Was Dani in danger? Was that why she’d asked him to come? He should never have stepped outside without his SIG and shoes. “Stupid move, Kincaid,” he muttered, debating whether to run inside and get his gun. But even without a weapon, he was lethal. He started down the steps.
“There you are.”
Dani stood in the doorway holding Regan. He blanked his expression but apparently not fast enough. Her eyes searched his and then shifted to the woods.
“Is he here?” she asked before she and her daughter disappeared from sight.
Is who here? Sweeping his gaze across the wooded area one last time, he followed her inside and slid the deadbolts closed. Two on the front door and three on the back meant that whoever he was, Dani was afraid of him.
Logan went straight to the tote he’d dropped on the foyer table, took out his SIG Sauer, and stuck it at his back in the waistband of his jeans. Until he found out what was going on and put an end to the threat to Dani and Regan, he wouldn’t be caught without it again.
His plan had been to keep his room at the motel for sleeping, but if there was someone lurking about, he wasn’t going anywhere. Hopefully there was a guest bedroom. If not, he’d slept on worse things than a couch. He had promised Evan he would take care of Dani, and a SEAL didn’t break his word to a brother. Even without the pledge, he would have considered Dani and Regan to be under his protection.
In the living room, he sat down and stared at the box. Regan babbled at him from inside a playpen. “Where’s your mama?”
“Right here.” Dani walked in carrying two bottles of beer and handed him one before curling up on the couch.
“You can drink beer when you’re nursing?”
“As long as it’s a few hours before. I only allow myself one beer or one glass of wine a day.”
He took a long drink of the cold brew. “This is good.”
“It’s a local beer. Asheville’s well known for its microbreweries.”
He knew that. When Evan died, Logan downloaded facts and maps, studying everything he could find about the town. It was his job to watch over her and Evan’s child, a promise made and kept. Finishing the beer, he set the bottle on a coaster. It was time to get the answers to his questions.
“You asked me if he was here. Who is ‘he,’ Dani?”
“He says he’s Evan.”
CHAPTER THREE
Disbelief followed by anger crossed Logan’s face. Dani understood. The one time she’d talked to the man claiming to be Evan, rage had pounded through her bloodstream.
“You’ve spoken to him?”
She nodded. “Once, on the phone. The strange thing . . . he sounded like Evan, but the accent was different. He didn’t speak with Evan’s Texas drawl. It was more like a deep-South good-ol’-boy accent.”
“When did you speak to him and exactly what did he say?”
Logan’s voice was deceptively calm, but she heard the underlying steel in it. His jaws were rigid, his eyes cold and focused on her. Not a man she would ever want for an enemy, but she was damned glad to have him for a friend.
“The first phone call was two weeks ago. When I answered, he said, ‘I’ve missed you, Danielle, and I want to come home.’ I asked who was speaking, and that’s when he said he was Evan.”
“Did he say anything else?”
“No, I slammed the phone down. I realize now I should’ve tried to find out more, but at the time, I was just so angry someone would play that kind of joke on me.”
“Are you sure that wasn’t all it was, someone’s sick idea of a joke?”
“I’m very sure because he’s been in the house.” The mere idea of a stranger coming into her and Regan’s home made her stomach churn. She pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs. “Look in the box.”
His gaze shifted to the shoebox. He lifted the lid, revealing the teddy bear inside. Picking it up with the caution he might use when handling a grenade, he read aloud the note pinned to the bear. “For Regan. Daddy’s little girl.”
“That was in her crib when we returned from the grocery store last Tuesday. He was in my home, Logan.”
Just like that, he changed. His eyes slitted, viperlike, and the muscles in his jaws flexed, forming hard lines below his cheeks. The mouth she’d earlier thought might feel soft to the touch thinned into a harsh slash of lips. The team had called him Iceman, and now she understood why. A shiver raced up her spine at seeing this side of him. This man was a warrior, a lethal one.
“He’s a dead man. Did you touch the note?”
Startled out of her musings about him, she tried to remember. When she’d first seen it, she hadn’t wanted to handle it at all. “I’m sure I didn’t touch the paper. I think just an arm of the bear, only long enough to put it in the box.”