Logan laughed. The sound wasn’t nice. “I’d spend every night satisfying her to make sure she knew how much I loved her, so that the last thing on her mind during the day was another man. But I’m guessing you didn’t try that.”
“I’ve been working late. I have a big case,” Brad defended.
“She does, too.”
“I don’t have to prance around naked for mine.”
“This attitude only shows that you know squat about working undercover. Solving crime and stopping bad shit is more important than modesty or your tight-ass idea of morality.”
Tara jumped into the fray before Logan and Brad started dismantling one another. “Please, Brad . . . You’re asking me to give up the opportunity to nail a guy who kidnaps ten-year-old girls, then sells them to perverts in brothels. So what if someone sees my boobs? I’m an adult; I can handle it. What about these poor girls? Who is going to fight for them? Should I apologize to them because my fiancé is squeamish?”
“You’re being obtuse. I’m not objecting to the case; I’m objecting to him.” Brad pointed.
Logan smiled. “From the FBI’s perspective, we’re a package deal.”
“He could be anyone else, and you still wouldn’t want another man touching me this way,” Tara pointed out.
One look at Brad’s face told her that rationale wasn’t going to cut it for him. Anxiety clawed through her, along with a fear of letting go of her status quo. What would she do without his anchoring influence? And what about her stepfather? He’d be so disappointed, then disapproving if he found out Logan was back in her life. No, she wasn’t a teenager anymore, could choose who she wanted to be with, but Adam was all the family she had left. She hated letting him down after he’d all but raised her.
Even so, the big question loomed: What did she want? In the end, she was going to have to battle her natural inclination to please everyone and decide what she wanted.
“Maybe not,” Brad conceded. “But he makes it worse. It took years to exorcise his ghost from between us. Last year, when I finally thought you’d overcome him, I proposed. Now he’s back, and this time it’ll be worse. Just to inflate his ego, he’ll make sure you won’t forget him, even as he’s ripping your heart to shreds.”
“Brad—”
“Choose, Tara. Come with me or give me the ring.”
She didn’t dare look at Logan. She didn’t want to look at Brad. A million thoughts swirled in her head. The need to help Darcy. The crusading spirit in her chest to stop the abduction of these poor young girls sold into sex. The fire in her belly to be a good agent. The ache Logan stirred in her warred with the fear of losing Brad’s stability. If Logan knew she was no longer engaged, he’d ruthlessly go after her body. And her heart would follow.
If she was that worried about Logan stealing her heart, how in love with Brad could she be? The too-honest question made her flinch. But there was no taking it back. The risk in losing Brad wasn’t in losing the love of her life, but the man who made her feel like she’d finally have the family she wanted. After losing her mother young and being bounced around between her grandparents and an aunt until Adam stepped in and adopted her, she craved having one roof and one man to come home to. She wanted to know that her children would never wonder where they’d live tomorrow. Brad could give that to her.
But was it fair to hang on to someone who’d been nothing but patient and kind to her when that family was off in the future and she wasn’t sure that she loved him now?
Without looking at either man, she made her way to Logan’s little cabinet on the far side of the room. She doffed the socks and the robe, feeling both men’s eyes searing her bare backside. Then she donned her suit, buttoned her blouse, adjusted the lapels of her coat, stepped into her heels.
She grabbed the ring in her hand, then crossed the room again, focusing on Brad. “Shall we go?”
Astonishment flashed across Brad’s face, then an exultant smile that had Tara wincing.
“Tara.” Logan grabbed her hand, his dark brows bunched over his stunned gaze.
God, every time he touched her, her body flared hot. She didn’t want to leave him.
“Get your hand off her,” Brad growled, placing his arm around her waist.
It was one of the few times he’d ever been possessive.
“I can’t do this, Logan. Not now.” Tara squelched her guilt, then eased away from them both before addressing Brad. “Let’s go.”
“Gladly,” Brad said as he shot Logan a triumphant glare.
Then he slammed the dungeon door behind them, and the last thing Tara saw was shock and agony ripping across Logan’s face. Her heart squeezed painfully in her chest.
With a kiss at her temple, Brad threw his arm around her again and drew her close as they walked down the hall. “Thank you. I was so afraid I was going to lose you.”
In a few minutes, he’d hate her so much that he wouldn’t care. But for everything he’d done for her, been for her, for the past three years, he deserved the respect of privacy for this conversation. “Where can we talk?”
Ten minutes later, they were back at the house they shared. It had been investment property for Brad, but when the previous tenants had moved out and she’d accepted Brad’s proposal, he’d given up his studio apartment and asked her to move in here with him. As he opened the front door, into the living room, Tara was struck by the fact that this place had never felt like home.