Now Iz’s smile reached her eyes. “Evie will tell you that’s the effect good fashion has on people. You’ve never worn really nice clothes before?”
“No, but I watchedThe Devil Wears Pradaonce on a long flight.” It had taught him that he would 100% prefer to face gunfire than work as a personal assistant to anybody in the fashion industry. He was brave, but he wasn’t that brave. “That was my closest brush with designer glory until now.”
“I’m sure we can make it more than just a brush. You don’t always have to spend a fortune on these clothes if you know where to look. Evie has a lot of luck—alot—with turning up pieces at thrift stores and estate sales. It’s a lot of time to devote to clothes, but it can be fun to prowl around. And Theo would probably be happy to ....”
She trailed off. Logan knew why. For a second, it had been easy to imagine the two of them in a settled, happy life where they went on designer scavenger hunts every few weekends.
Maybe that meant he hadn’t completely ruined this yet. If Iz could still imagine any kind of future with him, maybe he was more salvageable than he thought.
He didn’t want to push his luck too far, though. Probably best to just let that idea simmer on the back-burner for now while he focused on nabbing Sebastian and getting him out of Iz’s life for good.
He offered her a stiff little shrug. “We should head over to Cooper’s room.”
“Right.” Iz turned away from him. “Of course.”
She disappeared out the door before he could even blink. He was a little slower, if only because he had to figure out what to do about the busted lock, especially now that the room had a small fortune in designer clothes inside. He wasn’t sure how many opportunistic garment thieves were roaming around the motel courtyard, and if it had been his stuff, he might have just taken the chance, but it wasn’t. He owed it to Theo and Iz to protect their belongings as best he could.
Luckily—thank God for small favors—one of the housekeepers passing by agreed to get the motel’s handyman for him.
The handyman turned out to be an amiable, potbellied man with a bushy mustache who tut-tutted over the broken door, accepted a generous handful of cash as an alternative to putting his fee on Cooper’s bill, and started to work, letting Logan slip out.
He got to Cooper’s room just in time to witness the day’ssecondfamily reunion, because apparently Iz’s mom was here.
It was impossible to miss the family resemblance. Theo and Iz hadn’t looked much alike beyond a vaguely similar bone structure and an elusive air of draconian savoir faire. Iz’s mother, on the other hand, could have been her twin, at least once upon a time. They had exactly the same peach-pale complexion and the same arch to their eyebrows. Iz’s mother’s hair was a shining silver instead of blonde, and a few fine creases—some laugh lines, some worry lines—showed on her face, but otherwise it was almost uncanny.
They also both had the same gift for attracting attention, since everyone else, consciously or not, had formed a kind of ring of spectators around them.
Logan’s appearance messed that up. Iz’s mother—Elizabeth, he remembered—broke away from conversation with her daughter and turned to him. Delicate tear-tracks still showed on her face from where she must have been crying with relief.
“Forgive me,” she said, in a melodious voice. “I don’t think I’ve had the pleasure.”
“This is Logan, Mom,” Iz said.
Her mother gave her a pointed look, and Iz, with a barely tamped-down smile, revised it: “Mother, I’d like to introduce Deputy Marshal Logan Vega, who was indispensable in keeping me alive and sane for the duration of my imprisonmentandin ensuring our shared escape. Logan, please allow me to introduce my mother, Elizabeth Benoit.”
He wasn’t sure whether or not he needed to bow. Itfeltlike he should.
Elizabeth Benoit picked up on his hesitation and extended her hand for a blissfully ordinary handshake.
“It’s an honor to meet you, Deputy Vega,” she said. “Thank you for helping my daughter.”
“She saved me,” Logan said honestly. “I would never have gotten out if it wasn’t for her. I wouldn’t even still bemyselfif it wasn’t for her.”
His eyes went involuntarily to Iz, and he saw Elizabeth Benoit notice it.
Her expression softened still further, much to his surprise. He would have guessed she would have wanted to kick him to the curb for it.
“I am very grateful the two of you had each other, then,” she said simply. She turned and kissed Iz on the cheek. “Darling, I know you have marshal business to attend to, but if you need me, I’m getting a room at this ... ‘motel’ for the time being.”
Considering the quaver in her voice and the implied air-quotes, Logan was pretty sure that Elizabeth Benoit had never even been within a hundred yards of a roadside motel before, which actually made it kind of moving that she was willing to brave this one just to be closer to her daughter in her hour of need.
Her nobility, like Iz’s courage and Theo’s manners, showed how much Randolph Sebastian missed the point of being a dragon. Logan almost felt offended on behalf of all of them, being shouldered with Sebastian as part of their kind.
Elizabeth left, somehow moving in a way that suggested there was an invisible train on her dress that someone should have been carrying.
“Quite a woman, your mother,” Simon Park said.
“Yes, she is,” Iz agreed.