Page 74 of Logan

When his brother still didn’t look convinced, Clay turned to me, clutching my sleeve and staring at me with beseeching eyes.

“Logan. Please. I’ll be fine. I promise. It was such a shock before because I didn’t expect it and I wasn’t ready. This time I’ll know what I’m about to see, so I won’t panic. I want to help. Please.”

He already had me on the first please. By the second one, I was ready to hand over anything he wanted.

“All right,” I relented.

Of course I did.

What other choice was there when he looked at me with such emotion in his blue eyes?

“I’m not going to play the video, but just take a look at this picture and tell me which face is familiar.”

I handed over my phone, trying not to visibly flinch as I waited for the outcome.

Clay stared at it for a while. At first, I thought maybe we were wrong, and he didn’t recognize anyone. While I wanted answers, I was also relieved by the idea of not having to put Clay through any more stress.

Then Clay zoomed in on the picture so only one face was visible and handed the phone back to me.

“That’s him.”

His voice cracked, and I could feel his hands shaking when I took the phone from him. It wasn’t a panic attack, but he was clearly still affected.

Jason wrapped an arm around Clay’s shoulders and started talking to him in a low, soothing voice. He’d been present for more of Clay’s panic attacks and emotional episodes than I had, and obviously knew what to do during these moments. So, I let the brothers have their moment undisturbed as I looked down at the phone in my hands.

It took me a few seconds to comprehend what I was seeing. The face that stared up at me wasn’t the one I expected.

Preston Vanshaw.

The assistant director of the FBI.

Just before Alias Investigations had asked me to look into Clay’s case, they’d run into their own trouble that had resulted in the death of the FBI director. There had been a big reshuffling of power in the FBI, and many people’s jobs had been in jeopardy.

Preston Vanshaw, however, was one of the few who’d seemingly been immune to the change in power. His position now was just as secure as it had been a few years ago.

This man was a few years younger than me.

How could he have anything to do with what happened to Clay?

Then I remembered that Vanshaw was a trust-fund baby who’d only gotten his position because his father held the position of assistant FBI director before him. He was an example of nepotism at its finest.

A picture began to form in my mind. Vanshaw hadn’t even been born when the Bell ringers first started operating, so he obviously hadn’t started the whole thing.

Was this some sort of messed up inheritance?

He’d not only been handed a powerful career, but also inherited a lucrative trafficking business.

If that was the case, it was no wonder he viewed the children they’d kidnapped as a commodity. He’d probably been raised to that mindset from the moment he was born.

I would have almost pitied the man, if he hadn’t personally contributed to hurting Clay. As it was, I only pitied what was going to happen to the bastard when I got my hands on him.

It took a few minutes for Jason to calm Clay down. By that time, a nurse came into the room to check over Clay now that he was awake. Jason and I were asked to step out of the room so she could speak with Clay privately.

I’d been through similar situations enough to know better than to argue with hospital staff, so I stepped out of the room without complaint, though I lingered near the door.

Jason joined me, leaning against the wall just a few feet away as we both listened to the beeping of alarms and whirring of machines that was constant background noise in a hospital.

“Hey,” Jason said after a moment, staring daggers at the far wall. “I know it’s probably a bit late to say this, but if you ever hurt him, I’ll end you if it’s the last thing I do.” His tone was casual, but the look in his eyes when he glanced at me was as cold and calculating as a viper. “I spent almost eleven years looking for him, so you know how stubborn I can be. You may be law enforcement, but I’ll find a way, even if it means burying your body in the woods.”

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