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