by
Mallory Crowe
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. Fonts used with permission from Microsoft.
Copyright © 2016 by Mallory Crowe
Mallory Crowe (2016-8-2). Remorseless (Fractured Farrells Book Three)
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Epilogue
RESTLESS Sneak Peek!
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Julie had done a lot of crazy things in her life, but this might take the cake. She rolled down the window and looked at her phone for the fifteenth time. It was ten past ten. Which meant he was ten minutes late. But when she’d talked to the warden the night before to confirm the time of the final hearing, he’d said nine thirty. This final hearing was more of a formality, so Julie didn’t know how long she should expect it to take.
She was about to reach back for her book when the steel gates of the prison started to slide open. No one was waiting to enter the first of many locked doors of the prison, so it had to be someone trying to get out. Julie slid forward in her seat as she tried to get a better view of whoever was coming out. She’d seen plenty of pictures of the guy, but they were all of him ten years ago.
Who knew what was about to walk out of those doors?
Even though Julie was half convinced she wouldn’t recognize Logan Farrell when she saw him, the guy who walked out was unmistakably a Farrell.
It helped that he wore the outfit she’d sent. He’d been originally taken in while at work. He’d been a young twenty-two years old, and Julie knew exactly what he’d been wearing because she’d seen the pictures. Because getting arrested for something you didn’t do wasn’t bad enough, it had to happen in full view of the paparazzi. The media had always been fascinated with the Farrell family, especially with Walter Farrell’s very public string of marriages and divorces, but this arrest started their obsession.
Julie supposed she should be grateful. If it weren’t for the issues with the media and their fixation with the brothers, Nathan in particular, she wouldn’t have her extremely comfortable savings account. Most PR specialists only dreamed about getting clients this big. But it was hard to be grateful considering the amount of headaches the Farrells had caused her. Hell, at this point she should own stock in antacids. Lord knew she was probably increasing the profits tenfold.
With that in mind, she popped a few more of the chewable tablets and got out of the car. She’d parked the brand-new rental SUV in the middle of the parking lot. Julie didn’t know much about Logan Farrell, but she knew she needed to tread carefully. This was a man who’d been born into privilege and had been screwed over time and time again. He had ten years to think about just how unfair life was, and she didn’t know what kind of bitterness would come out of that.
And she had a feeling he wouldn’t be the type to be overwhelmed with gratefulness that his family had fought tooth and nail to get the charges of insider trading dropped. And that was why she was there. To monitor him and make sure he didn’t do anything stupid.
Logan looked strongly like his brothers and extremely different at the same time. His dark, almost black, hair was long and ragged, pulled back into a short ponytail. Funny. Julie had never liked long hair on a guy, but when it was pulled back, it made his sharp cheekbones and strong jawline stand out even more.
She couldn’t see his eyes from where she was, but she knew from pictures that they were a bright ice blue. Hopefully that was one thing prison couldn’t change. When Julie had first seen pictures of him, she’d had to ask Nathan whether he was wearing contacts. The color just seemed so unreal. She had a feeling that if he hadn’t been put in prison, he’d be the party boy who would’ve needed a personal PR rep, not Nathan.
Except now he was free and still too damned attractive for his own good. He was going to be looking to scratch a hell of a lot of itches. It was her job to keep those impulses managed.
The guy stopped outside the gates and looked around. She couldn’t guess what he planned to do. He’d ignored all the calls from Robert and Alex where they’d tried to arrange a pickup for him. Hopefully he’d be willing to talk to her.
She’d had no idea what size clothes he wore, so she’d played it safe by sending Logan some XL sweatpants and a white T-shirt. They’d be comfortable and hold him over while they looked for some better fitting clothes.
He hadn’t been expecting her, so she didn’t think she’d get his attention until she was right up on him, but Logan stared at her the second she stepped out of the car. As she weaved through the parking lot, he never looked away from her. She wasn’t sure whether he’d forgotten all basic manners while he was in there or whether he just didn’t care.
Maybe a combination of both.
Julie squared her shoulders as she approached her newest project. “Mr. Farrell?” she asked, even though she already knew it was him.
His eyes, which she confirmed were the same striking blue color once she was so close, narrowed skeptically. “Who the fuck are you?”
Oh yeah. He was going to be a peach to work with. “Your family sent me to help with your release.”
Those eyes looked up and down her body; she forced herself to remain still and not fidget. Her designer jeans and black tank top with delicately embroidered blue flowers was perfectly modest, and she had no reason to feel ashamed with what he was seeing.
“You don’t dress like a hooker or a lawyer. Why would my brothers send you?”
“I’ll take that as a compliment. They sent me to help. You tell me what you need and I’ll get it for you. Starting with a car.” She held up the keys to the rental. “This is just temporary, but we can go car shopping as soon as you’re ready and pick out a permanent ride for you.”
Logan tentatively reached out and took the keys. “You think I still know how to drive?”
“I think I got a car with good airbags.” He gripped the keys tightly in his hand, and Julie didn’t know whether that was a good sign or bad. “Since I’m more familiar with the area, I can handle the first leg of the trip. I did some reading, and it said that most people who get out after long stints in prison like to get food first. Usually some sort of meat. I have a list of the best burger joints in the area. Maybe that can be lunch and w
e can move on to steak for dinner?”
Logan was expressionless as he stared at her. Julie knew that no matter what he’d been expecting, it sure as hell wasn’t her. Besides, it was hard to give a smartass answer when someone offered to get you a burger.
He handed the key back to her. “Lead the way.”
Julie smiled at her victory as she took the key from him. “Great. Come on.” She led the way across the parking lot and to the car. She didn’t hear him following her, but she forced herself to keep her gaze straight ahead. It was important to pay attention to the power scales here. On one hand, he’d just gotten out of a place where he’d been vulnerable for ten years straight. She knew he’d be trying to prove himself and test limits now that he was out, which she was fine with. But he also needed to know that he couldn’t push her around or force her to let him do whatever he wanted. She was there to protect him, and in some cases that would mean not letting him get what he wanted.
So this was going to be an interesting day.
Once she reached the car, she finally let herself look over her shoulder, and sure enough, Logan was right there. Had he been that close to her the entire time? Who knew he could walk that silently?
Except he stopped when she stopped, mere inches away from her and right next to the driver’s side door. “Did you change your mind about driving?” she asked.
Logan bent forward, and she held her breath. Was he going to kiss her? She knew that he’d be looking for a woman soon, but he needed to know that she was off-limits. It would help if she could tell him that she was off-limits, but for some stupid reason, her mouth didn’t seem capable of speech at the moment.
Logan didn’t kiss her. Instead, he just leaned in close and...smelled her? Before she could question it too much, he leaned back and headed around to the passenger’s side.
Julie stood there for a moment, trying to regroup. Okay. She’d only been around Logan for two minutes and already she was messing things up. Damn it. She needed to get a hold of herself. After she’d cleared her head, she climbed into the driver’s seat as Logan adjusted his seat by setting it as far back as possible to accommodate his long legs. She’d known he was going to be tall, but she was still rather surprised by how wide he was. And not a fat wide. His shoulders took up well over the width of the seat.
Apparently he had spent more than his fair share of time in the prison gym. It was funny that she’d spent so much time with Logan’s family but he seemed so...alien from them. As if there was a feral quality that made everything about him a tad unpredictable.
Which was a pain in the ass since she kind of needed things to be predictable. “You should buckle up. It’s against the law for the front seat passenger to be unbuckled in the state of California.”
Logan grimaced, but he did pull the belt over and down, clipping it into place. “From a cell to tied down.”
“You can roll down the window if it will make you feel more like a free man.”
He looked over and scowled at her. “Was that a joke?”
She shrugged. “I’m not laughing.”
He rested his head back on the seat and closed his eyes. “Can we just leave?”
“Of course.” With that, she started the car. The drive from the prison was secluded. She supposed not a lot of housing developments would be interested in the land so close to the barbed wire fences. The car was awkwardly silent as they continued down the road and onto the freeway. It was a fifteen-minute drive from where they were to the burger place, and Julie hadn’t expected Logan to be a chatterbox.
For one, he was a guy; and secondly, he was a Farrell. Neither good signs for his ability to open up about his feelings.
In all honesty, she enjoyed the quiet. Even though she’d done her fair share of listening to client problems, she wasn’t a therapist. If Logan had opened up about how happy or scared he was to be out of prison, she wouldn’t know where to start. But she could locate the best burgers in the state and she was more than happy to take Logan there.
“The car has satellite radio. Feel free to flip through the stations. I’m not really sure if you have a favorite genre...”
Logan looked skeptically at the touch screen controls. Probably the first time he’d seen such an advanced control monitor in a car. “Satellite radio? What the hell is that?”
Good question. “I think it has less commercials than normal. More diverse content or something. I don’t know. All I know is that it’s free with the rental.”
He glanced around the leather interior of the SUV, opened the glove box and started to flip through the manual. “Why the rental?”
Julie shrugged. “I figured you’d want to be picked up in something nice.”
“You wanted to keep the ex-con out of your own car?”
“Are you really an ex-con if you were innocent?”
“Yes,” he said simply.
Whelp. There was no fighting that. “I rented a car because I don’t own one. I live in New York City, and I can’t afford to store one anywhere.”
“Who the hell are you?”
“My name is Julie Anne. I’m a PR specialist and I’m here to work with your re-entrance into society to make sure everything goes smoothly.”
“You’re my babysitter.”
Her hands tightened on the wheel as she tried to think of the best way to phrase this. “Not a babysitter. More like a gatekeeper. I’ll allow you to do anything you want to do. I am just here to make sure you do it the right way.”
“Anything I want?”
“Anything.”
“What if it’s against the law?”
“Then I’ll make sure you’re smart about it.”
“What if it’s you I want?”
“Then I’ll find a great hooker who looks just like me.”
Just then was their exit and she pulled off the freeway. The small burger place was right off the exit, and Julie didn’t have time to catch Logan’s reaction. She just had to hope that he would play by her rules. Really, everything she was doing was for his own good and, by extension, his family’s own good.
She parked the car and grabbed her small, over-the-shoulder crossbody bag. Logan was already out of the car and inside the restaurant, probably lured in by the overwhelming smell of grease. Julie ate hardly any meat and even she couldn’t deny how great the place smelled. This had to be getting her some goodwill with Logan.
By the time she made it inside, he was already ordering. And by ordering, she meant buying up the entire inventory of beef: six of the burgers—loaded with everything—fries, onion rings, cheese sticks, and fried mushrooms. And then, to her shock, he looked at her once he was done. “Did you want anything?”
Julie’s jaw dropped. “Umm...just an order of mushrooms,” she said hesitantly as she took out her credit card and handed it over. She didn’t question his order, though. If he wanted to clog his arteries as his first act as a free man, she was more than happy to let him.
After she got her receipt, the clerk behind the counter said they’d call her name once the order was ready. Even though it was similar to a fast food place, the burgers were all made to order, so Julie knew it would take a few minutes. “Where do you want to sit?”
Logan led the way to the table in the corner with windows on each side. It was only once they sat down that Julie remembered that they didn’t have their cups for drinks. “Damn,” she muttered. “I’ll go get the drinks. What kind of soda did you want?”
Logan glanced over to the fountain machine and his brows drew together. “I don’t remember.”
“You don’t remember what you like?”
“I don’t remember what they taste like.”
Oh. Well, she didn’t know how she could help with that one. “Why don’t you get your cup and then you can sample them?”
He nodded as he followed her back to the counter. Once she filled her cup with the diet soda, she made her way back to the table. Out of the corner of her eye, she studied Logan as he filled hi
s cup with a tiny amount of the carbonated stuff and sampled before dumping what was left and repeating the process with the next soda.
This job was definitely different from anything she’d ever done before. While she waited, she pulled out her phone and opened her banking app. The balance in her checking account immediately soothed her nerves. That was why she was here. Security. And this was hers, no matter what. There was no contingency she’d have to return if Logan went off the rails. The big deposit that had cleared the night before was purely a “thanks for trying” sum. And every month for the next two years that Logan stayed out of trouble, she’d get similar deposits into her accounts.
That was why she was doing this.
Logan came back to the table and his cup was filled with some yellow-green looking soda. “Are you talking to Robert?” He motioned to her phone.
“Nope.” She hit the power button to darken the screen. “Checking something at my bank.”
“Oh yeah. Phones are computers now, aren’t they?”
“You have no idea. We’ll get you a state-of-the-art smartphone this week and get you on Facebook. Your life will never be the same.”
He grimaced. “I think I’d rather be in prison.”
“A whole new world.” Right then, her name was called. Logan started to stand, but she held up a hand. “I got this.”
She grabbed the overflowing tray of greasy and fried food and brought it back to the table.
Logan immediately pulled the burgers toward him. “Are you being paid to wait on me too?”
“No. That was just me trying to be nice.”
He shook his head, but before she could ask why that annoyed him, he was digging into the food. She hadn’t expected him to possibly be able to eat all that food in front of him, but sure enough, he made his way through all six burgers before he pulled the onion rings over.
Julie slowly picked at her own fried mushrooms, waiting for the insides to cool down. “So we have a lot we need to get done, but there’s no real time limit. Phone is one thing. A car at some point. We need to get you some clothes. I’m not sure where you want to stay. We can get a hotel for the night or if you had somewhere in mind, Robert gave me a list of open properties around the country. You’re not on parole or anything, so you can even leave the country if you wanted to. So what were you thinking?”
Remorseless (Fractured Farrells: A Damaged Billionaire Series Book 3) Page 1