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“I didn’t marry anyone,” I say. “We just pretended—”
“We?!” He cuts me off. “Who is we?”
I groan in exasperation. There’s no use in lying. I already said too much.
And since there’s no way out, I may as well tell Chase about everything. I tell him about my visit to The Velvet Rooms—while remaining vague about the nature of that place—about my first conversation with Kat and how I made a contract with her to play my fiancéeso the stuck-up Vanguard Society would let me join their ranks.
“So, what happened?” Chase asks when I finish my story without a satisfying culminating point
“She ran off,” I simply say. “She overheard me talking to my brother and decided she wanted to have nothing to do with me.”
“Got scared, huh?”he presumes correctly.
“I guess you could say that, yeah,” I mutter. “She got quite hung up on the whole crime family thing and just… left.”
I clear my throat and empty mybourbon, trying to gloss over the sappy tone of my voice.
“Well, can you blame her?” Chase adds for consideration. “Not many girls want a boyfriend who grew up in a crime syndicate.”
“Boyfriend?” I growl. “Who said anything about her being my girlfriend? We were just pretending—”
“Oh, cut the shit, Logan,” Chase interrupts me, adding a hoarse laugh. “You like this girl, otherwise you wouldn’t sound like a lost dog and no longer care about getting into the Vanguard Society all of a sudden. You’ve been talking about that stuffy club for months—and now this girl ruins your plan, runs off and takes the wind out of your sails with her. Only a man in love sulks the way you do right now.”
I hate the fact that he’s right. I never wasted a single thought about my ambitions with the Vanguard Society ever since Kat ran off with tears in her eyes. I couldn’t even keep up the charade for longer than a few minutes before I ran after her. I lost my head that night and haven’t been able to focus ever since.
“I don’t like this,” I reveal to Chase. “I feel useless and weak. It’s fucking pathetic.”
“Yup, sounds like you’re fucked, buddy,” he laughs. “Question is: What are you going to do about it? The Logan Reid I know never gives up and always gets what he wants—instead of sulking about an alleged loss.”
He’s right. How could I not see this?
I want Kat. I need her—but not asanaccomplice in a shady charade to convince the Vanguard Society of my worth.
No, I need her to be with me. I need to see her smile when she talks about her favorite books, I need her snarky but entertaining remarks that keep me on my toes, I need to be challenged by her wit and the calming solace of her company. I need the warmth of her alluring body, I need to see her explode into a thousand pieces every time she climaxes underneath me, before she becomes whole again in my embrace.
I need this girl. She needs to be with me, because she is mine.
And Iwillget her back.
“Can I just give you a piece of advice?” Chase adds.
“What’s that?” I retort, the tension audible in my voice.
“Don’t be yourself,” he says. “Don’t go about this the Logan way.”
I frown. “What kind of fucked up advice is that?”
“You know what I mean!” Chase chuckles at the other end of the line. “This girl must really be someone special. You said you wanted to become a different man, a better man. Well, become a better man—for her. But don’t cheat your way toward the goal. Get what I’m saying?”
I think I do, as much as it pains me to admit it.
“I went about this the wrong way,” I say. “I tried to clean my name with dirty tricks. And I made her a part of it.”
“Damn right,” Chase agrees. “This may be your chance to prove that you really have become a different man, a man better than your family. Prove it. For her—if she’s worth it.”
Oh, she’s worth it. Katherine Davis is so damn worth it—I’d be a fool to let her get away. I won’t let that happen.
And I think I know just what to do.
