Unexplored (Treasure Hunter Security Book 3) (8 page)

They came to an abrupt stop, rocking on their tires, facing the Silk Road van.

Logan punched the gas.

Sydney gripped the door. “What are you doing?”

“I’m going to distract them. Keep them focused on us to let Dec do his thing.”

The van was speeding up, too, coming straight at them. Her breath lodged in her throat. Logan jerked to the side, and they rode the very edge of the road. Their doors scraped against the other car. More bullets hit the side of their SUV, and Sydney returned fire.

They sped past each other, and Logan slammed on the brakes. He turned them again, in another sickening slide.

She saw the van slow and perform the same one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn Logan had. It raced back toward them…apparently oblivious to Declan’s SUV zooming up behind them.

Barely breathing, Sydney watched Declan’s vehicle close in, and Hale and Morgan peppered the van with bullets.

The Silk Road van spun out of control.

Coming straight at Logan and Sydney.

She tensed. “Oh, God.”

“Hold on.” Logan tossed an arm across her chest.

The van smashed into them with a crash and a crunch of metal. Glass shattered. It felt like time moved in slow motion. Sydney felt the SUV slide closer to the drop-off into the valley. It was just feet away.

Then she felt the car roll.

They crashed onto the roof. Metal groaned. Then everything went still.

Sydney sat there, hanging in her belt, breathing hard. “Logan, next time I’m driving.”

There was no response.

She turned her head and saw his body slumped, his eyes closed. There was no blood, but she saw a hard knot at his temple.

“Logan?” It was scary to see him so still and quiet. “Logan!”

Sydney reached down and undid her belt. She crashed down onto the crumpled roof of the car. Awkwardly, she managed to get her feet under her, and pushed herself out her broken side window.

Once out of the vehicle, she quickly circled around to Logan’s side. Seeing how close they were to the edge of the cliff made bile rise in her throat.

She crouched. “Logan? Come on, Wild Man, we need to get out of here.” She reached through the window and pushed his hair back from his face.

Then she heard a groan, and the crunch of a boot on broken glass. She frowned. Logan hadn’t moved.

She spun. A Silk Road man stood above her, blood running down his face and soaking into his shirt. His black mask dangled around his neck. He had a gun aimed at her chest and blood smeared on his teeth. “You’re coming with me.”

Sydney looked back and saw Dec’s vehicle wheeling around, coming back toward them. “There’s nowhere to go. You should run before they get here.”

“I’m more afraid of my employer than them.”

He reached down, grabbed her arm, and yanked her to her feet. Sydney tried to stay calm. Then the man swiveled, raising his gun to her right.

Right at the still-unconscious Logan.

Her gut hardened and she gathered herself.
No way
. She turned and rammed her shoulder into the man’s gut.

He stumbled back with a cry.

And the gun went off.

***

The gunshot echoed in Logan’s ears. He felt the crunch of glass under his hands, and the hard press of a seatbelt across his chest.

For a second, he was back with his SEAL team, after they’d been ambushed. He was trapped in the Humvee, his injured friends’ screams and gunfire echoing around them. Along with the sickening realization that they’d been ambushed—and Logan had instantly known the source of the leak. Fucking Annika had screwed him over in more ways than one.

But as he opened his eyes, the past faded. He realized in an instant where he was.

He turned his head and saw Sydney struggling with a man.

Logan wrestled the seatbelt off, and, grunting, he moved to get out of the crumpled vehicle. He felt glass scratch down his arm but he ignored it. He shoved at the door, but it was so bent out of shape that it wouldn’t budge.

He shoved again, and, with a roar, he gripped the frame and started to strain against the metal. He kept pushing, using all his strength, and he felt the metal bend. A second later, he gave the door another hard shove and it opened. He rolled out of the car.

Logan jumped to his feet, ready to help Sydney.

He came to a stop.

She already had the guy down. He was groaning, holding his bloody face, and writhing on the road.

Sydney stood there, cool and calm. The air sawed in and out of Logan’s lungs as he tried to calm himself.

“Hey, it’s okay.” She moved up close to him, studying his face intently. “You’re all right?”

He managed a nod.

She reached up and tentatively touched his chest, stroking.

“You’re not hurt,” he managed to get out.

“No. I’m fine.”

Because he needed it, Logan yanked her to his chest. She went still for a second, then softened against him, her arms creeping around his waist.

There was a squeal of tires, and the other SUV skidded to a stop next to them.

Dec, Morgan, and Hale rushed out of the vehicle. Dec eyed the crashed SUV, then the wreck of the Silk Road van, and the unmoving bodies of the other Silk Road members inside. Finally, his gaze rested on the thug writhing on the ground.

Dec rubbed his chin. “Hale and Morgan, check the men in the van. Tie them up if they’re still alive.” Dec looked at Logan. “You guys are okay?”

“Yeah.” Logan eyed the man. “Maybe he’s not feeling so good, though.”

A faint smile crossed Dec’s face. “We’ll push the wrecks off the road and then I’ll get Darcy to call the authorities. You two get in the vehicle.”

“We don’t need to stay?” Sydney asked.

“No. If we get tied up with the authorities, we’ll be here for days. Darcy will sort things out with them.” He pulled out some black zip ties. “We’ll leave these guys secured and let the police deal with them.” He frowned at Logan. “Logan, you’re bleeding.”

Logan heard Sydney gasp and pull away from him. He shrugged. “It’s just a scratch.”

She studied the nasty cut on his arm from the glass. “You call that a scratch?”

He smiled crookedly. “Sure. You wouldn’t?”

“How’s that knot on your head?”

“Fine. I’ve had worse.”

“And you have a hard head.”

Dec and the others made short work of shoving the wreckages to the side of the road, and grabbing the gear from Logan’s vehicle. As they climbed back into Dec’s SUV, Logan made sure that Sydney was sitting beside him in the back. He let her fuss over him, pulling things out of the first aid kit, and swiping the blood off his arms.

“You look like you crawled over glass,” she muttered.

“I was trying to get to you.”

Her hand stilled for a moment, then she kept wiping. “Despite what most people think, I can take care of myself.”

“Never thought you couldn’t.”

“This one’s deep here. It could do with a bandage.”

“Here you go.” Declan passed something back from the front seat.

Logan saw Sydney take the small Band-Aid and then her mouth moved into a smile.

“This is pink. With princesses on it.”

Logan made a grumbling sound and crossed his arms over his chest. “Declan thinks he’s a comedian sometimes.”

She held the small strip up, eyeing Logan’s arm.

“Don’t even think about it.”

The car erupted with laughter, easing the tension.

The rest of the drive to Leymebamba was uneventful. The only vehicles they passed on the road were local vehicles, and a pair of tourists riding motorbikes.

They pulled into the quiet town of Leymebamba. It was nestled in a valley, the mountains rising up around it. The narrow streets were lined by simple buildings with tiled roofs.

Dec pulled the vehicle to a stop and turned back to look at them. “Darcy’s got us rooms at a local hotel. There’s not much to choose from here, so the rooms are basic, but they’ll do. I need to go meet with a local guide. He’s organizing the horses we’ll use for the trip to the lake. We’ll leave first thing in the morning.”

“I hate horses.” Logan spotted Morgan rolling her eyes and scowled at her. “So will we meet up for dinner?”

Dec nodded. “Take the chance to have a long shower, soak in the tub. We won’t be getting much of that once we head into the forest. We all need a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow is going to be hard going.”

Soon, Logan found himself carrying his duffel bag into his hotel room. Basic was being generous. The walls were bare and white, and a single bed occupied the space. He snorted. He was sure his feet would hang over the edge. He looked out the window and saw a central courtyard filled with a variety of lush plants. A bird feeder hung from the roof and a hummingbird flitted around it.

He dumped the bag and stripped off his clothes on the way to the tiny bathroom. There was a tub. Although he’d never admit it to Declan, Logan liked soaking in the tub. He turned the water to run as hot as he could get it and then sank into the water.

He let his head drop back, resting against the plain white tiles. With his eyelids closed, he kept seeing that van ramming them from behind, hearing the bullets hitting the car, and then the sickening lurch of the crash.

Dammit
. Sydney could’ve been killed.
Fucking Silk Road
. Logan focused on the anger. It was a far more familiar and easier emotion to deal with than the other, confusing emotions that he had in him for Sydney Granger.

He thought of Annika again. She’d burned hot and bright. She’d had a dirty mouth, was aggressive in bed, and he’d believed she was his dream woman… Or so he’d thought.

None of it had been real. And yet, with Annika, he’d never felt a fraction of the desire he felt for Sydney. Hell, since he’d met her, he’d been walking around half hard. Sydney was a cool, crisp breeze, one that hid a healthy, sexy and very real fire beneath.

His bathroom door slammed open.

“Logan!”

Sydney came to a halt in the doorway, staring at him.

She pressed her hands together. “I knocked on the main door. When you didn’t answer, I got worried. I thought you’d passed out or something.”

Logan just stared at her. She’d been worried about him? He tried to remember the last time anybody, especially a woman, had worried about him. Most people expected him to worry about them. Hell, it was his job to protect others.

He took her all in, noting the pink in her cheeks and her fresh clothes. He saw that her gaze was nowhere near his face. The water of his bath didn’t hide anything.

She cleared her throat. “How’s your head?”

He snorted. “Which one?” She could hardly miss his raging hard on.

She lifted her chin. “Sounds like you’re fine.” She took a step backward.

“Don’t.” His voice echoed off the tiles.

She stopped. “This is a bad idea.”

Probably. “Come here, Sydney.”

She shook her head. “We’re here to find my brother. Silk Road is after us—”

“Seems to me that you’ve been doing everything for everyone else for a really long time. When do you get to do what you want?”

She fell silent.

“You’ve helped your country, which meant hiding who you really are from your family and friends. It’s tough when you have to keep that part of yourself separate. You’re learning to run your company for your dad. And you’re down here in South America, in the middle of nowhere in the mountains, for your brother. What about you, Sydney? What do you want?”

She stood there, her slim body vibrating. “Sometimes we don’t get what we want.”

“And sometimes you’ve just got to reach out and take it.”

She took a single step and stopped.

“What do you want, Sydney?”

She shivered. “You.”

“I’m all yours.”

She closed the distance to the tub, dropping down on her knees. “I want…I want to touch you. I thought that Silk Road guy was going to kill you today on that roadside.”

Logan wanted to lunge up and grab her, but he forced himself to stay still. He’d meant it. He wanted Sydney to finally take something for herself, not be always giving and subduing her own needs in the process. He forced himself to stay still, his hands curling under the water.

She reached out, her slender fingers brushing against his chest. She let them drift over his shoulder, skirting the small cut marks. She reached his tattoos at the back of his biceps and stroked each one with a focused attention that made more blood race to his cock. Then her hand drifted down again over his chest, lower, running over each ridge of his abdomen.

Now Logan was breathing hard.

“You’re magnificent,” she said quietly.

He knew that in his entire thirty-five years of living, no one had ever called him magnificent. And no one had ever said it and believed it like Sydney.

He lunged up and grabbed her. She gasped. Naked and wet, he carried her through into the bedroom. He tossed her on the bed, towering above her.

She stared up at him and he saw her chest rising and falling rapidly. Desire flared in her eyes—bright and hot. Her gaze drifted down and locked on his very engorged cock.

Logan lowered himself on top of her. He pressed his lips to hers, driving his tongue inside her mouth. He needed the taste of her. He needed the feel of her. She kissed him back eagerly.

As he devoured her, her hands slid down his sides, and a second later, he felt her slim fingers close around his cock.

He groaned and thrust himself into her hands. “You want me inside you?”

“Yes,” she panted. She stroked him again with firm, hard pumps. “You’re a very generous handful, Logan. I can’t wait for you to be inside me. To watch you lose control.”

He groaned again. Then he heard a knocking sound.

It took him a second to realize that someone was knocking on the door.

“Ready for dinner, O’Connor?” Declan called out.

Hell
. Logan felt his entire body trembling and he fought for some control. But Sydney didn’t stop her caresses. She sped up her strokes and he felt the start of his orgasm coiling at the base of his spine.

He’d never had sex like this. Him naked, a woman clothed and giving him pleasure.