Till Death: Deep Six Security Series Book 1 (22 page)

“Probably not a good idea,” Dex said, stopping her with a hand in her chest.

“I have to talk to him,” she said, and the quaver in her voice pissed her off.  “Please, Dex.  Just let me inside, I ah…I want to apologize to him.”

Dex just stared at her a moment, then stepped aside to let her go under his arm into the suite.  “Don’t tell him I let you in,” he said with a laugh, as she closed the door behind her. 

Susan heard slamming in his bedroom, then a loud curse.  It sounded like Logan was beating the hell out of someone in there.  Her heart beat an irregular rhythm in her chest as she walked toward the door, then went inside.  The bathroom door was closed, and she heard the shower running, so she sat down on the bed to wait. Smoothing her hand over the polished cotton comforter, memories of the things she’d done with Logan in that bed, what Logan had done to her in the bed, rushed through her mind, and she smiled, even as her heart sank lower in her chest. 
Why the fuck couldn’t he be different?

Susan wanted him to be different so bad it hurt.  But he isn’t, she reminded herself quickly.  He withheld information from you that could have cost your sister her life.  It was just too damned bad Logan turned out to be a douchebag just like Carlos.  Self-centered, and only concerned about himself and what she could do for him.

But he tried to help you too
, her mind screamed, but Susan wasn’t listening. 

The bathroom door opened, and Logan walked out steamy, wet and buck fucking naked.  His eyes landed on her, every muscle in his body tensed, and he stopped.  “What the fuck are you doing in here?  Who let you in?” he demanded.

Susan couldn’t help herself, she let her eyes drink him in like a double-dutch chocolate milkshake, her favorite flavor.  Her body craved the man like that milkshake too, but just like that treat, as much as she loved him, Dave Logan just wasn’t good for her.  It was tough, damned tough, but she managed to drag her eyes up his slick chest to his very angry face. 

He lunged toward the bed and she held up her hand.  “I wanted to apologize,” she said quickly, before he decided to throw her out. “I’m sorry you thought I was trying to take over.  I wasn’t.”

Logan’s voice was as hard as his body, his attitude harder, when he said, “You’re sorry I
thought
you were
trying
to take over? I didn’t have to think about it.  That’s
exactly
what you
did
.  If I had done that to you at the bureau, you would’ve fried my ass.  I’m done with the pissing contest, Susan.  You can haul your ass right out of here if that’s what you want.” 

He was right, and something else hit her too.  What she’d just done to him is what Carlos had done to her at the bureau.  The reason she’d left.  “I’m sorry for overstepping, Logan, and I’m not here to argue.  I need you to help me save my sister and those other girls.  Your men respect you, and you’re their leader, not me.”

“Well, goddamn, I better get my raincoat out.  I think the bottom is about to fall out,” he said as he walked to his dresser and angrily pulled out the drawer to rifle through it.  He pulled out underwear, black boxer briefs, that hugged his perfect ass and muscular thighs in all the right places.  She had to forcefully drag her eyes away, when a throb started at the top of her thighs. 

Being in his room was not a good idea. 

Pushing up from the bed, she stood when he turned.  “That’s all I had to say.  I have no idea what to do to get this op on the right track.”  Her pride choked her, as she swallowed it.  “Fletch and Hawk left, Dex is working on the surrogate case, and I can’t go to that campus alone tonight.  I can’t go to the clinic again without you either.  I need you, Logan,” she said, injecting her voice with as much sincerity as she could manage.  He turned and leaned on the dresser, his head bent.  Susan walked over to put her hand on his shoulder.  “Please help me, Logan,” she begged.

Susan heard the beep at the door of the suite, then it opened.  Dex rushed into the bedroom with a stack of papers in his hand.  “We hit fucking pay dirt, Logan.  That keylogger you planted gave me a goldmine of information.  I accessed their emails, and found correspondence between Dr. Warman and a professor at the college.  A guy with a Russian name, Kovloski, or something like that.  It’s like science fiction, mad scientist shit.  They’re using that drug to make the women produce more eggs to harvest from them, so the professor can make cloned human embryos.  Evidently that process isn’t perfected and it takes millions of eggs to get it right, so the mad professor invented this drug to juice up the women’s ovaries.  Kovloski thought he was close to a breakthrough on the cloning, but I guess the first baby came out malformed.”

“The surrogate’s baby,” Susan filled in.  “The second twin who died at birth.”

“Twins?” Logan repeated, looking at her as if she’d lost her mind.

“Weren’t you listening earlier?” Susan asked, with a huffed breath.  “The Russian said that the girl who escaped got pregnant by a guard, and was also implanted with an embryo by the clinic doctor.  The regular baby survived, but the second baby, evidently a cloned human, died at birth.”

“Well, I did a little research, because I damn well thought human cloning was illegal in the United States.  It’s not, but can’t be funded by the government.  I just talked to Gray, and he said that clinic is not being funded by the government, it’s being funded by the Russian and American mobs.  They’re donating to the clinic, then the clinic is paying them for security services.”

“Money laundering,” Logan clarified.

“Bingo,” Dex confirmed.  “Gray thinks the bursar at the college may be getting kickbacks of some kind too.  He found large payments to Bertie Williams from the clinic for accounting work.  I don’t know what her part in all this is, but I don’t think it’s accounting work.  He also found donations from the clinic to the science department for the GenMax project.  What he didn’t see were payments to surrogates, or women for egg harvesting.”

“That’s because they have nine or more women in bondage at the clinic.  They were promised good jobs to get them to the states, but the clinic took their papers once they got here.  The women have no money and nowhere to go.  Now, they’ve upped their game to fund their clinic.  They’re also giving the drug to coeds at Wellington to get their superior genetics donor eggs to supply their designer baby operation.  The women in servitude are convenient surrogates for those babies.”

“Jesus Christ, this is unbelievable,” Dex said.

“We’ve got to get those women out of there, before they kill them.  We could probably get the feds on board with all this evidence, but they’ll take too long.  I know the FDA would take months, and those women don’t have months if they’re injecting them with that drug,” Logan said flinging open drawers to find a t-shirt. 

He ran into the bathroom, and came back out with a pair of jeans, which he pulled on as he walked back over to them.  “Dex, get Mac to call and get us another appointment at that clinic as soon as possible.  We’ve got things to do tonight, but we’ll be back tomorrow.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Susan was being awfully quiet during their meeting, and in truth, it kind of scared Dave.  Not once has she interjected, or even contributed to the conversation.  He wanted, needed her input, just not her taking over.

“We’re going to have to formulate a multi-prong attack plan here,” Logan said, glancing at Susan again.  That’s what she’d been saying in the meeting earlier in the day, she just didn’t speak military-ease.  Almost to a man, that’s the language his men spoke.  Like Dave, except for Mac, Dex and Gray, they had all been enlisted or officers in the service before they came to work for Deep Six.  Mac, Dex and Gray had all had stints in government service with alphabet agencies before working for him.

“We have several fronts to fight tonight and tomorrow, so we’ll need to spread our efforts to get it all done.”   Dave just wished Slade and Caleb were here.  Those two needed to be part of this group, since Slade was his go-to guy for planning, and Caleb was his sniper. 

He would definitely need Caleb’s talents tomorrow night when they got those women out of the clinic.  Mac tried to set up another appointment for an official visit, and was told the clinic wasn’t taking appointments at the moment.   Mac thought that might be because they were bugging out soon.  With the injunction, and the missing and sick women who escaped, that was entirely possible.  Logan almost wished he’d have waited to stir that pot now.  Time and the element of surprise were not on their side.

He hated to do this. Tomorrow night they’d need every man they could get, but Dave also needed to make sure the women at the hospital were safe.  “Luke you and Levi need to come with us tonight.    Luke, you’ll relieve Slade at the hospital in San Antonio when we drop off the samples.  You’ll guard the Russian girl there, and Levi, you’ll relieve Caleb, who is guarding Susan’s sister, Jenna at the hospital in Austin.”

“We’re going to be close to max weight,” Hawk inserted, frowning.  “I’ll have to go light on the fuel, so we can’t be making side trips.” A grin spread over his face, and his eyes darted to Susan.  “Or a few of you could get on the helo naked.  That would help with the weight problem.  Maybe do some calisthenics, after you strip.”

Anger shot through Logan when Susan returned Hawk’s smile.  Fingers curled tightly into his palms, Logan gritted his teeth to keep from blasting them both.  “Cut the shit, Hawk, we’re running out of time.  We have to leave here in an hour.”  Hawk’s smile faded as he leaned back in his chair, and Dave continued, “I sent Cooper and Brady with Mac to pick up the surrogate and deliver her and the Russian to Carlos Ramos.” 

Susan frowned then, and it was Dave’s turn to smile.
Too damned bad, sweet cheeks.  Yeah, you quit your job or I’d be delivering them to you
. 

When he’d called Carlos earlier, the man had been very easy to work with.  A lot easier than his predecessor had ever been, for sure.  The man was a lot more cautious than Susan had been, warned him against going into the clinic, asked Logan to wait for them to sort through the evidence and get authorization, but he hadn’t tried to stop him or get involved.  Susan would’ve had her guys on his two-yard line, and would have been up in his grill wanting to be involved, insisting on it.  She would never have let him act alone, or told him to do what he had to do, but don’t kill anyone.

Susan put her hand on the table to twist the large diamond ring he’d put on her finger in circles, and Dave’s eyes fell there.  He’d all but forgotten about the ring, or the night he gave it to her in the helicopter, before they landed at the clinic.  It seemed like a million years ago, even though it was only a few days. 
I now pronounce us husband and wife, Mrs. David Lawrence
. 

From the look in Susan’s eyes when she said, “I need a minute of your time after the meeting…please.”  Dave knew the honeymoon was about to be over.  Permanently.  Susan was about to officially dump him.  Not that any of this had ever been any more real than the very good fake yellow diamond on her finger. 

So why did it feel like he was having a fucking heart attack?  Like she was really breaking up with him.  He felt the same way he’d felt the night that Sarah had left him.  His chest was tight, his heart beat in dull, heavy thuds against his backbone, and he felt like he wanted to vomit. 

Because, idiot, you fell in love with a woman you shouldn’t have ever thought about loving, or even sleeping with. You let yourself forget it wasn’t real.

He was the biggest dumbass on earth, Dave thought, as he made himself nod at her before he looked around the table.  “Anyone have anything else?”

“No, sir.  I think you covered it all,” Hawk said as he shoved his chair back. 

The others cleared out, and left Susan and Dave in the room.  She got up from her chair and shut the door, then locked it, before sitting back down in the chair beside his.  Her hand slapped down on the table in front of him, and when she moved it, as he expected, the ring was sitting there.  “I wanted to give this back to you, since it looks like we’re not going back to the clinic using our cover.  I didn’t want to lose it,” she said with a nervous laugh.  “I did think of pawning it after this for Jenna’s tuition, though.”  Another laugh, as she nudged it closer with her fingers.  “But it’s yours, and I need my paycheck and your help more than a ring.”  

“You wouldn’t have gotten much.  It’s fake,” he said dryly.

“You bought your trophy wife a fake ring?” she asked with a real laugh.

He shrugged.  “Needed to sell our cover, not bankrupt myself.”

“We did a very good job of selling that cover, and could have done it even without the ring.  You’re very good, Logan, the best I’ve ever worked with,” she said, and the waver in her voice told him she must at least be feeling something.  “I just want to let you know that I’ve enjoyed being your partner.” 

His heart sped up, and his eyes flew to hers, but he couldn’t have spoken if he wanted to, the knot in his throat was that big.  Fuck, what was wrong with him?  His eyelids felt like they were lined with sandpaper and his heart wanted out of his chest.

“I also haven’t had time to tell you, but I got a job with the Department of Justice.  I start next week.  Thanks for the recommendation.” She dragged her gaze down to her hands, where her thumb rubbed the indention on her ring finger.  “I know that’s why Charity hired me.  She has a lot of respect for your opinion, she told me so.”

“She’d have been a fool not to hire you,” Dave replied gruffly.  “I told her that.” 
And wrote the ticket to get you on the express train out of my life. 
At the time, that had been exactly what he wanted.  Now that Susan was on board that train, Logan wanted to jerk her off and tie her to the tracks to keep her with him.  Which was just stupid.

“You were the fool to hire me, Logan,” Susan countered, and Dave knew truer words had never been spoken.   “But I appreciate that you did.  I’ve been a pain in your ass, I know that,” she said, scooting her chair back to stand.  Her face lit up, but the light didn’t reach her blue eyes.  “But the good news is…I’ll be out of your hair for good after tomorrow night.” 

Why the hell couldn’t she be this woman all the time?  That would have made this moment so much easier to take.  He wouldn’t have given this woman a second glance.  She was as boring as watching golf on Sunday afternoon television.  Letting her go wouldn’t feel like he was taking shrapnel in his chest. 

Dave dragged his eyes to his hands.  “About why I didn’t tell you about what Slade found out at Wellington…” he said, his voice as choked up as he felt.

She cleared her throat, and her tone was impersonal.  “Water under the bridge, Logan.  I understand.  You wanted me to go to the clinic with you, and you knew I wouldn’t have done that if you told me how dangerous the situation was with Jenna.  You made a business decision.  No, I didn’t like it, or appreciate it, but I understand you have a business to run here.”

Cold, impersonal.  The truth.  He was in the presence of the Barracuda now, a woman who was as cold as a fish, all business without a bone of empathy in her body.  He couldn’t say he liked this woman any better than the other one from a few minutes ago. 

“I made a mistake, Susan.  I should’ve told you immediately.  We could have postponed the clinic visit for a few days to make sure your sister was okay.  We could’ve rescheduled.”

“Shoulda, woulda, coulda, Logan.  We’re wasting time and breath here rehashing.  What’s done is done, and we have a job to do tonight and tomorrow.  Let’s just get it done.  The day after, you’ll be free of me, and I’ll have my life back on track too.  It’s all good.”

Suddenly, the doorknob jiggled, then a heavy fist pounded on the door.  Susan spun and unlocked the door and opened it.  Dex edged inside past her.  “You’re not going to believe this,” he said with a grin.  “I just got a call from Mac.  The receptionist from the clinic called him back and said they had a cancellation and can fit you in after all tomorrow for your genetics selection appointment.  This operation would be a whole lot easier if Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence were inside tomorrow night.”

Yes, it definitely would.  Too easy.  Something wasn’t right with this picture, but it was only a feeling.  Turning down the opportunity to have boots on the ground inside that clinic tomorrow night would be stupid. 

He and Susan had taken every precaution to preserve their cover when they left the other night.  If it had been blown, somehow, it wasn’t because of their exit.  He’d told Dr. Warman they were leaving to take Susan to the doctor. The diversions they created had protected them while getting to the stairwell with their unexpected passengers, as had Dex’s camera zapper. 

Yeah, the Russian and girl had disappeared, they’d had two fires, their cameras had been disabled, but there was nothing, nothing that could connect those occurrences to Mr. and Mrs. David Lawrence specifically.  There had been at least ten other couples there for the weekend sales pitch.  Since it happened before, the missing guard could account for the missing woman.  If he was in their position, that would be his first thought.

“Tell  Mac to call and confirm it,” Logan said.

“Doesn’t this smack of being a little too easy to you, Logan?” Susan asked, her face thoughtful.  She was probably going over the same things as he’d just gone over in his mind.

“Yes, but us being inside will be better for the entry team tomorrow night.  I don’t think we did anything to tip our hand while we were there.  We were careful,” Logan replied, then smiled to try and ease her fears, but he could see in her eyes that Susan still wasn’t convinced.  “Why, Mrs. Lawrence, I think you are turning into a soft southern belle on me. Where’s that woman who kicked the Russian’s ass when he had a gun on us?  Is she hiding in her walk-in closet in her fuzzy high-heeled slippers?” he challenged, his smile turning into a grin.  When he pictured her in those slippers and that lingerie she had on when he found her sleeping on the sofa, his cheeks hurt from holding the grin.

Logan was surprised when Susan didn’t bite on his challenge.  She always had before, but not this time.  “I’m not afraid, Logan.  I’m willing to go, if you think it’s best.  I just think something is wrong.  I also think we should just keep with our present plan to storm the compound tomorrow night.  Everyone is already scattered, and it’s firm.”

Logan picked up the ring from the table, and stood to walk over to her. He grabbed her left hand, and a feeling of rightness settled in his chest as he slid the ring back onto her finger. 

“I do think it’s best,” he said squeezing her hand.  “Till death do us part, baby.  Just watch my six and make sure that doesn’t happen tomorrow night,” he said, leaning in to kiss her pinched lips, because he couldn’t resist.

“I radioed Fletch, and he’s meeting us at the LZ,” Hawk said over the headsets he’d given Susan and Dave, before they took off.  As they’d planned, Luke and Levi were with them.  Luke was up front with Hawk in the co-pilot seat, and Levi sat beside her to the left.  Logan was on her right, but she wouldn’t know it.  He was that damned quiet since they’d taken off.  Even when she had grabbed his thigh when they had a bumpy takeoff, he hadn’t touched her, or said a word. 

Unlike the times before, he hadn’t unfastened her belt and pulled her across his lap to comfort her.  That rude awakening told Susan he was separating himself from her, and she had to be fine with that.  It was what she wanted and needed to do too.  That kiss in the office surprised her when it happened, and that damned little bud of hope sprouted inside again.  She crushed it though, because his actions and lack of words since then told her she was fooling herself.

This was their second to last night together.  Day after tomorrow, she would be a free woman, and next week she’d start her new job. 

Or maybe she’d delay that for one more week to get her head together again.  Her sister was still in the hospital, but even if she was released in the next few days, Susan could still use that as an excuse.  When Jenna came home, she’d have to care for her until she was back on her feet.

And she was making excuses, delaying moving on, because she knew starting that job was admitting it was over with Logan, and the men at Deep Six whom she’d come to respect.  The best thing she could do was rip off the Band-aid when she left Deep Six and get on with her life like she’d planned.  Forget Dave Logan and the men who worked for him.  Forget that she almost let herself fall in love with him.