The Logan Brothers - Books 1-4: (EXPOSURE, CRASH, TWIN PASSIONS, and ADDICTED TO YOU)

by Shorter, L. A.

  Mrs Banks was staring at me calmly as I entered, her gaze torn from Tara and over to me at the door.

  “Gemma,” she said, her voice calm as always, “so good of you to join us.”

  I was breathing heavily, so many things I wanted to say.

  “Please, take a seat,” Banks continued, gesturing her hand to the spare seat in front of her desk.

  I didn't move, I didn't answer. I wasn't going to do anything she told me to do.

  I turned my gaze to Tara, who stood holding a file under her arm and a sick smile on her face. How could she love this so much, enjoy torturing me like this. What sort of devil child was she.

  “You fucking bitch,” I said to her. “You'd fuck up all our lives for a promotion?”

  She just kept smiling, no answer or response dropping from her lips, and walked over to Mrs Banks, placing the file down on her desk.

  “This is the whole thing Martha,” she said, “pictures and my entire write-up on the story.”

  “Excellent Tara, this is just the sort of thing I was looking for,” Banks said, turning her eyes back on me. “It's a shame, Gemma, that you don't possess the same ruthless edge as young Tara here. She'll go far, you know.”

  “Thank you so much Martha,” Tara said again, “that means a lot coming from you.”

  “Not at all my dear. I should be the one thanking you. Our next edition is going to sell like hotcakes with this story as the main headline.”

  She turned again to me. “You see Gemma, this is what it's all about. Drama, betrayal, deception: that's what people want to read about. It is regrettable that you're going to have to be involved in all of this business, but I'm afraid that's just the way life is.”

  I could not believe these two women. They were enjoying this, creating something out of nothing, breaking up a family, creating hatred between two twins.

  “So you're going to lie and say that Zack and I are cheating on Cade, is that it? You're going to twist things and ruin lives just to sell a few extra magazines?! How can you do that? How can you live with yourselves?!”

  They looked at each other briefly as Tara giggled and smirked.

  “Dear girl,” said Banks, “I think you must be deluded.” She pulled a picture out of the file and slid it across her desk. “Does this look like we're lying. I'm afraid you've made your bed Gemma, and Zack Logan has slept in it.”

  I quickly walked forward and grabbed the picture. It was me and Zack hugging outside of my apartment on Saturday morning. It must have been Tara who Zack had chased. She took a picture and they were going to make it look like he'd stayed over, that we'd slept together. With the image of us 'kissing', who would believe that we'd done nothing at all.

  I shook my head, throwing the image back down onto the desk. “This doesn't mean anything. He slept on the sofa, nothing happened. Nothing's going on between us.” My words were growing more agitated now.

  “You bitch,” I continued, turning again to Tara. “You know we didn't kiss. You were there, you saw it. Nothing happened!”

  Tara shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. “I have no idea what you're talking about honey,” she said. “I think the picture speaks for itself.”

  “That's fucking bullshit Tara and you know it.”

  “Come on Gemma, stop lying to yourself. You've been lying so long you've begun to believe in your own delusions. I know you went to school with Zack, I know how close you two were back then.”

  “Don't look so shocked,” she continued, seeing the look on my face. “It's what a real journalist does honey. She goes and talks to people, gets information. I tracked down a couple of girls from your old high school and they told me all I needed to know. How you two were so close, how everyone thought you were in a relationship. Something was going to happen...I just had to wait for my opportunity to catch you out.”

  “BUT NOTHING IS HAPPENING!” I shouted at her. “THERE'S NOTHING GOING ON YOU STUPID BITCH!”

  She stayed calm. “Oh Gemma, you really have fallen for your own lies.”

  “I'M NOT LYING!” I shouted again.

  As I did the door suddenly opened and I turned to see Brenda's head popping through. “Is everything all right in here Mrs Banks?” she asked.

  Banks nodded. “Yes, it's all OK. Just a few heated words, nothing to worry about Brenda. I'll buzz if I need you, thank you.”

  Brenda backed away again, slowly shutting the door and leaving a silence in the room.

  “So what are you going to do, make out that I've been cheating on Cade with Zack?” I fumed.

  “Yes,” said Banks, still sitting calmly behind her desk. “It's just the sort of exciting family drama that people love to sink their teeth into. As I say Gemma, it's a shame you have to be embroiled in all of this, but it's not an opportunity I can turn away from.”

  Her words were almost tinged with sorrow, as if she actually cared that the scandal would affect my life. I knew she didn't. She was as callous as they came, a vindictive witch, utterly devoid of empathy and compassion.

  But I knew just how to level the playing field. She'd get her comeuppance, I'd make sure of that.

  I set my eyes on her, staring her down. As I prepared to open my mouth again, however, my attention was drawn back to the file on her desk.

  A picture was hanging out of it: the image of a man, his face bloodied, lying on the tarmac. I felt my pulse begin to rise quickly as I walked forward, reaching towards the desk.

  “What are you doing?” asked Banks, but I didn't listen. I grabbed the file and pulled it towards me. “There's no point,” I heard Tara say, “I have copies of everything.”

  But I wasn't interested in taking the file or destroying the story. I was only interested in the image that lay on top.

  I slipped it out of the folder and looked at it closely. The face, the wavy hair, the green eyes. It was unmistakable. It was Zack.

  “What's this,” I said, my voice quiet and shaky. I didn't look up but kept staring at the picture. “What have you done?”

  I could hear Tara scoff behind me. “What have we done? We've done nothing. You can blame your boyfriend for that. Or is that ex boyfriend?”

  I quickly tipped the file upside down, shaking all of the contents out. More pictures fell to the desk, pictures of Cade and Zack brawling in the street, a crowd encircling them.

  “Did you not know?” questioned Banks. “It's been all over the news. People are wondering why they were fighting, of course, but we know. Tara did well to goad Cade into action, sending him the picture of you and his brother hugging outside your apartment. Now everyone's talking about it, everyone wants to know the truth. When we release our exclusive, they're going to be lining up down the street to find out.”

  She was licking her lips was anticipation, like a lioness over its downed prey.

  The information was barely registering with me. I only wanted to know one thing.

  “Is...is he OK? Zack...is he all right?” My voice remained quiet and brittle.

  I looked up at Banks, who was now frowning. “How do you not know this? Have you not been watching the news? He's in hospital, my dear girl, Denver Point....”

  The rest of her words blurred into the background. I didn't hear them. I just turned and ran straight out of the room and rushed out of the building towards my car.

  Chapter 24

  Present Day

  Zack

  “Zack...Zack...can you hear me Zack.”

  The voice was blurry in my head.

  There was flashes of light now streaming at my eyes as they flickered and cracked open. The world beyond was hazy and muddled, the walls white and bare.

  My senses began to return to me. I could hear beeping, the sound growing louder. The voice came at me again. It was a woman's voice, soft and homely. “Zack, can you hear me Zack.”

  My eyes opened wider, the sharp light causing me to blink heavily. I could see the shape of a woman leaning over me, looking straight into my eyes. She kept sp
eaking, uttering the same words over and over.

  “Where...where I am?” I mumbled groggily. “What's going on?”

  “You're in hospital Zack. You've had an accident.”

  An accident? My mind was acting slow, trying to catch up. I shut my eyes again, thoughts and memories slowly creeping back in.

  Cade.

  The fight.

  I remembered him fighting me in the street. My memory was cloudy, only giving me glimpses of what happened. He hit me and I went down. My head hit the floor and then....nothing.

  I opened my eyes again, my vision slowly returning. The woman above me was a nurse. I was in a hospital bed, wires and tubes attached to my body. The beeping was from some medical equipment next to the bed. A heart monitor maybe.

  I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. A figure stepped forward from a chair by the wall, moving in close towards me and looking me straight in the eye.

  “You're going to be fine Zack. We've been waiting for you to wake up, but you're going to be OK.”

  I blinked as the man came into view.

  “Crash...” I mumbled. “Where's Cade?”

  Crash shook his lead lightly. “He's not here.”

  “Please Mr Logan, if you'll just give me some room. I need to do a couple of tests and then Zack here needs some rest. You can come back tomorrow morning.”

  Crash didn't say anything. He kept looking into my eyes, his face troubled, yet relieved. He reached forward and grabbed me by the arm, squeezing tightly and nodding.

  “It's good to have you back Zack,” he said. “I'll be back early tomorrow morning, OK.” His voice was reassuring.

  I nodded, my head still pounding.

  “OK Mr Logan, we'll see you tomorrow.” The nurse moved Crash off towards the door. He kept his eyes on me the entire time, looking back as he walked away.

  “He's a good brother,” the nurse said, turning back towards me after shutting the door behind him.

  “Why do you say that?” I groaned, my voice wispy and cracked.

  “He's been here the entire time. You were brought in early yesterday night. He stayed with you all night and all today. It's nice that you have support like that.”

  “Has anyone else come?” I croaked again.

  “There were two other young men who came in, yes. I didn't get their names. Your brother told them to go home not so long ago, told them he'd let them know when you woke up.”

  “No one else? No girl?”

  She had this consoling look in her eye. “Just the three men, I'm afraid. Now please, I need to do a few tests, just to make sure you're going to be OK.”

  I nodded and shut my eyes again. Cade hadn't come, I knew that. I remembered him walking away from me as I lay slumped on the ground. He hadn't even looked back. I knew now that I was dead to him, that he'd never forgive me.

  And there was nothing I could do about it.

  ….

  I lay alone in the hospital room early the next morning. I couldn't sleep, not with the dull ache in my head, not with the turmoil raging inside it.

  The light of the day was beginning to seep in through the cracks to the side of the curtains. It was a misty light, not bright but shallow and cold. It echoed my feelings, my life now descending into a void. This – lying in hospital, my head almost cracked open – was just the icing on the fucked up cake that my life had become.

  I hated hospitals, always had, ever since I'd spent days by my mothers bedside as she battled with death following her car accident. It was the worst time of my life, seeing her slowly pass away in front of me, hoping that she'd wake up, hoping that she'd recover. It was torture.

  She'd lost that battle, of course, eventually passing at 4.33 PM on a Sunday afternoon. We were all there, waiting and hoping and praying. But none of it made any difference. She died all the same.

  The smell of the place had been fused into me ever since: that horrible sour smell of disinfectant. I hated it. I felt sorry for Crash, and the others, sitting there with me, watching me lying there unconscious. It must have brought back terrible memories for them, an echo of what had happened with our mother.

  The thought that Crash had stayed all night, however, warmed me. Despite what they thought I'd done, they'd come to watch over me. The nurse had told me that I was never in serious danger, that they were simply waiting for me to regain consciousness, and expected it to be within a day or so. But Crash – he wanted to be there when I woke, a friendly face among all of this shit. Maybe they didn't all hate me after all.

  It was at about 9 AM in the morning that Crash walked back through the door. He looked like he'd hardly slept, his eyes deep and dark, but with a consoling edge to them.

  “Morning Zack, how are you feeling?” he asked. His voice was low and mournful.

  “OK,” I said with as much chirpiness as I could muster. “Head aches a bit, but the nurse says that'll pass in a couple of days.”

  He walked in, dragging a chair from the wall and placing it beside my bed. “Good, that's good,” he said, sitting down gently.

  He looked at me, his eyes still low. I felt like he had something heavy on his mind, something he wanted to tell me.

  “Zack, have you seen the news at all?” he asked.

  I shook my head, my eyes arching down in a frown.

  “You and Cade have been all over it. Your fight was caught on film by several onlookers and it's gone viral. Everyone is wondering why you two were fighting.”

  “They can think what they want,” I said bluntly. “Why should I care?”

  Crash sighed deeply, wearily. “I think it's best that you leave town for a little while Zack, until all of this dies down. I don't want this sort of attention on the family, on Cade. He's got a real shot now, and I want him focused on that a hundred per cent.”

  “Leave? And go where?” I asked quickly.

  I thought about protesting my innocence again but didn't have the energy for it. Frankly, I'd given up caring. Maybe I should leave, turn my back on this whole fucking mess.

  “I'll leave that up to you Zack. Take some time away, do some traveling, I don't know. I just want you to keep your head down and stay low for a while.”

  “But the club...I've got responsibilities here.”

  “I've already taken care of it.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I've found a suitable replacement to run the club in your absence.”

  I shook my head, a little taken aback by the abruptness of it all. I don't even know why I was protesting. I'd grown sick of that club, sick of this place, sick of everything. Maybe it would be better for me to just leave.

  “And that's it, just leave, disappear?”

  Crash looked directly at me, his weary exterior beginning to harden. “I'm giving you this as a way out Zack. Don't forget that. You've got yourself into this mess, and you should think yourself lucky that you're getting away this lightly.”

  “Lucky?” I said, my voice growing louder. “You have no idea what really happened. This is all bullshit Crash.” My head began pounding as my voice raised.

  Crash was shaking his head. “I saw the picture of you leaving Gemma's apartment on Saturday morning Zack, Cade showed it to me. Why do you keep lying? It's only making things worse.”

  My anger continued to brew but I kept it locked down, growling through my teeth in an effort to keep my voice low. “Nothing happened...I slept on the sofa. I'd only gone over there to find out if she knew anything about this whole fucking mess. I swear to you Crash, on dad's life, on mom's life, that nothing is going on between me and Gemma.” I was looking him straight in the eye, trying to get through to him.

  His face began to contort slightly, his eyebrows arching down, his lips thinning. “Don't do that, Zack. Don't swear against our parents like that.”

  “But it's true...”

  “STOP....just stop. We're all happy you're OK Zack, but now you need to go. Take some time, let things settle. I'll be in touch.”

>   With that he stood up and turned away, pacing quickly towards the door, leaving me alone, once more, with nothing but my frustration to keep me company.

  Chapter 25

  Present Day

  Gemma

  I sped right through the front doors of Denver Point Hospital and straight towards the wide reception desk at the front. There was a middle aged woman behind the counter, busily rustling through a drawer.

  “Excuse me,” I said quickly, “where's Zack Logan?”

  She looked up at me, her eyes showing signs that she recognized who I was.

  “Are you family?” she asked.

  “I'm a friend. Can you tell me where he is please. Is he OK?”

  She eyed me for a moment before turning to her computer and bringing up his notes. “OK, Zack Logan. He was brought in on Saturday evening,” she said, reading off the screen, “and was taken to room....124. It's just down the hall in that direction.” She pointed over to my left with her eyes towards the hospital wards.

  “Thank you,” I said, turning and walking briskly off down the hall.

  My heart was beating rapidly as I went, my eyes darting around looking for the right room. I hadn't been to a hospital in many years, not since I'd fractured my arm as a little girl back in New York. The place seemed so alien to me, somewhere I'd only ever see on television or when watching a film.

  But this was real. Zack was laid up somewhere down the corridor and it was all down to that scheming bitch Tara and her puppetmaster, Mrs Banks. I didn't know what sort of state he'd be in. I didn't even know if he'd be conscious. For all I knew he could be in a coma or fucking brain-dead or something.

  When I got to room 124 I stopped briefly outside, my hand shaking as I lifted it up to turn the door handle. I peered through the window, afraid I'd see Cade or Crash or another one of his brothers sitting by his bedside.

  No, he was alone, lying staring at the ceiling, his eyes fixed in place, unmoving. I felt my gut wrench at the sight, at the way he was just staring into space, this vacant expression on his face. He looked lost, like he didn't know who he was anymore.