Walk Through Fire

My smile got bigger.

I had my car back and Logan sorted that for me.

My smile started fading when the growl of the first two vehicles was joined by the roar of a number of bikes.

I stopped looking out my window in order to stare out of it when I saw Tack, Hop, Tabby’s dark-headed guy who’d come in with Tyra the day of my scene at Chaos, and Boz, all on bikes, with Big Petey bringing up the rear on his Harley trike.

“What on earth?” I breathed as my door flew open.

Logan was storming in, storming in, face full of thunder, eyes to me.

My back snapped straight and I vaguely noticed another young Chaos member with dark hair coming in behind him but the majority of my attention was focused on Logan.

“Follow me,” he grunted.

“I...” My eyes darted to the other man as I heard the roar of Harleys die in my courtyard.

“Follow me!” Logan barked.

I jumped in my seat and my eyes shot back to him.

When they did, I caught only his back since he was prowling out of my office, apparently feeling he could storm in to my place of business, bark at me, order me around, and I’d comply.

“High.” I heard it said outside, that one word meant to be both calming and cautionary, the voice saying it was Tack.

“You need to stay the fuck outta this,” Logan growled as I sat still in my chair and stared out the door. As I did, I saw Logan turn and clip, “Millie. Here.”

He didn’t wait for my response to him calling me like I was a dog.

He stalked away.

Something was happening. I didn’t know what it was. I did know it was something big.

And I didn’t give a fuck.

No man stormed into my office, barked orders at me, then called me to him like I was his pet, a naughty one, and stalked away expecting me to obey his commands without question.

No man.

Hell, no woman.

No way.

No how.

The problem with that was I had Chaos brothers congregating outside my office door, the young one that followed Logan still inside, and I couldn’t share that shit did not happen, no way, no how while sitting in my chair while Logan was somewhere else.

So I got up quickly, my chair flying back, and I did my own fucking storming.

I did that passing the young guy, marching through the bevy of brothers hanging outside the door, and I caught sight of Logan at the back door to my house.

I headed right there.

He opened the door and went in.

I hurried my step and followed him in.

He was about to close the door when a hand landed on it and we were both forced back so Chaos could file in.

And they did.

All seven of them.

I didn’t have a mind to them.

I had a mind to Logan.

My voice was low and trembling with fury when I declared, “You did not just call me to you like I was a dog.”

He slammed the door, lifted a hand, one finger stabbing in the direction of the wall behind the door.

I looked that way and blinked at a security system box lit up there that wasn’t there before I left for Paris, and due to all the things that had gone down, I had not noticed when I got back.

“You leave, you arm this,” Logan snarled. “Four, nine, one, three, red button.” He jabbed at the red button under the keypad. “You come home, you shut the fuckin’ door, lock the fucker, and unarm it, four, nine, one, three, then you fuckin’ rearm it, immediately, four...?nine...?one...?three.”

“How’d that get there?” I whispered.

Logan didn’t answer me.

He leaned into me, nabbed my hand, his fingers tight around mine, and started stalking again, through his brothers standing around my kitchen, dragging me with him.

“High,” Tack bit out impatiently.

Logan didn’t hesitate an instant.

He dragged me to the front door, yanked us to a halt, and thrust a finger at another security panel at the side of the door.

Eyes to me, he stated, “Same thing. Four, nine, one, three. You leave, you arm it. You’re home, it’s armed. No motion sensors in the house. It’s all about the windows and doors. They’re breached, a sound goes off raising all holy hell but also a message is sent straight to security dispatch. They contact the police and send a man out immediately. A man will show at the door to ask if everything is fine. You have a code phrase to tell him it’s not. You say, ‘Everything is fine, sir.’ If everything is fine, you find different words. If it’s not, he’ll know and deal. This sinkin’ in?”

“How did I get an alarm system?” I asked, then kept questioning. “And when?”

“You got it ’cause I had it put in. And you got it while you were in Paris.”

“I...?what...?why?”

He tugged on my hand, my arm jerked in the socket and I fell the step toward him that separated us.

Then he bent only his neck to stare down at me from his superior height, doing this still ticked way the hell off and keeping hold of my hand.

And staring into his infuriated eyes, feeling the stretch of the muscles in my arm that lingered after his pull, not painful, but still, I realized I was not astonished I had a security system. I was also not pissed at the way he was treating me.

I was scared.

I was scared because he was scary.

I was scared because Logan was gone. There was no trace of him.

This man was High.

And he was terrifying.

“?’Cause I fuckin’ told you you got windows in your doors and that shit’s unsafe,” he ground out.

I shifted away from him, pulling at my hand but failing to get free.

“Let me go, Logan,” I said carefully.

“High, brother, calm down,” Tack ordered from the direction of the hall.

Logan ignored me and Tack.

“I didn’t arm the alarm once you got it because you didn’t know you had it and I didn’t want you or Dot settin’ it off. Now you know,” he stated. “And now you fuckin’ use it, Millie. Any time you leave, I don’t give a shit you’re walkin’ next door for a cup of sugar. And any time you’re home. Do you get me?”

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