The Boys Club (3 page)

“Doctor Connors!”

Jim Schaffer’s voice thundered through the room, making
Logan jump straight up in bed.

“I won’t embarrass either of you by turning on the light,”
Schaffer continued, “but I want you both fully dressed and in the hallway in
the next two minutes.”

After the door shut, Allie sat up, the blanket covering her
bare chest. “I suppose I’ve just lost my job.”

Logan lifted his hand to her cheek. “No, you haven’t. I’ll
make sure of it.” He kissed her gently and said, “We better not push it,
though. Time to pay the piper.”

They rushed through getting dressed and moved to the door.
Before she could open it, he scooped her close and kissed her again. “Whatever
he says, don’t worry. You’ll still have a job in the morning. I promise.”

Her eyebrows shot up and she glared at him with a flash of
despair in her eyes. “I better.”

“You will. It’s my fault you stayed here.”

“Damn right it is.”

He stared into her eyes, his own narrowed with concern. “I’m
sorry, Allie.”

“I know you are.” She lifted herself onto her tiptoes and
gave him one last passionate kiss.

Logan reached around her and opened the door. They walked
outside, an angry Schaffer leaning against the wall across from the door. Logan
turned to Allie, who kept her eyes down to the tiles.

Schaffer crossed his arms and stared Allie down. “Doctor
Connors, did your house get foreclosed on yesterday?”

Allie hung her head low. “No, sir.”

“Gas leak? A fire?”

She squirmed and clasped her hands in front her waist. “No,
sir.” Her quiet voice wavered, as if on the verge of tears.

“Anything else that prevented you from returning home after
your shift last night?”

“Schaffer, don’t,” Logan said.

Schaffer turned to Logan and held up his hand. “I’ll deal
with you in a moment.” Looking back at Allie, he asked, “Well?”

“No, sir.”

“Then I suppose since you have no reason to be here, you
should be home right now.” He took a few steps toward her and lowered his
voice. “What the hell are you thinking sleeping with Logan? You have to know
he’s 15 ways messed up.”

Logan glared at him, but couldn’t find a good argument
against what he said.

“You may be a damn good doctor,” Schaffer continued, “but
you’d make a horrible psychiatrist. Go on home.”

“Yes, sir.” She started down the hall, but stopped when
Schaffer spoke again.

“Doctor Connors, I’ll expect to see you in my office at 9
a.m. sharp. We still need to discuss the repercussions from this violation of
your contract.”

“Yes, sir,” she said without turning around, and then
continued down the hall.

Once she turned the corner, Logan looked at Schaffer. “You
don’t have to talk to her like a criminal. She didn’t do anything wrong.”

“What was the one rule I had when I brought her on? The only
rule that I made more than clear to all of you before I hired a female to work
here?”

His turn to be punished, Logan lowered his eyes and his
voice, like a child in trouble with his father. “No fraternization.”

“There are reasons for that,” Schaffer said. “I don’t need
any of you distracted while you’re here. You were the last person I expected to
break that rule.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“Don’t act like this was a one-time deal. I’ve held my
tongue for over two weeks now and I’m sure you’ve been with her longer than
that. Since you two were keeping it quiet, I didn’t say anything, but when you
bring it here…” He sighed. “Come on, Logan. I have to draw the line somewhere,
even with you.”

Logan folded his arms and locked eyes with his longtime
friend, mentor, and boss. “Yeah, I suppose you do and I’m sorry.”

“It’s not me you should apologize to. What the hell are you
doing to that poor girl? You must know she’s in love with you.”

He did know. There was no misunderstanding that point. She
had even told him again tonight, as if expecting his feelings to have changed.

“I know she is,” he said. Saying it aloud to someone else
brought on a wave of self-loathing and disgust over his actions.

“Ah hell, Logan. That makes it even worse.”

“It won’t happen again.”

“You’re damn right it won’t. If it does, I’m putting her on
a two-month suspension.”

“You can’t—”

“She’s getting off easy. You’ll have a six-month suspension
with mandatory psych visits.”

“That’s not right.”

“Yes, it is. It’s the only thing I’ll have done right since
I let you come back so soon after Karen died. Either get yourself together or
I’ll force you to.”

Logan balled his fists at his sides and suppressed his
anger. Nothing Schaffer said was wrong and Logan knew he deserved every ounce
of that punishment now, despite only getting a warning.

Schaffer leaned against the wall again. “You know I started
this organization to help you boys, not to screw your lives up completely. Most
days I wonder if I’ve failed in that mission, especially where you’re
concerned.”

Logan raised his eyes to Schaffer’s worn face. The mass of
wrinkles around his tired blue eyes told the tale of his life. Every single
strand in the mess of gray hair came from either Logan or one of the other boys
Schaffer brought onto the program. Though most of them were men now, all of
them ranging in age from 24 to 35, save one new 17-year old recruit, Schaffer
would always view them as his boys. The thought of disappointing him weighed
heavily on Logan.

“You haven’t failed us,” Logan told Schaffer. “You brought
all of us out of the life of failure we were already living. If anything, I’ve
failed you.”

Schaffer stared at him, but Logan could not read his
expression. “From here on out your relationship with Doctor Connors is strictly
patient-doctor. Unless you love her. Since that’s not the case, we won’t need
to have that discussion anytime soon.” He pushed off from the wall. “Get some
sleep. In the morning, you’ll be debriefed and go home. Take a couple weeks off
to get your head together. I won’t put you on a job before then.”

Logan nodded. “Thank you.” He went back to his room,
exhausted and embarrassed. He had failed not only Schaffer, but Allie. Somehow,
he’d have to find a way to make it right.

Logan woke in a mess of tangled
sheets and damp pillowcases. He wiped the cold sweat from the back of his neck
and the fatigue from his eyes. Making his way to the bathroom to clean up, he
yawned and rubbed his chin, the growth a few days past a reasonable stubble
length and a cruel reminder of how little he cared anymore.

After returning to bed earlier in the morning and smelling
Allie on the sheets, he tossed and turned over his bad decisions and the effect
they had on others. He didn’t know what possessed him to sleep with Allie at
the Church after months of being careful and meeting at her house. He assumed
on some level he had a desperate need to get caught. If he couldn’t stop
sleeping with her on his own, Schaffer would force cessation on them both.

Sleep finally greeted him with another nightmare about
Karen. The dreams had grown infrequent over time, but every so often one found
him and choked out his desire to keep going in life. This one had been no
different, as he watched her death unfold before him with her in his ear,
telling him all the reasons why it was his fault.

When he met Karen six years ago, life took on new meaning
for him. He proposed marriage a year later, married her a year after that, and
left The Boys Club for a life of happiness. Schaffer found him a legitimate job
on a road construction crew and everyone expected him to be gone forever.

At the time, he did not know that Hugh Langston, a man he
had undermined and crossed many times over the years, had uncovered his
identity. Langston took out a contract on Logan, resulting in a car bomb gone
wrong.

Almost two years into their marriage and six months
pregnant, Karen postponed a trip to visit her parents due to a nasty bout of
nausea. She spent the morning throwing up, and Logan convinced her to go see
the doctor.

Logan walked her to the car, which sat in the middle of
their driveway, since boxes from their recent move filled the garage. He ran
back into the house to get his wallet while she started the engine. He went
back outside to a smoke-filled car and his wife screaming in pain. Then he saw
the flames. A second later, the car exploded, throwing Logan back into the
house through the open door.

A bomb intended to explode upon turning the ignition key and
instantly kill Logan did not perform its designed function. Investigators
believed the smoke started first, confusing Karen so she couldn’t find the
seatbelt latch or the door handle. The fire started soon after that, searing
her skin for a full minute before Logan came back outside.

Since that day, Logan had often tortured himself by watching
the clock as a grueling minute ticked by, wondering what she thought about
while her skin bubbled and boiled under the intense flames. He wondered if she
blamed him, if she thought he abandoned her while she died, if she worried for
the baby, or if the pain denied her any coherent thoughts. Had he been in the
car with her, he could have found the door handle for her and pushed her to
safety, giving her time to escape before the bomb finally did its job.

But he had been in the house, performing the mundane and
meaningless task of retrieving his forgotten wallet from the kitchen counter.

Logan rushed through a shower and shave, after which he
threw on an old pair of jeans, black T-shirt, and his sneakers. He secured the
sling Allie gave him over his bad shoulder. He would take it off when he got
home, but did not want to get called out on his way out of the building. With
his duffel bag slung over his good shoulder, he took one last look around the
room to make sure he had not forgotten anything. Pain stabbed his heart when he
caught sight of the bed and he hoped Allie was okay.

Heading down the hall to the elevator so he could get to his
debrief and hurry home to his small apartment, Logan heard a commotion
overhead. When he reached the first floor, almost everyone who worked at The
Boys Club was gathered in the main lobby.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Jack asked, as he walked
up to Logan.

“To my debrief and then home for a couple weeks, which is
exactly where you should be going.” Logan gestured to the sling on his arm. “I
have a few injuries to take care of.”

“Funny how you were the only one on the whole team who was
injured,” Jack said with a laugh. “But we’re not going home anytime soon.
Schaffer called everyone in for this job. I’m surprised you didn’t get the
memo.”

Logan glanced around the room and saw the other members from
last night’s team with their own bags in their hands. It appeared as if they
also thought they were going home for some time off between jobs, but got stuck
here like he had.

“What are we waiting for?” Logan asked Jack.

A loud click sounded through the lobby and men started
moving toward the main doors.

“That,” Jack said. He turned to file in after the others.

Logan followed suit, walking with the last of the group down
the long hallway that led to the main chapel. Though the pews had been replaced
by chairs and the Catholic artifacts donated back to the diocese, the stained
glass windows remained. Sunlight filtered through the colorful scenes of Jesus,
Mary, angels, and saints. Logan wondered if Schaffer left them in place to give
the boys a sense of calm when entering the chapel, like the one that came over
Logan now.

He found a chair toward the center of the chapel next to
Jack and set his bag down on his lap. His eyes landed on the empty podium at
the front of the room where Schaffer usually stood to brief them on a new job.
A large white screen filled the majority of the back wall, where pictures
related to the job would be displayed. After the job was announced, the
assigned leader picked his team and planning began. Yet in all his years
working for The Boys Club, Logan had never seen the chapel so full, which made
him all the more curious about the job.

Schaffer came through a side door with a file in his hand,
followed by his assistant, Kyle, and Allie. Logan watched him step up to the
podium. Kyle went to the projector and plugged in a laptop, while Allie settled
into a chair to the left of the podium. Logan made eye contact with her for a
brief moment before Schaffer called for everyone to settle down.

“I know you are curious why so many of you are here this
morning,” Schaffer said into a microphone. “Right now we have three teams in
the field, but everyone who isn’t active on a job is here in this room. A new
job came across my desk an hour ago, one that will require three teams. Even
though it’s the biggest job we’ve ever done, we have only 24 hours to plan it.”

Murmurs came from the all over the room and Logan frowned.
How did Schaffer expect them to plan such a large job in such a short time? He
was grateful that he had just returned from a job. The chances of getting stuck
on another job so soon after finishing his last one were slim, especially since
he had been injured.

Schaffer’s voice boomed across the room again, silencing the
whispers. “I know it seems impossible, but we have to get it done. A life is at
stake, so we don’t have a choice.” His eyes roamed around the room until they
landed on Logan. “I’m putting Logan in charge of this one.”

Logan’s lips parted in surprise as the others turned their
heads until their eyes fell on him. A few strong whispers came from around him,
expressing outrage over Schaffer’s decision.

“With all due respect,” Logan said, “I’m not ready for
another job. I just returned last night and with my shoulder and the stitches,
I don’t know if I’m able to take on such a huge job so soon.”

His words shut up the rest of the group, who turned to
Schaffer for his response.

“I wondered that myself, but I reviewed Doctor Connors’s
report and she’s cleared you for duty.” Schaffer held his hands up at the start
of the protests from the others. “I would much rather have someone who is
rested, but I think when you hear about the job you will all agree with me that
this one needs to go to Logan.”

Anxiety knotted in Logan’s stomach. “What’s the job?” he
asked.

“Hugh Langston.”

Gasps came up from around the room and some men turned to
look at Logan, who had tightened his jaw at the sound of that name. He was
certain the other men no longer objected to his taking charge of the job, not
when it involved the man who had killed his wife and unborn child.

“Are we taking him down?” Logan asked.

“Not exactly. He’s taken out a hit on someone and we need to
stop it before it happens next week. She’ll be the one to take him down.”

“Who’s the target?” Jack called out from beside Logan.

Schaffer locked eyes with Logan. “His daughter, Sara.”