He let my face go and looked down at me, his face screwing up in anger. “My clients don't just want a rag doll to fuck Alice. If that was all they desired, you'd be perfect. But they require more. You must be able to fuck like a porn star.”
He turned away in disgust, and walked over into the kitchen. He grabbed a glass and sunk a shot of vodka. “Lie down on the couch and open your legs,” he ordered, his back to me as he took another shot.
“I will warm you up. Then we'll see what you're made of.”
I shook at I lay on the couch, lying with my legs closed as he turned back towards me. I glanced over at the door, willing it to open. Please, please open.
“I said, open your legs,” he said, menacingly, as he walked back towards me, unzipping his pants and slipping out of his jacket.
I shut my eyes as I let my legs hang lose, hearing his body draw closer to me. “Open your fucking eyes. Don't be a child.”
I could feel his breath getting warmer against me, his fingers creeping up my inner thing. I felt sick, my body shaking in fear as I kept my eyes shut tight. I didn't want to see what happened next.
“STOP!”
I opened my eyes fast to see Kyle standing at the front of the suite, the door closed behind him.
“Don't you fucking touch her.”
He started walking towards us, his eyes trained on his father.
“What the fuck are you doing here Kyle. How did you know about this?” He sounded startled, the cool in his voice lost.
Kyle didn't answer. He merely continued walking forward, his pace slow, every step carrying him towards his purpose.
“This has been long in the making you fucking snake. All your talk, all your principles and morals, and look at you. You're about to fuck the girl that you punished me for seeing. You would force Jen into killing a man. You'd condemn Alice to life as a hooker for your own gain. You fucking sicken me.”
Mr Logan stood up straight, his hands quickly zipping back up his pants. His voice grew more intense, full of a simmering rage.
“How dare you speak to me like that. I'm your father.”
“My father?” Kyle scoffed. “Perhaps once, but no longer. You've ruined my life Charles. Now I'm going to end yours.”
I lay hunched up on the sofa, looking up at the drama as it unfolded. I could see the fear grow in Mr Logan's eyes as Kyle pulled a gun out from behind his back, his hands covered by black leather gloves. It had a long silencer attached to hide its intent.
“Kyle, what are you doing.” His voice was breathless now, pleading. “I had no idea how much you cared for Alice. It's OK, you can have her. Put the gun down, and we'll forget about all of this. Alice, she can be yours.”
Kyle's expression softened slightly at his father's words, the idea appealing.
He shook his head slowly. I could only imagine what thoughts were going through his mind. His weapon began to lower towards the floor, his eyes still set on his father.
“No.” His voice was so quiet now, growling through his clenched teeth. “You're a manipulative snake, and I don't believe you. I'm sorry Charles, but I have no option now.”
With that he quickly raised the weapon and trained it on his fathers chest. I saw Mr Logan raise his hands up and clench his face, a plead for him to stop trying to escape his mouth. His words were cut short as a bullet punched into his chest, ripping through his white shirt.
I looked at Kyle who stared on, a tear trickling down the side of his face as he pulled the trigger again, the force of the bullet sending Mr Logan stumbling back and onto the floor. He gasped his final breaths as Kyle walked up to him and looked down.
“I'm sorry father,” he whispered, “you gave me no other choice.”
The blood began to spill out of his chest, staining his pristine white shirt a dark red. Kyle looked on, his eyes glistening with tears, as his fathers gasps ended, his body going rigid on the floor.
Moments passed in silence as Kyle stood there, unmoving, the pistol in his hand shaking.
“Dress quickly Alice,” he said, his eyes still set in position, “we need to leave, now.”
Chapter 45
My hands were still shaking as I put on my clothes. Kyle remained in place, his eyes not leaving his father, a look of terrible grief and regret on his face.
“Did you touch anything?” he asked, his voice quiet.
“Um, I guess I must have,” I said, thinking back.
“Think Alice. What did you touch?”
“Just the door handle when I came in. The glass on the table. I may have put my hands to the chair.”
He withdrew a cloth from his jacket pocket and threw it over to me. “Wipe anything you may have touched. Do it quickly.”
I took the glass and wiped it down, placing it back onto the table, before starting off on the sofa, wiping every last area I'd touched.
“Wait,” he said as I moved over to the door. “Leave that to me.”
He took the cloth off me and picked up the glass from the table. “Best dispose of this,” he said, taking my purse from me and dropping it inside.
“It's just precautionary Alice. They won't have your DNA or fingerprints on file. You'll never be connected to this.” He was so calm now, his mind set to the task.
“Give me your hand,” he said. I lifted it to his and he held it lightly.
“You're shaking. You must compose yourself. We're going to walk out there as if nothing's happened.”
He walked to the door and put his ear close to it, listening for movement. He wiped the handle with the cloth before opening it with his gloved hand, leaning out into the corridor and looking both ways.
“OK, let's go.”
I followed him out as he shut the door carefully and wiped the other side of the handle before placing the cloth back into his pocket.
“What about cameras,” I whispered into his ear as he touched the button for the elevator.
“Don't worry about that. It's not a concern.”
I didn't now exactly what he meant, but trusted his words. For all I knew he could have a man on the inside, covering our tracks. I didn't put it past him.
“Now smile and take my arm,” he said as the elevator sprung open in front of us.
I followed his orders as we stepped in and descended, walking out into a busy hotel lobby. We moved straight through a group of incoming guests and out into the night. He continued to the left, moving me off down the street.
We walked in silence and at speed, moving through the busy street. He turned us into a multi storey parking lot, walking up to the third level where cars were sparsely parked. A lone car stood at the far end and we moved towards it. It wasn't the car he usually drove. It was bland, innocuous, a car that would blend in.
He opened the door for me and I stepped in. I let out a breath as the door shut on the other side, casting us into silence. It felt as if I'd been keeping it in for the last ten minutes.
His face remained unblinking, his eyes staring forward as if they were looking into the distance. I could only imagine what was going through his head.
“I'm sorry Alice,” he said, breaking the quiet.
I looked at him, my own eyes mourning. “For what.”
“Everything,” he said. “This is all my fault. I should never have involved you in it.”
I took his cheek in my palm and turned his face towards me. His eyes were turned down, looking to the floor, a tear threatening to roll from one corner.
“No Kyle, we all make our own choices. None of this is your fault.”
His eyes stayed down, a tear now rolling down his cheek, a single line across his unblemished face.
“Look at me,” I said, urging his eyes upwards. They moved slowly, deep wells of
emotion behind them.
“You did what you needed to do Kyle. It was justice. You've set us free - you, me, Jen, every person beneath his heel. Don't ever think otherwise.”
I knew the words would fall on an empty heart right now. I knew, as he did deep down, that what he'd done had been just. And yet, I knew it would live with him forever.
His eyes softened slightly at my words.
“I did it for you Alice. Only for you.”
He paused as he reached out and stroked his hand through my hair, the tears drying in his eyes.
“Now, we can be together.”
Epilogue
I stood at one side of the grave as the coffin was lowered into it. In front of me I could see Kyle standing in the middle of four other men. They were all of similar height and shared similar features, a dark handsomeness to each of them. It was clear to everyone there that they were brothers.
There were hundreds of people there, each dressed in black, each with their heads bowed as a prayer was said. The weather mimicked the mood. The sky was blanketed in thick grey cloud, a cold wind whistled through the trees. Black umbrellas were opened as a few drops of rain fell, but Kyle and his brothers stayed still, their eyes fixed onto the coffin as it descended to its final resting place.
I imagined how Kyle must be feeling, his family around him, all of them mourning the passing of their father. A passing that he'd secured, a one-way ticket to hell.
The prayer ended and the crowd began to disperse, moving off towards the wake to celebrate a life they probably knew little about. But not Kyle. Not his brothers. They stood together, five men in a row, motionless, their eyes still locked to the grave as the rain fell on their shoulders.
A tear dropped from my eye at the sight. Not at the thought of Charles Logan lying lifeless in front of me. I held no feeling of warmth towards him. No, I felt for Kyle, forced to live his life with this burden now upon his back.
It was something he'd done for me, something he'd done for us. He'd been willing to take his own fathers life to set me free, to let us be together. It was a deserved fate, but nothing could have been harder.
It was a sacrifice he'd made for me, and I loved him for it.
CRASH (Book 2)
Prologue
Elle
I hadn't seen my dorm room this bare since the day I'd moved in.
Who knew that after only a year and a half I'd be moving out again. I'd certainly expected to last the full term. But then again, you can't always control the way your life goes.
Brad Scott had seen to that.
The name made me shiver with rage and fear at the same time. The guy had been my boyfriend from day one. Literally, day one.
I'd met him at a freshman party the first day I'd arrived. He was sweet, and I was scared. Leaving my comfortable life behind in California wasn't as easy as I'd thought it would be. All my friends from high school were excited to be going on this new journey, but not me. I was happy where I was. I hadn't wanted anything to change.
That first day at college was the loneliest of my life.
I was surrounded by people, but never felt so alone. I knew no one, the world was suddenly so big. I'd been ripped from my little pond and thrown into an ocean. It looked to me as if I was the only one who felt that way. Everyone was smiling, all of them with bright eyes, full of promise.
Not mine. You only had to look at them to tell I was a bucket of nerves.
Watching my mom and dad driving off outside of the window of my room was hard to bear. I felt like a child being sent to school for the first time. It hadn't helped that my mom had cried her eyes out. That wasn't what I'd needed.
As I sat there after they left there was a knock at the door and a guy stood there, a stack of flyers in his arms. He had handed me one and mumbled something about a party that night for our halls. It seemed like a good opportunity to meet some people and settle my nerves. A few drinks were always good for that.
It was that night that I met Brad.
He had a look on his face like mine. Nerves. Shyness. Loneliness.
I was drawn to him. He looked like a kindred spirit. No one else seemed to have that look on their face. It was the same look I'd seen in the mirror, a reflection of my own.
We ended up seeing a lot of each other. Turned out we were on the same course, so had more in common than we thought. He was sweet and funny, in his own way. At least, that's how I looked at him at first.
We were together for the first year. By the second we were beginning to grow apart.
At least, I was beginning to grow apart from him.
It took me a while - I knew it would - but I began to make friends, get involved. Outside of regular study I did dance. I wasn't the best in the world, but it was a passion of mine from high school.
It took up a lot of my time, made me a lot of friends. But Brad, he just latched onto me. He didn't have much going on, besides work, and didn't have a big circle of friends. He wanted to spend every spare moment with me.
It was suffocating.
I went home for the summer after first year and was happy for the time away from him. He'd call me every day, text me constantly. It was like the more I got involved in other things and the more friends I made, the more needy he got.
I knew over that summer that I would break up with him the next year. I couldn't cope with him any more.
I guess he knew as well. That's why he asked me to marry him.
He tried to trap me, set up this amazing proposal so that it was almost impossible for me to say no. It was hard, but I did. It broke his heart.
I thought it would end there. But no, that was just the start. He grew depressed, became intense. He'd call me late at night after drinking heavily; he'd come to my dorm and cry outside.
He began making my time at college a living nightmare. I started missing lectures just to avoid him. I asked to be moved to another dorm so he didn't know where I was.
I knew he'd find me, though, I knew he'd just follow me home one day and find out where I had moved to. It became impossible, untenable. I had no choice.
I had to leave.
Chapter 1
Elle
“Are you really gonna let this weirdo push you away? What about your life here?”
It was my friend, Sarah, from dance. She wasn't happy that I was leaving.
“I don't have a choice. He's literally obsessed. I don't know what to do any more.”
“Get a fucking restraining order. It should be him leaving, not you.”
I knew she was right. I'd worked hard to fashion a good life here and now I was being uprooted because of my creepy ex. It wasn't exactly fair.
“Wheels are in motion I'm afraid. Can you not see all the packed boxes everywhere?!”
“Screw that. Unpack them. It's not too late. Look, gimme his number. I'll tell him to leave you alone, or else!”
I laughed. “Or else what?”
“Honey, I know people, OK. I'll make sure that guy never bothers you again.” I didn't quite know whether she was serious or not. Although I did know she grew up in a rougher part of New York, so there was probably some truth to it.
“Sarah, that's sweet, but I don't want that. Sure, he's a bit of a freak, but I don't want him beaten up.”
“Or worse,” she cut in, her jaw clenched.
“Yeah, or that. Look, I'm not going too far. You can come visit me. I would say I'd come back and visit here but, well, you know...”
She was shaking her head, a mixture of anger and disappointment on her face.
I had got that from a few people when I'd told them I was leaving. They couldn't quite believe that I was being forced out by a guy. It was like something you read about in a magazine. It wasn't something that actually happened to you, or your friend.
“Well fuck him, I'm gonna make his life a living hell when you're gone.”
“No, don't do that.” I'd had enough of people trying to fight this battle for me. Frankly, it was getting on my nerves. “Just leave it, OK. It's not the end of the world, people move colleges all the time.”
“Yeah well, I can't promise anything. I'm not sure the guys are gonna let it slide if they see him.”
That's exactly why I hadn't wanted to tell everyone. I knew my guy friends wouldn't take it as easy as I was. Frankly, I didn't know why I was taking it so easy myself. The last thing I wanted to do was uproot and change colleges. It had taken an age to assimilate myself here. Now I'd have to go through all of that again.
But then, I was changed now. This whole situation, it had given me a more assertive edge, had hardened me a bit.
“Look, can we just drop this. It's happening. Nothing's gonna change that now. I'm moving, accept it.”
Shit, that came out a bit more aggressive than I wanted.
“Look, sorry hun,” I continued, my tone apologetic, “I know it's only because you care. But seriously, I've just had enough of talking about all of this. Can you just do what you came over here to do?”
Sarah nodded begrudgingly and grabbed a box.
“Fine, let's get these into the car. Wouldn't want you hanging around here any longer than necessary with that freak around. He's probably got a sniper rifle trained on the building right now.”
“Babe, don't even joke about that. Seriously.”
She smirked as she walked out of the room, box in hand.
Sniper rifle. Machine gun. Pistol. I wouldn't put it past him.
....
Sarah helped me pack my things into my cute little Mazda2 before treating me to a final cup of coffee to send me off on the road. I'd said my goodbye's to people already, but Sarah had been my closest friend there for the last year or so, so it was a little harder with her.
The Logan Brothers - Books 1-4: (EXPOSURE, CRASH, TWIN PASSIONS, and ADDICTED TO YOU) Page 18