Logan Kade (Fallen Crest #5.5) (6 page)

“Yeah. He’s still running it.”

“This is what’s going to happen.” Logan clapped his hands together and rubbed them back and forth. His eyes were gleaming, but it wasn’t malicious. He was being more mischievous, and that same expression of laughing at the world was there. “I’m going to take Taylor’s number down.” He pointed with both of his hands to me. “And yes, I’m using Delray to get your number. No shame in my game. I want your number
bad
, Bruce, but I have a message for Delray, too. He’s gotta get in touch with me via my new sociology bud here.” He put his arm around my shoulder, pulling me to his side.

A tingle shot through me at his touch.

He kept talking, “Tell him I want him to take some bets for me at a party I’m going to throw. And no, it’s not negotiable. He has to do it. I let him off last year. I understood the conflict of interest, but Sebastian is gone. The numb nuts has been squashed. So, do we all know our roles now?” He looked at both of us.

Claire seemed wary. “You’re going to call Taylor?”

“Yep.” He held his hand out. “Phone please, Miss TayTay.”

I handed it over, but tried to keep a firm scowl on my face. “I’m doing this under protest. I don’t approve of Jason gambling.”

Logan took the phone and paused, glancing at me. A slight smile flashed my way. “Why do you think I’m going through you for this?”

I didn’t reply. My gut told me to let it go. Logan Kade was even more of a whirlwind than I’d realized he’d be, and I felt a little like I was in the damn Sahara. My mouth watered, and my lips were dry. I licked them, an unconscious habit, but when Kade’s gaze lingered there, I realized what I’d done. I sank my teeth into my lip instead and forced my gaze away. It felt like I was fighting against a rubber band, stretched tight from me to him. The more I tried to break free, the stronger it became.

“Okay.” He handed my phone back, and his eyes were laughing at me. A darker promise surfaced there too. My heart picked up. “I’ve got your number,” he added. “I’ll call you later, and I want Delray’s answer through you.”

“Why are we helping you?” Claire tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. She was trying to be stern. She was failing. “Jason’s our friend. Not you. Neither of us wants him to be part of the gambling world.”

Logan smirked at her. “You’re helping because I’m not one of those morally upstanding guys. I’m completely fine with blackmailing you, and you’ll help because I may not know your name, but I remember the dudes you were flirting with last night. My friends can get to your friends, and when that happens? Well, I won’t take your friends away, but I
will
ban them from campus parties. And not to be a dick, but something tells me your guy friends are a little desperate when it comes to getting into parties.”

“You’re a dick.” Claire gasped, her hand covering over her mouth. “I can’t believe I said that.”

He was, but he didn’t seem to care. In fact, I think he was loving it.

He began walking away, backward again, that smug grin still on his face. He lifted both shoulders. “Like I said earlier, I’ve been called worse. I’ll be calling later.” He wasn’t talking to Claire, and we both knew it.

He started to walk away, but his gaze held mine, and I was looking back. I shouldn’t have been, but I was...and I didn’t want to think about that either.

LOGAN

“What are you doing?”

I was walking to my next class, but swung around. Sam was standing there, her bag on her back with her hands holding on to the black straps around her shoulders. Her brown eyes were annoyed, and her mouth pressed into an irritated frown. She wasn’t looking at me, though. Her gaze was trained on the two girls I just left.

“Hey there, sister soul of mine.” I held a fist up. “How’s it hanging yourself?”

She ignored the hand and shifted, one of her hands falling to her hip. “I mean it, Logan.” She nodded to the girls. “What are you doing?”

“What?” I twisted around to look, too. The blonde seemed agitated, and the other one, Taylor, aka the hot one, looked...well, she didn’t look like anything. I paused and frowned, focusing on her even more. That was surprising. Girls usually liked it when I said I’d call them. This one didn’t seem too happy about it. “Huh.” I scratched behind my ear.

“Huh?” Sam punched my arm. “Huh what? For the third time, what are you doing?”

“What?” My hand fell to where she hit me, and I rubbed there, absent-mindedly. Why didn’t that girl seem to care? But then again, I remembered her at the party. There’d been something different, something dark about her. Something about why I sat next to her today.

“Logan!”

“Oh, yeah.” I cleared my thoughts. “You remember Delray from last year?”

“No.”

I shrugged. That didn’t matter. “He was one of Sebastian’s lackeys, and he turned me down for a job last year.” I gestured to the girls. “They’re his buddies.”

“You’re not.”

“What?”

The ends of her mouth pinched together in disapproval. Sam cocked her head to the side, giving me that slanted look of when she was
really
disappointed in me. “Don’t use them to get back at him.”

“What?” I furrowed my eyebrows together. That was the farthest thing I was thinking. Well, maybe not. “No. That’s not it. I’m using him to get the hot one’s digits. That’s all.”

“Since when do you need to use manipulation to get someone’s number?”

“Since it became fun, and besides…” I flashed her a grin. “Don’t worry. I’m not planning on using that girl for anything. She won’t get hurt. I promise. I’m just taking a few extra steps to make Delray squirm. That’s it.”

Her shoulders lifted up and slowly lowered. She continued to scrutinize me, but I saw the softening, and by the time her shoulders were all the way down, she was grinning back at me. She shook her head, rolling her eyes. “I like that girl.”

“You remember her?”

She nodded, her eyes hardening. “She was going to step in and help me last night. I don’t know her, but that’s not normal, you know. Not many people would step in when it’s one girl against three guys. People don’t help like that anymore.”

I nodded. I knew. We both knew how much I knew. Loyalty ran deep in our group for a reason. I held up my hands. “I’m not going to hurt her. I promise.”

“Okay.”

I smirked. “But I might bang her.”

“Logan!”

“If she’s down for it.”

LOGANISMS AND KAPOW!

TAYLOR

The house was dark when I walked inside with two bags of groceries. Hitting the lights with my elbow, I toed the door shut behind me.

“Dad? I got food.”

He didn’t answer, but he could’ve been in his office watching tapes. He always seemed to be there. Or else he was still on campus.

“Dad?”

I put a pot on the stove and put away the milk and orange juice. I unloaded meat for sandwiches, vegetables, fruit, and yogurt. After I pulled out the noodles and set them on the counter for dinner, I realized one thing: My coffee was still in the sink. I’d dumped it there this morning, and a small stain still sat around the drain. Dad hadn’t been home all day.

He still wasn’t home.

It was eight at night. Normal dads got home around six. My dad’s last practice ended at three on Mondays. He’d spent last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday with the football team. Sunday was church, then he’d had his friends over, and I went out.

But today was my day. This was supposed to be my night with him.

I moved to turn off the stove, but I paused. I imagined flinging the not-yet-boiling water across the kitchen. For a moment, one moment, I considered it. Who cared if water got over everything? Who cared how hot the water was? Who cared, in general, about any of it?

I did, but the need to do something crazy was there—

“Taylor?”

My breath hissed, leaving me. That wasn’t him, but I wanted it to be. Jason knocked on the door again as I turned.

He said, “Claire said I’m in deep shit with you.”

“Yeah,” I coughed out, my voice not quite working.

“Hey,” Jason murmured when I appeared. His hand had been lifted for another knock, but he dropped it to his side. “You look, uh, a little…” He faltered and stepped inside when I opened the door. “What’s wrong?”

I groaned. “Don’t tell me I look like crap.”

“You look sweaty and pale. You look good in most anything, but this ain’t a good look for you.”

He followed me back to the kitchen, and slid onto a stool, propping his elbows on the counter. “What happened today?”

Nothing.

“I mean, I heard about Kade,” he added. “He remembered me after all?” He chewed on his bottom lip. “Claire said you both got the wham-bam-thank-you-and-maybe-I’ll-call-you-later-ma’am vibe from him? That’s called a Loganism, by the way. You got the drive-by version of it. He kapows people with whatever he wants to say, and they do what he wants— whether that’s to get pissed at him or drop their pants for him.” He quieted, cocking his head to the side. “I’m not getting that vibe from you. Taylor, what’s wrong?”

My mom was dead.

My dad was absent.

My boyfriend left me.

I shook my head. “Nothing.” Normal voice.
Be charming. Be
…
Remember why he’s here in the first place. Use that
. I locked eyes on him and scowled. “Kade’s going to ask you to do a gambling thing for him.”

He shifted on his seat. “Yeah.” He picked at a piece of invisible lint on his arm. “So?”

“Don’t do it.”

There it was. I’d meant it when I said I didn’t want him to do it anymore, but judging from the way his shoulders slumped and he looked away, I knew he was going to do it anyway.

“You were beat up for it in high school,” I added.

“Come on.” He jerked in his seat. His hands fell to his lap, but he still didn’t look at me.

“They threatened Claire,” I reminded him.

“That’s not fair.” His eyes lifted to mine, and they were heated. He held a finger up between us. “That’s so not fair, Taylor. It’s different now too. I’m not doing the betting this time.”

“You missed a payment, and they blackmailed me.”

He snorted, folding his arms over his chest. “Yeah, well, Claire told me what Kade did. You must be familiar with being blackmailed by now.” His eyes cut to the side again.

I’d never told him this next part. I waited. He had to be looking at me, and after a beat of silence, he did. “They were going to get their money no matter what—from you or from someone else.”

“What are you talking about?” His voice hitched now. He was uncertain.

“They said either you give them their money or they’d get it from my dad.”

His arms unfolded, and he leaned forward. “What are you talking about?”

“I never told you because you paid, but they were going to take me.” A big ball landed in my throat. Oh well. What was new? “They called me on the phone one day. They were going to make my dad pay. I mean, it was just a phone call, but—”

“Wh—” He choked. The blood drained from his face. I wasn’t the only pale one in the room now. “You never—I didn’t know that.”

“It didn’t happen.” So I hadn’t told anyone.