A/N – I thought I'd be nice again and post the next chapter a little earlier. It's sort of another short chapter anyway and gets us closer to the race and the party. I don't speak Portuguese, so I used a translator online and I hope it's not totally wrong! I apologize if it is. I did put what I thought it said in English too at least.

As always, thanks for all the support and for continuing to read along. I love reading some of the theories people have too. It took me a while to figure out how to get Logan to find out what Marcos said because he wasn't there and it had to stay all from his POV. I hope you all like my creative approach.

Disclaimer: All original VM characters belong to Rob Thomas.

Chapter 12

Once Veronica had closed her door and Logan started walking back toward the elevators, he saw Ratner pop out of his room. Logan was a bit surprised but followed him in to see what he wanted.

"That was a pretty crappy thing you did to her in the elevator you know, even if she has been a bit of a pain this week. Stunts like that aren't going to help with our investigation and I care as much about this as she does." Ratner barked at him once the door was closed.

Logan gave him a surprised look. "She was wearing a bug?"

"Yeah, she thought given there could be a lot of questionable people at the club that it seemed smart to have a little extra back up in case anything got out of hand. She probably should have told you."

Logan shook his head and ran his hand through his hair. "No, I should have just assumed it, knowing who I'm dealing with. Did she wear one all the other days too?"

Ratner shook his head. "No, just tonight. She turned it on before you two left the hotel room to go to the club."

Logan thought about Marcos again. "Hey, she danced with a friend of mine tonight, and seemed a bit off when she came back. Do you know what he said to her?"

"Friend?" Rather asked with a surprised look on his face and then shook his head. "Yeah, I know what you're talking about but he sure didn't sound like that great of a friend."

Logan gave him a concerned look. What the hell did Marcos say to her? "Can I hear what he said?"

Ratner looked at him for a moment then shrugged and nodded. "Yeah, I don't see what it would hurt." Ratner sat down on the couch across from his open laptop and picked up a wireless headset and started to click on the keys. Logan walked over and took a seat next to Ratner and watched him listening to the recording. While Logan watched him, he wondered if she recorded anything that would help their case. After a few minutes, Ratner pulled the headset off and pressed a key so the sound came through the speakers instead when he got to the right part of the recording.

Marcos's voice came through the speaker when he pressed the key. "Sorry to tell you this beautiful, but there's no way Billy is going back to California with you." He paused a moment, then started talking again. "Although he also swore he'd never date blonds again because of the bitch in California that broke his heart a long time ago, so maybe you do have some sort of magical power over him. I'm guessing though that power is just your smoking hot body, which he'll probably get tired of before you get him back to LA with you. I never tire of hot little blonds though, so when that happens you should definitely give me a call." Logan heard Veronica respond next, her voice was less friendly than she'd been at the table. "Well maybe you don't know him as well as you think you do." Marcos laughed before he replied. "A minha doce menina tola, I've known him for over five years. I think I know him much better than someone who just met him this week." Veronica's voice came through again with a feisty tone, "He might just surprise you." Ratner flipped off the recording after that.

"They didn't say anything else really after that and then she went back to you." Ratner explained.

"Fucking Marcos," Logan said angrily.

"What did he say in Portuguese? I didn't bother to try to translate it." Ratner asked curiously.

"My sweet foolish girl," Logan growled as he shook his head and leaned back on the couch. "Well I'm sure that's not going to help her hate me any less."

Logan looked at Ratner for a moment. I wonder if he knows any useful information that could help me. "Hey, any idea why she seemed to hate me so much when you two got here?"

Ratner shrugged and shook his head. "Why don't you ask her?"

Logan laughed, "Do you honestly think she'd just tell me? Has she really changed that much to where she likes to discuss her inner most feelings?"

Ratner chuckled and shook his head again, "Fair point. Sorry man, I don't know. You could always try to ask though."

Logan stared at the laptop thinking for a few minutes. "What was in my file anyway?" Maybe there was something there that had pissed her off that at least if I knew what it was, I could figure out how to handle it better.

Ratner looked at him for a moment, and then must have felt enough pity for him to help him out. He reached over to his laptop case that was on the end of the couch, reached into it, and then tossed a file on his lap. "Want a drink? I don't have any top shelf scotch, but I can offer you a beer if you want one."

"Sure," Logan answered as he started to look through the file. There wasn't a lot of information, which he was actually sort of surprised about. There was an article about the accident the year before and a few others about races he'd been in. There were a few interviews he did as well, though he really did try to avoid those as much as possible. In the back there were some pictures of him at the track and Weevil was in a few of them. There was one of him at an after party too with a tall red-head. He had his arm wrapped around her waist and she was smiling and whispering something into his ear. "This was about a month ago." Logan said as he took the picture out and looked at it.

Ratner looked at the picture as he handed him the beer and sat back down on the couch. "Yeah, actually I took that one. I came down to Brazil to scout out potential drivers to work with us on the case. We didn't want any local drivers and not too many US drivers that we thought we could trust wanted to come to Fontana, so I thought I'd check out some other options."

"Did Veronica come with you?" Logan asked with an intrigued look on his face.

Ratner shook his head. "No she had some excuse not to come and I came down with a different agent who's on our larger team."

Logan glanced at the picture and his eyes opened a bit wider. The redhead said she was a journalist from South Carolina. He remembered the southern accent. "She wasn't the agent was she?" He said pointing at the picture.

Ratner laughed and shook his head. "No, but damn, I'd love to be her partner."

Logan scoffed and shook his head at him. He finished looking through the file and saw some notes that Ratner may have made from talking with other people at the track. One of the comments was that he definitely likes women. Logan rolled his eyes at that. There was a sheet that looked like it was from a profiler that may have studied all the information and put together a summary. Skilled driver with several impressive wins… seems to be a bit reclusive… very close with his race crew… no significant long term relationships… no recently recorded issue with local law authorities… race sponsorship seems suspicious and corporations not verified yet… Logan chuckled at that. He'd set up the fake corporations because he didn't want other racers to know he was the one funding himself because he didn't want them to know how rich he really was. …no red flags if agents feel he's trustworthy.

"You know, now that I think about it, I'm guessing she must have already known you were here." Ratner said, apparently thinking back to the prior month. "She didn't seem as surprised as I would have expected when I mentioned stumbling across you down here when I got back. I mean, I was certainly surprised when I saw you and recognized you from Neptune. She sort of tried to act like it was news to her, but now that I think about it more, I think she knew you were here and probably hoped I didn't figure it out. I wonder if that's why she didn't want to come down here with me too." So she knew I was here and never bothered to try to contact me before?

Nothing in the file really stood out as something she'd hate him for though. She couldn't have been surprised that he'd be with someone else after all those years, so that couldn't have been the main thing that had made her hate him. So I'm back to square one. He handed the file back to Jeff. "Thanks for letting me look at it."

Ratner shrugged. "I didn't see anything in it when I looked at it that seemed all that damaging. Did you find anything?"

Logan shook his head. "Well thanks for the beer, but I'd better get back to my hotel so I can try to get some sleep before the race tomorrow."

Ratner nodded, "Don't forget the plan is for you to stay in her suite tomorrow night, since there will be lots of people around the hotel after the race."

"At least there's a couch to sleep on," Logan replied with a smirk on his face.

"I bet the redhead didn't make you sleep on the couch," Ratner said in a joking tone.

Logan shook his head and rolled his eyes at him. "Yeah, thanks for putting that picture in my file jackass. You know she didn't even come back to my hotel with me, right?"

"Oh, no I didn't actually know that." He gave him a slightly apologetic look and shrugged. "Sorry."

Logan sighed and shook his head. "It's not like I'm a fucking priest or anything, and there have been more than a few that did come back to my room, but Miss South Carolina wasn't one of them." There haven't been many since the night Gabriela visited me after my accident actually.

Logan stepped out into the hallway and closed the door. He looked back toward Veronica's room. Maybe I should go and talk to her about what Marcos said. I wonder if she'd be mad that Ratner let me listen to it. It's not like she hasn't done her fair share of listening to things she wasn't supposed to over the years. He was still contemplating what to do when her door opened and she came out. She was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt now instead of the dress she had on earlier. She gave him a surprised look when she saw him by Ratner's door. She started walking down the hall towards him.

"What are you still doing here?" She asked when she was close enough.

"Um…" Logan looked down the hall instead of directly in her eyes. "Just talking to Ratner for a while about some logistical stuff."

He momentarily looked her in the eye, and could tell she didn't believe him at all. She looked around the hallway and saw that they were alone and grabbed his hand and dragged him back to her room. She shoved him in, then closed the door and leaned on it.

"My bullshit meter has gotten a little better over the years, and I know you're lying, so just tell me what's going on." She said as she crossed her arms over her chest and gave him a slightly angry glare.

Logan sighed and shook his head. "We were just talking Veronica. It's not that big a deal. Can't two guys just shoot the breeze and enjoy a beer?"

"You're still lying." She seemed to be searching his face trying to figure out what he wasn't telling her.

"Fine," he finally replied. If I don't tell her Ratner probably will and then I'll look like an even bigger asshole than I probably already do for not just being honest with her. Especially since I'm sure she'll be grilling him in a few minutes if I don't just come clean now. "Ratner railed on me about my stunt in the elevator and how that wasn't going to help with our cover story and then he let me listen to what Marcos said to you since I could tell something was off when you came back from dancing with him."

She looked genuinely surprised for a moment, and then she looked pissed again. "He shouldn't have done that."

"Look, I'm sorry Marcos said that." Logan said, looking down at the floor instead of directly up at her. "He can be a real jackass sometimes." He looked back up at her again for a moment.

She shrugged and sighed, "I've dealt with lots of jackasses in my life, present company included, so don't worry about it." She bit on her lip and hesitated before she spoke again, "and I suppose I was the blond bitch he was talking about."

Logan sighed as well and gave her a sympathetic look. "Would it make you feel better if I said it was someone else?"

She gave him a little smile, and replied in the soft voice that used to make his stomach flutter. "Yes."

He smiled back and nodded, "Yeah, it was someone else."

"Good," she said softly and then shook her head a little with almost a shy smile on her face. She took a deep breath before she spoke again. "Well, I need to head back to Ratner's room to go over some case stuff with him and you need to get to sleep I thought." Even though she was back to trying to be all serious about the case, he could still see a bit of the shy look on her face. God she's always been so beautiful when she gets shy and quiet like that. Like when I gave her the key to my suite at the grand.

Logan nodded again, "Yeah, I really do. So you're not going to hold what Marcos said against me?"

She shook her head and opened the door taking a quick look out. "The coast is currently clear, but I'd better walk you to the elevator and say goodbye in case we run into anyone who recognizes you again." He nodded and put his arm around her shoulder as they walked to the elevator. He pressed the button and then smiled as it opened and another driver was inside on his way down. He leaned in and gave her a deep kiss. "See you tomorrow babe," He said with a smile as he stepped backwards into the elevator and gave her a little wave as the door closed. I am so totally fucked.

When he finally made it back to his room and climbed into bed, all he could think about was the way she looked in that dress tonight, as well as the bra and thong, and the way her lips felt as he'd kissed her goodbye at the elevator. That combined with the shy smile she'd given him right before they left her room to walk to the elevator and he knew he was doomed. Closure, that's what you're trying to get. There's no way she's actually going to get back together with you and you need to accept that and not fall in love with her again. Don't be an idiot. His reminder to himself didn't do much good though once he finally fell asleep and his dreams took over.