I almost wanted to laugh at the sick absurdity of it all. Andy made sure there would be no doubt of the time or place those pictures happened. He cemented it into Logan's mind beyond a shadow of a doubt.
He won.
He took my happiness away for good.
"That's me."
My hand shook as I returned Logan's phone to him.
The hurt in Logan's eyes just about killed me. I hated myself, even though I truly did nothing wrong. But what could I say? Anything would just sound like a pathetic attempt to refute the evidence right there in the images.
"I'm so sorry," I choked. It was all I could think of to say.
"You're sorry?!"
"I was going to tell you..."
I should have told you the moment he threatened to release those. I know you would have believed me. We would have figured it out together. But I was too embarrassed and now you think I'm a cheating whore.
"Oh, you were?" Logan let out a harsh, biting laugh as he turned to look away from me. As if he couldn't stand to look at me.
"When, Aubrey? When exactly were you going to tell me that you fucked some guy at work right before I took you to meet my family?"
"That's not what happened," I said quickly.
Panic and desperation sank in, making me blurt out the denial. My subconscious and my heart grasped desperately to hold onto the love of my life. My happiness and my world.
"Those are your barrels, Aubrey! Those pictures are from three days ago!"
"Logan, please..."
A defeated sob escaped my chest.
I knew it. I already lost him.
If I tried to explain, it would only dig me into a deeper hole.
"Who's the guy?" he demanded. "Is it your ex-boyfriend?"
My throat felt closed up and dry. All I could do was nod my head and watch his love for me turn to cold, bitter ash.
Even when desperate to save my relationship, I couldn't lie to him.
"Is he even an ex? Did you two set this up to use me as a fucking ATM machine?"
"No!" I cried.
How could I even begin to tell him that I kept quiet because I could never ask him for money? It was the price I paid to love Logan honestly, and not use him for money.
"He manipulated me," I blubbered. "I didn't want him to go after you-"
"Save it, Aubrey," Logan said harshly as he raised a hand to silence me, still refusing to look at me.
"The car will take you home," he repeated. "And that will be where this ends."
"Logan." Every cell in my body begged for him to believe me, to not kill my soul with those simple words. I reached for him, unable to accept that the greatest love of my life was ending faster than it had begun.
"Logan, please. I love you."
He recoiled as if I struck him. His eyes revealed all the pain, hurt, and betrayal he tried to mask on his face.
"I really thought you were different," he said with a sad shake of his head.
With that, he turned his broad, muscular back to me and started down the aisle.
"Get in that car and disappear from my life, Aubrey Adams," he called. "Or I'll have you removed."
Defeated and dazed, I shakily climbed down the small stairs exiting the plane. Miraculously, I somehow kept myself together on the car ride home. I felt nothing but cold, numbing, shock.
How could he touch me and kiss me so passionately, then treat me like the scum of the earth mere hours later?
Don't put this on him. This was all your fault. You didn't act fast enough to save your own skin. His reaction to those photos was completely normal and expected.
Only after I got out of the car and crossed the threshold into my apartment, did I allow myself to crumble.
I sank to the floor, all the strength and resolve zapped out of me. Surrounded by the last living flower bouquets that once filled my apartment, I broke open and wilted like every one of those dead flowers.
CHAPTER 26
AUBREY
I couldn't eat. I could barely breathe.
Sleep only came after exhausting myself from crying and it was fitful, restless sleep at that.
My mood swung from barely functional to the deepest depression I'd ever experienced.
Sometimes I swam through a numbing fog and wanted nothing more than to sleep forever. Other times I had moments of sharpness, clarity, and the most intense pain cutting through my body.
It was during the awake, painful times that I called and texted Logan, determined to prove my innocence and go back to how we were. Loving. Trusting. Passionate.
I explained everything in a single, long-winded text message. How Andy tried to blackmail me with those photos, which were taken while we were dating and without my consent. How he doctored the images to look recent because he knew it would hurt me. He could never allow me to be happy, no matter what.
But Logan never responded. His silence triggered the mind-numbing fog again and I became an empty shell of a person.
Somehow I pulled myself together enough to call work and take an extended weekend off. I couldn't go there, not like this and risk seeing Logan again. Not only would I embarrass myself, my heart would break all over again if he spoke to me like he did on the plane. Like a worthless piece of shit despite telling me he loved me the day before.
No other man ever broke me to the point of not wanting to work, to do what I loved and practice my art. Just the thought of smelling beer made my stomach turn over.
When Andy dumped me, that was when I gave everything I had into brewing. My passion for my work fulfilled and validated me when he never did.
But not even my work fulfilled me like Logan did. Nothing else made me feel as secure, beautiful, and appreciated. Never again would I experience that kind of pure, unbridled joy and satisfaction again.
The sound of my phone ringing pulled me out of a brain fog for just a moment and gave me a small, daring glimmer of hope.
I had no idea what time or what day it was. My only clue was the sliver of sunlight peeking through my blackout curtains. My whole universe became the pain inside my body and in my own head.
Somehow I found my phone and answered it before it went to voicemail.
"Logan?"
"No, Aubrey. It's Marty. How are you feeling?"
"Um." I had the vague recollection of telling him I was sick when I called in, however many days ago that was. "I'm okay, I guess. Alive."
"Oh, well hang in there. We miss you."
"Thanks." My mind was not at all focused on our conversation. My mouth moved and made sounds but I was not there. If I was, I would've wondered why Marty called.
"I hate bothering you when you're sick, hun, but have you talked to Logan recently?"
"No." Just saying that word pierced a new opening into my heart. "We're um, not seeing each other anymore."
I realized just then I hadn't said the words aloud to anyone and hated how real they sounded. Like keeping it all in my head would convince me it was just a bad dream.
"Ohhh! Well shit. I'm sorry to hear that, hun."
Poor Marty, ever the awkward dad figure.
"Yeah, me too," I croaked. My throat was so sore and raspy from sobbing for over 24 hours. I certainly didn't need to fake being sick.
"I was wondering because I got a cryptic email from him yesterday. It didn't say much except that he would probably sell the brewery. Do you know anything about that?"
I said nothing for a moment, just trying to piece together coherent strings of thought in my exhausted brain.
Selling the brewery?
That had to do with us breaking up. He was so disgusted by me, he couldn't just end our relationship. He had to sever all ties between us until we were nothing to each other but complete strangers.
That knowledge hurt more than the break up itself. More than all of Andy's disgusting pictures and insults combined.
"Aubrey? Still there?"
"Yeah, just thinking." I swallowed but my throat remained dry
and parched. "No, I had no idea he wanted to sell."
"Oh, okay... That complicates things business-wise but I won't bother you with that. I didn't know your, uh, relationship had ended. I'm really sorry, Aubrey."
"Thanks, Marty." My finger itched desperately to end the call right then. I didn't want to talk about it. Didn't want to face it.
"I'll let you go so you can rest up. Come back only when you're ready." Marty's fatherly warmth and kindness through his voice touched me and I felt momentarily comforted. He really was like a father figure to me when I had none.
"And if you need anything at all from us, don't hesitate to ask."
I cracked a painful smile. "Thanks, Marty. I'm sure I'll kick this and be back before you know it."
"Atta girl. Take care, Aubrey."
I ended the call feeling stronger than I had since speaking to Logan, which wasn't much, but an improvement over the last day or so.
Using my newfound strength, I drank a tall glass of water from the kitchen, then ran a hot bath. As I sank my fatigued, weary body into the steaming water, I resolved to move on.
I would never know or love another man like Logan ever again. But I would heal, pick myself up, and do what I loved as I did before meeting him.
This experience would haunt me for the rest of my life, but I'd use it to fuel my passion into my work.
I would move and live my life. But in a small way, Logan would never leave me.
CHAPTER 27
LOGAN
Every painful beat of my heart told me that breaking up with Aubrey was a mistake.
Her sudden absence felt like a hole had been cut out of my chest. It was painful and simply wrong.
But those images burned into my mind like red-hot coals and I couldn't stop seeing them. They contradicted everything I knew about her, or thought I knew.
Did it happen right before I found her in the barrel room when I told her come with me to Montana? She was sitting on the floor with her head in her hands like something was plaguing her mind. Did she feel guilty about it?
Her face when I confronted her on the plane looked so sad, it made me want to pull her into me and forget everything I said.
But how could I forgive this? How could she do this to me in the first place?
It didn't make sense. But I only knew her for a short time and fell hard. She must have been a master of deception because she seemed so sincere.
My questions would never get answered and I had to accept that. The girl I knew and fell in love with didn't exist.
It was foolish of me to believe that a woman wouldn't use me for a free pass to a luxurious life. It was foolish of me to believe she was different.
I blocked her number as soon as she stepped off the plane and emailed Marty at the brewery right after. It would be best for my own sanity to not be reminded of her constantly. I'd find a buyer for the brewery as soon as this meeting with Charlie and our lawyers was over with.
It would be a while before I could drink their delicious product again, knowing Aubrey's hands had forged it.
***
I had a driver pick up Christian on the way to our meeting place the next morning. I would have driven myself but couldn't get a wink of sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Aubrey on that guy's cock, then on mine. Her infectious smile and how her green eyes flashed with mischief and cunning. I knew she was smart but never thought she'd turn against me.
All these things I should have known before falling for her hook, line, and sinker.
"You look like hell," Christian remarked as he slid in next to me in the back seat of the Land Rover.
"Couldn't sleep."
"Oh yeah? Your old lady keep you up all night?"
"Not in the way you're thinking."
As we pulled away from his house, I gave him the brief retelling of what was sent to me not a moment after I got off the phone with him and the ensuing breakup.
Christian's eyes widened and his mouth dropped, looking just as stunned with disbelief as I felt when I opened my email.
"I can't believe that. She seemed like such a nice girl."
"Yeah, I thought so too."
We drove on in silence for the next few minutes, heading to the next town over to meet Charlie in a luxury conference room rental. I insisted on our meeting being in a completely neutral location. Nothing would make me step foot on his territory and give him any kind of advantage over me. That would be the slimy kind of thing Charlie would do.
Christian suddenly shook his head and sighed. "I dunno, man. My lawyer sense is tingling."
I gave him a side-eyed look. "What do you mean?"
"There's got to be more to this Aubrey thing that you're not aware of. I mean, I only spoke to her a bit but it seems so out of character for her."
My heart strings pulled taut as if Aubrey herself yanked on them.
"I'd like to believe so but the evidence literally stared me in the face."
"I mean, why would her ex send those to you if they were in on it together? If they really wanted a cushy paycheck out of you, it would benefit them to keep their plan secret for longer, right? Until she got some high-value items from you."
"Maybe someone else found them and sent them to me. Someone looking out for me."
"That Google voice number you had me look up. Wasn't that one of many numbers he texted her from to harass her?"
My fingers dug into my palms as I remembered how distressed she looked when she received that message in the tasting room. Was it all part of the ruse?
"Yes."
"So you don't think it's possibly him just escalating his harassing, stalker tendencies?"
"The pictures had time stamps. They were taken at her workplace."
"You know that shit can be Photoshopped, Logan."
I exhaled the breath I was holding. "I dunno. Seems pretty elaborate."
"Texting someone from a different number every single day is the definition of pretty fucking elaborate."
I clenched my jaw. Fuck, what if he was right? What if I just threw away the best thing to enter my life based on a knee-jerk reaction?
Aubrey looked so crushed, so shattered when I confronted her, and yet completely unsurprised. She didn't deny that it was her and her ex.
"We're here."
My driver's announcement pulled me back into the present. We were parked in front of a modern office building constructed with sharp angles and floor-to-ceiling windows on every level. This whole building was nothing but luxurious office space and conference rooms available for rent. I used it a few times before my current office was completed.
We approached the reception desk to receive the keys to our meeting room, which was the entire sixth floor. A smaller room would only make it easier for my fist to reach Charlie's face.
"Ready for this?" Christian asked as we stepped into the sleek, glass elevator.
"I'm ready to never fucking see or hear this fuckface ever again," I replied as I hit the floor button with my knuckle. My hands were already balled into fists and I felt as tense an electric wire, ready to snap.
"Keep your cool," Christian said. "They'll charge a fortune if we spill blood on anything."
I allowed myself to return his smirk. He didn't have the same pent-up rage toward Charlie as I did, but he'd enjoy sending him running with his tail between his legs just as much as I would.
When the elevator doors opened, they may as well have been the gates of hell. I crossed the threshold into our massive conference room, knowing I wouldn't leave until I got the outcome I wanted.
Charlie sat at the far end of a massive table, flanked by two men.
He looked just as douchey as I remembered, with too much gel in his hair, the overpowering scent of some cheap cologne and his flashy off-the-rack suit.
I couldn't place the man sitting to his right but he looked oddly familiar and gave me an uneasy feeling. He was a skinny fucker with a shaved head and a smile that looked too cocky for his own good. He also wore an
off-the-rack suit that clearly wasn't tailored.
The man to Charlie's left could only be his lawyer. He looked more polished and refined that the other two combined, with sharp eyes and a neatly trimmed salt and peppered beard.
"Logan!"
Charlie stood and exclaimed my name jovially as if we were old friends catching up after a long hiatus. "So good to see you again after all these years!"
Maybe in his demented mind we were.
"Charlie," I said tersely by way of greeting. Christian and I remained standing on the other end of the table, not daring to get close enough to shake hands.
"This is my attorney, Mark Alfonso," he said, gesturing to the man on his left. "And my new business partner who's been such a valuable asset to me, Andy Wittmer."
I couldn't shake the creepy feeling crawling over my skin when I looked at Andy. It was typical of Charlie to deal with shady, crooked business figures, but something seemed extra sinister about this guy.
"Well now," Charlie said as he sat down and leaned back in his office chair as if waiting for a stripper to crawl into his lap. "Shall we begin?"
CHAPTER 28
LOGAN
"What we want is simple," Christian said, folding his hands on top of his paperwork. "Stop using the Westbrook Enterprises name in association with whatever scam you're running now, or we'll sue you for libelous claims."
"You have no basis on which to sue us," replied Charlie's attorney, Mark. "RevPo isn't defaming your business name or causing any damage whatsoever to your reputation. Charlie and Andy are running a perfectly legitimate business. They've merely displayed the Westbrook Enterprises logo alongside many others as social proof of successful past business relationships."
"I don't recall our past relationship being particularly successful," I growled.
"Aw, don't be salty, Logan." Charlie's grin resembled the Joker from Batman. "We had some good times in our early days. It's not my fault you got greedy. You wanted all the money and to be the only sheriff in town. Businesses are stronger when they work together, buddy. We haven't hurt you and your name has only skyrocketed our market share."
Big Bad Boss: A Bad Boy Billionaire Romance Page 13
