I whirled around to face them as I closed the back of my gown. “Logan is going to kill me.”
“Because you flashed us?” Keelan asked, fighting to hold a straight face.
I will not blush. I will not blush.
“Because I missed my check-ins. Again.” I spun back around and searched for my purse. It and my clothes were in a clear plastic bag on one of four chairs in the room. I quickly scooped up the bag, but paused as I took in the chairs. Four seemed like a lot for such a small room. Turning back to face the guys, I asked, “Did you all stay here with me?”
Colt stood from the bed. “We stayed until visiting hours ended. They only allowed one of us to stay after that. So the rest of us hung out in the waiting room until they let us back in here.”
Someone could have knocked me over with a feather. I was so shocked, yet so happy. Possibly the happiest I’d felt in I didn’t know when. “Who stayed in here with me?”
Colt, Creed, and Keelan all glanced at Knox.
“It doesn’t matter who stayed in here,” Knox grumbled.
I was getting ready to throw his words, “yes, it does,” right back at him when he said, “I called your uncle.”
My heart skipped a beat. “What?!”
2
Logan’s going to kill me, I thought as I dumped the bag holding my stuff on the bed. “Which phone did you call him on?” I asked as I grabbed my leggings.
“On your personal cell,” Knox answered.
I yanked my leggings up each of my legs and to my waist under my gown. “I need to know exactly what was said.”
Knox crossed his arms over his chest. “I told him my name and he knew who I was.”
“He did a background check on everyone living on our street before I bought my house,” I said. “And I’ve talked about you guys with him.”
“That seems like a misuse of power,” Keelan commented under his breath.
I couldn’t argue with that. “And I doubt he lost any sleep over it, but that’s my uncle. He was a Navy SEAL before he became a Marshal. Some of his old SEAL buddies are higher-ranked feds now and some went off to work for…well, we’ll call them agencies, after they left the military. He has a lot of connections.”
“Why’d he become a Marshal then? Why not work for an agency or become a federal agent?” Creed asked.
“He hates politics and my mom had threatened never to speak to him again if he became a spy. She was terrified he’d die. She used to say that he used up all his luck surviving the SEALs,” I explained. “Not wanting to upset my mom, he settled on being a Marshal.”
“Were they that close? Your mom and uncle?” Colt asked.
I nodded. “Logan and my mom are—were fourteen years apart. My grandparents had him late in life and then they both passed away by the time he was seven. My mom dropped out of culinary school and worked two jobs to raise him. They struggled to get by for a while, but it bonded them. Then my dad showed up, or asserted himself in their lives, as my mom would have said.”
“Sounds like someone I know,” Knox mumbled.
I rolled my eyes and continued on. “My dad used to tell Shayla and me all the time that he fell in love with our mom the first moment he laid eyes on her and knew that the only way to get her to be his forever was to love Logan, too, because Logan and my mom were a package deal,” I said with a smile. “For as long as I can remember, I don’t think my mom and Logan went more than a day or two without talking.” My smile dropped. Logan had lost that.
I cleared my tight throat. “What else did you say to him?” I asked Knox.
“I told him what happened. That Jacob attacked you and you fought back. He asked if you killed the bastard before asking if you were alright,” Knox said, with an incredulous tone.
Typical Logan.
“He didn’t sound worried until after I told him you were drugged and on your way to the hospital,” Knox finished.
That was what I was dreading. “He’s on his way, isn’t he?”
Knox nodded. “He said he’d be on the next flight.”
Which meant he could be here any minute. It wasn’t that I wouldn’t be happy to see Logan. I missed him a lot, but if he found out that the guys knew the truth about me, he’d take me away and I would never see them again.
I pulled off the hospital gown and tossed it on the bed. “You guys can’t be here when he arrives,” I said, glancing at them. They weren’t listening. Their attention was captured by my chest. Normally, I’d be embarrassed to be seen in my bra and have my stomach scars on display. At the moment, I didn’t have time to care. “If he gets the slightest hint you know more than you should, he’ll relocate me.” Just as I scooped up my shirt, I caught Knox’s gaze dropping to my stomach.