But Logan wasn’t even breathing hard. He didn’t show a single sign that his muscular body even noticed the stress. “I’m sure she took Georgia to her club meeting. They meet on every second Tuesday.”
Mel turned, his rifle at his side. “That club keeps growing. I’m the speaker next month. I’m giving the ladies tips on how to take down alien species, but mainly I go for the pie. There’s always such good pie there. Not quite as good as my Cassidy’s lemon pie, but Lucy’s pecan comes close. Seth, is it true you’re going to pay for alien DNA detection for the upcoming wedding?”
Logan snorted, putting his hand over his mouth to cover his laughter.
Stef Talbot was a son of a bitch. Bastard. Rat-fink motherfucker. He’d sold him out. Seth had talked to him yesterday, inviting Stef and his wife to the cabin sometime, discussing the upcoming wedding situation. Seth was taking about half of the Texas crowd while the rest would be staying at the Talbot estate. Seth didn’t know Wolf Meyer, but he’d spent a lot of time talking to Leo Meyer on the phone and he’d sent Julian Lodge some hefty checks for Logan’s therapy and club membership. And now he had to pay to keep Mel happy. He was going to kick Stef’s ass. “Yep. Can’t have aliens disrupting a wedding.”
Mel took a seat on a rock. The forest was quiet all around them. “Cass is a little worried that her boys are marrying an alien. It would be just like an alien queen to come after those boys. They’re prime mating material. Sweet boys, of course, but they do have all that alien DNA. And Shelley is very averse to beets. Said she wouldn’t allow a beet-filled wedding cake.”
“We’re not having beets at our wedding, dude,” Logan said. And then he shook his head. “I mean Georgia is probably going to want something fancy when you marry her.”
He’d been right the first time, but Seth was counting the flub as progress. The same way he was counting that damn G on Logan’s chest. There was no way it stood for Green. That G, with its romantic curves, was all about their Georgia, and he wanted a matching one on his chest. Georgia could get a really sweet L and S on that gorgeous curve right over her ass. They would be inked, linked together forever. That was what he wanted. “Georgia can pass the alien test. Aliens can’t wear her heels.”
Mel nodded. “I’ve heard that even the females have terrible arches. I wonder if Shelley wears heels. Cass would be much happier that way. We’ll have to see. But we still need monitors. They’re making plans, I tell you.”
Logan slid him a long look, his lips curling up. “They’re always making plans. But I don’t think this is an alien. Come on. Let’s keep moving. I have a meeting with Nate at one, and I’m on highway duty all afternoon. I get to write tickets to tourists.”
He wouldn’t have to write tickets to tourists if he would just let Seth pay his damn tuition. It was stupid. It was stubborn. Seth had money. He wouldn’t miss it even if Logan went to freaking Harvard. But Logan didn’t want to hear it. He’d been like a dog on a bone ever since he’d walked out of his room this morning. He’d told Seth to come with him and then they’d spent a whole lot of time at the sheriff’s office talking to the park rangers. And then they’d walked like five hundred miles to get to even more trees. The forest was beautiful, but he wasn’t sure why they were here. Logan had said something about a light and glinting, and he’d sounded an awful lot like Mel, who was their guide.
Yep. Crazy Mel was their guide, but then he’d kind of sort of been their guide before. Mel had been a master at taking young boys under his wing and teaching them to kill aliens, protect themselves, and to view purely human pornography.
“Logan, come on, man. Why the hell am I up here?”
“Because Nate is in the cabin and Cam has a new baby.” Logan just kept up the steep incline. “And this has something to do with you.”
“A glint in the atmosphere has something to do with me?”
Logan stopped and turned, frowning. “Nate is going to tell us when he sees the glint off our binoculars. That’s going to tell me where this guy was standing. Did you not listen to a thing I told the park rangers?”
He’d kind of been thinking about Georgia at the time. He’d been daydreaming about getting Georgia back in bed and prepping her for what he really wanted. Both of them inside her, one in her ass and one in her pussy. Sweet, sweet double penetration. And then Logan had shoved a contract in front of him. He hated contracts. He really hated contracts that put boundaries on sex and love and life.
“Tell me again.” He wasn’t going to explain that he’d been flustered by that fucking contract.
Logan took a long breath. “I saw something up here earlier today. It was either a scoped rifle or a camera. I suppose it could have been someone’s glasses, but the park rangers claim no one is up here right now. At least no one who has clearance. Did you see the footprints on the porch yesterday? They were still there this morning. I didn’t make them.”
“It rained last week. We don’t know how long that print has been there.” It could have come from anywhere. The contractors had been working on the house right up until the day before they’d come here.
“It wasn’t there when I got in the day before yesterday,” Logan argued. “The whole place was pristinely clean.”
“What was the print like, Logan?” Mel asked. He was carrying his ever-present rifle as he walked up the steep incline.
“Round toed. Sorry, Mel. It was totally human unless aliens have started wearing sneakers. It was an asshole human. How much would reporters pay to get a look at your new place?” Logan directed the last question at Seth.
Seth shrugged. “Not much. Dude, it’s not like I’m some celebrity. I’m more likely to be in The Wall Street Journal than a paparazzi rag. The Journal doesn’t want pics of my house. They just want to run my stock into the ground.”
But he’d been getting phone calls to his cell that didn’t make much sense. He’d paid to have the number secret, and yet someone with an unknown number kept calling him. Maybe it was time to figure out what the hell was going on. He just wasn’t sure he would find it on a mountain on the other side of the river.
“Someone is watching you,” Logan said. “Or maybe me. Or, hell, maybe they’re watching Georgia. Do you want to take a chance on that?”
Fuck. The idea that someone might be watching Georgia got his blood pumping. He raced to catch up. “Why would someone be watching Georgia?”
“Aliens are always looking for women to mate with.” Mel didn’t look back, just kept to his slow and steady climb. “Once they figured out they couldn’t get any babies out of men, they started looking at our women.”
He needed some of Mel’s tonic if he was going to have that conversation. “Logan?”
Logan’s shoulders moved up and down. “I don’t know. I don’t really think it’s about her, but I have to consider it. If someone’s watching the house, they’re watching Georgia.”
Logan was a little paranoid. Seth had to calm him down. “If it’s a reporter, they’re likely looking to see who I’m meeting with here. When they realize it’s a vacation home, they’ll go away.”
Of course, he had to consider corporate espionage. There was always some bastard willing to sell out for a fat paycheck. His code was protected by about a thousand patents, but that didn’t mean someone wouldn’t pay to get a look at it. Or at any of the hundreds of projects he had going at any given time. Would they really follow him out here?
It would be easy enough. The property was in his name. His flight plan had been logged.