When the World Made Sense (Part Five)
Title: When the World Made Sense
Author: hunters_retreat
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 26,000+
Warnings: pre-story off-screen death of a secondary character, slash
Author's Notes:Thank you so much to the mod's for this amazing challenge! And all my love to my amazing artist sillie82!
Summary: Once upon a time, Logan Cale's life made sense. Maybe not to anyone else, but it did to him. That was before he'd ever heard of Manticore, or X-5's, and certainly before he found himself the head of the Trans-normal movement that had sparked after the explosive outing of transgenics in Terminal City. Two years of fighting for the cause had taken its toll though, and not just on Logan. Anti-trans groups put a price on their heads and none more so than for Alec McDowell.
Alec tried to act like none of it bothered him but Logan knew different. They were co-conspirators and stood shoulder to shoulder leading the movement. An offhanded comment has Logan thinking it's time for a change, for the movement and for himself. Will Logan's grand experiment - a self-sustaining farming community for humans and transgenics alike - give them the chance to make peace with the world or will it fail? Will it give Alec the chance to finally heal from his emotional scars that a life as a Manticore assassin left him? And will they both finally realize what they’ve been fighting for all along?
It didn’t change anything. Alec still had nightmares and their walks to the wheat field became more common as Alec opened up to Logan. Logan wasn’t sure if it made Alec feel better or not, but there seemed to be fewer nightmares and there hadn’t been any other incidents lately either. It wasn’t a cure, but Alec was talking to him again and they were working again. The weight of their problems seemed to melt away as Alec began sitting in his office again, teasing Logan mercilessly about everything, and in general making Logan’s life easier.
Everyone else seemed to notice as well and people were laughing and joking with Alec again. Sketchy had delivered his message and come back to take Cadence to the new community where, if the messages he received were correct, she was thriving. With only a few humans to confront, Cadence opened up to the new community and she was finally beginning to deal with the things that had happened to her, both at Manticore’s hands and in human hands after her escape.
That didn’t mean there were no problems though and Logan shook his head as he waited for Alec to come back to him. There had been three injuries in the last two weeks. The first two he could put off as faulty equipment or operator error, but the third, after they’d re-inspected and drilled operational safety into everyone was too much to be coincidence.
As Alec slipped into the office, his face was grim. “Someone is tampering with the equipment.”
Logan let his head drop back and closed his eyes, grateful that they were alone for a moment. Mole would be up there soon and maybe the other Tribunal members, though they tended to let Mole deal with this sort of situation.
“You think they’re following us here?”
There was no need to say who they were. Logan and Alec had talked about it before and there wasn’t a good answer. Logan was just surprised it had taken so long for it to happen.
“Yeah. Someone did this on purpose.”
“To what end? In Terminal City we knew they were coming after certain people. There’s no way someone could guess what equipment anyone would be using.”
“All three times I was scheduled to work in the area of the accidents,” Alec said, though Logan was very well aware of the fact.
“You really think an assassin was hoping to get lucky?”
“Or hoping to rattle us. We left Terminal City in part because of the assassination attempts. Maybe someone is hoping that the community will get spooked and pack it up.”
Logan sighed. “So this is just going to get worse, until someone really gets hurt.”
Alec nodded. “I don’t think the assassin is going to wait any longer. He’s not giving a lot of time between the accidents. He either has a timeline or he’s growing impatient. He’s ready to make his move now.”
“So how do we stop him?”
“We start patrols.”
They’d talked about the need to have their border patrolled and all the roads to the farm had gates constructed to keep anyone from coming at them in force but they had hoped that time and distance would end the assassination attempts. Logan felt naïve for the hope, but they had plans in place for just that reason.
“Alright, but you aren’t on patrol, Alec. No one that was scheduled for all three of the accident areas should be.”
“You don’t think I was the target?”
“I think it would be stupid of us to assume it was only you.”
**
Mole wasn’t happy about being pulled from the patrol but when Logan explained he and Alec were the possible targets, he calmed down. Alec wasn’t any happier about being left out of the perimeter patrols either, but he knew Logan’s logic was sound. Besides, if the assassin was as good as Alec thought, he was going to sneak past the perimeter anyway and Alec would have to face him there. He wished he could have sent Logan away somehow, but he wasn’t moving from the house and there wasn’t a reason - other than Alec’s fears for his safety - and Logan wasn’t that easily swayed.
Alec had talked to Syl though and the work was moved away from the fields by the house without alerting anyone to his concern. As an X-5 she understood why he was doing it. Logan wouldn’t have agreed, but in this Alec left him in the dark. It kept the main house mostly empty and as the evening grew, Alec knew he’d made the right call. His skin itched, like he was being watched, and he knew without a doubt that their assassin had run out of patience.
“We should send word to Sketchy,” Logan said softly. They’d had dinner in the outer fields with the rest of the community. The kitchen back there wasn’t as fancy as the one in the main house but that didn’t stop the cooks from making great food there. With the farm taking up as much space as it did, it wasn’t always practical to have only one kitchen working so they had added the second one a few months after they’d arrived at Touchstone.
It was nice to walk back with Logan, just the two of them since the main house’s kitchen was empty tonight.
“We’ve got a good crop coming in already. We should be able to trade for anything we need and we can take on more people if he knows anyone who wants to join us.”
Alec nodded because that was the whole point of this big experiment, to see if they could cohabitate together and to add to the community as they were able to sustain themselves.
“Sketchy said he was coming through in another few months. We’ll have him pass the word along. Maybe send some produce along with him as a good faith gesture.”
Logan nodded, but neither one of them was really all that focused on work. It felt right, walking with Logan at his side, shoulders brushing together as they made their way home, if it weren’t for the feeling of being watched.
“It’s here,” Alec said softly. Logan didn’t stop walking but he looked at Alec and he could see the way the other man’s eyes widened. He knew what Alec meant and he was waiting for Alec to make the next call.
“Alec, down!”
A female voice roared through the silence and Alec threw himself at Logan, taking both of them down to the ground as a round of gunfire burst around them. There was no sound of gunfire, just the rounds hitting the dirt and he knew then that the rest of the farm wouldn’t be alerted to their danger.
Alec knew the voice and he’d have been running towards it at any other time to see what the hell she was doing there, but there was someone trying to kill them and Alec knew he’d get a chance later.
Logan rolled out from under Alec and shuffled back behind a large stack of hay that lined the walkway. It wasn’t usually there but they’d moved them along the main path recently to make sure there was a place to duck behind. Mole had argued that it was a great place to hide for an assassin, but Alec wasn’t worried about an assassin trying to get up close and personal. Alec was able to handle and fight but it was long distance weapons fire that he needed to worry about.
“That was,” Logan said as they sat with their back to the hay. His eyes were wide and Alec just nodded.
“Yeah, it was. When this is all done, we’ll find out why she’s here. Good timing though,” Alec said. He didn’t think it was that though. There was a reason another X-5 showed up just in time to warn Alec about the assassination attempt and it wasn’t a coincidence.
Another round of fire hit as Alec stood up, trying to get a better view of the situation. He ducked back behind the hay but it let him know that the attacker was moving. The shots hadn’t been fired from the same position.
“He’s coming.”
“Maybe we should have listened to Mole’s paranoia and walked around armed,” Logan said with a small smile.
Alec snorted at that. “Mole wanted to walk around with a rocket launcher. I’m not that paranoid and most of the attacks have been directed at me.”
Logan’s smile was tight, but they’d both been in this sort of situation before and they defused the tension as best they could, while they could.
“Come out 494!”
It was unexpected, that the assassin was asking him to step forward, but it might give Logan a chance to get away before things got bad, maybe get back to the others for back up. Logan gripped his wrist tightly though and Alec knew from the look in his eyes that Logan wasn’t going anywhere. If Alec stepped away from their cover, Logan would be right at his side.
“I’m not really that interested in a date with a bullet so I think I’ll stay right where I am,” he yelled out over the barrier.
There was a laugh from the other side. “I understand your predicament but it wasn’t a request. You step away or I’ll go to the other end of the farm and start killing everyone there.”
Alec actually thought about letting him for a minute. There were plenty of transgenics at the other end and they’d be able to take a single assassin out. No everyone was transgenic though. There were humans there, and even the transgenic children would be hurt if he came across a group of kids.
Alec took a deep breath and just h
ad to hope that he had help on the way.
“Alright, fine.” He stood up and Logan did also, stepping out from behind the hay stack on opposite sides.
The man in front of them smiled, a gun pulled from his belt to hold on Logan without hesitation. He was dressed in standard issue camoflaugue gear and weapons. He could be from any branch of the armed forces or just a mercenary. He had a hard look to his eyes though. He was obviously good at what he did and he wasn’t surprised by Logan’s move which meant he’d been watching them for a while.
“You aren’t here for us, are you?” Alec asked. It made sense. If he’d been watching for that long then he’d have had plenty of times to take Logan and Alec out. He wasn’t there for them, or anyone else that was a regular part of the farm. He’d been waiting for someone to show up.
“Max?” Logan asked.
“You two didn’t even try to make it hard to find you,” the assassin said with a sneer. “Max went underground though and no one was able to flush her out. I needed her to know I took the hit on you to draw her out.”
“You really think you’re going to kill the both of us?” Alec asked with a laugh. “Before the rest of the farm figures out what is going on and you get caught by a mob of transgenics?”
“I’ll take my chances.”
“That must be a pretty hefty fee you’re getting there,” Logan said.
“Oh, it’s more than just a fee. I don’t hunt genetic freaks for money.”
“Great, he’s a fanatic,” Alec moaned.
“But a fanatic for who?” Max asked as she came into the clearing. “That’s what I couldn’t figure out. I mean, I knew you were a creep, but I just wasn’t sure what flavor.”
She didn’t carry a gun, she never did, but with the three of them there he had to divert his attention. To Alec’s chagrin, he didn’t take the gun off Logan, but left Max uncovered.
“This is all for me,” he said softly. “I had the contract out on the both of you for a long time, but no one seemed to be able to finish the job. This time I decided to just do it myself.”
“We’re flattered, really,” Max said as she took a step closer to him. “But we don’t plan on just lying down and dying. Hope you don’t mind.”
There was a strange laugh from the assassin and he smiled. “I don’t mind, but I don’t intend to play fair either.”
He fired the weapon and Alec dove in front of Logan before he had a chance to think. He felt the bullet hit as the force of it knocked him into Logan. Logan stumbled under his weight and they both fell to the ground.
“Alec?”
There were sounds in the background, Max fighting and yelling to get the attention of the rest of the farm inhabitants and Logan was moving out from under him, hands finding the wound in his back. Alec felt pressure against his back.
“Alec, hold on,” Logan whispered. “They’re coming.”
The fight was over, Alec knew. A human against a transgenic wasn’t much of a fight, but Alec had been unwilling to move while a gun was pointed at Logan. Max hadn’t had to worry about that. He could hear her voice though he couldn’t make out the words. It meant that she’d left the assassin alive.
Alec wouldn’t have, but he and Max were as different as night and day, no matter that they were both Manticore trained.
“Alec, talk to me,” Logan said, his hands pulling at Alec’s shirt as others came up beside him.
“Logan? Alright?” His body was becoming numb and he knew he wasn’t going to remain conscious much longer.
“I’m alright,” Logan said, “We’re all alright. Max got him and Touchstone is safe now. You just hold on, Alec. We’re going to take care of you.”
He wanted to say something but no words came.
“Alec, don’t you die,” he heard Max’s order and he almost smiled at the idea that somehow he’d managed to get Max back. He wasn’t strong enough to fight for Logan but at least Max was back and he’d have someone at his back after Alec was gone.
It was his last thought before he let the pain take over and he blacked out.
**
Logan stared down at his hands, waiting.
Max was sitting two seats over, still afraid to get too close. They hadn’t spent enough time together lately to be used to the dance they did, being close and not touching. He didn’t know what to say to her. She got up and started pacing again.
They were both waiting.
“He’s gone,” Mole said as way of announcing himself to the room. “Syl and Gemma went themselves to make sure Sung gets him.”
“That’s a long way to take a fugitive,” Max commented.
“It’s the only way I know he’ll get justice,” Logan answered. He nodded to Mole. “We’ll let you know as soon as we have news.”
“We’re all waiting to hear.”
Mole left without another word and Logan and Max were left alone again.
“I never thought I’d see the day Alec put someone else above himself.”
It was Max, trying to stir up trouble but Logan was pissed. “No, you wouldn’t expect it because you left. You wouldn’t know anything about the Alec that’s been by my side since Cindy died.” He didn’t pull his punches this time. “He’s different now, he’s … you have no idea what he is.”
Max looked at him, wide eyed, and he could see the moment she made the connection. The one he never wanted to make himself.
“You’re in love with him?”
Logan dropped his head. He wasn’t sure why he was considering having this conversation when he refused to admit how he felt, but the way Max said it was something between disbelief and awe.
“Yeah.”
“You’re lovers? How could you, I mean, Alec? Does he? That’s why he did it.”
“No, he did it because that’s who he is now, Max. And we’re not lovers. It’s not that simple.”
“Maybe you should explain it to me, Logan.” Max said as she sat down. There was no anger in her eyes, just curiosity.
Logan nodded, and started talking.
On to Part Six
Author: hunters_retreat
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 26,000+
Warnings: pre-story off-screen death of a secondary character, slash
Author's Notes:Thank you so much to the mod's for this amazing challenge! And all my love to my amazing artist sillie82!
Summary: Once upon a time, Logan Cale's life made sense. Maybe not to anyone else, but it did to him. That was before he'd ever heard of Manticore, or X-5's, and certainly before he found himself the head of the Trans-normal movement that had sparked after the explosive outing of transgenics in Terminal City. Two years of fighting for the cause had taken its toll though, and not just on Logan. Anti-trans groups put a price on their heads and none more so than for Alec McDowell.
Alec tried to act like none of it bothered him but Logan knew different. They were co-conspirators and stood shoulder to shoulder leading the movement. An offhanded comment has Logan thinking it's time for a change, for the movement and for himself. Will Logan's grand experiment - a self-sustaining farming community for humans and transgenics alike - give them the chance to make peace with the world or will it fail? Will it give Alec the chance to finally heal from his emotional scars that a life as a Manticore assassin left him? And will they both finally realize what they’ve been fighting for all along?
It didn’t change anything. Alec still had nightmares and their walks to the wheat field became more common as Alec opened up to Logan. Logan wasn’t sure if it made Alec feel better or not, but there seemed to be fewer nightmares and there hadn’t been any other incidents lately either. It wasn’t a cure, but Alec was talking to him again and they were working again. The weight of their problems seemed to melt away as Alec began sitting in his office again, teasing Logan mercilessly about everything, and in general making Logan’s life easier.
Everyone else seemed to notice as well and people were laughing and joking with Alec again. Sketchy had delivered his message and come back to take Cadence to the new community where, if the messages he received were correct, she was thriving. With only a few humans to confront, Cadence opened up to the new community and she was finally beginning to deal with the things that had happened to her, both at Manticore’s hands and in human hands after her escape.
That didn’t mean there were no problems though and Logan shook his head as he waited for Alec to come back to him. There had been three injuries in the last two weeks. The first two he could put off as faulty equipment or operator error, but the third, after they’d re-inspected and drilled operational safety into everyone was too much to be coincidence.
As Alec slipped into the office, his face was grim. “Someone is tampering with the equipment.”
Logan let his head drop back and closed his eyes, grateful that they were alone for a moment. Mole would be up there soon and maybe the other Tribunal members, though they tended to let Mole deal with this sort of situation.
“You think they’re following us here?”
There was no need to say who they were. Logan and Alec had talked about it before and there wasn’t a good answer. Logan was just surprised it had taken so long for it to happen.
“Yeah. Someone did this on purpose.”
“To what end? In Terminal City we knew they were coming after certain people. There’s no way someone could guess what equipment anyone would be using.”
“All three times I was scheduled to work in the area of the accidents,” Alec said, though Logan was very well aware of the fact.
“You really think an assassin was hoping to get lucky?”
“Or hoping to rattle us. We left Terminal City in part because of the assassination attempts. Maybe someone is hoping that the community will get spooked and pack it up.”
Logan sighed. “So this is just going to get worse, until someone really gets hurt.”
Alec nodded. “I don’t think the assassin is going to wait any longer. He’s not giving a lot of time between the accidents. He either has a timeline or he’s growing impatient. He’s ready to make his move now.”
“So how do we stop him?”
“We start patrols.”
They’d talked about the need to have their border patrolled and all the roads to the farm had gates constructed to keep anyone from coming at them in force but they had hoped that time and distance would end the assassination attempts. Logan felt naïve for the hope, but they had plans in place for just that reason.
“Alright, but you aren’t on patrol, Alec. No one that was scheduled for all three of the accident areas should be.”
“You don’t think I was the target?”
“I think it would be stupid of us to assume it was only you.”
**
Mole wasn’t happy about being pulled from the patrol but when Logan explained he and Alec were the possible targets, he calmed down. Alec wasn’t any happier about being left out of the perimeter patrols either, but he knew Logan’s logic was sound. Besides, if the assassin was as good as Alec thought, he was going to sneak past the perimeter anyway and Alec would have to face him there. He wished he could have sent Logan away somehow, but he wasn’t moving from the house and there wasn’t a reason - other than Alec’s fears for his safety - and Logan wasn’t that easily swayed.
Alec had talked to Syl though and the work was moved away from the fields by the house without alerting anyone to his concern. As an X-5 she understood why he was doing it. Logan wouldn’t have agreed, but in this Alec left him in the dark. It kept the main house mostly empty and as the evening grew, Alec knew he’d made the right call. His skin itched, like he was being watched, and he knew without a doubt that their assassin had run out of patience.
“We should send word to Sketchy,” Logan said softly. They’d had dinner in the outer fields with the rest of the community. The kitchen back there wasn’t as fancy as the one in the main house but that didn’t stop the cooks from making great food there. With the farm taking up as much space as it did, it wasn’t always practical to have only one kitchen working so they had added the second one a few months after they’d arrived at Touchstone.
It was nice to walk back with Logan, just the two of them since the main house’s kitchen was empty tonight.
“We’ve got a good crop coming in already. We should be able to trade for anything we need and we can take on more people if he knows anyone who wants to join us.”
Alec nodded because that was the whole point of this big experiment, to see if they could cohabitate together and to add to the community as they were able to sustain themselves.
“Sketchy said he was coming through in another few months. We’ll have him pass the word along. Maybe send some produce along with him as a good faith gesture.”
Logan nodded, but neither one of them was really all that focused on work. It felt right, walking with Logan at his side, shoulders brushing together as they made their way home, if it weren’t for the feeling of being watched.
“It’s here,” Alec said softly. Logan didn’t stop walking but he looked at Alec and he could see the way the other man’s eyes widened. He knew what Alec meant and he was waiting for Alec to make the next call.
“Alec, down!”
A female voice roared through the silence and Alec threw himself at Logan, taking both of them down to the ground as a round of gunfire burst around them. There was no sound of gunfire, just the rounds hitting the dirt and he knew then that the rest of the farm wouldn’t be alerted to their danger.
Alec knew the voice and he’d have been running towards it at any other time to see what the hell she was doing there, but there was someone trying to kill them and Alec knew he’d get a chance later.
Logan rolled out from under Alec and shuffled back behind a large stack of hay that lined the walkway. It wasn’t usually there but they’d moved them along the main path recently to make sure there was a place to duck behind. Mole had argued that it was a great place to hide for an assassin, but Alec wasn’t worried about an assassin trying to get up close and personal. Alec was able to handle and fight but it was long distance weapons fire that he needed to worry about.
“That was,” Logan said as they sat with their back to the hay. His eyes were wide and Alec just nodded.
“Yeah, it was. When this is all done, we’ll find out why she’s here. Good timing though,” Alec said. He didn’t think it was that though. There was a reason another X-5 showed up just in time to warn Alec about the assassination attempt and it wasn’t a coincidence.
Another round of fire hit as Alec stood up, trying to get a better view of the situation. He ducked back behind the hay but it let him know that the attacker was moving. The shots hadn’t been fired from the same position.
“He’s coming.”
“Maybe we should have listened to Mole’s paranoia and walked around armed,” Logan said with a small smile.
Alec snorted at that. “Mole wanted to walk around with a rocket launcher. I’m not that paranoid and most of the attacks have been directed at me.”
Logan’s smile was tight, but they’d both been in this sort of situation before and they defused the tension as best they could, while they could.
“Come out 494!”
It was unexpected, that the assassin was asking him to step forward, but it might give Logan a chance to get away before things got bad, maybe get back to the others for back up. Logan gripped his wrist tightly though and Alec knew from the look in his eyes that Logan wasn’t going anywhere. If Alec stepped away from their cover, Logan would be right at his side.
“I’m not really that interested in a date with a bullet so I think I’ll stay right where I am,” he yelled out over the barrier.
There was a laugh from the other side. “I understand your predicament but it wasn’t a request. You step away or I’ll go to the other end of the farm and start killing everyone there.”
Alec actually thought about letting him for a minute. There were plenty of transgenics at the other end and they’d be able to take a single assassin out. No everyone was transgenic though. There were humans there, and even the transgenic children would be hurt if he came across a group of kids.
Alec took a deep breath and just h
ad to hope that he had help on the way.
“Alright, fine.” He stood up and Logan did also, stepping out from behind the hay stack on opposite sides.
The man in front of them smiled, a gun pulled from his belt to hold on Logan without hesitation. He was dressed in standard issue camoflaugue gear and weapons. He could be from any branch of the armed forces or just a mercenary. He had a hard look to his eyes though. He was obviously good at what he did and he wasn’t surprised by Logan’s move which meant he’d been watching them for a while.
“You aren’t here for us, are you?” Alec asked. It made sense. If he’d been watching for that long then he’d have had plenty of times to take Logan and Alec out. He wasn’t there for them, or anyone else that was a regular part of the farm. He’d been waiting for someone to show up.
“Max?” Logan asked.
“You two didn’t even try to make it hard to find you,” the assassin said with a sneer. “Max went underground though and no one was able to flush her out. I needed her to know I took the hit on you to draw her out.”
“You really think you’re going to kill the both of us?” Alec asked with a laugh. “Before the rest of the farm figures out what is going on and you get caught by a mob of transgenics?”
“I’ll take my chances.”
“That must be a pretty hefty fee you’re getting there,” Logan said.
“Oh, it’s more than just a fee. I don’t hunt genetic freaks for money.”
“Great, he’s a fanatic,” Alec moaned.
“But a fanatic for who?” Max asked as she came into the clearing. “That’s what I couldn’t figure out. I mean, I knew you were a creep, but I just wasn’t sure what flavor.”
She didn’t carry a gun, she never did, but with the three of them there he had to divert his attention. To Alec’s chagrin, he didn’t take the gun off Logan, but left Max uncovered.
“This is all for me,” he said softly. “I had the contract out on the both of you for a long time, but no one seemed to be able to finish the job. This time I decided to just do it myself.”
“We’re flattered, really,” Max said as she took a step closer to him. “But we don’t plan on just lying down and dying. Hope you don’t mind.”
There was a strange laugh from the assassin and he smiled. “I don’t mind, but I don’t intend to play fair either.”
He fired the weapon and Alec dove in front of Logan before he had a chance to think. He felt the bullet hit as the force of it knocked him into Logan. Logan stumbled under his weight and they both fell to the ground.
“Alec?”
There were sounds in the background, Max fighting and yelling to get the attention of the rest of the farm inhabitants and Logan was moving out from under him, hands finding the wound in his back. Alec felt pressure against his back.
“Alec, hold on,” Logan whispered. “They’re coming.”
The fight was over, Alec knew. A human against a transgenic wasn’t much of a fight, but Alec had been unwilling to move while a gun was pointed at Logan. Max hadn’t had to worry about that. He could hear her voice though he couldn’t make out the words. It meant that she’d left the assassin alive.
Alec wouldn’t have, but he and Max were as different as night and day, no matter that they were both Manticore trained.
“Alec, talk to me,” Logan said, his hands pulling at Alec’s shirt as others came up beside him.
“Logan? Alright?” His body was becoming numb and he knew he wasn’t going to remain conscious much longer.
“I’m alright,” Logan said, “We’re all alright. Max got him and Touchstone is safe now. You just hold on, Alec. We’re going to take care of you.”
He wanted to say something but no words came.
“Alec, don’t you die,” he heard Max’s order and he almost smiled at the idea that somehow he’d managed to get Max back. He wasn’t strong enough to fight for Logan but at least Max was back and he’d have someone at his back after Alec was gone.
It was his last thought before he let the pain take over and he blacked out.
**
Logan stared down at his hands, waiting.
Max was sitting two seats over, still afraid to get too close. They hadn’t spent enough time together lately to be used to the dance they did, being close and not touching. He didn’t know what to say to her. She got up and started pacing again.
They were both waiting.
“He’s gone,” Mole said as way of announcing himself to the room. “Syl and Gemma went themselves to make sure Sung gets him.”
“That’s a long way to take a fugitive,” Max commented.
“It’s the only way I know he’ll get justice,” Logan answered. He nodded to Mole. “We’ll let you know as soon as we have news.”
“We’re all waiting to hear.”
Mole left without another word and Logan and Max were left alone again.
“I never thought I’d see the day Alec put someone else above himself.”
It was Max, trying to stir up trouble but Logan was pissed. “No, you wouldn’t expect it because you left. You wouldn’t know anything about the Alec that’s been by my side since Cindy died.” He didn’t pull his punches this time. “He’s different now, he’s … you have no idea what he is.”
Max looked at him, wide eyed, and he could see the moment she made the connection. The one he never wanted to make himself.
“You’re in love with him?”
Logan dropped his head. He wasn’t sure why he was considering having this conversation when he refused to admit how he felt, but the way Max said it was something between disbelief and awe.
“Yeah.”
“You’re lovers? How could you, I mean, Alec? Does he? That’s why he did it.”
“No, he did it because that’s who he is now, Max. And we’re not lovers. It’s not that simple.”
“Maybe you should explain it to me, Logan.” Max said as she sat down. There was no anger in her eyes, just curiosity.
Logan nodded, and started talking.
On to Part Six