A/N – Wow! Thanks for the great response in reviews! I'm really excited with the response to this so far. I couldn't believe how fast and how many came in on the last chapter here on FF. I thought I'd put the next Chapter out as a way to say thank you to everyone. I hope you like this one too. A bit more of Logan's back story in this one, so no Veronica, but she'll be back in the next chapter.

I really do appreciate everyone who reads the story and leaves comments!

Disclaimer: All original VM characters belong to Rob Thomas.

Chapter 4

After Veronica left, Logan returned to the couch. There was a little bit of the scotch left, so he grabbed the bottle and quickly finished the rest of it off. He leaned back and closed his eyes, resting his head on the back of the couch tilting his head up toward the ceiling. Gabriela is going to hate me even more than she already does after Saturday.

He thought back to when they'd first met so many years ago. After he'd left Neptune and come to Brazil, he'd eventually decided to buy an SUV so he could just drive around to different beach towns and surf. He was mostly living out of his car, occasionally staying at cheap dive motels to shower and sleep in a real bed every once in a while. No one who saw him would ever have suspected he was a multimillionaire, let alone Logan Echolls, son of a psychotic murderer and suicidal mother. He mostly kept to himself and didn't really make any friends since he didn't stay in one place long enough for that to happen. He'd actually tried to stay out of trouble on the slim chance that Veronica would call him and ask him to come back. Besides going by an alias, he hadn't really tried that hard to hide. He still had the same cell phone that he'd had in Neptune and would occasionally take more money out of his bank account, so he knew it would be easy for her or Keith to find him if they'd wanted to. But apparently she never wanted to.

He'd eventually found a town near Sao Paulo that he seemed to enjoy more than other places he'd been. The surfing was terrific there, and the locals seemed to be friendly enough, but not over bearing. He'd been in Brazil for a little over six months and it was late on Christmas Eve. He'd taken his surf board and a bottle of vodka down to the beach intending to do some night surfing since he was feeling crappier about his life than usual. He stuck his board in the sand and threw a towel down in front of a large log and was watching the surf in the moonlight while he drank some of the vodka. He was surprised to hear footsteps approaching him since it was so late on Christmas Eve and he expected all of the locals to be at home enjoying time with their families. He turned to see who was coming up to him and recognized the woman as someone he'd seen several times when he'd been there surfing. She was fairly tall, around five foot eight, and had long dark wavy hair. She was absolutely gorgeous and so he'd obviously noticed her every day that he'd run into her coming in from surfing. She had smiled and nodded at him a couple of those times while passing on the beach, but they'd never actually talked.

She stopped next to him and looked down with a friendly smile. She asked him something in Portuguese, and he gave her his normal blank stare that he'd give when other locals had tried talking to him in anything but English. She grinned a bit more and asked in English instead, "What are you doing out here all alone on Christmas Eve?" He was relieved she actually spoke English very well, since a lot of the other locals he'd run into knew only a few words, so he'd mostly had pretty limited conversations for the past few months.

"Just enjoying the view," He replied back. He was so out of practice at flirting since he'd been keeping to himself for the last six months, that he hadn't even meant it as a double entendre, but she still gave him a sly little smile.

"Can I join you?" She asked as she started to take a seat before he even answered. She held her hand out for the bottle, and he shook his head with a bit of surprise and handed it to her. She took a drink and handed it back. "I'm Gabriela."

"Billy," he'd replied with more of a smile than he'd remembered having in weeks.

She narrowed her eyes at him and shook her head, the soft dark curls swaying across her shoulders. "I don't think so, but if you want to be Billy, that's fine with me."

He smirked back but didn't say anything else. She watched him as he took another drink of the Vodka. He gave her a sly smile after he finished taking the drink. "So what are you doing out here all alone on Christmas Eve?" he countered back to her.

She smiled a bit seductively and then stood back up. "I actually came out for a swim." She stood in front of him and removed her tank top, revealing her bare breasts, and then stepped out of her shorts and eyed him suggestively. "Care to join me?"

He'd been good for six months, and at that point decided being good hadn't really had any impact on Veronica reaching out to find him. He watched as Gabriela gave him a devious smile and then she turned and ran down to the surf. He took another drink of the vodka and put the cap back on before running down to follow her into the water.

She'd smiled broadly as he walked close to her and then she reached up and wrapped her arms around him, staring intently into his eyes as her naked body rubbed up against his chest. She gave him a little pout and then reached down with one hand and tugged on the waistband of his swim trunks. "You're a bit too overdressed for what I had in mind." He smiled and leaned down and kissed her. After kissing him back for a few minutes, she bit his bottom lip playfully and then ran back up to his spot on the beach.

He shook his head and stood there watching her for a moment before he followed her up. She'd already taken another drink of his vodka before he reached her. It didn't take long before he was slipping out of his shorts and into her. He hadn't realized how alone he'd really started feeling during the past six months and for once in longer than he could remember he actually felt like someone wanted him. When they were finished, he'd rolled off of her and was lying on his back looking up at the stars, contemplating whether what he had just done was a huge mistake or not.

"Veronica?" she asked curiously. "Is she the reason you're hiding out down here in Brazil?"

He hadn't realized he'd said her name, but wasn't terribly surprised he had, though he felt a bit guilty about it. "Sorry… something like that." He was surprised when she'd rolled over so she could rest her chest on his and look at his face, running her fingers along his cheek.

"Does she look like me?" She asked curiously while she studied his face in the moonlight.

He laughed softly and shook his head. "No, she's barely 5 foot tall and blond."

She smiled at him a bit mischievously and studied his face more. "Well if it makes you feel better, you can call me Veronica any time if you perform like that when you do." She watched him shake his head and give her a skeptical look. In his experience, calling a woman by the wrong name in the middle of having sex was a sure way to end up in huge trouble.

"I actually do know who you are… Logan," she said a moment later, catching him totally by surprise. He tensed up and the smile that had been on his face quickly vanished. "But I'm happy to call you Billy if you want," she quickly continued on, sensing his change in demeanor. "And I promise your secret's safe with me."

He'd asked her how she knew who he was, and so she'd explained that she had cousins in San Diego and had been up visiting them when he was all over the news. When he seemed surprised she'd recognized him over a year later, she told him she never forgot a handsome face. She'd leaned in to kiss him again, and he found himself wanting to keep kissing her even if she did know who he really was. Maybe it was the fact that she'd been honest rather than just leading him on that had made him trust her, or just that he was tired of being alone.

She stood up and slipped her clothes back on, and reached out her hand for him. "Come with me," she said in a low sensuous tone.

He felt a smile form across his lips. "I thought I just did?" he replied in a teasing tone that he hadn't used in months.

Her smile became even more devious as she replied, "Then come with me again."

She'd led him up to her bungalow that was just a short walk up the beach and he quickly got swept up in spending time there with her. It wasn't long after that, that he'd met her brother and got involved with racing. They'd been happy enough together, even though he wasn't sure he could ever love her exactly the same way he'd loved Veronica. But at the time it seemed to be enough for both of them and she never really pushed him for more. Things were really good for almost two years. Then he'd fucked up horribly.

There'd been a journalist at the track interviewing drivers and she bore an uncanny resemblance to Veronica. Her blond hair was short like Veronica's had been when they had dated the first time and she had the same sparkling blue eyes. It didn't help that her name was Victoria and that she'd tilted her head the same way when she was trying to get answers out of the drivers. Too many damn similarities to Veronica and after spending most of the afternoon with her he found himself thinking about Veronica all the way home. He'd had a few too many glasses of scotch on top of all that before he crawled into bed with Gabriela and when he accidentally called her Veronica in the middle of having sex, he knew he'd fucked up more than he could fix. She'd angrily left him and no matter how much he apologized, she wouldn't give him another chance. She'd told him that she was a fool for having stayed with him as long as she had when obviously he was never going to get over Veronica. She deserved someone who would love her with all his heart, and he'd finally agreed and let her go. And true to the fuck-up he always was, he started making horrible decisions to deal with the pain of losing her, which of course ensured she'd never come back to him again.

So even though she wouldn't know Veronica was actually the exact same woman he'd left behind in Neptune, when she saw him with an obvious replica on Saturday, she was sure to feel the sting of it all over again. Maybe I'll crash during the race and die instead of having to deal with this gigantic mess of crap I've gotten myself into.

His self-loathing was interrupted by a pounding on the door. Why the fuck can't people just ring the bell. He realized his hangover headache was returning and he grabbed the bottle of pills as he went to answer the door.

He opened the door again, not terribly surprised at who he found this time of day on a Sunday. "Pack your bags, vato, we're going on a little trip," Logan announced as he left the door open and started walking to the kitchen.

The man at the door followed behind him after he closed the door. "You look like crap man, what happened to you?"

Logan shook his head, still not entirely believing himself what had happened to him in the last 24 hours. "Veronica Mars, that's what happened to me."

The other man raised his eyebrows giving him a questioning glance. "Do I need to check your car for an exhaust leak? Have you been inhaling fumes or something?"

Logan shook his head again, "No, she found me at the hotel bar last night before I'd left for the party." He'd grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and took another half pill from the bottle.

"That explains why you were a no show at the party, but what the hell was she doing in Sao Paulo?"

Logan laughed incredulously at him, "she was asking for my help."

This caused the other man to laugh loudly. "Okay, now I know you're high on something, man. How many of those pills have you had today? Miss perfect pixie spy FBI agent came to ask you for help?"

"She needs an experienced driver to get her close to some people up in Fontana. So we're relocating for a while. I told her I wouldn't go without my mechanic though, so you're coming with us." Logan saw the other man's expression change from amusement to annoyance. "Come on Weev's, you don't want anyone else touching your baby do you?"

"I want it on record that I think this is a really bad idea man. There are so many things wrong with this. You've got a decent life down here, why do you want to risk that by going back?"

"You know why Weevil," Logan's expression became serious, "because it's her."

Weevil shook his head, but didn't say anything. Logan continued on, "And you can't tell me that if she came to you for a favor and gave you her little head tilt, that you wouldn't have offered to help her too."

Logan filled him in on what little he knew about the case and their plan. Weevil reluctantly agreed to go along. He didn't stay long after that, leaving Logan alone once again to ruminate over what he'd gotten himself into.