Logan (Wild Boys After Dark, #1)(35)
“Actually, I’m fine now. And I have the phone.” She hugged him and whispered, “Thank you.”
He couldn’t resist giving her a soft kiss.
“Oh my goodness. Get out of here before you have her all googly-eyed. I’m gonna get to know this chickadee and make sure you’re not too bad of an influence on her. Go.” Willow shooed him out again.
***
BY MIDDAY STELLA felt more comfortable than she had since she left Mystic. Willow was easy to talk to, a good listener, and warm and wonderful with each and every customer that came into the bakery. Each customer had a story to share—news of a pending birth, an upcoming event for a church group, a cousin who had hit hard times. There were too many to keep track of, and Willow listened intently, offered advice, and doled out hugs and well-wishes to nearly everyone. It was easy to see how she and Logan would get along. Two people for whom helping others was stamped in their DNA.
They were baking cookies, something Stella hadn’t done in years. It made her long for her mother even more than usual.
“So, how did you end up with Logan? All he told me was that he was trying to track down a bad guy. I swear he’s like a modern-day Superman.” Willow took a batch of cookies from the oven and slid another tray in.
She felt like she could open up to Willow, and more important, she wanted to. She already felt like a friend, and Stella didn’t have many friends these days.
“This is going to sound like I’m a weak, pathetic girl, but really, I’m not.” Stella didn’t want anyone’s pity, and even though she sensed that Willow wouldn’t pity her, she still felt the need to clarify.
“Honey, we’re all weak girls. You know that saying ‘A real woman can do things herself’? Well, I buy into the next part, too. ‘But a real man won’t let her.’ Heck, if I had a man like Logan, I’d get in trouble on purpose just to let him save me.”
Stella felt her jaw drop open.
Willow finished rolling out the dough before lifting her eyes to Stella. “Oh God.” She wiped her hands on her apron. “I’m not interested in Logan. I didn’t mean—”
“No, it’s not that.” Stella sank into a chair. “I just realized as I was listening to you that I don’t even know how to act normal anymore. I haven’t had a girlfriend to talk to in months, and I don’t know how to react to things. Because of my life, I feel like I have to be this tough, bitchy, hard woman. I mean, I do have to or my wacko ex-boyfriend might find me and kill me. Literally. But when I hear you talk, I want to be that girl again. I want to talk about how fun it would be to be with Logan and how freaking hot he is, and I want so badly for my biggest worry to be if Logan will be late for a date.” She felt tears stinging her eyes as Willow crouched beside her.
Stella realized she’d completely spilled her guts without even thinking about it. She was relieved to see empathy in Willow’s eyes instead of pity, and she was powerless to stop the truth from coming out. “I don’t even know how to classify what we are together. He’s rescuing me.” As the words left her lips, they felt wrong. But she was afraid to believe in what she felt and what he said he felt. In two more days Kutcher would be out, and God only knew how long it would be before he found her. She couldn’t even bear the thought.
“First off, Logan will not let any psycho ex near you, and, honey, this is not how Logan rescues.” Willow wrapped her arms around Stella, and Stella couldn’t hold back the flood of tears that had been welling inside her for months. “Honey, I’ve known him for a few years. I’ve never seen Logan with a woman he cares about, because there haven’t been any. He keeps a professional distance from his clients, and he definitely doesn’t bring them here to Sweetwater.”
Willow lightly touched Stella’s shoulder. “This is Logan’s second hometown. He treasures this place as much as we do. There’s only one reason Logan would bring you here. He’s not rescuing you, honey. He’s falling for you.”
Chapter Twelve
BETWEEN THE INFORMATION Logan had been able to gather through his sources yesterday and the calls he made on the way to Connecticut after dropping Stella off with Willow, he knew exactly where to find Bob Kanets. Kanets had spent more time in jail than out in his thirty-eight years. There were smart criminals, the ones who knew how to beat the system, how to cover their asses and let someone else take the fall when the police were hot on their trail. Then there were guys like Kanets. Guys who hung out in back alleys, dealt drugs in broad daylight, and fought like dogs when they were caught, which only drove the nail further into their coffins. He’d gotten out of prison eight weeks ago and had gone right back to the path that had led him there in the first place—drug dealing on the outskirts of Mystic.
Logan sat in the rental car he’d secured when he’d arrived in Mystic, across the street from the abandoned warehouse where Kanets was known for dealing. The place looked like every seedy drug drop depicted in low-budget movies. It was an abandoned redbrick school building with half the windows boarded up, the other half broken out, leaving gaping black holes like missing teeth in an ancient mouth. Ivy snaked across the left side of the building, climbing over and into the holes. Two banged-up air-conditioning units hung from windows on the top floor, sagging and brown with age. Concrete steps led to entrances on opposite ends of the front of the building. From his vantage point, Logan saw a few feet into each entrance. The white interior walls were streaked with filth and colorful graffiti. Half of the steps to the right were buried beneath overgrown weeds. The entrance on the left was free of vegetation but littered with broken glass and cans. He’d already checked out the back of the building, where there was one entrance covered with spiderwebs from the railings to the wall. There was thick dirt, free of footprints, covering the steps. No one had frequented that entrance, at least not anytime recently. He’d been casing the building for an hour and a half. He’d seen two guys go in, and only one had come out. Logan was biding his time.