Rating: R (this part not so much, but I don't want to be shifting ratings on my series....and trust me, it WILL get R)
Disclaimer: DA is not mine.
A/N: I know, I borrow song titles too often, but I thought I'd stay with my little wind/song theme from before. I tried to make this so even if you haven't read Wild is the Wind you'll still kinda get it...but, since you might not, here's a quick run-down of what you missed:
**Zack came back, took Max away. Back in Seattle, Lydecker had found out about Max doing foot work for Eyes Only and captures Logan (who can walk by the way). Max comes back to save Logan, has a confrontation with Lydecker. Zack shoots Lydecker (who is assumed dead) and Max rushes off to find Logan, whom she kisses when she finds him. Lydecker's body disappears (might still be alive) and Zack, seeing he could never make Max happy, leaves Seattle. Max and Logan decide to go after him...**
Wind of Change
Part 1
Max leaned against the back of the elevator as it rose up the length of Foggle Towers to Logan's private penthouse. The fact that the man even had a private penthouse spoke volumes about him. He liked privacy, and didn't mind throwing his money around to get what he wanted. She's always been amazed at his ability to get things done. He seemed to have an endless supply of sources and "close, personal friends" that allowed him to set up just about anything he desired.
Distantly, she wondered how he referred to her to when he talked to his close, personal friends.
His partner? Friend? Girlfriend?
The metallic elevator doors swung open in front of her as the lift came to a cushioned stop. She stepped out and, not wasting her time with knocking, walked brashly into his penthouse. Max only bothered to ring his doorbell or knock when she thought he wouldn't be home or would be brooding.
"Logan?" she paused in his living room, rubbing her palms against her rough jeans. He was the only man in the world who could make her sweat with anticipation. A little disgusted with her inability to control her hormones, she walked toward his office.
"You around?" she called again.
"Right here." His voice came from behind her, spinning her on her heel as he walked out of his bedroom. His hair was darkly wet and the scent of shampoo and soap clung to the air around him.
Max took a long, deep breath before flashing him a smile.
"You paged?"
"A couple hours ago," he replied, lifting his eyebrows.
"I was tied up," she shrugged. "Seems like you used your time productively though." In truth, she'd been unable to get away from work the entire day. Normal's average "bip bip bip" of once per hour had increased to once per three seconds. She had no idea how he kept from developing a throat disorder with all the yelling he did.
Running one hand through his wet hair, Logan motioned toward her with the other one to follow him. She fell obediently into step behind him, which gave her an excellent view of his shoulder blades. As shoulder blades went, they were very nice.
"I've been checking hotels and boarder crossings trying to track Zack," he announced. "Hadn't had much luck until this morning."
Chewing thoughtfully on her bottom lip, Max leaned over his shoulder when he sat down in front of his computer and began pulling up files.
"You'd noticed that Zack's hair was longer?" he asked.
"Yeah, to hide his barcode," she nodded. "So what?"
"He got a haircut and got the barcode removed yesterday," Logan announced. "I've been regularly checking tattoo parlor records...not that a lot of them keep the best automated records...but, it seems we're in luck."
"Where at?" Max asked, leaning further over him and squinting at the screen to read the small print.
"Coeur D'Alene, Idaho," Logan replied. "Ever been there?"
"Dunno," she pulled back. "I've been most places in North West, don't remember most of them by name."
"It's nice," Logan announced, leaning back in his chair. "Or, it used to be. Haven't been there since the pulse."
"What were you doing in Coeur D'Alene?" Max asked, not sure she really wanted to know. Logan, apparently, had been everywhere, and each story involved some lady friend she really didn't want to know about.
"Road trip," he replied vaguely. "How far do you think he could have gotten since then?"
"Well...he seems to be taking his time," Max balanced her elbows against the top of his chair and leaned on them. "Don't suppose you have a map?"
"Right here," he grinned, obviously proud of himself, and pulled one up on his computer.
"Coeur D'Alene...there...he should be much further than that by now if he was really on the run," she muttered, tracing along a highway route with her finger. "He could head into Canada, or go south...might head into Montana but that highway leads basically south, and I don't know why he would do that. Wyoming seems like the last place he'd be headed."
"Maybe he's up for confronting some of his demons?" Logan suggested.
"Not his style," she shook her head. "He wouldn't just walk into Gillette like nothing happened."
They both paused to think, and Max became quite suddenly aware of her close proximity to Logan. His normal scent was intensified ten times by his shower and by her newly increased rate of breathing. Her heart slammed into second gear as the heat from his body began to penetrate her skin. Closing her eyes to contain her raging desire for him, she realized that she was making a fool of herself and carefully distanced herself from his chair.
"Maybe we could ask a few questions around Coeur D'Alene," she suggested, pretending to be fascinated by the door frame.
"Not going to let me out of that vacation idea, are you?" he asked with a laugh. He had been the one to suggest leaving Seattle to search for Zack, something which had surprised Max. The two mixed about as well as oil and water.
"Not a chance," Max grinned, turning once again to face him.
"Hungry?" he asked, seemingly out of nowhere.
"A little," she admitted. "What've you got up your sleeve?"
He got up, stretching, and gave her the kind of grin that told her he had something new and innovative in mind. The man was a master with food, doing things with it Max never even bothered to imagine could be done.
As he walked toward the kitchen, he fired off a long, French phrase which loosely translated meant "meat in sauce." Slightly amused, she walked behind him, taking note of the fact that he wasn't wearing socks or shoes. The rest of his body, which she forced herself not to dwell on, was covered by a pair of cargo pants and a green tee-shirt with bright yellow lettering.
Max herself had on a pair of tight jeans, and a navy blue shirt cut just a little too short.
Outside, darkness was quickly falling and, as Logan began cooking dinner Max turned on the lights. The moment was filled with a highly domestic air and, not for the first time during the night, she had to restrain herself from allowing her imagination to get away with her. It was only too easy to imagine herself shacked up somewhere with Logan, and, for a girl who needed no sleep, she'd had plenty of time to hammer out all the juicy details.
Joining him once again in the kitchen, which was filled with the heavy aroma of dinner cooking, she flopped down in a chair.
"Long day?" he asked without turning around.
"Definitely long," she nodded, even though he couldn't see the gesture.
"You're welcome to crash here," he announced, then paused. "In the guestroom of course."
"Of course," she replied, accidentally letting the comment slip past her lips. She wasn't at all sure if she'd meant it to be sarcastic or in agreement. Sleeping with Logan...well, that wasn't a good idea. Not that it didn't sound good, it sounded far better than good...but it sounded brash.
Then again, who'd ever said Max was prudent?
"That needs to cook for a while," Logan announced, turning around in front of the stove. "Do you really want to go to Coeur D'Alene?"
"I'd like to find Zack," Max shrugged. "If he's in Coeur D'Alene, then I'd like to go there." Logan walked over to her, setting himself in a chair nearby.
"What are you going to say to him when you find him?" he asked, resting his chin in his hand.
"I'm not sure," Max admitted. "But I can't let things between me and my only family lay so screwy." An odd look came to Logan's face, and Max immediately realized her poor choice in words. She wasn't sure, however, if his response was one of humor or pain.
"What are you going to tell everyone?" he asked, a mischievous glimmer in his eyes.
"My friends are used to be disappearing every once in a while," she shrugged.
"But they're not used to you disappearing with me," he replied, a slight hesitation in his voice.
"I'm sure they'll draw their own conclusions anyway," she rolled her eyes, thinking of the millions of times Kendra and Original Cindy had referred to Logan as Max's rich boyfriend. No matter what she told the two, they'd assume the trip was a chance for Max and Logan to be alone and get a little private playtime. The idea itself wasn't a bad one, and had Max's relationship with Logan been like that, she would have jumped at the chance.
"How about Normal?"
She'd almost forgotten about him. Vacation time was non-existent in Normal's method of thinking. Max would have called him a number of awful names for it had he ever taken one himself, but she got the feeling that Normal worked to put meaning into his life. She couldn't really blame him for clinging it to, and expecting others to as well.
"I'm sure I'll come up with something," she said after some thought.
For a few minutes, she and Logan sat in companionable silence. Something fundamental had changed between them since the morning she'd saved him from Lydecker. There was still a level of tension between them, but a good amount of it had been replaced with an odd kind of patience and comfort Max had never experienced. She suspected the tension was purely hormonal, creating a deep dread and odd excitement concerning her next period of heat.
Carefully, she cast her gaze up from the floor where it had been focused and observed the man sitting across from her. The air about him was completely unthreatening. Logan exuded a kind of instant likeability and charisma. He was intelligent and determined...Max admired his unwavering determination even if it could be his most irritating feature.
As she watched him, one of the muscles in his jaw flexed. The small twitch was almost imperceptible, but Max was uncommonly observant.
"Something up?" she asked.
"Hmm?" Logan seemed to step of out some waking dream he'd been having.
"You're a little preoccupied," she pointed out.
"Am I?" he met her gaze. "Guess I was just...thinking about things..."
The purposely vague answer got under Max's skin. She was the one who got to be mysterious, and she didn't like Logan taking over her role.
"Really? What kind of things?" she pressed.
"Nothing important," Logan replied, sending her a disarming smile. That boyish grin he tossed so easily about made Max's insides melt. Somehow, she managed to keep a semblance of composure as he got up to check on their dinner.
Their relationship was an odd creature. Business partners, but more than that. Friends...but somehow more than that as well. Max was never quite sure what they were. She walked in and out of his house at will, and he reserved the right to ask favors of her. They shared in romantic dinners, played chess long into the night, and had even kissed. Yet, there remained the employee and employer aspect. Certainly, Max had never had dinner with Normal...definitely never kissed him. Why were things with Logan so different?
Max ran to him when he paged, compared to her lightly shrugging off Normal's bellows and bip bips. She fantasized about Logan, more than she'd ever admit. She told him her secrets, bared herself to him in more ways than she'd ever let anyone else see into her. Logan, in turn, treated her to all the lavish things his money could buy, used his sources to facilitate her need to find her siblings. True, there was no exchange of love, but it was certainly as close as Max had found to it in her life. Excluding maybe Zack...although she was somewhat unsure how she felt about his love.
Logan didn't need her as often as he had when he'd been in a wheelchair. Their working relationship had diminished, and the void had been slowly replaced by friendship. It was obvious that he cared about her, only she wasn't sure the nature of his caring.
She was much too aware of how she'd like him to show her how he cared.
"Ready to partake of my masterpiece?" Logan asked, waving a spoon in the air flashily.
"Ready as I'll ever be," she nodded.
Logan set a plate before her, and the couple quietly began eating. The light clank of fork against plate filled the air as both chewed thoughtfully.
"When are we leaving?" Max asked.
"When do you want to leave?"
"I think we'd better go soon," she replied. "He'll get too far ahead of us."
"He's probably already pretty far ahead of us," Logan pointed out.
"Maybe not," Max retorted. "Took his sweet time getting to Idaho."
"Tomorrow or day after?"
"Tomorrow?"
"Sounds good to me."
"Good."
"Okay."
Silence fell between them again. Max distractedly finished off her dinner, scraping the plate in an unladylike fashion with her fork to get the last of it. She stopped short of actually licking her plate -- something she only did in private. Somehow, she didn't think Logan would overly mind had she actually done it, only she couldn't bring herself to perform the disgusting act in front of him.
"Gotta blaze," she announced. "Things to do. See you tomorrow?"
"Yeah, tomorrow."
***
"Your what?" Kendra asked, standing behind Max as she packed.
"I'm going on a little trip," she repeated.
"Where to?" Kendra pressed. Max turned on her heel to look her roomie in the eye.
"Idaho."
"Idaho? What the hell is in Idaho?"
"From what I hear, potatoes."
Max turned back around, shoving more items of clothing into a black duffel bag. Kendra watched from behind her as she packed, casting close scrutiny on each item.
"Oh!" Her hand came up to cover her mouth, as if she'd just had a revelation. "I know what's going on!"
"I suppose you're going to tell me," Max rolled her eyes.
"You packed your sexy underwear, Max," she grinned. "You're going somewhere with a guy...your rich boyfriend maybe?"
"He's- "
"Not your boyfriend...I know." This time Kendra rolled her eyes. "But, you are going with him, aren't you?"
"Maybe."
"Ha! I knew it!" She pointed a long finger at Max, then gave a small laugh of pride in herself for figuring it out. Grinning, she flopped down on Max's bed.
"It's purely business," Max insisted.
"Yeah...business," Kendra laughed. "If that's what you like to call it. You two are just gonna run off and bang each other...we both know it, Max."
"We're not going to bang each other," Max sent Kendra a weary look.
"Yeah, Logan doesn't seem like the banging type...maybe screw is the word I'm looking for." The dangerous look Max sent Kendra following this comment effectively shut her up for the next ten seconds.
"So, when are you going to be back?" she asked, careful to hide her smile.
"Few days," Max shrugged, having no real time frame in mind. Although, she wasn't sure how much time she could spend with Logan without any of Kendra's prophecies coming true to come extent. The man did have a way of crawling under her skin. She guessed that after breaching the walls surrounding her tightly guarded heart, getting into her pants wouldn't present much of a challenge to him.
As appealing as that thought was, she pushed it to the back of her mind.
"Do me a favor and keep an eye on my baby," Max said, zipping up her bag. "Just finally got her back from when I left her in Montana...can't believe I'm going to leave her all alone again so soon."
"The motorcycle will be fine," Kendra promised. "I won't let anyone touch it...not that anyone who knows you ever would."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"You'd rip their arm off, Max," she replied, as if it were inconsequential. She got up off the bed and walked back out into their sparse living room. "If you want, you can call and I'll let you talk to it."
"Her," Max corrected.
"Right....her," Kendra smiled sarcastically. "Listen, I've got a date tonight...your leaving early I assume. So, since I'll probably be getting up late...I should probably say goodbye to you now."
"Who with?" Max asked.
"Wouldn't you like to know," Kendra replied saucily, then smiled warmly and pulled Max into a long hug. "If anything happens between you and Logan...which I still think something will...you've got to give me all the juicy details."
"Whatever," Max laughed.
"I'll see you later, Max," Kendra replied mistily.
"Have fun," Max tossed after her as she walked out the door.
"You too!" she yelled from the hallway.
Kendra wasn't the sort to dance around an issue, and was blunt to a fault. Shaking her head, Max walked back into her room to make sure she had everything she would need. As she looked through her clothes and came across a pair of exotic looking panties she hadn't even realized she'd packed, she wondered if Kendra was more in tune with what was going on for once than she was.
Not quite displeased, she shoved the garment back into her duffel bag.
**Okay, yeah, I'm obviously feeling highly shipper-ish tonight**