Her Temporary Bodyguard

(Part 7) Chapter Six

She was sure that he had been about to kiss her. It was torture to keep replaying that moment in her mind but Tara couldn't stop. Not when they were sitting on the queen-sized bed and Logan wasn't wearing a shirt. The only thing that separated them was the opened pizza box that served as a table for their impromptu picnic. She was staring at him. She knew that she was and that he'd probably noticed, but Tara couldn't stop herself.

"How did you meet Jason?" Tara inquired, mostly because she wanted to break the uncomfortable silence that had closed over them since the delivery guy had shown up with their dinner. Logan looked startled, though she suspected it was just as likely because she had spoken as it was about the question.

"He saved my life." There was something in the way that Logan said those words that made her look at him; really look at him. It was a debt that he seemed to think he needed to repay; that was the undertone. Tara felt a lump form in her throat and forced it down with a sip of water. Now she knew why he was here. Jason had asked him to come, to keep Tara safe, and Logan had done it without question because Jason had saved his life. He owed him. That's what she was. Debt repayment. Nothing more. The electrifying attraction that she felt was one-sided. He hadn't been about to kiss her. She was as delusional as a thirteen year old with her first crush.

"How?" She asked because she was curious and because she was having difficulties melding the image of the man Logan knew with the memory of the boy who had been her brother a lifetime ago.

Logan hesitated, considering just how much to tell her. He swallowed, forcing down the lump that had formed in his throat as the memories crept to the forefront of his mind.

"I was working a case," he began slowly. "It was a particularly nasty one. I was helping a woman escape an abusive marriage, but her husband seemed to be right behind us every step of the way. It turned out that he had hired Jason to track his wife down." Tara snorted.

"Of course he was helping the bastard."

"He wasn't aware of the whole situation," Logan told her, not wanting to give her the wrong idea. He put the slice of pizza down in the box, no longer hungry. He could see that night in the alley as if it were happening right in front of him. The terror in Rachel's eyes as she had turned around and caught sight of her husband right behind Logan. He had pulled his gun and turned to fire, but not before the husband had managed to get off a few shots of his own. Logan remembered watching Rachel fall; could still see the way the blood had bloomed from her chest.

"What happened?" Tara asked softly. Logan jolted back to the present.

"He shot at us. I took a couple of bullets in the stomach and when he came up to finish me off, Jason just appeared out of nowhere and took him out." And three days later, when Logan had regained consciousness, he had been told that he had been very lucky that the ambulance had gotten to him in time. Rachel had not been so fortunate. It was not the first loss that Logan had experienced, nor was it the last, but he often thought of how many things he would have done differently if given another chance.

"And so, what, you just decided to join forces?" Tara asked, reaching for her third slice. She was still starving. It didn't help that pizza was her Achilles heel. She was never able to say no to herself when it was sitting in front of her. Logan shook his head, seeming to come back from wherever he had gone.

"Not right away, no. I was working out of Sacramento at the time and Jason was in L.A. But we became friends, shared trade secrets, went over cases with each other and talked about what he could have done and how next time we'll know. It was almost two years before we decided that we should start up the agency and generate more business by combining our efforts. It worked. We have three other investigators who work for us now."