Stark Surrender Page B

attempt. Despite the early hour, he sat at a large desk, his long hair tousled around his shoulders, as if he’d just tumbled out of bed. 
    “Kiri. What can I do for you?”
    She ignored her self-consciousness to get on with it. “Joran. I wondered ... if you’ve spoken with Logan lately.”
    His gaze sharpened, and for a moment he looked so like his brother her heart squeezed painfully. “Have you?” he countered.
    “Two evenings ago. He stopped by my place. Said he was on his way out to the frontier. I thought you might know where.” And why.
    “The frontier.” Joran’s heavy brows flew up. “You sure about that?”
    She set her mug down slowly. “Well ... I thought so. That is, he was wearing leathers, and he had a duffel. I’ve never seen him clothed like that. I assumed he must be going out with one of the expeditions Lodestar is funding. He’s so proud of the projects.”
    Of course she only knew this from the news press conferences she’d watched. He probably would have been pleased to share it with her personally, if she’d let him, but she’d refused to answer his links after she’d left him months ago, and finally he’d stopped trying.
    Only to appear on her doorstep and present her with her heart’s desire—her long-lost brother. This was the only reason she hadn’t been able to turn him away when he returned, looking so tired and distraught—because she was grateful. Right, and there were tropical jungles on Serpentia.
    “He said he was headed out with the ATC expedition?” Joran repeated, jerking her out of her painful self-awareness.
    “Well, no. I think I did, actually.” She ran a hand through her hair, thinking hard. “He replied something like ‘You’re right, I’m leaving.’” She stared at Joran. “You don’t think he’s out with one of the teams?”
    Logan’s brother scrubbed a hand over his face, and for the first time she realized he looked as tired as she felt. “Not sure. Haven’t heard from him for a few days. No one has.”
    She wasn’t aware that she’d leapt to her feet until her coffee crashed to the pavement, the cerametal mug bouncing, hot liquid splashing on her bare feet. She barely felt it. Logan would never be out of com range with his LodeStar people or his brothers.
    “Oh, my God. Something’s wrong,” she said. “I just know it.”
    “Why so concerned?” Joran’s gaze flicked down to the spilled coffee and then back to her face.
    Kiri waved away his skepticism. “Because, when I saw him, Logan wasn’t himself. He seemed exhausted and yet on edge, as if he was filled with some horrible tension. I’ve never seen him like that before. It frightened me. For him, I mean, not myself.”
    She couldn’t imagine ever being afraid of Logan. Furious enough to smack him, yes. But never afraid. He was too controlled, too civilized to ever hurt a woman—physically, at least. He was hells on a woman’s heart though.
    “Quark. Wish I’d known this sooner.”
    “I’m sorry,” she said miserably. “It’s just that ... he’s so—so self-sufficient. As if he can handle anything. And you know how proud he is ...” She hadn’t felt she had the right to intrude, not when she’d left him.
    Joran waved her apology away. “I get it, Kiri. You’re right, Logan would have us all believe he’s in charge of his quadrant of the galaxy. Ah, did he spend the night in your bed?”
    Her cheeks flamed. “Yes—or at least most of it. I don’t know when he left. He didn’t say goodbye. And that’s not like him, either.”
    Joran shrugged as if to say he wouldn’t know about his brother’s sexual courtesies. “You remember him saying anything else that seemed important?”
    “Yes. He—he asked me to go with him. Said he was leaving.” She took a shaky breath and told Joran the rest, incredibly embarrassing as it was. “And I said, not if he couldn’t commit to me, and he said he could never do that, because of—of who he is. No, he said