He held up a hand when Avery opened her mouth again. “Save it. I know when arguing is useless. Would you call the office and get a couple of our techs out here? Have them figure out the most complete security system we can install. And tell them to keep their eyes peeled.”
“Done.” She had already pressed speed dial for the office. “Go ahead. I’ll meet you down there.”
Logan could barely keep up with Devon as she raced into the garage and got into his truck. He had a feeling that if he hadn’t punched the button to open the garage door, she’d have insisted he just drive through it.
“Hurry,” she urged, hands clasped tightly in her lap.
Logan burned rubber backing out of the garage and heading down the driveway. Despite Devon’s urging to hurry, he took care to look both ways and scope out the surrounding area as he reached the road. And a damn good thing, he thought, as he spotted a black SUV almost hidden in the trees across the road. When it pulled out behind them he grabbed his gun from his waist and pushed Devon’s head down.
“Stay like that and don’t move under any circumstance.”
“What’s happening? What—”
“Trouble. Just do me a favor and hang tight. Please.”
He had to give her credit. She shut up and bent way down, just as he’d told her to do, even though he could feel the fear and anger vibrating from her. They hadn’t gone fifty yards before something cracked against the rear of the truck cab, and he knew damn well it was a bullet. Last year he’d protected a very high-profile oilman whose life had been threatened. He’d taken his truck to Tactical Armoring Corporation in San Antonio and had it fixed up inside and out. Now he had bulletproof tires, and a vehicle reinforced against everything up to and including armor-piercing rifles.
He pressed harder on the accelerator, keeping one eye on the road and the other on the side-view mirror. If they could make it to the end of the road and take the turn to the marina, he figured they’d be okay because then they’d be in traffic. He hoped these idiots weren’t stupid enough to engage in a firefight with a bunch of other people around.
A heavy thud sounded against the back of the cab, and Logan knew from the sound it was an armor-piercing bullet. Whoever these guys were, they came well equipped.
He watched the speedometer creep up to eighty, then ninety, then a hundred. He was sure the men behind them wanted to pull up alongside and try for the windows, but he kept ahead of them with his powerful engine. They were almost to the end of Seacliff Road.
“Hang on. Brace yourself.”
He wrenched the wheel around, skidding into the turn, and then they were on the busy road to the marina.
Traffic forced him to slow down and when he looked in his mirror, he saw the other vehicle had turned off the other way. Smart. They didn’t want people around for what they had to do. He had to tell Avery so they could revisit the security needs. A high-end system might not be enough.
“You can sit up now,” he told Devon.
When the SUV pulled out behind them, she hadn’t freaked, or panicked, or done anything he might have expected. She just did what he told her and left him to take care of business. He was afraid that wouldn’t work at the marina, though, with tension rolling off her in waves.
As they neared the marina the traffic became thicker, and when they turned into the parking lot, he saw a thick cloud of black smoke rising into the air. The place was jammed, and not just with boat owners. Things like this drew everyone in this tiny little town. He managed to squeeze the truck into a narrow space but before he’d even shut off the ignition, Devon was already out. He barely caught her as he leaped out of the truck.
“Hold it. You don’t move two inches without me. Someone just shot at us, remember?”
Every bit of color leached from her face. “They want to kill me.”
He shook his head. “I think they want to kill me and get their hands on you. So for the immediate future, we’re stuck together with glue.”
Two of Sheri’s patrolmen were barricading the gate that opened out onto the docks and doing their best to hold back the shouting crowd. In a moment two men he recognized as Vigilance agents joined them.
“It’s okay,” he told Deacon Broder, one of the Vigilance men. “The boat on fire is her dad’s. Let us through.”
That took a lot of squeezing to get past the pushing and shoving.
“Who are these people?” Logan asked.
“Some of them have boats in the slips near Princess Devon. We told them they can’t go out on the dock yet, but they’re maniacs.”
“Yeah, I can see they’re upset. I’ll get Sheri to calm them down.”
Devon was already running down the dock to where flames licked the air, mingled with the thick black cloud. Logan jogged down to catch her. As soon as he neared the fire he could see that the boat was destroyed. Not even the hull was intact, floating in blackened pieces in the water. A small fireboat was in the water between the docks spraying the Princess Devon and Lady Hannah. Men in board shorts and Arrowhead Bay T-shirts were on the dock with hoses hooked up to spigots, spraying all the other boats in the area.
What a fucking mess.
Sheri was talking to a tall man in a uniform who he assumed was with the Coast Guard. He hated to interrupt her but she had to do some damage control.
“Sorry to interrupt, but Sheri, you need to calm the beasts down back there. Let them know when they can get to their boats.”
She glanced back to the gate and nodded. “Okay. Logan, this is Lieutenant Commandeer Russell Deering of the Coast Guard. He’s our new liaison while we wait to see what search and rescue does or does not turn up. Russell, Logan Malik is a top Vigilance agent. You can tell him anything.”
“Hold on a sec, Sheri.” Logan shook hands with the man and introduced Devon to him. “Could you keep an eye on her for a second? This is her dad’s boat.”
Deering lifted a quizzical eyebrow but nodded. “Sure.”
Logan guided Sheri a few feet away. In concise sentences, he told her about the car chasing them down Seacliff Road and shooting at them.
“I think they were making another try at Devon. If they got rid of me in the process, so much the better.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I just can’t believe how stupid they are to try something with the same vehicle. Although neither of them would win a contest for brains. We all need to be extra alert.”
She nodded. “Did you tell Avery yet?”
He shook his head. “Haven’t seen her but I will.”
“Good.” Then she turned and hurried down the dock to the demanding crowd.
Devon had been doing her best to get as close to the edge of the dock as she could, despite Deering’s best efforts to keep her from it.
Logan grabbed her and pulled her back. “Don’t want you falling in the water.”
“He’s
