Stupid. She could take care of herself. She was a panther. Or a lion. Either way, she didn’t need some broken man to be her make-shift hero. And besides, he was too damn dark to be anyone’s hero. He was a nightmare instead.
“What’s taking so long?” he murmured to Beast, who was mirroring his posture, staring at the front door ten yards away from them.
Beast grunted like a caveman.
“Dude,” Dustin called. “They’ve been in there for ten seconds. Don’t get in too big a rush to get rejected.”
Logan wanted to kick Dustin’s teeth in.
He picked up one of the fluttering applications blowing along the ground, but the front door opened up and Winter stood there, wide-eyed. Was she frightened?
Kill him.
“Rejected already?” Dustin asked.
“No,” she said in that pretty bell-tone that said she could probably carry a tune. “Kane told me to stick around for group interviews. Logan, you’re up.”
He’d watched her lips form his name, and as she walked up to him, he had this overwhelming urge to kiss her quick so he could taste the lingering word on her lips. He stood frozen as she did something he hadn’t expected in a million years. She gripped his shirt in a clenched fist and bumped her shoulder against his chest, rubbed her arm from one side of his ribcage to the other like he wasn’t some terrifying animal. “Affectionate kitty,” he whispered mindlessly. She’d made him drunk on her closeness. He wanted to fuck her in the woods.
Logan closed his eyes and held his breath until she released him, and when he opened them again, she looked just as confused as he felt. That, and she was standing ten feet away from him still on the porch.
She hadn’t touched him at all. He’d just imagined it.
Kill him.
“Shut the fuck up,” he gritted out to his bear.
Winter looked hurt.
“Not you!” He flung the application like a Frisbee and flinched his gaze away from the pain in her eyes.
“Smooth move, Romeo,” Dustin called as Logan brushed past her to the door.
He should turn around and apologize to her, but what good would that do? It was just a selfish ploy to get her to see him as something he wasn’t. For her to see him as decent. Best she figure out what he was now and stay the hell away. He wanted her to survive him.
In a rush, he shut the door behind him. Kane sat at a table, elbows on the polished surface, hands clasped in front of his mouth as he studied Logan. “Name.”
“Logan Furrow,” he answered, lifting his chin high.
Kane glared at him a few seconds too long, then pulled an open laptop closer and typed onto the keyboard, which gave Logan a few seconds to assess the situation. This part he was good at. That instant where he could take everything in and remember it for the rest of his life. The new-home sawdust smell that said Kane and Rowan had been renovating their lair, the dust motes that said he hadn’t dusted in a week. The flipped corner of a rug near the back door that said someone had left the back way in a hurry. The buzz of a new refrigerator, marks on the beams of the ceiling that said the roof was new. The soft flutter of papers that said Kane probably had notes pinned to a wall somewhere. An office maybe. Down the hallway to the right. The frown on Rowan’s face as she stood in the kitchen leaning on the counter. Not a threat. She smelled worried. Not offensive. Everyone felt uneasy when they got into tight spaces with him. Air Ryder’s scent lingered, but he wasn’t here anymore. He was probably the one who flipped the corner of the rug. There were three escapes. Front door, back door, and the picture window in the living room. A knife block sat on the counter, a fireplace set had a metal poker in it near the hearth, and that was all if he was too lazy to reach the six-inch-long Bowie knife he kept in a sheath at his ankle.
“Former Ten Rivers Crew?” Kane asked, arching his black eyebrow. “Why did you leave?”
“The alpha didn’t cut it.”
Kane’s monstrous green dragon eyes narrowed. He leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms as he studied Logan. “In what way?”
Logan growled. “Because he broke a promise.”
“Just one promise?”
Logan nodded his chin once.
“Must’ve been a big one.”
“It was the only one that mattered to me.”
Kane slid his computer out of the way and leaned forward on his elbows. “Logan Furrow. Your name sounds familiar. What did you do for work?”
Logan huffed a humorless breath. “Pass.”
“Then you can leave.”
Well, now he was directly in between a rock and a hard place. He would have to leave anyway if he admitted his career. “Any other question to start. Get to know me before you cut me out.”
“Fine, what did you do to your bear to break him?”
That was basically the same question. “Nothing. He’s fine.”
“Liar. I can feel how fucked up he is all the way from over here. From the way my mate is bristling behind me, I’m guessing she can, too. So please illuminate me, Mr. Furrow. Why should I allow you to be in my crew?”
“Because I’m loyal, and I can protect you and your mate. I can protect your entire crew if it came down to it. I have a skillset.”
“From your career?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Name your job, Logan. I’m not going to ask you again.”
“Mercenary. Assassin.”
“Fuck,” Kane spat out. He wouldn’t look at him now, was shaking his head back and forth. “Your choice?”