TWIN PASSIONS: (A Logan Brothers Novel) (4 page)

“
Annie, you're gonna have to
be straight with me here. I literally have no idea what you're
talking about.”

She rolled her eyes and rushed
around the side of the cubicle towards me, sliding into a chair and
lowering her voice.

“
You know the fight was
televised, right?”

“
No, I didn't actually. So
what.”

“
Well, everyone saw, Gem. We
all saw Cade pointing straight at you after the fight and say 'for
you'! The commentators were speculating over who you were. You were
next to two of his brothers, right? God they're all so hot, I'm so
jealous! Seriously, what's been going on with you two?”

“
Nothing much,” I lied,
“we're just seeing each other casually. It's not that big a deal, I
don't know why everyone's so excited by it.”

Annie scoffed and glanced around
at the many sets of eyes still lingering on us. “Excited might not
be the word I'd use. I think they're all pretty envious Gem. Have you
seen the tweets?”

I shook my head.

“
Check this out. But be
warned, you won't like it.”

I took a deep breath as Annie
took control of my computer and brought up this twitter feed about
Cade. It was populated with tweets from jealous girls asking who I
was and saying he could do a lot better. I read down the list: the
things these girls were saying were appalling, so insulting and
abusive.

“
What the hell is all this?”
I asked, slightly shocked.

“
It's just stupid jealous
girls. Take no notice of them. I just thought, you know, you'd better
know what's going on.”

I'd rather not if this was
what people were saying about me. Ignorance is bliss and all that.

I couldn't quite believe how
bitchy these girls could be. They didn't know Cade, they didn't know
me. I mean, he'd only recently become well known around here. It
wasn't like he was a national icon or anything, just a young boxer
making his way. One day, maybe, but not now.

I guess, though, even small fish
seemed big when in a small pond, and Branton wasn't exactly New York.

“
Soooo, tell me,” Annie
said, dragging my eyes away from the abusive insults littering the
computer screen, “what exactly is going on then with sexy Cade
Logan? How did you meet him? You haven't been moonlighting as a
boxing journalist have you?!”

“
Not exactly,” I said,
shutting down the browser, “it's kind of a long story, and I've got
a lot of work to do.”

Work, sure. I meant
plagiarizing off of Google.

Annie stood up and took a step
back.

“
Say no more. You can tell me
at lunch,” she said with a wink and a nod.

She stood and sped round the
side of the cubicle towards her own computer screen, sitting down and
disappearing from sight.

In reality I didn't want to
talk, or think, about Cade right now. We'd been seeing each other for
about 8 months but things weren't quite as smooth as they had been. I
hadn't seen him since storming off after his fight on Friday night
and he hadn't called. He'd been such a douche it was almost
unbearable. I think he actually liked the attention he was getting
from all of those sluts in the audience.

God knows what he'd been feeling
about all of this new Internet attention he was getting. I guess it
was something he'd have to get used to. I just wasn't sure I wanted
to be around to see it.

My phone rang and snapped me
from my thoughts.

“
Good morning, Gemma Watson
speaking.”

“
Hi Gemma, would you come to
Mrs Banks' office please. She'd like to have a word.”

Martha Banks was my
editor-in-chief, the woman who ran the magazine. She was pretty
unforgiving and was never shy in telling me what she thought of my
work if she didn't like it. Whenever I was called in to see her, it
was rarely good news.

I stood and walked through the
office, purposefully avoiding the glances of the girls still talking
in their little office cliques, and down the corridor away from the
main floor. At the end was a glass fronted office with the words
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, MARTHA BANKS emblazoned across it. As if people
wouldn't realize that this office belonged to the boss.

In a cosy little nook outside of
the door sat Mrs Banks' secretary, Brenda, a middle aged woman who'd
worked for her for over a decade.

“
Hi Gemma,” she said, “Mrs
Banks should be waiting for you. You can go in.”

I nodded and clasped my hand to
the door handle before twisting slowly and creeping in, shutting
the door behind me.

“
Ah, just the girl I wanted to
see. Gemma, how are you?”

She sat upright behind a bare white
desk, a single Mac in front of her. She wore a smile on her thin red
lips, her skin pale and hair jet black. She was over 50 years old but
looked more like 40, her many facelifts and botox injections helping
her stay young.

I stayed lingering by the door,
still a little uncomfortable at being summoned so early on a Monday
morning.

“
I'm OK Mrs Banks, and you?”

She stood up and paced around
the desk. “Fine dear, yes fine. Now come here, there's something I
want to talk to you about.”

Her voice was more bouncy than
normal as she sat down on a black leather sofa next to a large open
window looking down onto the city. She held out her hand and gestured
for me to sit on the chair opposite, a coffee table full of old
editions of the magazine between us.

I sat and waited for her to
speak as she slipped an electronic cigarette out of her handbag and
took a drag.

“
Right Gemma, I've heard
something rather interesting about you this morning and I wanted to
ask you first-hand.”

Oh God, I knew where this was
going. Her too!

“
Now apparently you are
currently in a relationship with a certain Cade Logan. I know the
family but have only recently heard of the young man's newly found
status as a local hero and, for want of a better word, heart-throb.”

She took another puff of her
fake cigarette.

“
So, tell me, what's going on
between the two of you?”

“
Well Mrs Banks, I suppose
we're dating.”

“
You mean you two are
fucking?”

I was slightly taken aback by
her forward approach. She never did mince words.

“
Um, yeah. Well, I hope it's
slightly more than that, we've been seeing each other a while now.”

“
How long?” she asked
quickly.

“
About 8 or so months.”

She nodded her head. “So
rather in line with his upward trajectory in our lovely city of
Branton here?”

It was true. Cade's profile had
been rising steadily with each fight and he'd been beating opponents for fun since we met. That's why he always called me his lucky charm.

“
I suppose so.”

Mrs Banks pulled the cigarette
from her mouth and thrust it back into her handbag, still keeping her
eyes on me. I could see her mind ticking over. I knew what she was
after.

“
Gemma, as you know there's a
promotion coming up that we're looking to fill in the next month or so.”

My ears pricked up.

“
Of course," she continued, "I always prefer to
recruit from within the magazine, rather than search for talent
outside. I think that you have the sort of talent we're looking for.”

My breathing was increasing
with excitement. Was she about to promote me right now?!

“
You understand, of course,
that I'm looking at several options and the selection process is
fairly comprehensive.”

Great, I knew it wasn't going
to be that easy.

“
In particular, I like
potential candidates to write a great story on something the
magazine, and it's readers, are really going to take to. I'd expect a
double page spread, something edgy, something that will get people
talking. You know, something exclusive.” She put some extra emphasis on the
final word.

“
It appears to me that with
your proximity to Cade Logan, you might be ideally suited to find
that exclusive we're looking for. If his profile continues to rise,
it could work very nicely for your future career.”

“
But he's my
boyfriend....isn't that a bit, I don't know, unethical?”

Mrs Banks leaned back in the
chair and smiled. “Well that's just a point of view, isn't it? I'm
sure our readers would love an exclusive scoop on young Mr Logan.”

“
What sort of scoop?”

“
Well darling, I can't be
figuring out every little detail for you. This is your test to see
whether you'll make a good journalist or not. Get me something good,
something that will sell, and the job is yours.”

“
And the other candidates?”

She scoffed. “Unless they have
the inside track on the town's new golden boy as well, I think you'll
be safe. Do this for me Gemma, and your journalistic world will open
up ahead of you.”

She stood suddenly and paced
back around towards her desk. “Now back to work,” she said, her
voice businesslike once more. “I want your proposal on my desk by
the end of the week. We can then discuss this further.”

I stood up and walked towards
the door, her final words stopping me in my tracks.

“
This is a great opportunity
for you Gemma, don't waste it. You never know when another might come
along.”

She sent her eyes back to her
computer as I walked through the door and drifted back over towards
my own little space in the corner of the main floor. I could see
Annie's eyes tracing my journey as I walked towards her, a look of
concern on her face at my deep frown.

I mean, the idea of getting that
promotion was all I could ever want. Mrs Banks was right, it really
would open up my world, set my career on the sort of trajectory that
I'd always craved. It was what I'd wanted since I was a girl, ever
since I saw Lois Lane rush around looking for a great story. She'd
stumbled onto Superman, and that was the making of her. Maybe Cade
could do the same for me?.

But I knew him well enough now,
and I knew the family. He wasn't one for the spotlight. You could
tell that by the way he acted in his fights. He was no-nonsense,
utterly committed to battle, not wanting any other distractions
around him at all. If I did a piece on him it would be seen by
millions, all over the country and not just in Branton.

I knew he wouldn't want that
sort of attention on him, that he would never want to give an
exclusive to a reporter, to spill the details of his life. His life
beyond the ring, of course, was rather complicated.

And so was mine.

6 Months Ago

Zack

My father's death had come so
suddenly. He'd been murdered in cold blood in an hotel room, shot
twice through the chest. The cops said it was a professional hit but
had no suspects. The life my father had led, that list could have
been fairly long.

I didn't have the closest
relationship with him before he died. No, that position belonged to
Crash, my oldest brother. He was in charge of the family's prized
asset,
Logan's Casino
, and was being groomed to take over the running of the family when
dad decided he'd had enough and wanted to step back. I guess Crash
would be taking the reigns earlier than he'd have thought.

It hit him hardest. And Kyle, he
seemed to be stricken by the whole thing as well. Me though, I felt
strangely detached from it all, less emotional than I'd have thought.
I guess today would be the hardest test.

I stood now, in front of the
grave, my four brothers to my side. We all had our heads bowed,
looking down as the coffin was lowered into the grave. The rain came
cascading lightly down upon our shoulders, jumping on the many black
umbrellas around us. But none of us were covered; we were all getting
slowly soaked. It seemed so inconsequential.

The priest spoke and Crash took
a step forward, dropping a single rose down onto the coffin as it
descended deeper into the earth. His words began to crack as he
talked of our father, of his life, his successes, his love for his
family.

I could see my brothers' heads
drop further at his words, but couldn't tell if any were shedding
tears, not in the rain. If we were, it wasn't something any of us
would want people to see, even on a day like this.

Crash finished speaking and
stepped back, and I stepped forward with my other brothers and
dropped my own rose onto the coffin. We each whispered a few words to
him. All I could muster was
"I'll miss you father."

We stepped back and others moved
forward, dropping more flowers into the grave, filling it with color
and life. It contrasted so heavily with the grey and sombre setting.

There were many people there,
all gathered to pay their respects. My father had touched many lives
during his own, for good, and for bad.