She stopped, faltering a moment, her back still to him.

Logan moved closer. “I’m going to keep saying it until you believe it.”

“Damn it,” she muttered low. She breathed harder, then suddenly turned around and grabbed his face.

Her kiss was so hot and deep that he almost forgot where they were and that he was about to leave.

Slowly she eased away. “Oh, I believe it, Logan,” she said against his mouth. “But it doesn’t matter enough. Yet.”

He watched her walk away, her ass looking very fine beneath the T-shirt, her shoulders back with stubborn pride. It took Reese snagging his arm and drawing him away to finally get him to the truck. He turned to watch as Dash held the door open for Pepper, then waved them off and followed her in.

With no reason left for lingering, he got behind the wheel and turned the truck around to leave.

They drove in silence for a good fifteen minutes before Reese chuckled.

“Fuck you.” While staring out the windshield, Logan went over all that had to be done, everything he needed to address today—things that Reese would know about and some he wouldn’t.

His foul mood only enhanced Reese’s hilarity. “She has you on the run.”

Maybe. But he wouldn’t discuss that with anyone. “Where’s your car?”

“I left it in a lot near where I picked up Rowdy’s car. You can drop me off there. I’ll head home to check on my dog, clean up and change, before coming to the station.”

“The dog’s been closed up all this time?”

Reese grunted. “I wouldn’t have an apartment left if I’d tried that.” He turned his cell back on, glanced at it, then shook his head. “A neighbor lady has him. Alice-something-or-other.”

“She’s watching your dog, but you don’t know her name?”

“Thanks to you, I was left to quick improvisation. She was handy, she likes Cash, so…” Reese shrugged. “She and the dog get along great. She has the magic touch with him, and believe me, Cash needs a little gentleness. I don’t know how I’d have worked it, but I wouldn’t have just left him alone that long. He’d feel abandoned. So it’s a good thing Alice was around.”

It left Logan curious, hearing such an outpouring over a dog Reese had just gotten and a neighbor he’d never before mentioned. “Does she have a dog of her own?”

“No. But it’s clear she loves animals.”

“A good quality, right?” How would Pepper feel about a pet? Maybe a cat or dog—or both. He had a feeling she’d love it, and that gave him something to consider.

“She’s a single woman, super tidy, so you’d think she’d be on me to come get him, right? But last night when I called to check on him, I woke her. And get this—she’d taken Cash to bed with her because that’s where he wanted to sleep.”

Single and over-the-top friendly to his dog—seemed clear enough to Logan. “She’s on the make.”

“Definitely not. Hell, most of the time she won’t even acknowledge me. If it wasn’t for Cash, she still wouldn’t. She’s a strange one, I’ll give her that.”

“Define strange.”

Reese pondered that. “I guess self-contained covers it. And alert—like a cop, but in a different way. Maybe with more worry than caution.”

“But you trusted her with your dog?”

“Cash loved her on sight. What can I say?” Reese grew introspective. “It’s a hell of a conundrum.”

Sounded to Logan like Cash wasn’t the only one taken with the woman. They drove another twenty minutes in relative silence, each lost in their own thoughts, before Logan asked, “Have you heard from Peterson?”

“Strangely enough, no. My cell was off, of course, and we were on our own time…but, yeah, I half expected a dozen messages when I turned my phone back on.” He glanced out the window, indifferent.

“She’ll probably chew both our asses when we get in.”

“Because of the club snafu, you mean?” Reese shook his head. “I doubt she knows we were anywhere near there.”

“The thing is…” Logan flexed his hands on the steering wheel. “Morton Andrews died last night.”

“The hell you say!” Reese scowled in surprise. “I saw the site, Logan, and the situation could have gone either way. It’s not like the floor was obliterated.”

“It was a homemade bomb. He died at the hospital after getting hit with shrapnel.” While gauging Reese’s reaction, Logan shared the few details he’d gotten from Rowdy on the second death.

Reese shook his head. “We’ll need to find the sniper, but I doubt anyone will miss either of the men.” Rife with disgust, he muttered, “As far as I’m concerned, good riddance to them both.”

He was good—but there was something missing in his response. “You knew about Morton’s newest venture into human trafficking?”

Reese didn’t deny it, but he did clarify. “I didn’t know much, only that he hoped to dabble. Why?”

“You didn’t think to share it with me?”

“You’re not a slacker, Logan. You know the club dealt in prostitution, and you knew Morton was brutal. It only made sense that he’d cut corners where he could.”

“By buying women?”

Reese took in his skepticism. “Don’t tell me you’re surprised?”