TWIN PASSIONS: (A Logan Brothers Novel) (11 page)

I casually leaned back up and
pulled the wires from my ears.

“
Brick, do you see these funny
looking things in my ears? It means I can't hear you.”

“
Err, sorry Mr Logan.”

“
Now what's going on?” I
asked, semi-irritated to have been disturbed. “This better be
good.”

“
Yes, sorry Mr Logan, but
there's a girl here, says she's a friend.”

“
A girl? Do you have a name?”

“
Um, yes, it's Bella, I think.”

“Bell
a? I don't know any Bella.
Tell her I'm busy.”
Just another girl looking for Cade Logan's
twin brother probably.

“
Um, yes Mr Logan. I might be
wrong, though, about the name. She said she's dating your brother
Cade.”

I sat up straighter. “Gemma?”

“
Oh yes, sorry boss, that's
it. I'm sorry for the mix up.”

Jesus, he was acting timid.
Had
I really become such a dick recently?

“
That's all right Brick. Send
her in here.”

Brick nodded his head down
obediently and turned towards the door. The boom of the bass and the
chatter of drunken students immediately grew louder as the door
widened, before being shut off once more as he stepped into the
corridor beyond and shut the door behind him.

I glanced quickly around the
room and cursed myself for leaving it in such a state. I grabbed a
mirror from my desk and checked out my hair, swiping it back and
neatening it up a bit. I could feel my heart-rate beginning to rise
at the thought of seeing her again. I wish that didn't happen. I wish
I didn't have these fucking feelings for her. I wish we could just be
friends like we once were. But no, things had changed now, and there
was no going back in my head.

The last time I'd spent any time
alone with her was 3 months ago at my birthday. It was that night
when my feelings for her were fully reignited and ever since then
things had been extremely awkward whenever I saw her and Cade
together.

I even felt awkward when he
spoke to me about her, something he'd done recently, asking for
advice on how to deal with an argument they'd had. My heart had sunk
when he'd told me he was serious about her, and I felt myself being
torn between the love for my brother and my growing feelings for her.

I could see, as any fool could,
that my own personal downward trajectory had coincided with Gemma's
reappearance in my life. The irony wasn't lost on me: that this girl
who I cared for deeply could have so negative an effect on me.

But it was a problem I had to
deal with, and deal with alone.

The door opened ahead of me and
the noise of the club spilled once again into the room. Gemma's face
appeared, wearing a wide smile.

She stepped in and closed the
door behind her, taking a quick look around and sniffing the air.

“
You still smoking then Zack,”
she said with half judgement and half concern. “Those things will
kill you, you know.”

I smiled. “So could lots of
things. Live fast, die young, right.”

She laughed and walked around
the side of my desk, coming close towards me. My pulse continued to
jump.

“
As long as you don't die too
soon, it's kinda nice having you around again.” She gave me a hug
and a kiss on the cheek before turning and retreating back around the
desk, clearing a couple of boxes from the chair opposite.

“
It's OK, I'll deal with
those,” I said, jumping up and rushing round the desk to grab the
boxes off of her.”

“
Whoa, what you got in here?”
she joked. “Your personal porn stash is it?!”

“
Very funny Gem. No, nothing
so exciting. Just some boring business files.”

I walked over to the side of the
room and placed them on top of several other boxes that had begun to
accumulate in the corner.

“
Nice place you got here,”
she said, her tongue firmly in her cheek, “real homely!”

“
Yeah, well, it's not all
glamor down here. This is where the real work takes place.”

I moved back around to my chair
and sat down again, resisting the temptation to light up another
cigarette.

I refilled my glass with whiskey
and reached for a spare from my bottom drawer.

“
Fancy a glass?”

She eyed up the bottle. “Sure,
why not.”

I poured another glass and slid
it towards her through a gap in the piles of papers covering my desk.
She took a sip and coughed, bringing a laugh from my lips.

“
Yeah, I didn't take you for a
whiskey drinker. You want me to add some coke to that?” I spoke
sarcastically, as I often did when I used to tease her.

She stared me down through
squinting eyes, making me laugh once more.

“
All right, all right, so what
are you doing here Gem?”

I leaned back in my chair, my
heart-rate now back to normal.

“
No reason,” she said,
entirely unconvincingly, “I was just working late so thought I'd
come down and see where you work. There's lots of temptation down
there on the dancefloor Zack. I hope you keep your hands to
yourself!”

“
Try to,” I said dryly. “So
you just came down to check I wasn't hooking up with some innocent
student, is that it? Cos I can tell you Gem, the students I see in
here are far from innocent!”

“
I'll bet. It was the same at
my college. You never went in the end did you?”

I shook my head.

“
How come?”

“
Dad. He wanted us all working
for the family business so from 18 I was working down here, being
groomed to take over. The same happened with Crash and Kyle and
Jude.”

“
And Cade?”

“
Yeah, he worked here with me
for a while, until dad told him to focus only on his boxing. I guess
dad thought he'd be better served winning acclaim for the family in the ring, rather than
being stuck running this club with me.”

“
God you make it sound so
awful,” she said lightly. “Surely it's not so bad running this
place?”

I shook my head. “I guess I've
just worked here long enough. There's other things I want to
achieve.”

“
Oh yeah, like what?”

“
I dunno, I'm only just 23.
There's a whole world out there.”

“
I know what you mean.
Sometimes you wonder whether you're in the right job.”

I nodded. “Exactly.”

She took another sip of her
whiskey, grimacing slightly as it slipped down her throat. “So are
you looking forward to Cade's fight next Friday night?”

Not really.

“
Absolutely,” I said with
feigned enthusiasm, “can't wait. It's the shot he's been waiting
for. And you? You used to him punching people for a living yet?”

“
Err, not sure I'll ever get
used to that to be honest. So how's his training been going?”

“
Hasn't he told you?”

“
Well, no, we're not seeing
each other at the moment.”

My heartbeat jumped. “What,
you mean you're on a break?!”

She laughed. “Oh, no, we're
just not seeing each other until after the fight. His coach says he's
got to abstain from...you know.”

“
Right, say no more. I don't
wanna hear about your sex life thanks.”

“
So basically, yeah, I was
just wondering how his training was coming along?” She had this
inquisitive edge to her voice that she was trying to hide by being
casual. I knew her too well to miss it.

“
Yeah, it's going well. I
train with him sometimes. Despite the smoking I do like to keep
myself in shape.”

“
Oh, right, so you go down to
the gym with him? I'll bet he's down there all day, every day, right?”

“
Erm, pretty much, yeah. He
starts training ridiculously early, at like 6 AM or something stupid
like that. He's pretty much living down at the boxing club right
now.”

A sort of semi smile appeared on
her face as she sipped her drink again. “Well that's good to know,
that he's taking it seriously and everything.”

“
Oh, yeah, definitely. If
there's one thing in life that Cade has always taken seriously, it's
his boxing. Can't say the same for his girlfriends, or lack thereof.”
For some reason I was finding it hard complimenting Cade without some
sort of dig at the end.

Gemma didn't react or rise to
the comment. She seemed a bit lost in her own thoughts now.

“
So how's work going,” I
asked, dragging her attention back to me. “Still finding it – how
did you put it last time – 'boring as fuck'?”

Her face screwed up slightly at
the mention of work. “Horrible,” she said, “my boss is a
nightmare.”

“
One of these 'Devil Wears
Prada' types?”

“
Basically, yeah. She's so
manipulative. I really don't like her.”

“
What's her name then?”

“
Martha Banks.”

The name rang a bell somewhere
in the back of my head. I was sure I'd heard it before. Probably an
associate of my father a while ago.

“
And what's so bad about her?”

Gemma was shaking her head in
disgust. “It's hard to explain really, without you understanding my
position at work. She's just this ruthless 'screw anyone over to get
what they want' type, you know.”

“
Yeah, I know the sort. My
father was pretty much like that.”

Her eyes widened. “Really?”

“
Yeah, I guess you've gotta be
if you want to be as successful as he was. Manipulation kinda comes
with the territory sometimes.”

Her voice dampened a bit. “Yeah,
maybe. God help me if I ever turn out like that.”

“
Gem, you could never be like
that. You're a doll, always have been, always will be.”

Her face softened as she looked
at me. She looked a bit drained, as if she hadn't been sleeping that
well. “That's sweet Zack. You always were so sweet.”

“
Sweet. I haven't been called
that in a while.”

“
Well it's true. That part of
you hasn't changed one bit.”

She smiled again and then
glanced at her watch.

“
Hey, look, I should probably
go. I've got lots of work this week so...”

I stood up as she did. “Oh
sure, it was great to see you though Gem.”

I walked round the side of the
desk and we spontaneously hugged once more. She clipped into my arms
like the missing piece of a puzzle. It just felt so right.

“
I guess I'll see you at the
fight next Friday?” she said, slipping out of my embrace and
looking up at me. Despite the worn look in her eyes she still looked
gorgeous.

I nodded. “Yeah, I'll look
forward to it.”

Present Day

Gemma

I sat in my car way down the
street from Cade's apartment, my eyes heavy through lack of sleep. It
was just coming up 6 AM and the light of dawn had only recently hit
the skies.

I waited as the minutes ticked
by, watching the door to the building closely for any movement. The
clock passed 6 and still I saw nothing. Maybe he's already left?
Maybe Zack had been wrong about his timings?

No, there he was.

The door opened and out he
stepped, carrying a large sports bag slung over his shoulder. He
moved energetically over towards his car and threw the bag onto the
passenger seat before rounding the vehicle and climbing in. It
started with a guttural roar before cruising off down the street in
the opposite direction from where I sat.

I immediately felt more alert as
my heart-rate began to pick up. I opened my purse and looked one more
time down at the set of keys Cade had given me to his place a month
ago. He'd put his trust in me and I was about to betray him, sneak
into his personal world and start digging for secrets. And all so I
could put them to print and reveal them to the masses.

I felt sick at the thought, but
I didn't stop.

A sense of intrigue had begun to
engulf me now, one that was driving me forward, forcing me to step
out of the car into the cool morning air, forcing me to walk straight
towards the building and unlock the main door.

I walked inside and went
straight for the stairs. It was silent inside, every other resident
still sound asleep. I moved up, my pulse increasing with every step,
before stopping at the 3
^rd
floor and opening the door onto
the corridor.

The sound of a hoover made me
jump as I rounded a corner and saw a cleaning lady busy at work
cleaning the carpets. She wore earphones and was dancing as she moved
the hoover up and down aggressively to the sound of her music.

I waited for a few minutes as
she moved further down the corridor in the opposite direction and
eventually turned the corner, moving out of sight. I stepped into
view and walked quietly towards Cade's apartment, my heart creeping
closer and closer towards my throat as I went.