Remorseless (Fractured Farrells: A Damaged Billionaire Series Book 3) (6 page)

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J
ulie forced herself to walk into the gas station and not look back at Logan. Sure, there was a chance that he could drive off and abandon her, but they’d made so much progress. Did she really need to stand and stare at him just to make sure he stayed put?

But her phone was in the car, so at least if he did try to go anywhere, she could have the phone company track him down.
Did Logan know that was possible?
She didn’t really know what forms of entertainment were available to prisoners.
Maybe he would know how dangerous it was to keep the phone and toss it?

Once she was inside, she risked a quick glance and he was still there, watching her. She took a breath and walked out of his line of vision. After her quickest bathroom break ever, she ran back to the windows and let out a sigh of relief when she confirmed that Logan was still there and pumping gas.

Whew. Okay.
Now she could focus on picking out snacks. It was a rental car and it got hot in the sun, so she sadly had to cross anything chocolate off her shopping list. She didn’t want to have to clean the melted chocolate off the car later. That, and if chocolate melted, some would stick to the wrapper and wasted chocolate was just too sad to contemplate.

So she stuck with neater snacks: jerky, nuts, and a bag of chips. She was about to go to the next aisle when she realized someone else was there. She started to walk by the man when she noticed the leather jacket in his arms. Suddenly it clicked into place and she realized she knew the guy. He’d been eating breakfast at the hotel. Well, drinking coffee. The big guy with thinning hair. Julie narrowed her eyes and instead of passing the man, she stared him down. “You look familiar,” she said.

He spared a glance in her direction. “That’s strange.”

He started to walk away, but Julie wouldn’t let him go that easy. “No. I have a really good memory for faces. I saw you at the hotel this morning. So are you on a trip? Heading on vacation? Or is this a work thing?”

He stopped and turned on her. “That’s none of your business.”

“Well, if someone is following me or the guy I’m with, it’s kind of my business.” As in it was literally her job to make sure no one knew where he was.

“Fuck, lady. It’s just a coincidence.”

Julie didn’t believe in coincidence. Not when she was traveling with a Farrell and every news outlet in the country would kill for the story on what he was doing now that he was free. “Don’t bullshit me, buddy. I know why you’re here and if you think for one second that—”

“Maybe we should talk about this somewhere more private.”

Maybe he’d cut the lies once they got outside. It would be hard to get a real go-getter of a reporter off Logan’s back, but she had a good amount of leeway in the budget. If he was okay with wire transfers, maybe she could bribe him to go away. Well, she could bribe him for the moment and then maybe call the cops on the license plate to really throw him off the trail. That would be enough to get them some distance at least.

“So do you mind if I ask how you found us? I’m rather impressed and would like to avoid encounters like this in the future.”

“Just walk, lady.” He kicked the back door open with his foot and pushed her out.

She thought it was impossible, but there was someone who talked to her in a more condescending way than Logan. She turned and faced him. “Listen. I’m really impressed that you made it this far, but I can’t let you get any closer to Logan. If you allow me to arrange a few things, I’m sure we can—” She shut up abruptly when she saw the shiny metal butt of a gun poking out from his jacket. Julie backed away slowly.
This reporter was going way too far.
“I just have to...”

He dropped the jacket to the ground and pressed the gun into her stomach.

Julie’s breath caught in her throat. “I’m really sorry for what I said, but I don’t think any story is worth this...” She’d been so stupid to come out here. But it was broad daylight and she’d somehow assumed that there would be people or truckers or something on this side of the gas station. But the dumpsters kept them hidden from view from anyone.
She was going to die next to a dumpster. What kind of bad luck was it to die next to a dumpster? Though dying in your twenties was bad luck no matter what...
She snapped herself out of the stream of consciousness and focused on self-preservation. “I can pay you.”

That seemed to give the guy pause. “I’m already getting paid.”

“I can pay you more. I work with billionaires and I have an open credit line. Just name your price.” And the second he was gone, she was calling the cops. The second she got Logan to a safe spot and then she would call the police; otherwise, the media would really be here. Then she’d be almost dead and she would’ve failed at her job.
Alive.
She needed to focus on the alive part. “Just name your price and I’ll make sure—”

“There is no price. Sorry, but you weren’t supposed to see me.”

Before she could think of any other way to bargain with him, he tucked the gun into his back waistband.

Why would he apologize if he was just going to put—

His hands went to her throat and the pressure was immediate and intense.
Strange.
She’d assumed that the lack of air part of being strangled would be the worst part, but the intense pain was overpowering. She clawed frantically at his hands and face but nothing seemed to sway him.

The lack of air started to catch up with her; her arms seemed to get heavier and harder to manage.
But if she couldn’t get him off her...

Suddenly a dark flash slammed into the man and her throat was released as Logan and the guy fell to the pavement. Julie rested against the wall as her knees failed her and she slid down. She needed to get up and help him, but she couldn’t seem to get her legs working.

But she shouldn’t have worried. Logan had the upper hand and was punching the guy over and over again. Julie tried to tell him to stop, but nothing came out of her sore throat except for a pained croak.

He seemed to hear her and looked over. There was a crazy, almost feral look in his eyes, and Julie backed up farther against the wall. “Shit,” he muttered. Then he rummaged through the guy’s pockets and grabbed a phone, wallet, and keys. “Can you stand?” he asked.

Once again Julie made the mistake of trying to talk and she winced through the pain. Instead, she nodded as she tried to push herself up. Apparently she lied, because her shaky knees could barely function, but Logan set an arm behind her back and led her around the gas station. Julie glanced behind them, but the guy was still on the ground. “Police,” she croaked out in a barely audible voice, but Logan kept pulling her along.

“We need to get out of here.”

“But—”

“For the love of God, stop talking, Julie.” He half led, half dragged her to the rental and pushed her into the passenger’s seat before he got behind the wheel and sped off. Luckily there wasn’t anyone around or Julie would be terrified he was about to run someone over. She brought her hand up to her sore throat. She wanted to pull down the mirror to see whether it was all black and blue, but from the reckless way he was driving, she didn’t want to impair his vision in any small way.

Instead, she leaned back and closed her eyes, trying not to focus on the speedometer as Logan accelerated onto the freeway and swung into the fast lane. She just survived one attempt on her life. She really didn’t want to get into a car crash now. “Careful,” she breathed as she reached over to rest a hand on Logan’s thigh to make sure he heard her.

He jerked at the touch and he looked over his shoulder before he swung the car into the slow lane and then onto the shoulder.

Julie’s heart leapt into her throat at the sudden maneuver and she clenched her fingers, only belatedly realizing that she was squeezing his thigh. Before she could remove her hand, he’d brought the car to a stop and jumped out.
Had he even looked to make sure some other car wasn’t going to run into him?

But then he was on her side and opening her door. She couldn’t even try to ask him what he was thinking about doing before he set his hands on her legs and turned her to face him. “How are you feeling? Do you need to go to a hospital?” Without waiting for her response, he set his hands on her neck and gently tilted her head back to look at her neck.

“I think I’m okay...” she whispered. He released her and she looked at him. From the height of the seat, she was now eye level with him, and her knees were parted far enough that he stood right in the middle. She was suddenly intensely aware of how intimate this position was, and the pain in her neck was now the last thing on her mind.

“I didn’t see you when I went back into the gas station,” he said.

“I recognized the man who...I recognized him from the hotel this morning. He must’ve followed us and I assumed he was a reporter or paparazzi.” Her throat was still sore, but if she whispered, she was able to get more words out without intense pain.

“I doubt that.”

“So do I at this point.”

“I’m sorry you got hurt.”

“Why didn’t we call the police? That man should be in jail right now.”

Logan shook his head. “He wasn’t the one after me. He was just a hired hand. If the cops come in, then everyone will know where I am and I’ll be in even more trouble.”

So he wasn’t just going to Colorado for fun. He was running from something.
Maybe it was time for her to ask for a raise. “Do you still have his phone?”

Logan fished it out of his back pocket and handed it to her. The small flip phone was outdated and cheap, which meant it probably didn’t have a lot of personal information on it. There were no text messages received or sent, but there was one number in the call log. Julie took her own phone out and snapped a picture of the call log before she handed the phone back to Logan. “If you don’t want him to find us, you should leave the phone here.”

Logan took the phone. “They can track us even if we don’t use it?”

“I don’t know. Better safe than sorry.”

Logan tossed the phone and Julie inwardly shuddered. This was a stupid time to think about littering, but damn she hated leaving waste in such a pretty natural environment; it seemed like a shame. Then Logan ran a hand over her arm and the surprise touch pulled her from her thoughts.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

Julie looked to where his hand stroked her bare arm and then back to his face. The bright sun was behind him, putting most of those sharp features in shadows so even his ice-blue eyes seemed darker.

She’d always thought Logan was attractive, but seeing him now, with all his attention, and even his hands, on her, an unfamiliar bolt of longing went through her.
She’d almost died.
She’d almost died and Logan had saved her, and the adrenaline was wearing off but it was still there, and damn, she wanted to pull him closer and kiss him until her throat stopped hurting and she forgot what had almost happened.

Logan patted her leg. “If you’re sure you don’t need to get checked out, we should get going.”

Julie nodded wordlessly. Partly because she didn’t know what had gotten into her and partly because it still hurt to talk.

He backed away; she tucked her legs back into the car so he could shut the doors and get back into the driver’s side. “Do you need something to drink? Or painkillers? We can stop somewhere.”

“I would kill for some ice cream,” she whispered before realizing that probably wasn’t the best choice of words, all things considered. But Logan didn’t seem to notice as he pulled back on the freeway.

“I’m sure we can find some. Think you can find an ice cream place on your phone?”

Julie nodded as she pulled out her phone, but she didn’t pull anything up. Instead, she stared at the black screen as her adrenaline faded and left exhaustion in its wake.

“You still hanging in there?”

She didn’t answer as she replayed the scene once again. All she could see were the millions of ways she’d handled it wrong. She never should have gone outside in the first place. She’d jumped to the completely wrong conclusion and never even assumed she was in trouble.

And then she could’ve screamed! He’d put the gun away and there had been plenty of time for her to get someone to know she was in trouble, but she’d thought he was letting her go.
God, how stupid had she been?

Then once he’d started to choke her, she might as well have helped him. She thought back to the scratching and clawing she’d tried, none of it working. She should’ve punched him or kicked him in the groin or something. But every single logical center in her brain had shut down and pure panic had set in. It was only through dumb luck that Logan had found them.
Luck.
The only reason she was alive now. That was horrible.

She glanced down to her phone.
Maybe she was in over her head.
No amount of money would really make up for this. She could call Nathan right now and tell him she was out. If they found out what happened, they wouldn’t judge her. This was supposed to be a hard job, but not life-threatening.

Logan reached over and set a hand on her knee. “This won’t happen again,” he promised. “I’ll make sure of it, okay?”

Julie studied him carefully.
Did he know what she was thinking somehow? No.
If he knew she was thinking of bailing, he would’ve told her she was in more danger than ever. He didn’t want her around, and considering the shit he was into apparently, she was just going to get in the way.

But could she trust him to keep her safe? He had made quick work of the guy who’d tried to kill her. One minute, his hands had been around her neck; the next, he’d been on the ground. It hadn’t really been a fight considering Logan had always had the upper hand.

Julie hadn’t stood a chance and Logan didn’t even put up much of a fight.
No.
Logan was a dangerous man to be around, but he was on her side. What if she hadn’t noticed the man following them? They’d still have a tail and have no idea.

So even though things hadn’t been ideal, they were in better circumstances now than they had been before. She’d helped him. She’d helped him in a stupid way, but she’d still helped him. Maybe there was a reason for her to stay. They probably worked better as a team. Especially when she remembered that Logan hadn’t been out in society for ten years. What if he made a stupid mistake because he didn’t know better? What if he still had that guy’s phone on him and he’d been found the next time he stopped?