Logan scarfed down the last onion ring and wiped his fingers with a napkin, apparently coming up for air from the massive feast. “Who are you?”
“I already told you. I’m Julie Anne and I’m a PR rep.”
He nodded. “I heard that. But what is it that you do, Julie?”
She didn’t really know the right way to phrase it... “I have the unique ability of getting people to do what I want.”
“You trying to tell me you’re psychic?”
“No.” She shook her head in disbelief he’d even go there. “I’m nice. And if that doesn’t work, then I’m mean. But I always end up getting what I want.”
“I hate to break it to you, lady, but I don’t do ‘nice.’”
She smiled, not the least bit intimidated. “That’s okay. I have plenty of mean stored up.”
Logan’s stomach felt as if it was about to stage a revolt, but he didn’t care. Everything tasted so much better than he remembered, and he couldn’t stop himself from finishing every last bite.
By contrast, the woman across from him took her time with her mushrooms. Who came to a place like this and only ordered fried mushrooms? That was just one of many questions he had for her but kept himself from asking. So far she’d been relatively quiet, and he knew the second he started to ask her things, she’d return the favor, and he really didn’t feel like sitting through an interrogation.
So he continued his feast in silence, trying to ignore Julie even as he kept glancing in her direction, waiting for her to start telling him to call his brothers or convince him to run to the nearest suit store so he could look like a Farrell. Except once she was done with her mushrooms, she just pulled her phone out and started to scroll through the screens.
“What do you want?” he finally asked once the food in front of him was gone.
Julie looked up from her phone. “Oh, I’m full. Thanks, though.”
“Not for food. With me. You said you get what you want from people. What do you want from me?”
Julie smiled. “I just want to make sure your transition to freedom is as smooth as possible.”
“What wouldn’t be smooth about it?”
“For one, I convinced the press that you were getting released from Marcusa Prison. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get over five different publications to believe that lie?”
He frowned. Marcusa was hundreds of miles away in Northern California. No wonder there hadn’t been any cameras flashing in his face on his walk out of the prison. “Hard. How did you do it?”
She shrugged. “A few doctored photos of you in a transport van. A few fake articles online about it. Suddenly the biggest gossip websites in the world think it’s a fact.”
“Okay. So I’m successfully out into the world without mass media coverage. Does that mean your job is done?”
“Well, currently you don’t have a phone, driver’s license, a place to stay, or a valid ID to access any of your bank accounts. So do you really want me to abandon you at this burger joint on your own?”
“So you’re my babysitter then.”
“I’m just here to help you. Your wish, my command.”
“Unless it reflects badly on the family.”
She raised a brow. “What would you want to do that would reflect badly on the family?”
“Plenty of things.”
“Well, you just let me know and I’m sure we can work something out.”
“You’re really fucking annoying.”
For the first time, he seemed to see some honest shock on her face. “Excuse me?”
“I’d get further if I was talking to a fucking blow-up doll.”
She ran a hand up and through her hair. “I’m sorry I’ve been annoying you so much. Maybe we should leave.” She stood and gathered the trash, his included, and cleared off the whole table except for their drinks. “You want to get a refill before we leave?”
Once again he just stared at her in confusion before he got up and refilled his cup. “Give me the keys,” he said once they were outside.
Without hesitation, she handed them over. He went to the driver’s side and adjusted the seat until he could fit his full six-foot-five frame into the seat.
“So, where to?” she asked in a perfectly calm voice.
“What the hell is wrong with you?”
This time there was no shock. Just that same blank smile. “I’m sorry. I’ll just sit here and be quiet.”
“Don’t sit there and be quiet! I haven’t driven anywhere in ten years. Aren’t you the slightest bit worried I’ll end up killing you?”
Her perfect smile faltered the tiniest bit and he knew she had her doubts. “I assumed you’d drive carefully.”
“And you’re hanging out with a convicted felon and you don’t have any questions for me?”
“You were exonerated. So you’re not a felon. You just have criminally bad luck.”
He didn’t laugh at the joke. “I feel like I’m sitting next to a fucking robot and nothing you’re saying is making me think otherwise.”
Her brows came together as she considered him. “So you want me to say something non-robotic?”
“Yes!”
There was a silence and she pursed her lips together and looked down. “Okay. I’m worried about what you’re going to say when you see the trunk.”
“The trunk?” He glanced behind them and could see the tips of some luggage peeking over the backseat. “What is back there?”
“My suitcases.”
“Suitcases plural?”
“Yes! I completely overpacked for this trip. Considering that you just got out of prison, I kind of have been dreading when you’d notice.”
“That’s what you tell me to convince me that you’re not a robot?”
She frowned and glared at him. “I’m sorry. Did you want me to cut myself to prove that I bleed? Tell me what will make you happy, Logan. Please give me some freakin’ clue because I’m at a loss here.”
He sat back after she snapped at him and the corner of his mouth hooked up. “That’s what I wanted.”
“You wanted to piss me off?”
He started the engine. “Robots don’t get pissed off.”
She sighed and pulled on her seat belt. “I can’t believe this.” She rubbed at her temples as he maneuvered the car back to the freeway. “Do you even know where you’re going?”
“I’m going east.”
“Well, that narrows it down. Is this a road trip? Should we be loading up on snacks? Music? I can plot out the most efficient course on my phone. Why don’t you—”
“You said you’d do whatever I want, right?”
“For the most part.”
“Well, I want to drive in silence. So sit back and relax. If you get hungry or need to stop, let me know and we’ll stop.”
She shook her head and laid her head back. “You’re a hard one.”
“What?”
“I don’t really get you yet.”
“Well, keep trying. Maybe one day you’ll crack me.”
She let out a laugh. “I doubt it.”
“How did you meet my family?”
“I thought you wanted to drive in silence?”
“I lied. Now I want to drive while you answer my questions.”
Julie adjusted in the seat as she turned to face him. “Well, I was one of a string of PR specialists brought in when Nathan was having issues in the press. Every day, there were new pictures of him with different women, drinks in hand and a few less than legal items in his possession. He’s lucky he didn’t end up in a cell next to yours.”
“And you were hired to fix him.”
“More or less. But he didn’t need fixing. He needed distracting.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“It means that as much as I hate it, half the time I end up playing therapist. If someone like Nathan, who has so many opportunities in front of him, is acting out, there’s usually a reason. I found out the reason
and then we were able to work together to get him on a healthier path.”
“Don’t tell me he’s a monk now.”
“At least now the women he sleeps with are much less likely to pass on some sort of disease. And he’s learned to keep his damn face out of the tabloids. That’s a win.”
“How many PR people did he chew through before you stuck?”
“I don’t remember. I think Robert said five.”
“And why were you fifth on his list? Didn’t have the right qualifications?”
“It’s no big deal.” Julie adjusted the seat to lean back a bit and kicked off her shoes, obviously getting comfortable for the trip.
The gas tank was full and, considering they just ate, they should be good for a while. “The fact that you’re saying it’s no big deal makes me think it’s a big deal.” He could see her about to back out again, but he reminded her, “You promised to give me what I want. So tell me what happened.”
“Nathan was a bit of a womanizer and Robert didn’t want me there because he thought I was too pretty.”
Logan’s hands tightened on the wheel. “He thought you’d sleep with Nathan.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Or Nathan would sleep with me. But I have since impressed Robert and Alex with my amazing ability to keep my legs closed when in front of billionaires, so we’re all good.”
She said it in a joking tone, but Logan wasn’t amused. He glanced over at Julie and then back to the road. She really was pretty. Not in a model or movie star way. She was the kind of girl he imagined lived in a suburb. Maybe was a cheerleader in high school and a sorority girl in college. Then she’d find some middle-class man and raise his middle-class children and become the queen of a Pinterest board while putting all the other mothers to shame.
He could definitely see the temptation to get dirty with the girl next door. Considering how long it had been since he’d gotten dirty with anyone himself, he could especially understand the temptation.
Damn it. Just thinking about it had his cock hard; he tried to subtly adjust the way he was sitting. The loose pants kept everything comfortable, but it didn’t exactly hide anything. She’d mentioned that they needed to get clothes and maybe that trip would need to be sooner rather than later.
He hadn’t shopped anywhere in so long. What would he even need? Back in his old life, he’d normally tell Bob, Walter’s assistant at the time, what he needed and it would show up in his office or at his apartment. He didn’t know what stores to go to or what was in fashion. Maybe he needed to get some magazines too? He’d never been one to read shit like that, but he could flip through the pictures maybe?
Fuck it. He was doing jeans and T-shirts. He could get those anywhere. “So what’s the deal with my money?”
“You have lots of it.”
“Thanks for the update. I meant how do I get it? Are my accounts still at the same bank?”
“Once you were arrested, Robert was made trustee on your accounts.”
“Thank fuck for that.”
“I thought you didn’t like your brothers.”
“I don’t. But it was my father who got me arrested, so I’m pretty happy he wasn’t spending everything.”
“Well, Robert is still trustee. You both need to sign paperwork to give you full control of the funds. Also, Walter left you a substantial amount. But since you’re here and Robert is in New York, I was given access to your accounts, so if you need any cash, I can get it for you.”
That got his attention. “Robert gave you access to all my money?”
“Yeah. He got the idea that you didn’t want him around. Wonder who gave him that impression.”
“So he really trusts you then.”
“Logan, I know pretty much all the family secrets. I already have plenty of leverage on your family if I wanted it. Trust me, the only money I’m trying to get is the money that your family has already agreed to pay me.”
“Trusting doesn’t come naturally to me.”
She winced. “Sorry. Poor choice of words.”
He didn’t say anything and they fell into silence as he kept driving. The California sun was bright and he didn’t have any sunglasses, so he had to squint. The traffic closer to LA was a bitch, but the farther out they got, the easier it was to navigate the highway. Every once in a while, Julie would look questioningly at him, but she never actually said anything.
He knew she probably wanted to know where they were going and what they were doing, but Logan wasn’t ready to tell her yet. He still had a few questions of his own he needed to get answered.
Because he needed to know whether he was taking Julie somewhere that was going to get her killed.
“I think it’s time for us to call it a day.” Julie looked out at the setting sun.
“I’m still good to go for a while.”
“It’s your first night out of a cell. Don’t you want a nice comfortable bed to relax in?”
Logan glanced out at the Mojave Desert on either side of them. “You really think there are motels with comfortable beds out here?”
“You really think those beds are less comfortable than the prison I just picked you up from?”
“Fair point. Want me to pull off at the next exit I see with lodging?”
“Let me see what’s available.” Julie pulled up the nearest hotels on her phone and looked through the sea of three- and two-star places until she found a decent one. “Here. This one has decent reviews and it’s only twenty minutes away. It also looks like it has two rooms available.”
“Two rooms?”
“I thought we cleared up my magical ability to keep my legs closed.”
“You’re kind of a smartass, aren’t you?”
“Just trying to prove I’m not a robot.”
He was believing she was human more and more by the second. Which was annoying as hell, because the more he believed she was human, the more he liked her. “I thought you were keeping me on a short leash. Don’t you want to make sure I don’t run?”
She let out a disbelieving laugh. “Are you planning on running?”
“I don’t know.”
“Will you tell me if you plan on running off anywhere?”
“That would defeat the purpose of running off.”
Julie glanced down at her phone. “Our exit is in ten miles.” She glanced back over to him. “And why would you want to run off anyway? I’ve been nothing but helpful. And I’ve more than proved I’m not a robot. You have absolutely no reason to want to get away from me.”
“What if I want to be alone?”
“Then I will book the best lodging in the country for you to be alone and I’ll get out of your hair. I’m here for you, Logan.”
“I’m just going to keep on not believing you.”
“That’s fine. Just don’t run from me. I’m just going to trust you on this one.”
He stiffened. “Maybe you shouldn’t trust me.”
“I feel like we’re talking in circles here.”
He let out something between a grunt and a growl but finally stopped bugging her. She didn’t really know what she could do to keep Logan from running. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of ways for him to slip away from her, and at the moment she had no way to track him down if he did run off. He had no phone. No credit cards. All she would have was his picture. Would he even give her the keys to the rental?
Julie didn’t know whether she should ask for them or not. This was his first night of freedom and she wanted him to feel that way. Free. Not as though he was in a motel in the middle of the Mojave Desert with no car and no money.
But Robert had reasons for sending her. They had no idea what kind of man Logan was now that he was out. Because of his self-imposed exile from the family, Robert didn’t know how bitter or angry or self-destructive Logan was. That was the same problem Julie had been trying to solve since she’d first seen Farrell coming out of the prison.
He didn’t seem...angry. At least not that she could tel
l. He seemed curious about her. He sure as hell seemed to enjoy baiting her.
They got to the hotel—well, it was called an “inn,” but Julie never believed in an inn with over a hundred rooms. It was a corporate chain of hotels that had three stories, an indoor pool that held a little more water than the bathtub in her apartment held, and a workout room with one treadmill, one elliptical, and a set of mismatched dumbbells that went up to twenty pounds.
But it looked as if it probably didn’t have roaches, and there was free breakfast and Wi-Fi. Though, Logan didn’t really have to worry about expense; free Wi-Fi was something she was instinctively drawn to. They were able to get rooms next to each other and, for the first time, Logan got to see her three huge suitcases.
She was more than willing to bring them up to the room on her own, but Logan was next to her every step of the way; he easily pulled the heavy luggage out as they went to their first-floor rooms, with him rolling two of them and her taking the third.
She got her key in the door and held her breath until the little unlock light turned green. She’d gotten one too many key cards that didn’t work in her past.
“Okay, then,” said Logan. “I guess I’ll see you—”
“Hold on.” She maneuvered the bag she was rolling in the room. “Come in here. I need to show you things.”
A few seconds later, she heard him following her, having much less issues with the two bags than she had with her one.
“Where do you want these?”
“Anywhere. You really didn’t have to lug them all the way in here. I take full responsibility for my overpacking tendencies, so I should pay the consequences.”
He set the bags down and looked around the room. Ever since she’d met him that morning, Logan had seemed so sure of himself, but seeing him here in these very beige and standard surroundings, he actually looked uncomfortable. She wanted to say something to help him, but she didn’t know what was bothering him and she didn’t want to ask him about his feelings. She was no trained therapist, but the guys she worked with didn’t like to be asked about their feelings.
Remorseless (Fractured Farrells: A Damaged Billionaire Series Book 3) Page 2