Come As You Are. Amy J. Fetzer

body turned just so. He tried another camera, on the far side of the room, the zoom-in distorting the picture. He worked the keyboard, cropping the photo, cleaning out the shadows and lighting her features.

      He saw jawbone and her lips, but it was still unclear other than she had long hair. Lovely, he thought, though he didn’t need to know why she was with his Vice President. Only that he wasn’t surprised to see her. After that, the lenses went black.

      She was gone, that much he accepted. He leaned in the chair and pulled up another stream of video. Part of him loathed himself for watching, for enjoying her abandon. She was straddling him on the sofa, bare to the waist, and the same skirt she’d smoothed over her knees earlier today was hiked high, exposing her. He watched, her hips gyrating and breasts bouncing.

      His phone hummed against his chest and he answered it.

      “We have a problem.”

      Salazar turned away from the console. “I’m listening.”

      He catalogued his orders, already mentally breaking them down, but what surprised him was who was giving them.

      “I want to be certain we’re clear on the next steps.”

      He glanced at the video, smiling to himself. “You want them to disappear. They already have. To the hacienda.”

      Over the phone, he heard her soft intake of breath.

      “I can work better there. In private.”

      “I cannot hear the details,” she said sharply, then softer, “Get it back, Diego.”

      His name sounded good on her lips. “I will.”

      His gaze was still on the video and his body clenched when she tipped her head back and looked directly into the camera as she climaxed.

      Beautiful.

      He closed the phone, slipped it inside his tailored jacket and stood. Salazar understood his position, what was afforded him because he kept out of sight, and all confidences. Most didn’t know he existed except by name. He preferred to watch, and slipped the CD from the security system, then erased any copy. He was keeping her privacy, he told himself, though few knew of this room’s existence. It gave him delicious anonymity, kept any trail to him hidden and ensured his position in this administration. Beyond that, he’d follow the money, the power. As long as he was paid, he would do as ordered.

      He opened his hand radio and contacted the driver. When there was no answer, he tried another frequency. He tapped the door. It sprang open and Salazar slipped out, then down the back staircase while demanding a response from the van of his prisoners. He hated repeating himself and changed frequencies.

      Quickening his steps, he ordered the helicopter to the lawn.

      Logan stared out the windshield at the woman in the middle of the road. The driver slammed on the brakes, throwing them forward. For several heartbeats, the guards just stared, then made a couple rude comments about the crazy woman, yet when a man followed after her, limping really, the guards left the truck, weapons drawn. Max immediately popped apart the pen and used the parts to work the locks.

      “Was that Riley?” Sebastian asked, sitting forward.

      “And Tessa.” Chained, they could only watch.

      She ran back, playing the role of hysterical female rather well, and neither guard noticed the nunchucks in her hand. She spun the wooden rods so quickly, Logan saw only the results. A crack to the head, the back slashes to the other’s chin. Like glass, they broke and fell to the ground.

      “Clearly, the woman is skilled,” Sebastian said.

      She certainly was, Logan thought. However, the woman he knew eleven years ago wouldn’t have dared that alone.

      “Another rule shot to hell,” Tessa muttered, stuffing the nunchucks away before she searched them for keys. She kicked away the guards’ weapons, then unlocked the door and yanked it open.

      “Oh Christ, it is her,” Max said.

      Tessa smiled. “Underdog, here to save the day.” She wiggled the keys in the air. “Go on, say it, you’re glad to see me again.” She met Logan’s gaze, every cell in her body gone still as she waited for the reaming she deserved. But he just smiled, a delighted little sparkle in his eyes that went right to her soul.

      “You’ve been a very bad girl.”

      She winked. “I thought that’s what you liked about me.” Then a man left the van and she frowned as he passed her. “Jeez, you guys look awful.”

      Logan snatched the keys. “Gee, thanks Tessa, and you don’t look so bad for a walking corpse, either.” Terrific, in fact, and he was still rocked to see her alive. He focused on springing the cuff. “Where’s the guy who was chasing you?” Free, Logan handed the keys to Sebastian.

      “Out cold on the ground. You might want to leave him to them.” She inclined her head to the downed guards.

      “Irish accent?” Logan eased out of the van, Sebastian behind him.

      She frowned. “Yeah.” Oh hell. Just then, a man hurried between them. “Him.” She pointed.

      “We gotta go,” Riley said. “The van is hot.”

      “Defuse it.” Logan said.

      “You know each other?” she asked, glancing between the two.

      “Until Daisy Duke here showed up,” Riley said right over her words. “It would just blow the tire, like an accident. It’s pressure sensitive and the van’s sitting on it. And exploding on a stationary object with a gas tank…”

      It would toss the van like a ball. “Good God, Riley, don’t you think that was excessive?” Logan joined Max to collect weapons and communications gear.

      “It’s just a little charge,” he defended.

      Tessa stuck her head back inside the van. “Some guy’s trying to contact the guards on tact 27.”

      Logan tuned the guard’s radio and listened for a moment, then chambered a bullet. “We’re getting company. Where’s the truck?”

      Riley gestured up the hill, walking stiffly as Sebastian caught the keys and ran to it. Logan pulled the unconscious guards off the road.

      “I’m sorry,” she said, alongside Riley. “I really am.”

      “I’m just glad it wasn’t a nunchuck.”

      “I wanted to stop you, not kill you.”

      “The apology and kiss on the head was a nice touch,” Riley said, introducing himself.

      Tessa blushed. She’d never kneed a man in the groin and felt bad. But then, he shouldn’t have scared the hell out of her.

      “How do you know Logan?” he asked.

      “It’s complicated.”

      “Very.” Logan was there, guiding her with him. “And if you two are through?”

      She looked at him, dazed for a moment. God, it was so good to see him. Men always looked better with age, and Logan was no exception. After a decade or so, there were a few more lines, a couple of scars, but he hadn’t changed. His dark hair was a bit longer, not the SEAL look she remembered, and like a pop flash in her mind, she had the image of her fingers pushing into that thick mop. A long time ago, she thought, then recognized his locked posture.

      “Logan, I know this is a shock—”

      “Not now.”

      Tessa had a sneaking suspicion bitch was mentally tagged to that.

      But Logan didn’t know what to feel, just looking at her blew the one horrible night into oblivion. He glanced, recognized her uncertainty and gave her a quick squeeze. Then he looked behind himself, to the sky. “Oh hell.”