Need you Now (Top Shelf Romance Book 2)

by Laurelin Paige

  “God, that must be so hard,” I whispered.

  I instantly thought of Lincoln and felt my eyes fill with tears. What if he woke up and was like that? We’d help him, of course. We’d love him, no doubt. How would he cope though? After having such a huge personality. How could he cope like that? My eyes followed Deacon as he got something out of the glass case that held the croissants and loaves.

  “You’re thinking about your brother.”

  “How could I not? Who knows how his brain is right now and whether or not he’ll react like this when he wakes up?” I wiped my face quickly.

  “Maybe.” She stood and walked behind the bar and started fiddling with the coffee machine. “So, what’s new with you? How are classes? How’s the newspaper stuff going?”

  I was still stuck on the maybe and the nonchalant way in which she’d said it. She didn’t know Lincoln, not really anyway, but she’d had a crush on him, possibly even slept with him if he was the hockey player she’d told me about.

  “Classes are fine. Newspaper is fine,” I said, responding to her question in hopes that it would distract me from reading into things too much.

  I looked over at Deacon and Becca. He was scarfing down a croissant, while she was texting someone on her phone. The front door opened and people walked in—two police officers and one blonde pregnant lady behind them. Hailey walked back over to me and sat down in the same seat. She picked up the remote and unmuted the television, where once again, there was a picture of Lana.

  “The anonymous caller claims to have seen Lana Ly, a student at Ellis University, who disappeared earlier this year. When questioned, the caller said she’d been in the woods drinking illegally with friends and didn’t think anything of it until the following day,” the news reporter said. They displayed a different picture of Lana, wearing a floral spring dress and smiling at the camera. “If you have any information, please reach out to the police.”

  “Pretty doll,” Deacon said from behind the counter, pointing at the screen. “Pretty doll.”

  “She’s not a doll, Deacon. She’s a girl who’s gone missing,” Becca said, clearly irritated. She gave me an apologetic look, shaking her head.

  “Hey, Becca. Hailey.” One of the police officers took his hat off and greeted them. “How are the cows, Deacon?”

  “They’re good,” he said slowly. “A lot of milk.”

  “That’s great. So you’re still using them for dairy?” the other officer asked.

  “Yes, until I can’t no more. They’re my babies.” He shrugged.

  He didn’t look mean or creepy when he spoke to them. I realized it was the first clear sentence he’d spoken since he’d arrived. The officers continued speaking with him and I sat down in my usual spot, clicking on one of the articles, even though I’d already seen what the anonymous caller said.

  “I am so tired.” Hailey yawned loudly. “Deacon called me at the crack of dawn saying his stupid sheep ran away and I had to help him go find her.”

  “That sucks.” I cringed. “Did you find her?”

  “Yes. I swear I never hit anything but I wanted to kill that thing.” She took a sip of her coffee. “Are you going to the toga party tonight?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Celia had been the one to tell me about it. She’d texted saying her house was one of the ones participating. Apparently, it was a party that went on for an entire block. You paid at one house, got a wrist band, and were able to go to all of the houses participating. If I went, I’d only go to Celia’s though. It wasn’t like I had a ton of friends. Unless you counted Max and Logan and Nolan, and possibly Marcus. I sat back in my seat. When the hell had I become the girl who had predominantly male friends? I’d always had them growing up because of Lincoln, but it wasn’t like I went out of my way to be friends with guys.

  “Come on. You should go.” She set down her coffee. “Between your schedule and mine, I feel like we’re never on the same page.”

  “Maybe I will.” I shrugged, smiling, but got serious. What if the person sending the texts was watching me? What if they were waiting for me to slip up and go to a party like this? I couldn’t imagine the secret society being behind the texts, not after getting them this morning. That would be stupid. It had to be someone else. Someone connected to both Lincoln and Lana. But who?

  “You look worried. What’s going on?”

  “I’ve been getting weird texts.” My gaze snapped to Hailey’s. I pulled out my phone to show her.

  “Creepy.” Her eyes widened on mine as she held my phone. “Have you tried calling?”

  “Of course. It’s always disconnected when I do.”

  “It must be a burner phone.”

  “A burner phone? Why would they use a burner phone? They obviously don’t want a response from me if that’s the case.”

  “I don’t know.” She shook her head, handing it back to me. “Be careful with that though.” She picked up her mug again. “I mean, why would they say that about your brother when they know you know what happened was drug abuse?”

  “It wasn’t drug abuse.”

  “Didn’t he overdose on heroin? That’s drug abuse, Mae.” She raised an eyebrow.

  “Lincoln didn’t try to kill himself. He doesn’t even . . . he hates drugs.”

  “I know it sucks to hear this, but it’s what happened.”

  “No. It’s not.” I shook my head as I gathered my things. I could feel myself getting angry the longer I sat there, and worse, feeling watched. Every time I looked up, I saw Deacon standing there. “I should go. I have to get my things ready for later.”

  “See you later,” Hailey said, smiling at me as if she hadn’t just completely insulted my brother’s situation. “Text me when you’re on your way there.”

  I waved at her, waved at Becca and sort of waved at Deacon. He was talking to the police officers again but his eyes were on me. I walked back to my apartment, thinking about everything that had happened these last few days: the pictures of my brother with Lana, the short entries Lana had written in her computer describing the man she’d been with and how my first thought had been my father, which was absolutely insane. Still. The clues were there. Why would she be arguing with my brother? I couldn’t dismiss the possibility that he could be the son of the man she was having the affair with. I couldn’t deny it, especially after knowing Ella was somehow involved with him. I’d seen the way Ella talked about my father. I hadn’t had further contact with her, aside from the thank you responses via email when I sent her pictures, but that didn’t mean much.

  I was still lost in my own thoughts when I reached my apartment and bumped into someone, a hard someone. I glanced up, apologizing, and found myself looking at a carbon copy of Logan. Patrick Fitzgerald. He grinned, and it was so beautiful that I had to remind myself what this man had done. He raped women. Well, according to the news. And Max. Max believed the women. Hell, I believed the women, but having him standing in front of me made my brain falter, like what if he hadn’t done those horrible things?

  “Let me hold the door for you,” he said smoothly.

  “Thanks.” I walked through. He followed. I shot him a look. “Weren’t you leaving?”

  “I was, but maybe I changed my mind.” He kept grinning.

  There was no warmth in his eyes as he smiled. Even this reminded me of Logan, the way he had the ability to turn his warmth on and off. I heard a conversation and turned my head in that direction. Logan was sitting there with a man that had to be his father, because even though his skin tone was a few shades lighter than theirs, he looked just like them—dark hair, chiseled jaw, green eyes.

  “So, you live here?”

  “Yeah.” I blinked back at Patrick, whose eyes were now making a slow perusal of my body. Again, I didn’t feel creeped out. What was wrong with me?

  “Absolutely not.” The shout came from Logan, and it was more of a growl than a shout. Our attention whipped in that direction and I saw him stomping over to us
, a fierce expression on his face. “Weren’t you leaving? Get the hell out.”

  “Oh.” Patrick chuckled. “You like this one?”

  “Get out. Now.”

  “I don’t think I will. I was having a conversation with, what’s your name, sweetheart?” He brought his hand up, but before he could get it anywhere near my face, Logan slapped it down and got between us.

  “Try to touch her again and I’ll kill you,” he said, his voice unnervingly low. “If you ever so much as look at her, I will fucking kill you. If you even think about her once you leave this building, I’ll fucking murder you in your sleep. Is that clear enough for you?”

  Patrick chuckled again. “Pops, you hear this guy?”

  “Please leave, Patrick. We’ll talk later,” their dad said.

  Not that I could see him from behind Logan, who took up my entire line of vision. I could feel the anger radiating off him and that was enough to keep me there. If he was acting like this, it was serious.

  “Mr. Fitzgerald, do you need assistance?” That was Gary.

  “No, Gary. Thank you. I think I’ve made it clear to my brother that he’s not welcome here,” Logan said.

  “Crystal,” Patrick muttered, walking away. He waited until he was by the door to say, “See you soon, little bro. I guess I’ll wait until you’re done with your plaything to have a go.”

  I wrapped my arms around Logan just as he moved to charge at the door. It didn’t work. He dragged me with him. Gary ran over and Logan’s dad ran over and they both managed to form a blockade in front of him. I managed to unwrap my arms from around him and step back, waiting for him to calm down. I’d never seen him like this. Ever. At hockey practice he’d come close, when he’d played against his teammates, but this was something else. If he brought this kind of energy on the ice, I would hate to be his opponent.

  “You should go,” his dad said. “We’ll take it from here.”

  “Thanks. I’ll wait.”

  “He’s right. You should go.” Logan turned around quickly.

  He wasn’t breathing as hard as he had been a moment ago, but his eyes still looked murderous. He still looked beautiful. The urge to drag him upstairs and make us both forget this shitty morning was enormous. I licked my lips, wondering if I should offer, but stopped myself. His father was standing right there. Gary was standing right there, and I didn’t think he would report such a thing to my father, but you never knew. It was all it would take for him to fly over here and make me go home. My parents weren’t the most involved, unless they thought there was a chance I could get pregnant. Then, they were all over my shit. Just looking at Logan made my ovaries hurt, and kissing him last night had been . . . a lot. He watched me as I watched him. The longer I stood there, the less upset he seemed. I wasn’t sure if he could read my thoughts or not, but I swear I felt like he could. I felt myself blush. His mouth lifted slightly. Not a smile, but the tell of amusement.

  “I left something at your door that you need to do. Someone will come pick it up shortly,” he said.

  “Okay.” I frowned.

  “And I’ll pick you up at five. For the thing.”

  “Five. Okay. I have to take some pictures of the—”

  “Football practice. I know. I’m picking you up at five, we’ll go by there, and then do what we need to do.”

  “Cool.” I smiled. “Have a good rest of your morning.”

  “So far, this has been the best part of my morning.” He scoffed. “See you later, Mae.”

  “Later, Moriarty.” I winked as I walked away, smiling at the elevator doors as he chuckled behind me.

  I heard his father question him about me calling him by his middle name, but the elevator doors opened before I could hear the rest of that conversation. When I got to my floor, I saw a bag by my door. I opened it as I walked in. There was a tiny blood strip, a saliva swab, pee cup, and a note.

  Don’t worry, we won’t clone you. We need to make sure you’re clean.

  X

  Ps. We know this is really weird and promise we are not a sex club.

  I looked at the contents again. Everything came with instructions. They wanted my blood, pee, and saliva. This was more extensive than hooking up with someone from an app.

  Chapter 25

  Logan

  “You like her.”

  I glared at my father. “You don’t get to talk about her.”

  “Stop being so dramatic. I understand you not wanting your brother near her after all of the rumors, but—”

  “You call him going to court and getting sued for rape by four different women rumors?”

  “They all dropped the charges.”

  “He paid them off.”

  “Only to take the limelight away from him. He says he didn’t do those things.”

  “Well, excuse me if I find it hard to believe either one of you.” I shot him a look.

  It wasn’t like my father was the most innocent or respectful of women. He’d had two incidents with two different secretaries.

  “Those were consensual.”

  “It doesn’t matter. Forget I brought that up.” I threw my hands up.

  I was tired of discussing all the ways he was a worthless man only to have him argue why he wasn’t. A foolish man made mistakes, but only a fool tried to justify them. My father was both, and the mistakes he made went way past cheating on my mother. His mistakes left marks and bruises, and often broken bones, at least when it came to my brother and I. So, was I happy to see him? Hell, the fuck no. Did I need to sign the papers that got me out of the contract in which I was currently listed as one of the owners? Yes.

  It was something I should have never signed. Even as I did it, I knew it was a stupid mistake, but my father’s lawyer had driven a hard bargain—my signature for a quarter of the profit that would come in the first two years. They needed someone to oversee things and it had to be someone with their name on the contract. Because I was the one closest to the restaurant, that person was me. My brother couldn’t even have his name on it because of all of the disgusting things he’d done. I felt my blood boil again. It wasn’t enough that he was just as worthless as our father. It wasn’t enough that he’d gotten in trouble and almost arrested. He had to come in here and also try to hit on Amelia. This was after he started an argument with me about signing an NHL contract. He thought that because he’d played in the league, he should tell me what to do, where to go and who my agent should be once I graduated.

  “This is ready.” Dad put the papers in a folder and set them in his briefcase. He closed it and snapped the handles as he stood again. “I hope I see you before next year. Maybe you can bring your friend to the island for a weekend.”

  “No, thanks.”

  “You know, your mother forgave me for all of that shit. I fucked up, yes, but she forgave me, why can’t you?”

  I stared at him for a moment. “If you can’t answer that question yourself, you’re worse than I thought. I’ll see you when I see you.”

  I turned around and headed back up to my apartment. He’d one-hundred-percent ruined my mood. As the elevator door was closing, I caught sight of Marcus jogging my way. I held it for him.

  “Shit. I’m running late today.” He exhaled as we rode up to my floor. “I hope she already did all the stuff. I have to take it to the lab and run tests myself.”

  “You’re running the tests?”

  “Obviously. You know anyone else who’s pre-med with access to the labs?”

  I glared at him. Why were all of my friends such smart asses? Couldn’t any of them be mild mannered and just nice? It was stupid, but I didn’t like the idea of him handling something so personal of Amelia’s. This girl had me tripping over everything. The elevator doors opened and I started walking to my apartment. I heard a door open behind me and Mae’s laughter made me freeze in my tracks. I looked back and saw her talking to Marcus as she handed him the bag. She’d just met him yesterday and somehow was acting like they were old frien
ds. Maybe it was because I’d dealt with my dad and brother this morning. Maybe it was because of the little sleep I’d gotten last night, or the fact that hockey practice had been shitty the day before yesterday. Maybe it was the kiss her and I shared, and the way I couldn’t get it the fuck out of my head.

  Whatever the reason was, I found myself fighting the urge to run over there, punch Marcus and take Mae inside where nobody else could look, touch, or talk to her. Yeah, I was being absolutely ridiculous. Maybe I needed to get laid. By someone who wasn’t Mae, so that I’d quit thinking about her exclusively. I opened the door to my place and walked inside, making it a point not to look back at them. The last thing I needed was for him to know just how interested in her I was. As it was, I’d made an exception for tonight’s initiation and I knew I’d never hear the end of it from them.

  Chapter 26

  Amelia

  I got a text at four thirty that I thought was going to be from Logan, until I remembered he didn’t have my phone number. It was from Travis. I hesitated opening it. I hadn’t spoken to him since the location incident, and even though we’d ended that conversation politely, I was afraid of what talking to him would lead to. On my end, I was one-hundred-percent done with Travis, but I knew him. He was the kind of person who was never done with you until you moved on. It had been like that with his ex-girlfriend Tasha. He’d only let her go because we’d gotten together. At the time, I’d found it hot. Now, it was not.

  Travis: Hey. In town this weekend. We still hanging?

  Me: I have some things to do, but maybe we can meet up at some point

  Travis: You going to the toga party?

  Me: Yeah, I think so, if I’m done with everything else.

  Travis: It doesn’t start until ten. Wanna go together?