“I don’t want to go sleep,” she confessed as she grabbed his hand and pulled it over her shoulder and onto her left breast. He cupped her and held her. His hand was hot and felt so nice.
“You’re tired. You should close your eyes and sleep,” Logan urged. She could hear the sleepiness in his voice, too. Felt it tugging at her. Felt it pulling her under. She struggled against it. She truly did. But she felt as if she’d been drugged. In a good way.
“I don’t want you to go,” she breathed. She wasn’t even sure she said it out loud. Maybe she was already asleep. Maybe she was already dreaming? She tightened her embrace on him. No, she didn’t want him to go.
I don’t want you to go.
Oh, man, those words destroyed Logan, and he knew they would haunt him for the rest of his life. He literally had to force himself not to tell her he would never leave her. No use in saying it. No use in lying.
He sighed heavily and winced as her fingers tightened around his wrist where she gripped him while he cupped her luscious breast. Fuck, but she had dammed good strength. Yeah, she was strong. She would survive out here. She’d survive without him. She had to.
Teyla knew they were gone the instant she sifted through the heavy layers of sleep that had kept her hostage in a land of black and peace. She swore she’d never slept so deeply. Swore she’d never felt as alive and happy as when she awoke. But then realization that the bed was empty ripped away her happiness and tore her heart apart. Logan was gone and the rest of the money Logan owed her had been settled on the bed beside her so she wouldn’t miss it. Emotions, dark and deep, slashed through her. Loss flooded her and she sobbed into her pillow most of the day and into that night.
But she was strong. She would survive this. She had to.
Heart Creek, two days later
“Hands off Teyla Sutton or I cut off your balls. Understood?” Logan breathed against the son of a bitch banker and self-appointed lawman’s ear. The man nodded eagerly, but Logan pressed the barrel of his gun harder against the man’s temple.
“If I ever hear that you’ve been sniffing around her again, word will get back to me. Rest assured if that happens, your balls are mine. This money will pay in full what is owed to you by her. Understood? You stay away from her. Don’t go to her place. Don’t talk to her. Don’t so much as look at her. Understood?”
Again, the man nodded eagerly, his big, pudgy body trembling against Logan. His long moustache tickled the side of Logan’s chin.
Cassidy dropped the satchel of money onto the ground in front of the banker. The satchel contained their entire share of the loot from the heist, minus what he’d left for Teyla. Only moments earlier Logan, Spencer, and Cassidy had dragged the man into the secluded alley after they’d identified the man they’d been looking for. “Sign this.”
The man hesitated as Logan handed him a pen and thrust a paper in front of the guy’s face. “W… Where?”
“Use the wall.” Logan nodded to Cassidy and Spencer who were still holding the man’s arms tight, preventing him from escaping. They pushed him up against the wall, and Logan placed the paper where the man had easy reach to it. As he lifted his hand, it shook so badly, Logan feared he might not be able to sign the papers stating Teyla Sutton’s mortgage was all paid off and no one had any further claim on her land. Logan had even gone so far as hiring the local lawyer, some young punk, who looked legitimate enough, to write up the proper legal form. Several townsfolk had vouched for his legitimacy.
Logan held his breath as the creep signed.
“And don’t even think about saying you signed under duress. Or I’ll cut off your cock along with your balls and hang my trophy off the side of my saddle. Understood? Now head back to your office and hire someone to ride out to her place and give her the deed, stating the land is hers, full and clear.”
“Y…yes, sir. Yes, sir,” the man clambered.
“Remember, someone will be watching you. If you do something I don’t like…” Logan let his warning words dangle in the cold night air.
“Y…yes, sir…I…understand.”
Logan nodded again, and Spencer and Cassidy let him go. The banker raced off down the alley, falling twice over his shaking legs and never looking back. Logan didn’t miss the fact a large wet spot appeared between the man legs. Obviously the banker had wet his pants.
Good. The man should be scared.
“Do you think he’ll follow through on your demands?” Cassidy asked as they watched him turn the corner and disappear from sight.
“If he knows what’s good for him,” Logan said coolly. If the weasel so much as did anything to Teyla, Logan would make sure that creep was a dead man.
Epilogue
Eight months later, Valentine’s Day
It was the succulent scent of strawberries that dragged Teyla out of her sleep, and when she opened her eyes, she saw the bunch of daisies, their delicate stems tied together with a cute yellow ribbon, as well as a bowl of robust red strawberries staring her right in the face. At first she thought she was having one heck of neat dream.
Daisies? Strawberries? Impossible. The strawberry plants in her greenhouse were just starting to grow. She’d finally gotten some plants only a couple of weeks ago. Dr. Elizabeth had brought them over, saying the grocery store in town was having a sale on them.
She knew Dr. Liz was lying. That store never had sales. She knew that fact when she went to town with the black horse Logan had left her. The same black horse he’d come to her home with on that chilly evening. But she’d accepted the gift from Liz and planted the strawberry plants, thinking about Logan the whole time. Thinking about how she’d told him she wanted strawberry plants and how she would love to eat some strawberry shortcake.
What a silly, frivolous thing for her to say to him. He must have thought her impractical in mentioning something like that. Especially with this cold winter. She swore it had been the coldest one yet.
Dr. Liz had been doing that a lot. Checking up on her. Bless her heart. Teyla had poured her heart out to Dr. Liz, telling her about Logan and what had happened with Cassidy and Spencer and how devastated she’d been when they’d left. The doctor had been a savior, and Teyla wasn’t sure what she’d have done if she hadn’t had the woman to confide in.
The blow of Logan leaving hadn’t been eased when a couple of days after they’d left, she’d found the deed to her property nailed to her front door, stating her property had been paid in full. She knew in her heart Logan, Cassidy, and Spencer had had something to do with it. Since then, she hadn’t seen the banker come here. The couple of times she’d gone to town, he’d made a big circle around her, avoiding her like the plague. Knowing her property belonged to her was liberating. Knowing she was now in debt to Logan and possibly Spencer and Cassidy should have made her upset. Curiously, it didn’t. She was grateful and considered them her heroes.
Speaking of heroes, what was up with these daisies and the strawberries? Surely she was dreaming. Wasn’t she?
She closed her eyes and opened them again. Still there.
Had she lost her mind? Definitely.
