Page 14 of Logan

Clay flinched at the sound of his brother’s name.

“I don’t?—”

I cut him off before he could try to lie to me again. “You’re Clay Dahler, right? Your brother, Jason, hired a private investigator to find you.” Approaching the bed on slow, careful steps, I held out both my hands, so they remained in sight at all times. “I’m sorry I hired you under false pretenses like this, but all I could find was a phone number, and this seemed like the only way I’d be able to talk to you.”

I was still several steps away when Clay stood quickly from the bed, giving me a wide berth so he always remained outside of arms reach.

“You have the wrong person. I don’t have a brother, and no one’s looking for me. Sorry. You came all this way for nothing. I’ll try to get you your money back, so, let’s both just leave, and we can forget this ever happened.”

“I don’t have the wrong person.” Fishing the photo out of my pocket, I held it up for him to see. “This is the last picture yourbrother has of you. After so much time, there haven’t been many leads to find you, but he hasn’t given up.”

Clay barely glanced at the picture before looking away. “That isn’t me. I’m sorry.”

He started heading for the door, still keeping as far away from me as the hotel’s walls would allow. If he managed to leave, I’d have a hard time tracking him down again.

In a moment of panic, I grabbed his wrist and pulled him away from the door. “Wait. Please. Just hear me out.”

My desperate words had barely left my mouth when a sudden pain snapped my head to the side. The room spun for a moment, and when I regained my senses, Clay was gone.

On the other side of the room, the open door swung slightly back and forth on its stiff hinges.

As the dizziness faded, I rubbed my jaw and flinched at the new bruise I found there.

He’d punched me. It was a shock, but not unexpected.

What had I been thinking, grabbing him like that?

Of course he lashed out. If I’d ever acted like that with one of the victims who came to the FPA office back in Baton Rouge, I’d have been fired immediately. My only excuse was that panic had made me stupid.

So, so stupid.

I was half inclined to punch myself again, just for good measure. I’d certainly deserve it.

As I stood in the middle of the room, chastising myself and wondering what I was going to do now, I noticed something on the floor.

Clay had been in such a hurry to get away from me, he’d left his coat behind. The heavy fabric lay draped over the back of the room’s only chair, swaying in the breeze from the air-conditioning.

With numb fingers, I picked up the coat. It felt too heavy, even taking the thick fabric into account. Checking each of the pockets, I pulled out a wallet. The thing was so frayed and stained, Clay had probably found it in a dumpster somewhere, but the zipper still worked to hold the whole thing closed.

There wasn’t much inside. A few wrinkled bills that didn’t add up to more than thirty dollars, several condoms, a coupon for frozen yogurt, and a library card.

It wasn’t much, but it was enough. A library card required an address. I could use it to find where he lived.

I’d already pulled out my phone and was searching through my contacts when I stopped and thought about what I was doing.

I’d found him. Technically, that was all Jason had hiredAlias Investigationsto do, and I technically wasn’t even a private investigator. I had no authority to go hunting down a civilian and violating his privacy. I’d found Clay, I’d spoken to him, and he’d made his choice to leave.

Did I have the right to ignore that choice and keep pursuing him anyway?

Slumping down onto the edge of the bed, I braced my elbows on my knees and hung my head as I dialed a different number on my phone.

“Hey, Logan,” Sebastian’s voice greeted me. “You find anything?”

“Yep. I found Clay Dahler. But now I’ve got a bigger problem.”

As quickly and accurately as possible, I explained everything that had happened so far, including the sheer luck that had led me to finding Clay in the first place, and the way I’d practically chased him out of the room in my panic when I realized he was leaving.

Sebastian told me off for the last part, though he didn’t say anything I hadn’t already said to myself. Overall, however, he wasn’t as disappointed as I expected.

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