The Naked Truth (33 page)

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Authors: Natasha Rostova

BOOK: The Naked Truth
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‘Of course you don’t. That’s the point.’ She looked at the tense lines of his features and the way the slight breeze brushed through his hair. ‘Remember the night of the voodoo ceremony?’
‘Yes.’
‘That was the only time in the three years of our marriage that I actually felt connected to you.’
‘Don’t tell me you were invaded by a spirit.’
Callie sighed. ‘No, Logan. And don’t criticise voodoo because you’ll sound like a hypocrite. Abiona told me you went to see her, too.’
Logan’s fists clenched as he thought of the voodoo priestess. He turned away from Callie and went back to the cabin. ‘I don’t want to discuss this.’
Callie followed him on to the bridge. ‘Logan? Why did you go to see her?’
He shot her a glare, unwilling to tell her about his experience with Abiona. ‘We’re not talking about me. We’re talking about you and why you left me.’
‘I left because we
never
talked about you!’ Callie cried. ‘Jesus, Logan, I don’t even know what your childhood was like. I don’t know what kind of relationship you had with your father. In fact, I barely know anything about your past.’
‘There’s nothing to know,’ Logan replied. ‘Just bad memories.’
‘Then why don’t you tell me about them?’
He didn’t respond. How in the love of God could he tell her? He would surely lose her for ever, even though he was dangerously close to that already.
Callie let out her breath in a long sigh and turned towards the cabin. ‘Forget it, Logan. This is a totally pointless venture. If you wanted to convince me to come back to you by kidnapping me, then you’re a fool.’
She went into the cabin. Logan remained on the bridge and looked out at the water, his hands gripping the wheel. He felt like he was in the middle of a huge maze, meeting one dead end after another no matter which way he turned. He’d been losing Callie slowly but surely over the past month, and he realised now that the only chance he had left was a gamble. Telling Callie the truth could easily disgust her so much that she’d walk away without looking back. At the same time, she might very well do that if he didn’t tell her. That was obviously one of the things she’d been trying to tell him all along.
Logan went back on to the deck and sat down. The sun was beginning to set, painting the sky with ribbons of red and orange. He had the sudden thought that he didn’t want to leave the boat. He wished he could stay here with Callie for ever, isolated from the rest of the world where nothing could touch them.
He heard Callie’s footsteps approach and glanced up. She carried two bowls of tortellini and held one out to him. ‘I thought you might be hungry.’
He gave her a surprised look. ‘You brought me dinner?’
‘I’m a nice person.’
Logan smiled. If there was anything he knew about his wife, it was that she was a nice person.
‘That much I did know,’ he said.
‘Well, don’t get the wrong idea,’ Callie muttered. ‘I’m still mad at you.’
She settled into a chair next to him and winced slightly.
‘Are you all right?’ Logan asked.
‘Yes. Just a little sore.’
Shame prodded at Logan as he realised that he’d hurt her. ‘Hell, I’m sorry. I didn’t want to hurt you.’
‘You didn’t really,’ Callie said. ‘And I wanted it. And you know, Logan, if you’d been willing to experiment earlier in our marriage, we might never have ended up in this situation.’
‘I never knew how you’d respond if I did.’
Callie threw him a derisive look. ‘You could have found out if you’d bothered to try.’
The way Logan saw it, there were a number of things he could have done differently. They ate in silence, watching as the horizon swallowed up the last bit of glossy sun.
‘So, tell me one thing,’ Logan finally said.
‘What’s that?’
‘What in the love of God is Tess trying to say with her performance art?’
Callie chuckled. ‘If I knew the answer to that, I might even join her performances myself. As it stands, I have no idea.’
‘So why do you bother going?’
‘Because she’s my friend. Sometime you have to do things for people because you like them. That’s the way it is with Tess.’
‘The officials are going to shut that show down if they find out what she’s doing. Probably arrest them all, too.’
Callie shrugged. ‘So, she’ll come up with something else. She’s resilient.’ She gave him a wary look. ‘You’re not going to turn her in, are you?’
‘No.’
‘What about Adam?’
‘What about him?’
‘Did you have to fire him?’
Logan was irritated. ‘Of course. What if one of our clients discovered what he was doing in his spare time? I don’t have the time to start dodging bullets.’ He glanced at her. ‘He told me he talked to you.’
‘He’s a good kid. Odd, but good.’
‘Odd is right,’ Logan muttered. ‘Depraved thing to do, getting sodomised in front of a crowd.’
‘You know, Logan, simply because people aren’t like you doesn’t mean they’re depraved,’ Callie said. ‘Besides, other people might think that it was perverted of
us
to do what we did at a voodoo ritual.’
‘That was entirely different.’
‘Yes, it’s always different when you’re the one doing it, isn’t it?’
Logan frowned at her, even though he knew she was right. He put down his bowl and walked to the railing. ‘So, what is it you want from me, Callie? If you suddenly want me to become one of those New Age, sensitive fools, it’s not going to happen.’
‘I don’t except you to become an entirely different person,’ Callie protested. ‘I didn’t marry you so that I could shape you according to some other standard of what I was looking for in a husband. Believe me, I knew from the outset that you weren’t the changeable type.’
‘Sure as hell sounds like that’s what you’re trying to do now.’
‘No, I’m not, and please stop putting all the blame on me. Besides, didn’t you spend three years trying to change me?’
He gave her a startled look. ‘What does that mean?’
‘You were always commenting on how I behaved,’ Callie replied. ‘How we had some fictitious image to maintain. How I was supposed to act according to your standards rather than my own. And when I didn’t, you blamed it on my upbringing.’
Shit. He really had done that, hadn’t he? Logan dragged a hand through his hair and sighed. ‘I realise I’ve been uptight about our image,’ he admitted. ‘I have my reasons, but I don’t want you to change, Callie.’
‘Well, I’m asking that of you,’ she said. ‘I don’t mean entirely. I’m simply asking you to give both me and yourself some room to breathe. Admit it, Logan. Even you find it difficult to adhere to all your standards. As for our image, well, who cares what other people think?’
Logan didn’t respond, turning again to look out over the river. A sudden image of his father sprang to mind. The man had presented a distinguished persona to the world that was wholly different from who he really was.
‘Yeah, well, propriety can be a bitch,’ he muttered. ‘You have to have standards.’
‘That’s fine, but they shouldn’t rule your life.’ Callie approached him almost cautiously. ‘Where did they come from?’ she asked quietly. ‘Your father?’
He gave her a surprised look. She’d always been more perceptive than he had ever given her credit for. ‘Partly.’
‘And where else?’
‘You don’t want to know.’ Logan’s hands clenched on the wooden railing so tightly that a splinter jabbed into his palm. He ignored the mild pain and tried to convince himself that telling Callie everything would clear the air between them. At the very least, it might make her trust him again.
‘Yes, I do,’ Callie said.
Logan turned away from her, unable to look into those brown eyes of hers. He forced the bitter words out of his mouth. ‘I’m being blackmailed.’
Callie went silent with shock for a moment. ‘Blackmailed?’ she repeated. ‘By whom?’
‘A woman I used to know.’
‘Is she a client?’
‘No.’ Logan picked up their bowls and went back to the cabin, still unable to look at her. Callie followed him.
‘Then who?’ she asked.
‘Her name is Elenore Lawrence. She’s an evil, manipulative bitch.’
‘Well, what does she want?’
‘Money, and lots of it. She’s renovating a nineteenth-century riverboat because she wants to turn it into a hotel and gambling casino. She has an apartment, but the last I heard, she was staying on the boat.’
‘Doesn’t she already have investors?’
‘Yes, but she needs more.’
‘Namely you.’
‘Namely me.’
Callie paused in the doorway of the kitchen and watched as he scrubbed the dishes. Logan knew where this was all heading. The very idea made him sick, but he risked a glance at his wife. She was watching him with both wariness and curiosity.
‘So, is it a bad investment?’ she asked.
‘Any dealing with Elenore Lawrence is a bad investment. She and her husband became experts at money laundering and trading on the black market.’
‘She must be rich if she had the money to buy a riverboat.’
‘She claims she’s lost a great deal of her fortune,’ Logan replied. ‘Her husband died five years ago and left her with sizeable debts.’
‘If she wants money, then what is she blackmailing you with?’
Logan’s blood went cold. He couldn’t tell her this. He’d locked it all away for so many years that he could barely even think about it himself. Callie frowned at the look on his face. She approached him and reached out to put her hand on his arm. ‘Logan?’
‘Never mind, Callie.’ He brushed away her touch as if it were a pesky mosquito and headed for the bridge.
‘No!’ The word, edged with anger, broke from Callie’s throat as she followed him. ‘You’re not pushing me away again, Logan. You brought this up, not me. Who is this woman and what does she want?’
Logan’s jaw clenched so tightly that it hurt. He knew Callie wouldn’t let up until he told her the truth.
‘Logan, what is it? Don’t tell me you murdered someone years ago.’ She smiled faintly.
Logan didn’t react to her weak attempt at humour. He wrapped his hands around the wheel so tightly that his knuckles turned white.
‘She just knows some things about me, Callie, that’s all.’
‘What things?’ Callie persisted. ‘And how ironic is it that this stranger seems to know more about you than I do?’
He threw her an exasperated look. Maybe she’d give up if he shut her out. ‘It was a long time ago. Years before we even met.’
‘
What
was a long time ago? Would you talk to me, please? You can’t just tell me you’re being blackmailed without giving me the details.’
Logan yanked the engine into gear as he headed back to the marina.
‘Was this the reason you went to see Abiona?’ Callie asked.
He shot her a glare. ‘How did you know about that?’
‘She told me, but don’t worry. She wouldn’t give me any details.’ Callie leant her shoulder against the bulkhead and continued looking at him curiously. ‘I admit I was surprised that you’d even think about going to see a voodoo priestess.’
‘Well, it was a foolish thing to do,’ Logan muttered. ‘I wasn’t thinking, obviously.’
‘Nevertheless, it must be quite serious for you to go to such lengths,’ Callie replied. ‘What on earth is going on? What does this Elenore woman know about you that I don’t?’
‘Things you’re better off not knowing at all.’
‘I’m not better off when I don’t know my own husband,’ Callie retorted. ‘Haven’t you realised that yet? You know nearly everything about my past, yet I know nothing about yours.’
‘Believe me. You don’t want to know this.’
‘Does this have something to do with the bad memories you mentioned?’ Callie asked.
Logan looked at her. She was watching him with such concern that it went straight to his heart. He didn’t know how she would react, but he realised that he owed it to her at least to try to explain. God knew he’d kept enough from her. He took a breath, his gaze focused on the undulating movement of the river.
‘After I graduated from university, I went to work with my father at the law firm,’ he said. ‘My father was a right bastard, to put it mildly. He was an abusive alcoholic and gambler who managed to win cases by intimidation and bribery. It took me about three months to realise that he was sinking the firm into bankruptcy. He’d gambled away most of our personal savings and he was starting on the firm’s. Two of his partners discovered the mess and told me that they’d turn him in unless we found a way to repay them within a year. I knew we could never recoup the money through court cases alone, so I took another job.’

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