Without Regret (Pyte/Sentinel #2)(25)

“Elizabeth,” he said, not at all surprised when the man’s eyes shifted to liquid silver or when his nails turned into claws and his teeth into a deadly row of canines.

Logan looked straight into the eyes of the beast that longed to tear his heart out and said, “You owe me.”

“I f**king saved you,” Kale said in a voice that was more beast than man at the moment.

“Thanks to you we’ll never know, now will we?” he said with a calm that he didn’t feel.

He hated thinking about Elizabeth, never mind saying her name. In the last nine hundred years of his life she was the only one to ever come close to bringing him to his knees and he knew if the bastard in front of him hadn’t interfered he probably wouldn’t be here today.

But he would never be that man again thanks to the bastard in front of him. He would never hold her in his arms again or watch her stomach grow round with his child. Instead of growing old surrounded by their children and grandchildren on the piece of land he’d damn near killed himself to buy she’d died in the streets like a f**king animal.

“You finally ready to do this?” Kale asked, his eyes shifted back to emerald green.

It was only then that Logan realized he’d crossed the room and had Kale by the throat. Disgusted by his lack of control, he shoved Kale away from him. One day he would make the man pay, but not today, and definitely not this easily.

“You’re taking the job,” Logan said tightly as he walked back across the room, turning his back on his enemy as part of him hopped Kale would make a move so he had his excuse to tear him apart with his hands even though he knew the right thing was to wait for the perfect moment.

For Elizabeth.

For a moment Kale said nothing and Logan wondered if the man left. He’d never seen another, shifter, human or vampire move the way Kale did. With his enhanced hearing and sense of smell he should be able to pinpoint the exact second that Kale entered or left a room, but he couldn’t. When he’d been nothing more than a human with a naive perception of the world he thought he’d lived in he’d envied Kale’s abilities.

He’d looked up to his best friend and for most of their childhood he’d done his damndest to be just like him.

Everyone in their tiny village had admired and respected Kale, even when he was still a boy. In a time when strength meant everything Kale had it in spades.

Women wanted him and men feared him and Logan had done his damndest to be just like him. It wasn’t until Elizabeth had chosen him when they were barely fifteen that Logan finally felt that he had something special that no other man had.

Elizabeth had been a breath of fresh air to their tiny village and while every boy and man had wanted her, she had wanted him. She made him feel like a king and he’d fallen hard for her. He’d been so young and foolish, but he’d been damned determined to do right by her and refused to insult her by offering her less than what she’d deserved.

For ten years he’d worked and scrounged for every penny he could get his hands on until he had enough to buy the perfect land for Elizabeth. It was the most beautiful land he’d ever seen in his life and he knew the moment he saw it that she would love it and she had.

She’d cried and laughed as she ran through streams and high grass making him laugh and fall in love with her all over again.

His hands clenched almost painfully from the memory he wished would go away. He didn’t want to think about Elizabeth anymore. He didn’t want the pain of her life and death to haunt him any longer. After nine hundred years he desperately needed some peace and he knew it would only come when he dealt with the bastard that cost her her life, but he knew he had to wait just a little bit longer.

He needed this program. More importantly he needed to make sure none of the other Masters got their hands on this program and with Kale working for him he could guarantee that wouldn’t happen. The man was relentless and wouldn’t stop until the job was done.

“If I do this-” Kale started.

“You will do this,” Logan said, cutting him off, not allowing himself to look back, knowing that if he did all his good intentions would be for nothing and he would kill the man.

“-then I want the slate wiped clean between us,” Kale said as if Logan had never spoken.

He had to bite back a laugh at that. Forgiveness? There would never be any. “We’ll see,” he said, knowing if he flat out lied that the man would simply walk out and entertain another Master’s offer.

Kale sighed heavily behind him, sounding exhausted.

“Fine. I’ll take the job. But once I deliver the woman to you, we’re even.”

Never.

“Of course,” Logan murmured, knowing the second Ms.

McGuire was securely in his hands that he’d finally give Elizabeth the justice she deserved. He reached out and straightened a paper weight on his desk, knowing the next thing he needed to say was going to be met with some resistance.

“If she’s found her mate I need you to take him as well,”

he said.

“Mate?” Kale said, sounding truly confused. “Is she a shifter or a demon?”

He looked over his shoulder, unwilling to miss the man’s reaction as he said, “Sentinel.”

If Logan was the type of man to react to anything he would have smiled at the man’s reaction.