Crazy for Her(13)

The man standing across the street and watching them had caught his attention. For an instant, he thought he was seeing Evan. But the man was bulkier, and Evan would have never shaved his head. Unfortunately, the man had been too far away to see his features clearly. It wasn’t Evan—it couldn’t be. He had held Evan in his arms as he lay dying.

Angry strides took Logan back to the store where he’d left Dani and Regan. Who the hell was he? None of this made sense. A stalker who left teddy bears and resembled Evan—one who seemed to want to step into Evan’s life, claiming his wife and daughter. It was bizarre and unsettling.



 “Are you going to answer my question, Logan?”

He looked up from his pizza. They’d decided on the Wild Mushroom for lunch, and though the food was great, the music was so loud it hurt his ears. Also, the attitude of their waiter—along with the dreadlocks and rings in his eyebrow and nose—annoyed Logan to no end. The kid flirted with Dani as if Logan were invisible. Her husband died for your right to look like an idiot. He scowled at the waiter, satisfied when the boy scurried away.

“What question?” he asked, though he had heard her.

Dani sighed, then ignored him, tearing off a chunk of pizza crust and giving it to Regan to gnaw on. She was seriously annoyed, and he didn’t blame her.

“She won’t choke on that?”

Green eyes flashed with irritation. “No, the piece is too big. She’ll just gum it. Stop stalling. What happened? Why did you take off like that?”

There it was again, the question he wanted to go away. Pushing the remainder of his pizza aside, he glanced at the baby girl with Evan’s hazel eyes. “I thought I saw Evan.”

The blood drained from Dani’s face. Without giving it any thought, he slid around the table and pushed in next to her. “Dani, I didn’t see him. Listen to me. I didn’t see him. Whoever it was just looked a little like him.”

She angrily pushed him away. “Stop it. They told me he’d been killed.” Fat, heartbreaking tears rolled down her cheeks. “Do you think it was him?” she said, hope in her voice.

“No, I know it wasn’t.” Hurt that she didn’t want his comfort, Logan reluctantly moved back to his side of the table.

She busied herself with putting Regan into the carrier. Once the straps were securely over her shoulders, she stood. “I want to go home.”

After paying the bill, he escorted her and Regan to the car, all the while keeping an alert eye out for a man who resembled Evan. He glanced at Dani. Her day out had been ruined, and he didn’t know how to make it better.

As soon as they arrived home, she’d disappeared into her room with Regan and the diaper bag, only coming out once to grab two jars of baby food. They’d been in there for hours. Logan stood in the hall and glared at the closed door. Was she all right? Stupid question, Kincaid. How could she be after learning the man stalking her not only sounded like her dead husband but also looked like him?

Lifting his wrist, he pushed the button that lit his watch dial. Two in the damned morning. He paced the hallway. On the way downtown, they’d stopped so he could overnight the teddy bear to Buchanan to see if he could lift any fingerprints. It would be a day or two before the results came back. There must be something else he could do in the meantime.

He liked missions where he knew his target and had all the background intel on the bad guy. There was never any doubt who he was going after, what the dude’s habits were, or where he hung out. By the time he and his team finished studying him, they knew how many times he visited his mother and how many times he got laid, along with when, where, and for how long. With this creep, he was stumbling around in the dark, ineffective and useless.

It pissed him off.

With one last scowl at the door, he went to the kitchen and rummaged around in the refrigerator. He was hungry and tired of waiting for Dani to emerge from her room. She hadn’t eaten since their pizza at lunch. How was she supposed to keep her strength up if she didn’t eat? She was nursing, for God’s sake. Didn’t nursing mothers need nourishment?

Opening a plastic container that looked like leftover Chinese, he sniffed it. It smelled good so he set it on the counter. In the cabinet, he found a plate, cup, and coffee beans. The coffee started, Logan stared at the microwave until he found the express button.

“What are you heating up?”

One glance at Dani and his mouth went dry. She had on a soft, short robe the color of her eyes. Her hair was tousled, her feet bare. He did a double take. No, he hadn’t imagined it. Her toenails were painted sky blue.

“Wicked Blue.”