Sophie Oak - Siren in Bloom

Her hand came up in a flighty little wave. “Oh, I can take the train. No problem.”

He stared at her.

“Or you could pick me up,” she said quickly. Excellent. She was learning.

“And you will wear the clothes I select for you.” It wasn’t a question.

“Yes.”

“Then I will see you at eight this evening.”

And then the real fun would begin.

Leo tried to let the tranquil sound of his wall fountain soothe him, but for once it was failing.

His stomach was in knots. He’d stood behind that glass with his rat fink bastard boss/ex-friend and watched as his brother made a very visible connection to Shelley. There had been that one glorious moment when she’d tried to dismiss Wolf. Leo had found himself unaccountably happy until he realized she was threatening to not accept him because Wolf was so damn attractive.

Awesome. Great. She was drooling over his brother.

And then he’d really looked at Wolf.

Fuck it all. His brother was lonely, and Leo hadn’t exactly welcomed him home.

“Uhm, is this part of the therapy? Like the quiet game?”

And he’d nearly forgotten Logan Green was sitting across from him. He was losing it. He turned to the young man in front of him. Logan Green, according to his file, was twenty-four years old. His eyes made him look older. Older. Leo was five years older than Wolf. Maybe she liked younger men. Now that he thought about it, Wolf was really closer to her age.

Logan shifted and cleared his throat.

Damn it . He had to get his head in the game and off the way Shelley had stared at his brother’s chest. “Why are you here?”

Logan’s eyes rolled, the fallback gesture of the young and sarcastic. “Uh, because I’m twenty shades of fucked up and everyone’s sick of dealing with my shit.”

Leo sat forward. He wouldn’t take a ton of crap off of anyone. He stared at the young man, letting the silence go for just a little longer than was comfortable. He tried to put Shelley out of his mind. After all, he would have to deal with her tonight. When she walked into The Club. With his brother. “It’s plain to see that you’re fucked up. I was referring to the inciting incident. I take it you’ve been going downhill for a while. You’ve been in how many bar fights in the last year?”

“A couple,” he muttered.

Logan obviously wasn’t going to just admit to his problems. Well, it had been a while since he’d had a real challenge. “According to a man named Nathan Wright, I believe he’s the sheriff you work for, it’s more like five. And one of them caused serious damage to the bar. Almost ten thousand dollars’ worth.”

“I paid for that,” he said, sitting up and pointing as though he’d been accused of something.

Leo wasn’t accusing, simply stating the facts. It was best to get everything out on the table, but it did bring up an interesting point, one many of Logan’s friends had voiced concern about. When Leo had talked to a few of the people worried for the young man, they had wondered about the incident. “Did you? How does a sheriff’s deputy come up with ten grand?”

His eyes slid away. “I have a friend. He fronted me the cash.”

And Leo could plainly see Logan didn’t like that, but Leo bought that the kid was telling the truth. “But that was months ago. You didn’t seek help then. You continued on your way. What brought you in today?”

Logan’s arms crossed over his massive chest.

Minutes went by. Leo simply sat and waited. There was no use in pushing a patient to say something he wasn’t ready to say. Besides, he’d discovered long ago that silence bothered most people. They were willing to fill the void with anything, even what they didn’t want to admit.

Of course, the silence was bugging his ass now because every second that Logan didn’t speak had him going over and over what had happened between Shelley and Wolf.

Had she gone completely insane? Wolf wasn’t that attractive. He was fine, Leo was sure. But it wasn’t like he himself was chopped liver. He worked out. Probably way harder than Wolf. Wolf looked like he’d lifted one too many weights. Who the hell was that muscular?

Flexible. Leo was flexible. In many ways. Well, not many now that he thought about it. Physically he was deeply flexible, but god, his life had become one rigid regime of working out, working, and walking the dungeon halls at night, never really joining in. He’d given up on meditation. Meditation merely brought about images of Shelley McNamara Hughes and her beautiful face laughing up at him as he took her hand.

Fuck . When was the kid going to break?

“I shot someone.”

Thank god. Leo could get back to someone else’s tortured soul. “Are you talking about the incident at the Movie Motel?”

Logan nodded shortly. “Yeah.”

Interesting. Logan’s face was blank, but guilt seemed to hang on him like a cloud. “That was in the line of duty, Logan.”

He shrugged. “The dude died. He deserved to die. He was a paid assassin. He was willing to kill anyone to get to his target.”

But Leo could see plainly that there was more to this. “Logan, lots of police personnel need treatment after they kill someone in the line of duty. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. Military, police, anyone working in a high-stress job, especially one protecting the public, needs routine therapy in my opinion. And yet the very personalities that make them excellent protectors make them very reticent to seek the therapy that would make their lives better.”

Logan laughed, a bitter huff that came out of his chest. “I’m not some born protector, Doc. God, that’s a laugh. You know why I applied for the deputy job? Because there wasn’t any other place I wanted to work, and it seemed like an easy way to make some money for college. Not that I really wanted to go to college. I never really wanted to leave Bliss, but I sure as hell didn’t want to work for Stella. She scares the crap out of me. And I don’t know anything about cars so Long-Haired Roger was out. The very idea of working for my moms. God. I love them. I do, but no. When Rye Harper told me he was looking for a deputy, I jumped at the chance. Man, I took it because I could nap and I got a county vehicle. I’m not some fucking hero.”

That wasn’t what his file said. His file stated clearly that Logan Green had performed valiantly in the line of duty. And he’d sacrificed. “Why didn’t you quit after you were held by the Russian mafia?”

That was the crux of the problem. A year before, Logan had been taken captive and tortured by a member of the Russian mafia. He’d been sacrificed to save two women. He’d gone and kept his mouth shut about Alexei Markov’s true intent. He’d been tortured for hours. He’d barely made it out alive.

And, according to his loved ones, the sweet young man he’d been had died. It was Leo’s job to see if he could bring that man back to life.

“I don’t talk about that.”

The wall had come up. Too soon. If he wouldn’t talk about the incident, then Leo would veer it back to what Logan seemed willing to talk about. “This wasn’t the first time you’ve been in a dangerous situation. What was it about this time that caused so much anxiety?”

“I killed a man.”

“Is that really what sent you over the edge?”

Logan shook his head, his face flushing. “No. He deserved it. He was willing to kill a friend of mine and the town doc, the man who stitched me back together.”

“Then what’s wrong?” There was definitely something here other than simple anxiety disorder.

“I thought about not shooting him at all.”

Leo felt his brows raise. “Because you didn’t want to hurt someone.”