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“Sorry, Darlin’, no can do. But if y’all are into role-play, we could act out The Bodyguard. Really get me motivated to lay my life on the line for you,” he says, winking at me, and I shake my head.

“Dude, what the fuck are you talking about?” Kodiak asks.

Smith sighs. “It’s a movie. Haven’t any of you idiots ever had a girlfriend? It’s a girl classic like The Notebook.”

Kodiak and Logan both start laughing as Smith and Kodiak start walking up to the porch. “Wait, are you telling me that you’ve watched The Notebook?”

“Whatever. Shut the fuck up,” Smith grumbles before turning back to look at me. “What do you say, Sweets? You play Whitney and I’ll play Kevin?”

“Only if you have a death wish,” Logan growls, and Smith grins at him. “Why don’t you just go to a bar and pick up some pussy that won’t cost you your life?”

I smack Logan in the back of the head for the pussy comment, and he sighs. “Not talkin’ about you, Kitten.”

“Whatever, man. Don’t mind us. We’ll just sit out here and listen to the show.”

“That’s not fucking happening,” Logan growls, setting me down on my feet before pulling me into his side. Kodiak and Smith join us on the porch, sitting down in the rocking chairs on either side of the door.

“Don’t worry about a thing, Miss Ali. You’re safe with us here,” Smith assures me, and I smile through the sudden panic that hits me as I realize that I’m back where Chris can find me. Logan ushers me inside and pushes me up against the entryway wall before the door even closes all the way. Warm lips press against my neck, and I sigh, gripping his shirt in my hands.

“Babe,” I whine, pushing on his chest. He pulls back and looks at me like I’ve lost my mind. “I need to go take a shower. I smell like fish.” I make a face, and he laughs as he pulls away from me.

“All right, you get in the shower and I’ll join you after I check out the house, okay?”

I nod, biting my bottom lip as I trail my fingers down the front of his body, stopping just above his cock. “Don’t take too long.”

“Devil woman,” he whispers, smacking my ass as I skip off toward my bedroom with a smile on my face. Bouncing into my bedroom, I sit on the edge of my bed and fall back, spreading my arms out on either side of me as I sigh, so blissfully happy that it almost hurts.

I hear Logan moving around the house and I sit up, wanting to beat him to the shower. The look on his face when he walks in and I’m already all wet and soapy is one of my favorites. As I push off the bed, I reach for my shirt and start to pull it up as I turn to face the bed. It gets halfway up my stomach before I freeze, my breath catching in my throat. I stare at the window, my heart pounding like a bass drum in my ears, and peer into the darkness, trying to see if anything is out there. I could have sworn that I just saw someone there. Or maybe one of the guys passed by on their rounds.

It’s probably nothing…right?

Each second that I stare at that window, the harder my heart beats, and I feel like I could jump out of my skin right now. But there is nothing, only darkness and my own reflection. Giving up, I chalk it up to my eyes playing tricks on me as I start to lift my shirt again. Slowly, almost like in a dream, a face appears in the glass. Yelping, I drop my shirt back down my body and take a step back as the face inches closer to the window. I want to scream but it’s stuck in my throat, the fear choking me. Every breath that I take rings in my ears as tears fill my eyes, and I take another step back, hitting the wall.

The man raises a hand and presses it against the window like he’s trying to touch me and smiles up at me, a sinister little grin that seems to reach into my body and fill me with terror. Oh, God, I need to call for help but as I open my mouth, nothing comes out. Where is Logan? He has to be coming in here soon. Right? He drops his gaze down my body, and I sink down the wall, pulling my knees into my chest. As I shake on the floor, he steps closer, his face almost pressed against the glass, and his grin widens as he mouths, “My Ali.”

I can’t speak.

I can’t move.

I’m powerless as I stare into a face that is so familiar and yet, so foreign.

I know him.

Where do I know him from?

Where have I seen him?

I stare at him and all of the sudden it hits me.

He looks like…

“Logan!” I scream as loud as I can, tears streaming down my face, and my heart beating against my ribcage like it wants release. The face in my window disappears seconds before Logan bursts into the room, gun drawn. His gaze wildly flies around the room before landing on me, huddled up in a ball on the floor. Quickly tucking the gun back in his jeans, he crouches down and pulls me into his arms.

Kodiak and Smith burst into the room, looking around for the danger as I start to hyperventilate, gripping Logan’s shirt like his mere presence will keep me from spiraling into the abyss of my fear.

“Go search outside,” he barks at them, clutching me tighter, and I sob into his neck. “I’ve got her.”

The guys rush out of the room, and Logan rubs his hand down my back, trying to calm me, but nothing is working. It’s one thing to know that someone is following you but to see him actually staring in your window and feeling that powerlessness is another thing altogether. It feels monumental in this moment. How will I ever come back in this room? How will I ever look in a window again without my heart kicking in my chest? I’m consumed by the fear, shaking uncontrollably in Logan’s embrace.