Page 65 of Coff

“He and your husband buried me alive in a grave.”

I shriek and then cover my mouth, hoping I didn’t wake anyone. Then I turn to Duke. Tears fall from my eyes, and I don’t try to hide them. “You tried to kill him? Why would you do that?”

Duke’s brow shoots up. “You’re kidding, right?” He points at Logan. “This asshole ripped out your heart and killed our father,” Duke says. “I wanted to do a hell of a lot more to him.”

Logan’s hands go up again. “I told you; my teammate shot your father. He had no choice. Your father was going to shoot me again.”

Ignoring the first part of what Duke said, I focus on the second. “You were there when my dad died?”

Logan nods. “He wasn’t supposed to be there. Then he recognized me and…”

“Tried to kill you.”

Logan nods.

I step away from Duke. “My dad recognized you after all these years.” I process that and what Duke did to Logan. I spin back to my brother. “What the hell? Both you and Dad tried to kill him?”

Duke throws his hands into the air. “Because of this asshole, you swore off ever loving anyone again. That made Dad think he could marry you off in convenience to Nelson. If it weren’t for him,” Duke points to Logan, “we wouldn’t be in this situation right now.”

Oh, that’s rich. I’m not going to let my brother go on thinking he’s blameless in all this. I press my finger into his chest. “I married Nelson to save your life. If you hadn’t fucked with his business or whatever the hell you did, it never would have been an issue. We are in this mess because of you, not Logan!”

Logan steps into our space. “I hate to interrupt, but we need to keep it down and not draw attention.”

He’s right. It’s just after five in the morning, and we are probably waking people up. People who will call and complain.

“We should go,” Logan says, then turns to Duke. “Because of what you’ve done, I want to leave your ass here, but my brother asked me not to, so I guess it’s your lucky day.”

“Your brother?”

Logan sigh. “You know exactly who my brother is. Isn’t that part of the reason you wanted me dead?”

Duke frowns but quickly turns it to a glare. But I caught it, and Logan likely did, too. What are you hiding now, brother?

“What you did to Delaney is enough reason for me to want you dead.”

Logan grabs his phone. “I’ll let my brother know you’ve declined his protection.”

“Stop,” Duke says. He grumbles something that sounds like asshole, but I can’t be sure. “FBI protection, you say?”

Logan nods.

“It’s better than us blindly running,” I tell him. “Can you stop hating Logan long enough for us to get out of this mess Nelson put us in?”

Duke nods. “For you, I can do that.” Then he leans in to give me a hug, but I push him away.

“You just told me you tried to kill Logan. No hugs. I’m too mad at you.”

Logan grins, but he turns quickly enough that Duke didn’t notice. We follow him to his car.

Before Duke ducks his head into the back seat, he stares down Logan over the roof of the car. “I’m going along with this for her. But I’ll warn you now, if I sense you even so much as glancing or flirting in her direction, I’ll break both your arms.”

Logan leans his arms onto the roof of the car and smiles. “I’d love to see you try that.”

“Stop!” I say, probably too loudly. “You two,” I point at both of them, “are going to get along. If you can’t, then shut up. I’ve had enough damn drama lately.” I get into the passenger seat and shut my door.

Once they both get in, Logan drives onto the highway, heading south. Duke notices, too.

“What the hell are you doing? We should be driving away from the men who want to kill us!” he says.

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