Remorseless (Fractured Farrells: A Damaged Billionaire Series Book 3) (13 page)

In a few days, there wouldn’t be that issue. Because he was going to work his damnedest to make sure they were going to be sharing a bed from now on.

The bathroom door slammed shut as she came out from her shower.

He’d work on the bed thing tomorrow.

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J
ulie winced as the room key made a loud beeping noise in the door. She wanted to make sure Logan didn’t wake up, but it was getting late. She eased the door open and realized that ship had sailed. Logan was sitting on the sofa with the computer in front of him and the television on. It was as if he’d never missed the last ten years.

He sat up as she came in the room. “Early morning errands?” he asked.

She gently shut the door. “A few things. I ordered breakfast to be sent up to the room. I hope you haven’t eaten yet.”

“So did you not tell me where you were going because you’re hiding something from me, or are you still pissed?” His tone was casual, and Julie had a hard time getting a read on his mood.

They weren’t really together, but she’d felt incredibly guilty as she ran out that morning. Or maybe she just felt guilty because of what she was about to do to him.

No.
She was helping him. He might not see it that way at first, but she could talk sense into his brothers. And, considering they were the ones paying her, that was the important part. And she’d need as much in her savings account as possible. This move was either going to save her career or end it.

Fortune favored the bold, they said, and right now she had boldness coming out of her ass. She just had to make sure Logan didn’t realize it until it was too late. “Did you sleep okay last night?”

He sat up and pushed the computer off his lap and onto the coffee table. “I slept fine. Can you sit down, Julie?”

She tightened her lips and wondered whether there was any way to get out of this. Normally, she considered herself a good liar. Well, in this case, omitter. But Logan had a way of seeing right through her. At least, it felt that way sometimes. The longer she stayed around him, the more she felt sure he was going to realize she was up to something. However, they were stuck in this hotel room together for the next hour at least, so she would need to talk to him at some point. And if her plan was going to work, she couldn’t pretend she was mad at him all day.

“Is everything okay?” she asked hesitantly as she sat down on the lounge chair next to the couch and crossed her legs.

Logan’s eyes fell to the expanse of legs exposed with the movement. She felt suddenly self-conscious but knew if she uncrossed her legs, it would just draw more attention.

“Is that a new dress?”

“I have three suitcases, Logan. Do you think I need to do any clothes shopping?”
Yes. The dress was new.
And it was damned hard to find a good dress at seven o’clock in the morning. But the white mini-dress was high-necked enough to be conservative, but the flared skirt was short enough while standing, let alone sitting.

He tore his gaze from her legs. “I want to tell you about Brandon Willis.”

She tried to keep her expression neutral but couldn’t help straightening up. This was the story she’d been dying to hear about last night, but she couldn’t ask. She needed time alone to plan a way out of the hole they were in.

“Logan, I want to hear this. I really do, but if you’re uncomfortable—”

“I’m uncomfortable as hell about it. But if the truth is going to get out, I’m going to need to talk to a lot more people than you about it. So I’m starting with you.”

“Okay. So this happened early into your—”

“Imprisonment,” he finished for her. “I had been at Ruthford Hills Correctional for one year, nine months, and thirteen days.”

She nodded but didn’t say anything. She didn’t want to impede his story in any way.

“It was a minimum security prison. Not as cushy as people like to claim, but not that bad either. The guards were nice. Food was bearable and you didn’t feel like your cellmate was going to kill you at any given time. There was some contraband, but the guards didn’t care and it wasn’t anything hard.”

Obviously something went terribly wrong at some point.

“Brandon Willis was a guard there. I had a job in the laundry room. I liked it because I could get clean sheets whenever I wanted. Even at a nice prison, the beds sucked and the sheets were one thing that made me feel like I had control. But there was a corner of the room with no cameras. Out of the blue, Brandon Willis attacked me. He pushed one of the shelves onto me. These were big ass shelves bolted to the wall, so he must’ve planned it ahead of time. Probably was trying to make it look like an accident. I was able to get out of the way so only my leg was hit by the shelves and Willis went after my head. I don’t even remember what he was using. Something metal and hard as fuck. I think it was one of the pans used to clean the tough stains, but I was so out of it, it could’ve been anything. But I’d rolled far enough to get out from the shelves and I pushed Willis off me. He hit the wall but came back, and I hit him again. One punch and that was it. Willis must’ve fell wrong because he didn’t get back up again.

“I didn’t know what to do. I knew how it looked and that this would fuck shit up for me, but the guy was dead and the cameras would show that I was the only one who left the room after it happened. So I called in a guard and told them what happened.”

“And they blamed you for it?”

“Not really.” He winced at the memory. “I was thrown into solitary for a week before I heard a thing. Between prison politics and my father, I don’t know what happened. But I was never officially sanctioned for it. There were never any murder charges or anything. They just shipped me off to a prison across the country and never spoke about it again.”

Julie couldn’t stay quiet any longer. “Why didn’t you ever tell your brothers about it?”

“How do you know that? Did you talk to them about it?”

There was a flash of panic in his voice, and Julie shook her head. “No. Nothing like that. I just figure they would’ve told me if they knew.”

He nodded as he breathed a sigh of relief. “Good. I haven’t told anyone about it. Not even the guy who was hired to help get me out.”

“And why did you need to go straight to Denver to see Alecia?”

“Because about six months after it happened, I got a letter from her. She is Willis’s sister, and when she was going through some of his things, she found something. A blackmail letter. Apparently Willis had a wife and kids but he still liked to see women on the side. From what it sounded like, he fooled around a lot. The letter said that in order to keep his wife from finding out, he had to take care of me.”

“He’d kill someone to keep his affairs from being found out?”

Logan looked up and met her eyes. “People have been killed over a lot less.”

“Point taken.”

“Someone hired Brandon Willis to kill me that day, and I need to know who.”

“Are you trying to get revenge?”

“They made me a killer! And if the guilt wasn’t bad enough, I had to live in a maximum security prison for eight years. With the gang wars, drugs, and all that shit. I have always been one of the biggest guys in the room and suddenly I needed to prove myself. And if I didn’t prove myself to them, do you have any idea what would’ve happened to me?”

Julie averted her gaze. She’d seen her fair share of prison documentaries. Somehow she’d convinced herself that Logan’s experience had been different. He was rich, right? She’d told herself that gave him some benefit. And it probably did help in some respects, but it didn’t solve everything.

“Don’t answer that. I don’t want you to know. I don’t want anyone to know what happened. It’s why I didn’t talk to Robert or Alex while I was in there. It’s why I haven’t talked to them yet. They’ll ask...questions.”

“Logan, I know you don’t want to hear this, but it’s not healthy to hold all this inside. That’s how things happen. Things you can’t take back. I know of some really good, really confidential psychiatrists. That way you can talk to someone who isn’t in the family and won’t expect anything from you or judge you.”

“I thought that’s what you’re here for.”

She let out a soft laugh. “The difference is that I don’t know anything to say back to you. This is so far out of my comfort zone I don’t know what to even say. Or how to make you feel better.”

Logan shook his head. “I don’t need anyone to make me feel better. I need to find out who caused all this in the first place.”

“So you’re going up against people who aren’t afraid to blackmail and murder all on your own?”

“I have almost unlimited funds. You’ve admitted that money gets me halfway there already.”

“These are the same guys who were following you and almost killed me.”

Logan clenched his jaw and abruptly stood. “Do you think I don’t know that?”

Julie sat back and looked down. “I didn’t say that.”

“That makes this even more necessary. I’ve replayed that in my head fifty thousand fucking times already. Do you know I almost left that day?”

“What?”

“Yeah. I was ready to drive off. I didn’t need your help. I haven’t had anyone’s help for years. I don’t need to start now. Especially not someone more loyal to my family than me. But then I saw that damn phone on the seat, which I now know that you only left so you could track me if I drove off, but I didn’t know that then. So I went in to get you and I find that creep with his hands around your throat. And I swear to God, it felt like I was right back in prison. I didn’t feel like a normal person. I felt like a caged fucking animal and I was ready to kill again.”

Julie took a deep swallow and once again had no idea what to say. “Logan, I—”

“It happened. And I’m going to figure out why and make the necessary people pay. Do you understand?”

“I understand. And I’ll help you in whatever way I can.”

“You only want to help me so I don’t embarrass the family.”

“No!” It was her turn to stand. “This might have all started as a job for your brothers, but I’m not their mindless drone. And I do want to help you. Everything I’m doing is to help you.”

“And for the money,” he pointed out.

“And the money, but I’m human, Logan. I can still care about you. I—” She broke off and ran a hand through her hair. She’d worn it down that morning and it was in desperate need of brushing. She’d love to throw it in a ponytail, but she was going to need to look her best in a few hours, and damned if she didn’t look better with her hair down.

The thought pulled her from the intense whirlwind of emotion that Logan had brought up. There was so much she wanted to say, but she had no idea what would help and what would piss him off. Damn it, she was unqualified for this. But there was one thing she could do and that was keep this shit with Brandon Willis out of the press.

“Logan, I appreciate you telling me this. And I promise this will stay between the two of us.”

He stared at her as though he wanted to say more, but nothing came out.

“Have you heard from Alecia yet?”

He shook his head. “Not yet.”

“Well, why don’t I cancel breakfast? We’re going to be here for a bit so I’ll extend the reservation for another night and we’ll go out for a bit. There are a lot of great restaurants and a great historical district.”

“I just told you about my time in prison and you want to see the historical side of Denver?”

She snorted. “You just told me your deepest, darkest secret and now I want to distract you. We can’t do anything until Alecia emails you, so this seems like the right thing to do, right?”

The corner of his mouth hooked up. “If you knew the right thing to say right now, I probably wouldn’t like you as much as I do.”

She smiled in response. “See. We can be socially awkward together.”

“I don’t think you’ve ever been socially awkward.”

She picked up her purse from the entrance of the room. “Come on. I can look up everything on the phone and we can cancel breakfast down in the lobby.”

He frowned and she wondered whether he realized she was rushing him out. But he grabbed his new jacket and followed her out of the room anyway without saying anything. Even though it was late spring, the high altitude added a chill to the air.

She ran a hand over her arm before she pulled her phone out of her purse. “Now, I saw a breakfast place recommended in the hotel guest book. Let me see if I can find it...”

“Aren’t you cold?” asked Logan.

“I’m sure if we keep walking, I’ll warm up.”

He sighed. “Hold on.” He set a hand on her arm and pulled her to a stop before he shrugged out of his jacket. “Wear this.”

She pursed her lips together as she set her phone down.
Damn.
She’d wanted him to give her his jacket. That had been the plan. But it still seemed wrong. He was supposed to be like a normal guy who never even noticed her discomfort until she practically had to scream how cold she was.

But here she was, wearing his coat, inhaling his scent and surrounded by his warmth. She finally found the breakfast place on her phone, and thankfully, it was just a block away. She arranged the strap of her purse over her shoulder. Normally she wore it across her body, but because his jacket was a few sizes too big for her, she figured she’d look completely awkward if she tried to fit the strap across her body now.