“I can’t sleep, Logan,” she said quietly.
So quietly, he had to stay completely still and focused to hear her next words.
“I need you in there with me. I need to know you’re watching so I can sleep.”
Hell.
He didn’t say anything. What could he say? Or do, for that matter? She was wrong. That was clear. She was wrong if she thought being around him was safe.
“Besides,” she said with a little more force, “I know who was behind the attack.”
“Excuse me?” Logan bit out as he gripped the wheel to keep the car from swerving. That one had taken him off guard.
She turned in her seat to face him more fully, drawing one leg up under her. “I know who it was who hired those men. If you come inside, if you stay with me, I’ll tell you, so you can end this.”
Damn.
Logan took a few deep breaths, and then turned the wheel to head back toward her town house.
“Chad and Zach stay with us.” He needed to know he’d have backup and, more importantly, two people who could keep him from going over the edge. Chad and Zach could do that.
“Fine,” she said, nodding.
Chapter 18
Samantha watched as Logan, Chad, and Zach checked the house again after getting her past the reporters. The pictures and statement she’d given the reporters should have given them something to work on for a while, but a few of them had followed her and Logan.
They tried to ask her more questions before the guys got her back in the house, but she didn’t have anything more to say.
After seeing Westbrook’s press conference earlier in the day, Samantha had made up her mind to speak up. The man had some nerve painting Logan as a crazed vigilante who was making the streets of New Haven unsafe.
Logan had saved her. Of that, she had absolutely no doubt. Those men would have eventually killed her, but she’d seen the look in their eyes. They would have done a lot more to her first.
Though she’d fought, kicking and screaming and lashing out as hard and as fast as she could, she was not even remotely a match for any of them. Let alone all three.
So, she had walked out to the press and handed them photos of her wounds, and of the handprint bruises that marked her neck. She called her parents and siblings first and warned them her injuries were about to be made public.
Her mother had seen the large half-moons carved into the curve of each breast with that sick bastard’s knife, but her father and siblings hadn’t. She had covered herself before they arrived at the hospital and they’d left the room while the doctor had stitched her up.
Her mother hadn’t left, though. She sat and held Samantha’s hand while Sam cried and the doctor worked silently on her injuries, adding deep dermal sutures, followed by subcuticular sutures that would hold the wound closed without the need for external sutures.
Sam understood the mechanics of the process. She’d once been fascinated with watching surgical videos online. The deep dermal sutures reduced the tension of the pull at the edges of the wounds. The subcuticular sutures would hold the wound closed without external sutures or Dermabond being necessary. But knowing the technical details hadn’t lessened the trauma for her.
Knowing everyone she worked with would see the knife wounds either online or in the newspaper, and know what those men had done to her …. Well, that would suck.
But seeing Logan crucified for something that wasn’t his fault wasn’t something she could stand by and watch.
Tomorrow, she planned to return the call of the local newswoman who had contacted her. The woman had discovered Logan was a veteran and wanted to put out a piece about Westbrook’s attack on a veteran who had served his country.
Samantha had a feeling Logan would hate it, but she’d talk to the woman if it meant he didn’t have to stand trial. Maybe if there was enough pressure, Westbrook would back off and let the matter drop.
Sam watched as Logan grabbed a pillow and throw from the couch and jerked his head toward the sliding glass doors in the living room.
“You guys got those?”
Chad nodded his head slowly. “Sure.”
Logan didn’t say another word. He walked down the stairs to the basement.