Strike Me Down - Mindy Mejia Page 0,100
same room as Logan. Today every muscle in her body vibrated with tension, begging to take down the woman standing in front of her.
“Excuse me?”
Logan had just finished telling her the entire story—stumbling upon an email with her signature that she’d never seen before, investigating the money the police had found in Aaden’s account, and bribing Corbett to help her move the stolen millions at the exact moment Gregg would need them the most. Aaden was dead, Gregg was framing her, and she was going to make him pay. Nora listened without comment, weighing the testimony against the evidence she’d already compiled, and came to one conclusion.
“If you’re telling the truth—”
“I am,” Logan bristled.
“There’s only one way to find out.” Nora shifted. “All the evidence points to you right now. You’re a giant target, but if we take the target away, we discover what lives behind it.”
Logan moved in a wide circle, skirting the edges of the trail around Nora, who pivoted, keeping Logan in her sights at all times.
“I don’t run away from my problems.”
“I don’t run away from mine, either, even when they’ve nearly killed my best friend.”
“He ran into that car himself. When I was going through his wallet looking for the twenty million dollars he fucking hijacked, he freaked out and ran.”
“You’re claiming you didn’t hit him.”
Logan rolled her eyes. “I pushed him, once.”
“Like this?” Nora stepped in and shoved her by the shoulders, simultaneously surprised that she’d done it and that Logan had let her.
“No, it was more like this.” Logan’s arm came out of nowhere, a single palm strike to Nora’s chest. She didn’t have time to block it, but she hooked a foot behind Logan’s leg as she fell and in the next moment both of them were sprawled in the dirt.
“Oh god.” Nora pressed a hand to her chest, feeling her heart convulse.
“Are you okay?”
Logan propped herself up, looking down into Nora’s face with a mixture of concern and suppressed amusement, and Nora punched her.
Logan’s head flew back, but she caught Nora’s wrist before she could land another shot. “Fuck. Nice. That was a good one.”
A drop of blood fell from Logan’s nose onto Nora’s shirt, drawing both of their gazes before they looked back at each other and the fight, in that heartbeat, was over.
“I was jealous,” Nora admitted, realizing how true it was. How irreversible everything became when she said it out loud. She’d been drawn to Logan since the moment she’d first seen her, compelled closer and closer without letting herself understand why. She rubbed her free hand over her chest as the pain faded. “I wanted you to notice me. To choose me.”
“Obviously I fucking should have. Brains, balls, and a right cross to write home about. Tell me, Nora Trier,” Logan loosened her grip on Nora’s wrist and brushed a leaf out of her hair, “since I’m putting myself in your hands, what would you have me do next?”
Somewhere in the distance a firework went off. Nora startled and glanced up the trail, afraid for a split second that Henry had returned with more fireworks, but the meadow was empty. When she looked back, Logan was staring at her mouth. She leaned down, hovering for an endless moment, giving Nora time to decide.
The kiss was a revelation. Nora opened to it, her body humming at each point of contact with Logan’s, and every vibration was tuned to the same word. Yes. Nora reached up and wound her arms around Logan, pulling her closer, taking more.
Later, as the sun disappeared behind the trees and the mosquitos began to attack, Nora pulled Logan to her feet and ran a hand down her arm, linking their bruised and dirty knuckles.
“Are you ready for the spotlight, Nora?”
She left the meadow side by side with the fighter she’d loved for so long, the fighter who might be playing her, who could have made all this up just to punish her husband. And Nora smiled, knowing the truth hovered so close, that—whatever it was—she would be the one to find it.
“Are you ready to disappear?”
* * *
Logan stalked the length of the red carpet toward the ring where Gregg and Nora both stood frozen. Gregg still pointed the gun at her, but she didn’t care. Logan had come for her. After she’d slipped through security at the stadium, Logan had blown up her phone with texts.
They live streamed it.
Get out of there.
Now.
Where are you?
Nora told her to calm down and wait, but she