Logan and Aidan stood with Steve. The door to the interrogation room where Prater was being held remained closed just behind the special agent.
“You’ve got thirty minutes,” he said quietly, before stepping away from the door.
More than enough time.
Pushing inside, Logan found Beau sitting at a small table, handcuffs around his wrists.
The guy had the balls to smirk. “I recognize you guys. You’re the freaks who were in all those articles. Shot up with those enhancement drugs.”
Logan moved farther into the room, but he didn’t sit. “What do you know about Grace?” After what the guy had already said in the hall, Logan was only just hanging on to his temper.
Beau chuckled. “Hey, all I know is that the woman’s been stuck in Ice’s head for years. He has a fucking picture of her that he keeps in his wallet. It’s sickening.”
Logan’s jaw ticked.
“Why wasn’t Ice in Mexico when we raided the compound?” Aidan asked.
“Surprised? You shouldn’t be. The second that bitch Julie escaped, he knew he needed to change things up. If you’d arrived a week later the whole setup would have been gone. Ice was in the process of acquiring a new location. I was just lucky I wasn’t there, either.”
“Yeah, well, your luck’s run out.”
Beau smirked again. “We’ll see. Money has a way of helping situations turn around—and I’ve made plenty over the years.”
Logan leaned across the table. “Where is he?”
“You think I know? He doesn’t tell anyone shit. How do you think he’s kept off the grid for so long?”
Logan shot around the table before the guy could blink, yanking him to his feet and shoving him hard against the wall. He pressed his forearm against the man’s throat, applying enough pressure to cut off most of his air supply.
Panic flared through Beau’s eyes. Then fear.
Good.
“Tell me what you do know then.”
“Why?” Beau spluttered. “You’re not gonna kill me.”
Logan raised a brow. “You think death’s the worst I can do? I have half an hour with you. No one’s watching. No one’s coming to save you. I know a million different ways to break you without killing. I can send you to the brink of death, pull you back, then do it all over again. You want that?”
When Beau remained silent, Logan pressed harder, knowing the exact moment he cut off the guy’s air supply completely.
“Something you should know about me—I don’t stop until I get what I want. And I have a lot of pent-up rage right now. So, you not talking works great for my current mood.”
Beau’s face went a deep red shade, then purple, before Logan finally eased his arm back a touch. The guy spluttered and coughed.
When he still didn’t speak, Logan threw him into the side wall—hard.
Beau cried out, blood dripping from his face as he crumpled to the floor.
Logan was on him again in under a second. He tugged the guy to his feet, pushing his front against the wall while pulling his arm back and up.
“All it would take is a little bit of pressure to dislocate the limb,” Logan said into his ear. He lifted the arm higher.
A deep groan vibrated through the guy’s chest. “Fine, stop! I’ll talk!” Logan paused but didn’t lower the arm. “Ice watched you guys tear up the facility in Mexico through his hidden security cameras. He was in a goddamn rage! Called and said he was flying to Cradle Mountain to murder each of you one by one.”
When Beau paused, Logan shoved him against the wall again. “What happened next?”
“The next time he called, he was…different.”
“Different how?” Aidan asked.
“Excited. I’ve known the guy for nine years and never heard him sound like that. Now I know it must have been when he found her.” Beau muttered that last part under his breath, before continuing. “He told me the plans had changed. Sent me to Ketchum to take a redhead. He wanted you guys to know he was close. That he was in control.”
“Is that why you only take redheads? Because of Grace?”
“Yes.” He said the word through gritted teeth as Logan stretched his arm higher still. “The second Ice took over the operation, he made it a rule that all the women had to be Caucasian redheads in their early twenties. As far as I know, I’m the only one he ever told why.”
Aidan stepped forward. “How did Ice come to take over?”
“It happened after her. Grace McKenna was an assignment. An assignment that Ice was given because he took all the snatch-and-grab jobs. He was, and always has been, good at getting in and out of places without being seen.”
Logan breathed heavily through his nose, only just holding on to his rage.
“He was supposed to snatch her up, bring her to the compound. When a couple weeks passed and Ice still hadn’t completed the job, boss wasn’t happy. Shortly after, Grace got away from him. And two days after that, our boss was shot in the head in his own home. Ice took over. We all suspected it was him who made the kill. After all, if he hadn’t, our boss would have killed him.” Beau bucked in Logan’s hold. “Can you let go of my fucking arm now?”
Instead, Logan pulled his arm higher, pressed the guy harder against the wall. Beau cried out. One more tug and the thing would dislocate.
“Why is he so obsessed with her?” Aidan asked.
“Who the hell knows!” Beau was just about gasping the words, rising to his toes to alleviate the pressure on his shoulder. “It was like once he had her, she was just…his. The man hasn’t stopped thinking about her since.”
“She was never his,” Logan growled. “And very soon, the bastard will pay for his crimes.”
Beau scoffed. “You’ll have to find him first. Why do you think you didn’t get Ice’s location or contact details from the guys in Mexico? Because he’s careful. He doesn’t let anyone know a single thing about him. Eight years of being their boss and they didn’t have so much as a phone number. You don’t find Ice unless he wants to be found.”
“We’ll find him,” Logan said quietly.
“Will that be before or after he finds her? Because he has the means to disappear from the face of the planet. And once he has her again, he won’t let go. Not a second time.”
“So you didn’t get much information?” Grace asked, pushing the pasta around her bowl with a fork. She wasn’t that hungry, but Logan had gone to the effort of making food, so she was eating it.
Logan placed his fork on the table. Where her bowl was almost full, his was almost empty. “He didn’t have anything on the guy’s location and doesn’t have a way of getting in contact with him.”
So, a big fat diddly-squat. “But he knew my name.” McKenna. No one had used that name in such long time. Not since before Logan had yesterday, anyway. Hearing it again today had been another shock to her system.
“He did. He knew exactly who you were. Ice had shown him a picture.”
Kieran had kept a picture of her? God, the very idea made her skin crawl. After all these years, she’d really hoped he would forget about her. “I can’t believe Kieran still wants me. I must be pretty memorable.”
She was half-joking. Logan didn’t crack even the beginnings of a smile.
Was there anything she could have done differently all those years ago? Worn different clothes? Smiled less? Smiled more?
“The guy’s sick in the head, Grace.”
She pushed a piece of pasta up the side of the bowl. “Mitch was the best of the best. We actually got along really well. We had lots of chats while he was guarding my home. While he walked me to and from my car. That night, I just assumed he was either called away or watching me from afar. I didn’t know he was…” Dead. Butchered. “He was strong. Former military. Big. I remember thinking about how safe I was with him. How nothing would get past him.”
She saw the way Logan’s jaw clenched.
“It’s another reason I didn’t tell the guys back in Marble Falls. I didn’t want them to have to protect me from Kieran. I didn’t want anyone to have to put themself in that position for me ever again.”
Logan’s expression softened. “I understand why you did what you did.”
“But do you forgive me?” She hadn’t realized until this very moment just how much she needed to hear him say the words.
“There’s nothing to forgive. Do I think you should have trusted Wyatt’s team to protect you? Yes. But you did what you thought was best. The blame lies solely on Barret for putting you in that position.”
Grace breathed out a long breath.
Logan opened his mouth, looking like he wanted to say something, but stopped.
She tilted her head to the side. “What is it?”
He scrubbed a hand over his face. Suddenly, she got a sinking feeling in her gut. “Steve, our FBI liaison, approached me after I got out of the room with Beau. He ran your name through the system after that asshole shouted it. Steve knows who you are, Grace. And what your dad did.”
Grace shot to her feet so fast, her seat tipping backward. She scanned the room. Where was her phone? She needed to call her dad. Warn him the police were coming.
She’d taken three steps before Logan’s large body appeared in front of her, hands going to her shoulders, holding her in place.
“Grace, stop.”
“I need to call him!” She wrenched herself away, but Logan’s arms just slipped to her waist, tugging her close.
“He’s safe.” His forehead went to hers. “Steve’s a good guy. He’s also a father, so he understands why your dad did what he did. He’s going to take care of it.”
She looked up, almost not wanting to believe what she was hearing in case she was wrong. “What does that mean, ‘take care of it’?”
“He didn’t share the details, but he said he was going to make sure both you and your father were okay.”
Okay? So…not put in jail? Not punished for the crime he’d committed to save her? “And you trust him?”
“Yes.”
Grace could have collapsed at the sudden weightless relief that flooded her body.
Logan’s arms tightened before he lifted her off the floor. Her legs immediately wrapped around his waist. Then she was kissing him. Or maybe he was kissing her, she wasn’t sure.
Everything was a blur, their lips meeting hungrily, his hands gliding through her hair, her fingers clutching at his shirt like he was a lifeline.
Shifting her lips away from his, she trailed kisses across his cheek, all the way to his ear. “Thank you. For everything.” Every little thing he’d done to make her life better. Easier. Safer.
