Crazy for Her (2 page)

Taking a seat in a comfortable, oversized leather chair, Logan let his gaze wander over the room, settling on the large stone fireplace. “This is a nice place.”

She chuckled softly, drawing his attention back to her. “You should’ve seen it when Evan and I bought it. It was going to be our home after he got out of the navy.” Her voice trailed off and she blinked against the tears pooling in her eyes. Her gaze lifted to his. “Sorry, didn’t mean to get weepy.” She fanned her face with a hand. “Anyway, the cabin was a wreck, but remodeling kept my mind from dwelling on everything while I waited for Regan to be born.”

The parasite saw her sorrow and its bite grew sharper. “I’m sorry, Dani. I wish it had been me instead.”

“Don’t. Don’t say it. Don’t think it. It was just his time, that’s all.” She brought her mug to her lips.

Not saying it again, he could control. Not thinking it was another matter. A companionable silence fell as they drank their tea and coffee, and Logan had the passing thought he might be able to find some kind of peace in this cabin. With her.

But she was not for the likes of him.

Setting his empty mug on the table, he rested his head on the back of the chair and closed his eyes. What if he had been just a bit faster and slid into that chair next to her at Sinner’s before Evan had? Would he belong with her now? Would he be able to lay claim to that elusive word
happiness
? There was no way to know if a relationship with her would have progressed that far, and he had to stop wanting something that wasn’t meant to be.

He opened his eyes. “Why did you send for me, Dani?”

She uncurled one leg and with her toes, pushed a shoebox sitting on the coffee table closer to him. He hadn’t noticed the box before, but he had noticed her toenails were painted a pale pink, though he’d tried hard not to.

Taking a hint from the way she barely touched the box, Logan gave it a wary stare. With his index finger, he lifted the lid just as a baby started to cry. He dropped the lid, he and Dani exhaling in sync. Without a word, she stood and disappeared down the hallway.

Logan considered the shoebox and decided to wait for her to return before opening it. He removed his heavy motorcycle boots, poured another cup of coffee, and checked the locks on the doors and windows. At least she had a first-rate alarm system. Whatever was going on had her spooked, and the Dani he knew didn’t scare easily.

Growing curious, he walked down the hallway and stopped at the door of a nursery. Multicolored butterfly cutouts adorned the walls of the bright-yellow room where Dani sat in a rocking chair, nursing a baby.

The air swished out of his lungs. Not even on his most dangerous missions had he feared his legs would fail to hold him up, but the picture before him threatened to bring him to his knees.

Christ, Evan, how could you go and miss seeing this?

She glanced over her shoulder and smiled. “You can come in.” The smile morphed into a frown. “Unless you’re the kind of man who thinks seeing a mother nurse her child is vulgar. If you are, then get lost.”

He should get lost. He should get on his bike and ride as fast and as far away from her as he could. Instead, he walked into the room, leaned against the wall near the window, and peered out. Behind the house, the yard sloped down to a briskly running creek. Beyond the creek, mountains dressed in lush green trees rose in the distance.

“Beautiful,” he whispered.

“You should see it in the winter after a snowstorm.”

“I would like to,” he said softly, allowing her to believe he’d been speaking of the view.

Dani slid a pink blanket over the baby’s head and then lifted her up. Logan silently thanked her for inviting him into the room. He’d never seen a mother nurse her child. It was a sacred thing, something he would never forget.

She bounced her daughter on her knee and patted her back. Logan laughed when a loud burp echoed through the room. The baby grinned at him, showing off two tiny teeth.

“Gawh.” She waved a fist in the air.

Logan was charmed. “She has Evan’s eyes.”

“My Regan has her daddy’s hazel eyes, yes, she does,” Dani cooed, and tapped Regan on the nose, causing the baby to squeal and bounce harder.

He could spend a lifetime watching them play. Another squeal, louder than he would’ve believed a baby could make, issued from Regan’s mouth. She looked up at him with another grin, clearly very proud of herself.

Dani’s shirt was unbuttoned, the pink blanket still over her shoulder, concealing her breast. Figuring she would probably appreciate a few minutes of privacy to get herself in order, he told her he would wait for her in the living room. He commanded his unwilling feet to carry him out of the nursery.

Restless, Logan treated himself to a tour of the cabin. Beyond the kitchen was a mudroom with a door leading to the backyard. He opened three deadbolts and stepped out onto the deck. Glancing back at the house, he frowned at the French doors. All that glass was impossible to secure. From the outside, the cabin was cleverly designed to look like a two-story structure.

At the deck railing, he took in the amazing view. Seven horses of various colors grazed in a meadow beyond the creek, the mountains he’d admired earlier in the background. On his right was a vegetable garden and behind it, a garage and storage shed. On his left, beyond the recently mowed yard, was a wooded area.

Just as he started to turn to go back inside, a movement caught his gaze.
Probably some kind of animal.
Still, the hair on the back of his neck stood up, and his instincts screamed at him to beware. He had learned long ago to trust that reaction.

Was Dani in danger? Was that why she’d asked him to come? He should never have stepped outside without his SIG and shoes. “Stupid move, Kincaid,” he muttered, debating whether to run inside and get his gun. But even without a weapon, he was lethal. He started down the steps.

“There you are.”

Dani stood in the doorway holding Regan. He blanked his expression but apparently not fast enough. Her eyes searched his and then shifted to the woods.

“Is he here?” she asked before she and her daughter disappeared from sight.

Is who here?
Sweeping his gaze across the wooded area one last time, he followed her inside and slid the deadbolts closed. Two on the front door and three on the back meant that whoever he was, Dani was afraid of him.

Logan went straight to the tote he’d dropped on the foyer table, took out his SIG Sauer, and stuck it at his back in the waistband of his jeans. Until he found out what was going on and put an end to the threat to Dani and Regan, he wouldn’t be caught without it again.

His plan had been to keep his room at the motel for sleeping, but if there was someone lurking about, he wasn’t going anywhere. Hopefully there was a guest bedroom. If not, he’d slept on worse things than a couch. He had promised Evan he would take care of Dani, and a SEAL didn’t break his word to a brother. Even without the pledge, he would have considered Dani and Regan to be under his protection.

In the living room, he sat down and stared at the box. Regan babbled at him from inside a playpen. “Where’s your mama?”

“Right here.” Dani walked in carrying two bottles of beer and handed him one before curling up on the couch.

“You can drink beer when you’re nursing?”

“As long as it’s a few hours before. I only allow myself one beer or one glass of wine a day.”

He took a long drink of the cold brew. “This is good.”

“It’s a local beer. Asheville’s well known for its microbreweries.”

He knew that. When Evan died, Logan downloaded facts and maps, studying everything he could find about the town. It was his job to watch over her and Evan’s child, a promise made and kept. Finishing the beer, he set the bottle on a coaster. It was time to get the answers to his questions.

“You asked me if he was here. Who is ‘he,’ Dani?”

“He says he’s Evan.”

C
HAPTER
THREE

D
isbelief followed by anger crossed Logan’s face. Dani understood. The one time she’d talked to the man claiming to be Evan, rage had pounded through her bloodstream.

“You’ve spoken to him?”

She nodded. “Once, on the phone. The strange thing . . . he sounded like Evan, but the accent was different. He didn’t speak with Evan’s Texas drawl. It was more like a deep-South good-ol’-boy accent.”

“When did you speak to him and exactly what did he say?”

Logan’s voice was deceptively calm, but she heard the underlying steel in it. His jaws were rigid, his eyes cold and focused on her. Not a man she would ever want for an enemy, but she was damned glad to have him for a friend.

“The first phone call was two weeks ago. When I answered, he said, ‘I’ve missed you, Danielle, and I want to come home.’ I asked who was speaking, and that’s when he said he was Evan.”

“Did he say anything else?”

“No, I slammed the phone down. I realize now I should’ve tried to find out more, but at the time, I was just so angry someone would play that kind of joke on me.”

“Are you sure that wasn’t all it was, someone’s sick idea of a joke?”

“I’m very sure because he’s been in the house.” The mere idea of a stranger coming into her and Regan’s home made her stomach churn. She pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs. “Look in the box.”

His gaze shifted to the shoebox. He lifted the lid, revealing the teddy bear inside. Picking it up with the caution he might use when handling a grenade, he read aloud the note pinned to the bear. “For Regan. Daddy’s little girl.”

“That was in her crib when we returned from the grocery store last Tuesday. He was in my home, Logan.”

Just like that, he changed. His eyes slitted, viperlike, and the muscles in his jaws flexed, forming hard lines below his cheeks. The mouth she’d earlier thought might feel soft to the touch thinned into a harsh slash of lips. The team had called him Iceman, and now she understood why. A shiver raced up her spine at seeing this side of him. This man was a warrior, a lethal one.

“He’s a dead man. Did you touch the note?”

Startled out of her musings about him, she tried to remember. When she’d first seen it, she hadn’t wanted to handle it at all. “I’m sure I didn’t touch the paper. I think just an arm of the bear, only long enough to put it in the box.”

His gaze lifted to hers and she sucked in a breath at the savagery in his eyes. Her stalker didn’t have a clue who he was messing with. As Logan continued to regard her, his expression turned soft and warm. The little flutter in her stomach took her by surprise. As slowly as possible so he wouldn’t hear, she let out her breath.

“Is the phone call and the bear the only contact you’ve had with him?”

Jerked back to their conversation, she nodded. “He calls, but I don’t answer the phone now unless it’s a number I recognize. He doesn’t speak, just breathes into the phone for a minute or two before hanging up. I’ve not erased the recordings, but I don’t know what you can learn from them.”

“Have you called the police?”

“Of course, but other than writing up a report, they said there wasn’t much they could do. I don’t think they took the gift of a teddy bear all that serious.”

Logan stood and walked to the window, lifted the blinds, and peered out. The gun tucked against his back was bigger than hers, and she wanted it.

He dropped the blinds back into place and faced her. “We can’t discount he’s someone you know, although—”

“Believe me, I’d remember anyone who sounded like Evan.”

“Although, that’s why I think he’s a stranger, someone you’ve never had contact with.”

His presence in her home gave her a feeling of safety, and with him by her side, she knew she could get to the bottom of this. “So, where do we go from here?”

“I don’t go anywhere, but I want you and Regan to go stay at my house. Buchanan and Turner work for me now, and they’ll keep you safe while I run this asshole to the ground.”

Jumping up from the couch, she shook her head. “No, I’m not going to let some psycho run me out of my home. Besides, if he knows I’m gone, he’ll just disappear and wait for me to come back.”

“I can get you to Pensacola without him ever knowing you’ve left, and trust me, I will find him.”

She didn’t like the determined expression on his face, didn’t want to leave her home, hated feeling afraid, and didn’t want to leave him. The last thought came out of nowhere, adding confusion to the anger and fear she’d been living with the last two weeks. God, she hated feeling helpless. Stupid tears welled up and rolled down her cheeks, and the next thing she knew, his arms were around her.

“Hush,” he whispered. “I’ll keep you safe.”

Sniffling against a chest as hard as a wall of steel, she nodded and closed her eyes. He would protect her and Regan—all the more reason not to run away like a terrified mouse. Heat from his body seeped into her, warming her. Was it a betrayal to Evan to like being held in Logan’s embrace? No, it was only a friend comforting her, and her husband would have understood.

Logan put his hands on her shoulders and gently pushed her away. “Better?”

There was some emotion in his eyes, but it disappeared before she could decipher it. “I’m okay, but I’ll be better when all this is over. Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For coming here when I asked. It was probably an inconvenience to drop everything at a moment’s notice.”

Again, something flittered in his eyes, and he glanced away. When his gaze returned to her, whatever she’d seen was gone.

“Know this, Dani. Wherever you are and whenever you need me, I will always come to you.”

That had the sound of some sort of lifetime commitment and made her a little uneasy. Unsure how to respond, she just said, “Good, because I’m not leaving.”

Logan was in hell. Holding Dani’s soft body against his and breathing in her scent was killing him. He told himself he was only offering her comfort and friendship. Right. And the Taliban was nothing more than a bunch of choirboys being naughty.

Arousal stirred in his jeans, and he stepped away, putting a safe distance between them. “All right. If I let you stay, you have to promise you’ll obey me. If I tell you to do something, you do it. If I tell you not to do something, you don’t. And you don’t think about it either. If I give you a command, you don’t ask questions, you don’t take your time getting around to it, understand?”

Her eyes narrowed. If she could shoot fire at him from those Irish eyes, she likely would. It didn’t reassure him that she would follow his orders without question, but, so help him God, she set his blood ablaze.
Not good, Kincaid, not good at all
.

“I don’t blindly follow orders, but if I think they’re appropriate for the situation—”

She didn’t get it. If a soldier didn’t obey his commander’s directives during battle, he likely got sent home in a body bag. Logan swallowed hard. He already lived with the guilt of Evan’s death. He wouldn’t survive hers.

Not letting her finish, he moved into her space and glared down at her. “There are no buts. You have two choices. You give me your word you’ll do what I say, when I say it, or you and Regan go to my house until this is over. Which will it be?”

Their faces were inches apart, and puffs of her warm breath wafted across his chin. Jesus, Joseph, and Mary, he had never wanted a woman like he wanted her this minute. What he wouldn’t give to explore the heat and passion flaring in her eyes, and then when his fire was doused, he would explore the gentle side of her. The one he had seen sitting in a rocking chair and looking down at her nursing daughter with eyes full of love.

If he allowed it to happen, he wouldn’t be breaking his personal vow, but he would dishonor his love and respect for Evan. That he would not do, no matter the temptation. Early in his life, he’d learned self-control, his SEAL training only made his willpower stronger. He could and would ignore his desires, was long used to doing so.

“You’re not the boss of me.” The stubborn lines of her mouth dissolved into a wide smile, and her eyes sparkled with merriment. “I just sounded like a six-year-old, didn’t I?”

“That old? I was thinking more like three.”

“No, that’s the tantrum age, and trust me, you really don’t want me throwing a tantrum. No one does it better than me.” She walked away, stopping at the entrance to the hallway. “You have my word, tough guy. Whatever you say, no questions asked. I don’t promise not to make faces at you, however.” She stuck her thumbs in her ears, wriggled her fingers, crossed her eyes, and stuck out her tongue.

Logan grinned at her retreating back. This was the Dani he missed. When she was dating Evan, the three of them sometimes hung out together, and her love of life and humor had captivated him. There had been times when they’d invited him along and he had declined, not able to bear seeing her hand in Evan’s or witnessing the quick kisses they often shared.

The devil whispered in his ear that Evan was gone, and there was nothing stopping him now from claiming her as his. He could be the one holding her hand and leaving kisses on all the places of her body he’d fantasized about.

Burying his traitorous thoughts down deep where they belonged, he picked up his leather tote and followed her down the hall. At the door to the nursery, he watched her lean into the crib and kiss Regan’s forehead.

“Sometimes it hurts so bad to think she’ll never know her father.”

Guilt soured his stomach, and for a brief moment he hated his friend for dying. “You should write down everything you know and remember about Evan before it slips away from you. Someday, Regan will thank you for it.”

Dani’s sudden smile was like sunshine, warm and inviting. He caught himself taking a step toward her and stilled, planting his shoulder against the doorjamb.

“I’m already doing that, but even better, she’ll have her uncle Logan to tell her stories about her daddy.”

Someone should have posted signs warning of the minefield. Whichever way he stepped was going to be dangerous for him. He didn’t know if he could handle being an active part of their lives in the role of uncle. What if Dani met someone and fell in love? It would happen eventually, and he couldn’t stand on the sidelines again watching her with someone else. Been there, done that, could not bear doing it again.

Yet she’d just made him Regan’s honorary uncle, and he didn’t have the words to refuse her. Her smile slipped as she waited for a response.

“It would be a privilege to be Regan’s uncle.”

The brilliant smile returned. “Thank you.” She kissed his cheek and walked past him.

Still attached to the doorway, he closed his eyes and prayed for strength. Her lips on his skin had felt as soft as he’d imagined. For close to three years, he’d kept his longing for her buried, and now it was surfacing like flotsam. Whoever this man was, he needed to be found and taken care of. Soon. Then he could go home and put temptation at a manageable distance.

“Logan?”

Pushing away from the door, he walked down the hall and followed her into a room.

“This is the guest room. It has its own bathroom through there.” She pointed to a closed door and then frowned. “You’re planning on staying here, right?”

He dropped his tote on the quilt-covered bed. “Until I catch this guy, I think it would be for the best.”

“We.”

Logan gave her his most intimidating glare. “Don’t even think it. Your job is to stay safe, mine is to keep you that way.”

She burst into laughter. Definitely not the reaction he expected. He crossed his arms over his chest and tried to stare her down. She laughed harder, plopping down on the bed and waving a hand in the air.

“Stop staring at me like that,” she gasped. “I bet that fierce look sent your men ducking for cover.”

It had. He bit down on his cheek to keep from smiling. “Doesn’t seem to work on you though, does it?”

“I’m sorry. It’s been a strange two weeks, and I think it’s nerves more than anything.”

“Understandable.” He tucked his hands into his pockets to keep from reaching out to comfort her.