Page 139 of Sin Bin

“This is the first time in nine years that I’ll be in Vegas for my birthday,” he said grimly. “It feels like returning to the scene of a crime.”

“I know.” Her voice was barely a whisper. “Which casino were you…Where did your mom work?”

Logan looked out the window and pointed, his fingertip tapping the glass. “That one.”

Meadow futilely tried to follow the direction of his finger. “Which one?”

His jaw tightened, like he didn’t want to say the name. “The Flamingo.”

“Oh.” Her throat constricted. “It’s so…close to here.”

He nodded bitterly and stared into his whiskey, swirling it in the glass before he took another deep swig.

Her heart broke for him.

“Enough about that.” Still leaning his shoulder against the window, he tilted his head back to regard her from beneath the dark fringe of his lashes. “We’ve talked about your upbringing, but you never told me how your adoptive parents found you.”

She smiled, cradling her glass in her hands. “They saw me at the district science fair.”

“Yeah? Really?”

She nodded. “Lacey was a librarian and one of the science fair judges. When she and Harris came to my table, I demonstrated how to measure the orbits of double stars with my telescope. They were very impressed. They told me I was brilliant and adorable. They started asking me questions about myself, and when I told them I was in foster care, they gave each other this look that I’ll never forget. It was like a light bulb went off in their heads. Like they both had an epiphany. As it turns out, they couldn’t have children, but they hadn’t decided to adopt until they met me that day.” She smiled at the memory. “Apparently I charmed them enough to convince them that we belonged together.”

A warm, tender smile softened Logan’s face. “That’s really beautiful, Jupiter. I thought about you so many times and wondered how you were doing.”

“I thought about you, too. I hoped you were okay and staying out of trouble. I can’t tell you enough how happy it makes me to know that Mr. Tavárez adopted you and gave you a real home.” She smiled softly. “I would love to see him again. Is he coming to the game on Friday?”

“He is,” Logan confirmed. “He arrives tomorrow, and he already told me that he wants to take us out to dinner.”

Meadow beamed. “I’d love that.”

Logan smiled and tweaked her nose. “I’ll tell him.”

“Please do.”

Logan downed the rest of his whiskey in a single gulp and set the empty glass on a nearby table. Then he blew out a deep breath and stood with his legs apart and his hands clasped behind his head, staring out the window with a brooding expression.

Meadow watched him as she sipped from her glass, letting the whiskey burn a path down her throat to her stomach.

“Have you ever tried to find either of your parents?” she asked quietly.

He hesitated so long, she thought he wasn’t going to answer. When he finally spoke, his voice was low and strained. “I found my father.”

“You did?” she said in surprise.

He nodded tightly. “It wasn’t hard. He comes from one of the most powerful families in Canada.”

“Really?”

Another terse nod. “The Brassard Foundation has businesses in construction, aeronautics, auto supply, media and philanthropy. It’s a fucking empire worth billions,” he said with bitter contempt.

“Wow,” Meadow murmured.

“As the eldest of his siblings, my father is chair and executive director of the foundation. He also runs a few of their other businesses. You can’t go anywhere in Toronto without hearing about the Brassard family. I lived there while playing in the OHL. People used to ask me all the time if I was related to the Brassards, and I would deny it. And then one day, shortly before I turned eighteen, I saw a billboard for an upcoming retail center they were developing. As I sat there fuming in my used car, I decided to go see my father once and for all. I didn’t want a dime from him, and I didn’t know what I was going to say when we were finally face to face. I just needed to confront the son of a bitch and demand some fucking answers.” Logan’s voice was as cold, hard and brittle as frozen glass.

“He was in a meeting when I got to his office. His secretary told me he would be out shortly, so I gave her a fake name and took a seat in the reception area. I look nothing like the motherfucker, so she had no reason to suspect my identity.” Logan’s jaw hardened. “The longer I sat there waiting for him, the madder I got. All I could think about was my mother living paycheck to paycheck and struggling to make ends meet, sometimes going hungry because there wasn’t enough food for both of us to eat. Even if that son of a bitch didn’t want a relationship with us, the very least he could have done was pay fucking child support. It wouldn’t have made the slightest dent in his vast fortune.”

Logan shook his head, his jaw clenching tighter with every word. “All these things were running through my mind as I sat in that fancy reception area with its expensive furniture and panoramic views of the Toronto skyline. I looked around and realized that I no longer wanted to just talk to my father. I flat-out wanted to kill him.”

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