“But you agreed to it.”
“After the fact.” He paused. “He said it was the only way to keep you alive, and keeping you alive is the only way I can keep Sarah safe. That's the only thing that's important to me.”
“My God. Who the hell do you think you are?”
“A man who loves Sarah.” He paused. “As you do, Alex.”
“I told you I wouldn't do anything to endanger her. What you've done is totally beyond the pale.” She looked at Morgan across the kitchen. “And you turned this . . . thug loose on me.”
Morgan raised his brows. “Thug?” he murmured. “Isn't that a rather antiquated term?”
“Tell him to let me go, Logan.”
“I can't do that. Don't worry, I've been assured you're perfectly safe with him. He's no threat.”
She would have laughed if she hadn't been so angry. She didn't know exactly who or what Judd Morgan was, but he was about as unthreatening as a coiled rattlesnake. “He'll be no danger when I'm a thousand miles away from him or he's behind bars.”
“Believe me, if I'd had any doubts about your safety, I'd have never made a deal with him. Do you think I don't know I'd have to answer to Sarah if anything happened to you?”
“Sarah will be as furious as I am with you.”
“Maybe. But she'll be alive.” He paused. “And you'll be alive. The end justifies the means.”
“The hell it does.”
“We disagree. Is there anything else you'd like to say to me?”
“Let me go.”
“Anything else?”
“No, dammit, I want you to—” It was no use. She drew a deep breath. “How is Sarah?”
“Wonderful. Champing at the bit to get up. Nagging me to try to find out where the FBI has you hidden so she can come and see you.”
“Damn you.” She hung up the phone and glared at Morgan across the room. “And damn you, Morgan.”
“It must be very frustrating for you.” He crossed the room and took the phone from her. “And I'm sure Logan didn't succeed in reassuring you that I'm Sir Lancelot and not Jack the Ripper.”
“No.”
“But you believe that Logan's deal with me didn't include any harm to you?”
“Maybe.”
“And that Logan, being the powerhouse he is, would be very upset if I broke my end of the bargain?”
“Possibly.”
“Then look at it this way. If I killed you and buried you in the snow, Logan would come after me with guns blazing. Doesn't that give you a sense of security?”
She gazed at him incredulously. “Should it?”
He sighed. “I guess not. I was reaching.” He put the dishes in the dishwasher. “But I think you're not as uneasy as you were before you spoke to Logan. Want your coffee now?”
“No.” She got to her feet. “I don't want anything you can give me but out.”
“It's possible you might get what you want.”
She stiffened. “What?”
“I have to think about it. Things aren't shaping up the way I intended. I was planning on staying in the background, but I blew it at the hotel.”
“I agree.”
“No, not by taking you. That was necessary. But there are video cameras all over that hotel. I took out the ones in the garage, but I didn't have time to get to the cameras in the stairwell.”
“Good. Then your face will be on every APB in the U.S.”
“I was sure that would be your reaction. But it's not the police I'm concerned about at present.”
“You don't want those scumbags to target you too? Well, it serves you right.”
“Deserving or not, it doesn't alter the fact that I have a problem.”
Her gaze narrowed on his face. “And you might betray Logan to solve it?”
“Let's say I might make adjustments to our agreement.”
Hope flared. “Let me go and I'll forget I ever saw you.”
He shook his head.
“I don't break my word.”
He studied her and then smiled. “No, I don't think you do.”
“Then let me go. You don't want the trouble and I'll be big-time trouble.”
“A promise?”
Her smile was only a baring of her teeth. “Oh, yes.”
He chuckled. “My God, I wish you could meet Elena. I think you and she might be soul mates.”
“I'm not interested in meeting any of your friends.”
“It's just as well. The last I heard, she wanted to cut my throat. I don't need more than one of you to contend with at any given time.”
Her hands clenched into fists. “Are you going to let me go?”
His smile faded. “I have to consider the possibilities. I learned a long time ago that every action has a domino effect. I knew I should never have taken this job. Now if I let you go and you get killed, it will have a direct impact on me. One, Logan will be out for my head. Two, whoever is after you may think I'm part of the equation and target me. Three, the police may decide I'm involved in your demise and try to arrest me. Since I won't have Logan to run interference, it would put me in a very precarious position and that would not be—”