Page 128 of Brutal Kingdom

“I got your message. I’m here. Ready and willing to deal with your emergency.” I set my feet on the ground, reaching for the button of his jeans, ready to help him out of them. I’m surprised he’s not already naked and waiting for me on the bed. He moves my hands away. That’s not the move of someone desperate to have sex.

I look around, making sure I didn’t miss the part where we have company. The studio is empty, but he’s still not getting naked, or trying to get me naked. “Logan? Did something happen at the paper?” He was there all day working on the Christmas Issue.

“No. Things are fine there.”

“Okay, then, what’s the emergency?”

“I don’t want you to freak out.”

“And with a prologue like that, I have no choice but to freak out.”

“I’m handling it.”

“Which makes me think you’re not. So just tell me what happened.”

“There’s a tape of us.”

My blood runs cold as I back away from him. I got it all wrong. I thought when he asked me to meet him here; it was to talk about his proposal. As nervous and scared as I am about everything, I was prepared to say yes. But this is the bomb he drops in my lap? “Again? You recorded us, a-fucking-gain?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Of course not.” He paces back and forth. “I thought meeting on the twentieth floor after hours was safe. Away from prying eyes. I wanted it to be special, but I didn’t account for the security cameras at the office.”

I process what he’s saying. We got caught at his dad’s office, and he’s saying it was an accident. “Okay. So there’s a tape. You go smile at the security guards and get it, and we have nothing to worry about.” I breathe a little easier.

Slipping my arms around his neck, I smile and say, “I’m glad you told me as soon as you found out about it. Look how far we’ve come. This is what healthy communication looks like.”

He pulls away from my kiss. “Do I have onion breath from my burger or something?”

“Bella knows about the tape.”

I drop my arms. Of course she does. Because there’s no part of my life that’s ever safe from her prying. His arms tighten around me as if he senses my next question, and what my reaction will be when he answers. “You said she knows. Has she seen it?”

He swallows and nods. I push away from him. He tries to hang on, but he reads something in my face that tells him it’s better to let me go.

“I’m sorry, Jordy. I promise I’ll take care of it.”

I laugh. It’s crazy and inappropriate for the conversation we’re having, but I do it anyway. The alternative is stabbing somebody. So I laugh and when I’m done, I walk out on him. Sometimes the universe gives us signs. This has to be one, letting me know I was about to make the biggest mistake of my life. There’s no way in hell I can marry Logan McKay.

FIFTY

LOGAN

Dad called me home. I feel like I’ve been here more this semester than I have in the four years since I’ve been in school. He says he has an update on the video. I’m hoping he found the bastard that sent it so I can wreak havoc on their lives.

I pass Lex in the driveway. He gives me a stilted chin tip as he climbs behind the wheel of his car.

I find my father in his study with a drink in his hand. “You said you have news?”

He tips back his bourbon, then pours another. “Lex tracked the computer the video was sent from one of those apartment buildings Donald owns in Kingsley Bluff.”

“Huh?”

“Someone from the security company had plans to extort money from us in exchange for keeping quiet about the video. He had the only remaining copy outside of us and the Lance’s. Lex took care of it.” He shuffles some papers. “The video is no longer an issue, but our arrangement with the Lance’s is hanging on by a thread. I think you’ll agree that, given the circumstances, we shouldn’t waste any more time.”

I’m not listening to what he’s saying about Bella. I’m still dissecting what he said about the guard. “You said the guard lived in one of the properties owned by Donald Ruttledge?”

“That’s right.”

No. It’s wrong. His name keeps popping up in relation to Johnathan Lance. “I think Ruttledge put the guard up to sending that video.”

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