleb and Naomi are working on him right now. They couldn’t wait to get him to Del Norte. A bus is on the way.”

Seth’s head whirled. What the hell? “Bus?”

“Ambulance. They’re going to stabilize him and then Caleb will ride with him and make sure he makes it, but there was no sign of Georgia. I have to go find her.”

Seth heard another low crunch of gravel. He rushed to the window.

“Get back, Seth,” Logan shouted. “You don’t know who that is.”

“It could be Georgia.” He ran to the front door and threw it open just in time to see an SUV he didn’t recognize pulling up to the house. The door opened and a man in dark clothes hopped out. “Fuck. Logan, it’s a bunch of guys with guns.”

He turned around, but Logan was at the back door. “How many?”

“Six, maybe seven.”

Logan’s face was tight with anxiety. “I can’t handle seven on my own. Where’s the gun locker?”

Oh, fuck. They had Georgia. She was small and pale as they hauled her out. This wasn’t about Win’s private detective. No fucking way. These were serious players, and that meant one thing. He kept his mouth tight as he spoke so maybe they wouldn’t see him talking. They had one shot at this. “I don’t have a gun locker yet. You need to get Henry.”

Logan’s mouth closed, his jaw forming a hard line. “Fuck all. They’re here for Henry, aren’t they? They’re here about Henry’s past.”

Seth nodded slightly. He didn’t speak because he didn’t want the Colombian cartel enforcers to know he wasn’t alone in the house. He’d done his homework. Henry had been trying to shut down a cartel before he’d faked his death. It was a cartel that worked with jihadist sects, money that fueled terrorism around the world. They’d found him. Somehow they’d figured out that John Bishop wasn’t dead, and they’d tied him to Seth Stark.

He couldn’t see Logan now. Not even out of the corner of his eye. “Seth, survive. Do you understand me? Don’t give them anything because they will kill you and they will kill Georgia if they have her. Fuck. I understand it all now. I want you alive no matter what they do to you. They can break you both and I swear to god, I’ll put you back together. Do you understand? I won’t let you down. I won’t leave you alone for long. Just long enough to come back here for you.”

Seth didn’t turn back, just let Logan’s words sink in. He felt his eyes widen as Georgia was hauled toward the cabin. They’d shot Win. Her brother might die. They were serious. A man in a suit stepped out of the SUV, his elegant form moving with ease. The gun in his hand was an extension of his arm.

“Hello. You must be Mr. Stark.” The blond man in front of him was cold. So fucking cold, and he had an arm around Georgia. Her blue eyes looked out at him, but he didn’t see weakness there. Hell, no. She was pissed and her will was plain on her face. “We can make this easy or we can make it very difficult. Where is John Bishop?”

Fuck. This was going to hurt. He finally turned, and out of the corner of his eye, he could plainly see that Logan was gone, his big body going out the back door. He was alone and responsible for his and Georgia’s survival. “What’s going on here? Who’s John Bishop?”

A mean-looking dude with a gun in his hand stepped up, bunching his fist. “Jefe?”

The man with a gun against Georgia’s head smirked. “Sí.”

He heard Georgia’s scream before he felt the pain hit his belly. The breath left his body and all of his senses flared in horror.

His agony had just begun.

Logan slipped out the back door and made sure he didn’t make a damn sound as he moved around the house. He had one gun on his body. One gun versus six.

Fuck. This was what Alexei had felt. The brutally painful knowledge that he was outgunned and he needed a distraction. Logan had been the distraction. He’d paid in pain and suffering, and now he was asking Seth to do the same. And potentially Georgia, because there was no way they didn’t have her. Her brother had been shot. She’d been with him. She was in danger, and he was buying time because he finally understood.

Life was worth everything. There was no pain that was worth more than life and love and a future. There was no suffering that a person couldn’t come back from if he had enough love. No situation that good couldn’t bloom from.

He’d suffered and he could choose to find good in it. He’d suffered so he could make the right choices, help people. Even his own. Would he put Seth through hell if it meant they all survived?

Yes. And yes. And yes again.

He would ask them to suffer and survive because life was worth more than pain. More than pride. Life and love were everything.

He heard a low grunt. Seth. God, they’d already started. His county vehicle was to the right. He hadn’t parked up front. They didn’t know he was here. He pulled his cell, dialing Nate’s number. It was only a second before Nate answered.

“He’s still alive, Logan, but I haven’t found your woman, yet. I’ve called in Zane and Max and Rye. Max is moving slow because apparently he slipped a disc, but we’re all looking.”

Logan kept his voice low. “She’s here at our cabin by Nell and Henry’s place, but you got to come in real quiet or we’re all dead. I don’t know who the hell it is who has her, but they’re damn serious, Nate. Seven guys, every one of them carrying semiautomatics. Do not come in here sirens blaring or they’ll kill Seth and Georgia. I’m getting Henry and we’re going to handle it, but you get your ass out here pronto.”

“Henry?” Nate asked. “What the hell is Henry going to do? Protest them? Logan, just hold tight.”

He cut Nate off because he wasn’t going to listen anyway. He’d said what he needed to say. Logan shrank against the cabin, looking out over the yard between their place and Henry’s. If he was smart, the big boss would leave at least one guard, probably two. One at the front and one at the back.

Sure as anything, a thickly muscled man barged out the back door. Logan whipped his body around though his every instinct said to kill now. Killing now would just alert the herd that there was a predator around.

The back guard took up his post at the door and stared at the river, like something would come up from the water or the forest behind it. He yawned as though taking over someone’s house for a little torture was an everyday occurrence. His neck was covered in tattoos. Cartel. Logan would bet the man was either cartel or mob, and there was very little difference in the two these days.

What did they want with Henry? What the fuck had Henry been involved in before he’d come to Bliss?

The guard leaned against the back door and closed his eyes for a moment as though he needed a little nap. Logan would give him a nice long one once he had some backup.

This was his shot. Logan took off, his big body moving quietly. He hit the ground with as little of his weight as possible, keeping everything in the front of his feet, stepping lightly. He sprinted across the yard, expecting to get hit at any moment.

He heard a low shout. Georgia. She was screaming for Seth. God. He was leaving them when they needed him the most.

He had to. If he charged in without backup, they would all die.

Nell and Henry’s cabin was situated slightly up the river bend so their front door faced the side of Seth’s cabin. Logan made his way around the back. It was the most protected place. No one would see him there. His breath was sawing in and out of his chest as he made it to the cabin. The backyard had a small vegetable garden with a view of the river. Two Adirondack chairs were facing the view, but no one was out in the back.

He turned and found the back door. The screen was closed, but the door was open and Logan could hear humming. Nell was in her kitchen, humming as she shoved her hands in a big bowl and started working some dough.

“I’m better,” Nell said. “You worry too much, Henry. It’s perfectly normal. I’m actually quite hungry now.”

“I don’t know. I think you should see Caleb.” Henry was suddenly at the back door, the screen shadowing his face. If Logan thought he was sneaking up on Henry, he’d been very wrong. Logan suddenly got the feeling Henry had known he was coming. Henry put a finger to his lips.

Silence.

Nell’s voice floated through the house. “I just need some rest. Caleb would try to prescribe things, and you know how I feel about big pharmaceutical companies.”

“They’re not so bad,” Henry replied.

Nell was off, her voice rising though she didn’t leave her place. She started talking about all the different ways drug companies hurt patients and consumers, and Henry silently slipped outside.

“What’s going on? I caught you running across the yard with a gun in hand about thirty seconds ago and then that big guy stepped out onto your porch. Have you called Nathan?”

“Yeah, though I think this is your problem, Henry. You tell me something and you tell me now because my partner and my wife are being held by some sort of drug lord. Did you work for them before you came to Bliss?”

Henry went the slightest bit pale. “They’re from a cartel?”

Logan ran a hand across his hair, frustration welling up. He didn’t have time for this. “Well, I don’t mean to stereotype and Nell would have my head for saying it, but when a bunch of gentlemen of South American origin show up in a rolling torture van with a collection of semiautomatics and tattoos that total their kills, I tend to think cartel. I could be wrong. They could be a traveling circus. I don’t give a shit because they’re going to kill my people and I think they’re here for you. So I’m going to ask the question and you’re going to answer. Were you on the payroll?”

There was a short shake of Henry’s head. “No. The cartel was the target. If it’s who I think it is, they were mixed up with a terrorist cell. I was CIA, but then I wasn’t. Damn it. They’re supposed to think I’m dead.”

“They seem to have caught on. Nate’s on his way, but I don’t have time to wait so I need you to get your freak on. You owe Seth.” It had to have been Seth who had helped him, protected his identity. Seth was smart enough to do it, even all those years ago. Logan remembered all the times Seth would shut his computer when Logan walked in the room. He’d hidden Henry’s secrets, even from his best friend. Logan wasn’t mad. That was just who Seth was. He was trustworthy. “You owe him, Henry. And you damn well know it.”

Henry nodded and disappeared back into the cabin. “Hey, baby, Logan’s here. He says there’s a problem with the plumbing. I’m going to go check it out. You knead your bread, okay? I wouldn’t want to ruin it. And I’ll turn up the music. I know you love this aria.”

The sound of an opera filled the house and spilled over into the yard.

“I could come help.” Nell had to yell over the music. Clever Henry, trying to hide the inevitable sounds of death and destruction with wailing opera singers. Actually, Logan thought he might like the sound of gunfire more.

“No, baby. You stay here. It’s just a little wet work. I’ll be back in ten minutes. I love you, Nell.”

Henry slipped back outside and suddenly there was a nasty-looking knife in his hand. It looked like he’d raided the kitchen for his arsenal. While the knife was long and sharp, it wasn’t what Logan had in mind.

“Can’t you get a gun?”

Henry shrugged, the knife held easily in his hand. He stared down at it, a stricken look on his face. “I don’t keep one in the house. I don’t keep one at all anymore, Logan. I am exactly who I say I am. I’m Henry Flanders. I gave all of this shit up a long time ago.”

The truth was right inside Logan’s cabin. “It didn’t give you up, Henry.”

Henry’s eyes went cold. Yeah, that was the dude who had first shown up here. Somber. Dangerous. An elegant viper waiting to strike. “How many?”

“At least seven. And they’ve had Georgia and Seth with them for a good five minutes now.”

“They’ll play with them for a little while. They don’t understand this place. They’ll think they’re isolated. As long as they don’t think the police are going to blaze in, they’ll take their time because you soften up a target before you go in for the kill. They want information.”

“I suspect they want you.”

“Logan, I can walk in there and give myself up,” Henry started.

Logan wasn’t about to let him do that. No matter who he’d been before, he was Henry Flanders now. Henry was the guy who’d fixed his ma’s sink and helped work on their roof when it needed fixing. He was the man who winked as he protested and always had candy in his pockets for the kids around town. He was Henry. “They would just kill them quickly and then take you. I was never planning on trading you in, Henry. I just need someone to watch my back. I have to save them, Henry. I’ll die if they do.”

Not until after he’d brutally murdered an entire drug cartel, but then he’d just lie down and fade away until he could be with them again.

Henry’s hand tightened around the knife, and he edged up to the side of the cabin, his face turning slightly away. “The guard they put on the back door is half asleep. I’m going around the back, like I’m walking up the river. You got a knife? Because that gun is going to be too loud. The minute they hear gunfire, they’ll take off. We need them in the house.”

Logan reached down into his boot. Of course he had a knife. It was utilitarian, but it would get the job done. Quiet. He had to keep quiet.

Henry took off, his bare feet moving silently across the grass. He went the opposite direction from the house, around a set of trees, but in mere seconds, Logan saw him walking down the river.

And so did the guard who hopped off the porch and started walking toward the intruder.

Logan took off the minute the guard’s back was turned. Henry was right. This guy was pure muscle, not trained to keep quiet and move in for the kill. He would just shoot whatever came his way. Logan silently thanked Mel for all the training. He might not be trying to take down an alien horde, but the idea was the same. He could hear Mel talking in his head. Move quick. Move silently. Take down the prey without alerting the rest of the herd.

Save your town, son.

Save his family.

He’d never done this up close and personal before, but there was a time for everything. He didn’t hesitate, didn’t feel any fear beyond what would happen if he didn’t get this done. The guard raised his gun to take Henry down, and Logan quietly shoved his knife between the man’s ribs, his free hand knocking the gun away and then covering his victim’s mouth so he couldn’t shout out.

It was hard, but he was strong. A knife didn’t just slip in, it required force and movement. It required upper body strength. The man in his arms was a bull, all sinewy muscle. Logan had to force the knife past his ribs and up, into his heart. A year ago he’d never lifted a weight, didn’t think to train.

It was his own torture that brought about the change, but now he knew if it hadn’t happened, he would have been helpless to stop this. His past pain just might be Georgia and Seth’s salvation, and suddenly he was grateful. Grateful for the time he’d spent on that desk. Grateful for the lesson it had taught him. Grateful that he was alive in this moment to save them.

He held the guy close, adrenaline pumping through his veins. He didn’t feel remorse. This man would have killed Georgia, and he would have raped her, too. He would have taken everything that was beautiful and lovely and precious about her and ground it into dust. Logan had already decided to give up law enforcement, but he would never give this up. This was his job in life. To protect them. To love them. To do anything he had to do to ensure their survival.

Henry was suddenly in front of him. “He’s gone. You can let him go now.”

Logan let the man slide away as Henry picked up his gun and checked the clip. For a man who hadn’t used firearms in years, he still knew his way around one.

“Are you ready? This is your op, Logan. I’ll do what you need me to,” Henry said.

“I’m going to slip into the master bedroom window. Georgia left it open earlier. You go in the back door. Kill anyone you see. Use the knife if you can until we’re in the living room. Once we know we have them trapped, all bets are off.” He wouldn’t care how much noise he made once he knew they couldn’t get away with Georgia and Seth. He looked down expecting his hands to be shaking, but they were stone-cold steady. It was just his heart that was shaking. He gave Henry what he hoped was a confident grin. “Hey, Henry, I won’t tell your wife if you won’t tell my moms.”

Henry put a hand on his shoulder. “Deal.”

Logan jogged around the back of the cabin, his whole being set on doing his job. On getting them back.