Crazy Beautiful Love (8 page)

“What are you
doing to get this kind of money?”

“We bet on the
horses.”

“The horses? How
old are you? Sixty?”

“Joey’s old man
does it. He knows a few guys that are trainers. We get some tips, who’s looking
good, who’s not. What jockeys are excited, that sort of thing.”

“I don’t know
about this, Jared, gambling’s not a good thing to get into.”

“And stealing cars
is?” Jared’s eyes bore into mine. “I love you, bro, but you can’t do this much
longer. Things are getting worse.”

“It’ll be fine.
Vincent will get his degree and you will get your degree and we’ll be fine.” My
voice held conviction; it had to be fine.

“And what about Dad?”
Jared’s voice was hoarse. “I want to leave, Logan. I don’t want to deal with
this shit anymore. He’s a fucking drunk. He’s not going to change and I’m not
going to put up with his bullshit anymore. I’ve had enough.”

“I’ll take care of
it.”

“Until he hits you
again or, God forbid, gets a gun.”

“He’s our dad,
Jared.”

“He needs to go to
a facility or something. He needs to get help.”

“I know.” I sighed
and stood up. “Don’t you think I know that?”

“Where did you go
this morning?” His eyes held a question, and as I stared at him, I knew I
couldn’t hold it in anymore.

“I went on a
drive.”

“To?”

“Manor Road.” The
words slipped out of my mouth bitterly.

“Why?”

“I wanted to see
the house.”

“It’s been a
while, eh?” Jared sat down on the bed and I sat on the chair in the corner. “Do
you think Dad even thinks about it anymore?”

“I’m sure.” We
stared at each other for a while and we both thought back to our childhoods and
our weekly drives out to Manor Road.

“Why did you go?”

“I met a girl.” I
sighed. “And I mean just met, so don’t go getting any ideas. We
kinda
hit it off, I thought she was cool. Hot, but a bit
kooky, you know how some girls can be.”

“Trust me, I
know.” Jared laughed and I joined him. Jared was a player, but a charismatic
one. Girls loved him on sight, and they never seemed to stop calling him, or
wanting to be with him. I stared at my brother and his too-long wavy black hair
and I shook my head.

“You need to get a
haircut.”

“Don’t change the
subject, tell me about the girl.”

“I took her for a
ride, we had some fun, but turns out she’s a rich kid.”

“Oh.” Jared made a
face.

“Yeah, exactly.
And to make matters worse. It turns out she’s Maddison Wright.”

“The mayor’s
daughter?” Jared gave me a shocked look. I sighed inside. He was going to play
the game with me.

“Yeah, she goes by
Maddie, though.”

“Maddie, as in mad
in the head?”

“Yeah.” I laughed
and thought about Maddie and her forward nature. “I wouldn’t be surprised if
her name has rubbed off on her.”

“So, you like
her?” Jared cocked his head at me and leaned forward.

“Did you not hear
me? Her name is Maddison Wright.”

“Yeah? So?”

“Do you think I
would date the mayor’s daughter?” I rolled my eyes. “Granted, she’s pretty and
dynamite in bed.” I laughed. “Do not repeat that.”

“Maybe you should
date her.” Jared sat back. “Maybe this is the way.”

“The way for
what?” I squinted at him.

“Maybe this is how
we can get vengeance for Dad.”

“What do you
mean?”

“So-o-o,” Jared
took a deep breath, “I met Maddie.” He paused and looked at me.

“Continue.” I held
my breath. I had known as soon as she told me she had met one of my brothers
with
Joey, that
it had to have been Jared.

“She knows Joey. I
guess they went to school together at some point, and she is good friends with
his sister. And every summer they hang out, and they go to college together
somewhere in Boston.” He looked at me anxiously, and I gave him a look to hurry
it up.

“So anyways, we
were hanging out at Joey’s place one day, and Maddie was there. And Joey’s
sister was like, ‘This is Logan’s brother,’ and she went all
googly
-eyed and asked me a bunch of questions about you.”

“She did?” I
frowned. “But why? She doesn’t know me.”

“I guess you were
the pin-up boy of all the girls in River Valley. She had some crush on you. And
so, I
kinda
told her where you’d be yesterday.”

“Dude, why would
you do that? What if she had called the police on me or told her dad?”

“She’s way too
into you to do anything like that. She has a serious crush on you, bro. Like,
she could be a stalker. She was going on and on and on.”

“That’s weird.” I
made a face, but inside I felt a fire light up inside of me. So maybe she
didn’t just hook up with every guy she met.

“So anyways, I was
going to tell her to fuck off, but then I thought, this was the perfect
opportunity. She’s the mayor’s only child, and supposedly, he is really, really
overprotective, and she’s the apple of his eye. And I thought, what perfect
retribution for Dad, if the mayor’s daughter is caught up with a
Martelli
. You could date her for a little bit, and then
just ditch her. It would devastate this girl. She thinks she is in love with
you or something.”

“She doesn’t even
know me to love me.” My head was spinning with all the information he was giving
me.

“I know, bro,
she’s psycho. Though, I mean, she is super hot.” Jared grinned at me, and I
resisted the urge to smack the smile off of his face.

“Why didn’t you
tell me about this before?”

“I wanted the two
of you to meet naturally. You’re a shitty ass actor bro, sorry to say, but you
are. So I wanted your first meeting to be natural, and to see if you hit it off
great.” He laughed. “And it looks like you guys hit it off.”

“Yeah.” I looked
at the wall, my heart racing. “We hit it off.”

“So, what do you
think? You willing to date her to pay her and her family back for what the mayor
did to Dad?”

“I don’t know.” I
was hesitant, even though that had already crossed my mind when I had been in
her house. Hadn’t I made love to her in her parents’ bedroom as some sort of
sick revenge? I felt my stomach knotting, and a dart of pain shot through me as
I pictured the look of fear in her eyes as I’d held her down.

“We don’t owe them
anything, Logan.” Jared stared into my eyes bleakly. “He ruined Dad’s life, and
ours. He cost us our childhood and our mother.”

“I know.” I
nodded. “I just don’t know that we can take that out on Maddie.”

“We’re paying for
the sins of our father.” Jared’s voice was agitated. “She should pay for the
sins of
her
father.”

“I don’t know.” My
voice trailed off. I no longer knew how I felt about Maddie, everything was so
confused in my head, and the hatred that had existed for everyone in the Wright
family was now hazy.

“He ruined our
lives, Logan.” Jared jumped up. “This is our chance to pay it back.”

“Revenge isn’t
always the way.” I sighed and stared at him. “Let me think about it.”

“You want to think
about it? Go downstairs and look at Dad; look at all the beer cans in the
living room. Go try and have a conversation with him. He could have been
something. You know that, I know that, Mom knew that. And it was all ruined.”

“Yeah.” I nodded
and thought about my dad and his life. A life that had been diverted off-course
because of Mayor Wright.

“Think about it,
Logan.” Jared walked out of the room. “And keep the money, use it to pay the rent.”

“I, uh.” I looked
at him gratefully and sighed. “When did you grow up?”

“A long time ago,
bro.” He smiled at me. “A long time ago.”

He walked out the
door, and I sat back on the bed and lay back and closed my eyes. I could
picture my mother’s smile and the loving look in her eyes as she had played
with me, Vincent, and Jared as kids. She had made sure to tell us she loved us
every day. As we got older, we used to squirm and blush, embarrassed at her
declarations of love, but what I wouldn’t give for her to tell me she loved me
one more time. She died within three weeks of getting diagnosed with cancer.
There was nothing they could do. That’s what the doctors had said. The cancer
had spread, and even a mastectomy wouldn’t have helped at that point. She
should have been going for yearly checkups, they said. But we couldn’t afford
yearly checkups. My parents barely got by. The only income my dad could get was
from the cars he stole, and that always depended on how much money Marty gave
him and didn’t win back in a poker game. My mom had died from cancer and
nothing had ever been the same in our lives again. Not that everything had been
great before then. It hadn’t been, but there had been hope. Hope that my dad
would get over his bitterness and try and make something out of his life. But
his hatred of the mayor had consumed him. And he had every right to hate him.
My eyes popped open and I stared at the ceiling as the bitter poison of hate
ran through my veins.

Mayor James
Wright, or just James, as he had been called back in the day, had gone to
school with my dad. They were both in the same grade and they were best
friends. James came from a rich, prominent family, and my dad’s parents were
hardworking Italian immigrants with little money but lots of ambition. Their
greatest wish for my dad had been a top quality education and a job as a lawyer
or a doctor. My dad had been really smart and had done well in school. He had
been a handsome man as well, so he had done well with the ladies. He seemingly
had the best life, aside from being poor, but that would have eventually
changed, because he was smart and there was hope that he would get a
scholarship to go to college. My dad signed up with James to take some college
entrance exam and they both took it at the River Valley Library with about thirty
other students. But the day after the test, it was discovered that some of the
tests and answers had been stolen. Someone anonymously reported that my dad had
stolen the exams. The school board and the colleges all believed the report
because my dad had near perfect scores. So he was kicked out of school. But
that hadn’t stopped him: he had decided to get a GED so he could at least get
into one college; even if he didn’t get a scholarship, he could get financial
aid. And he started tutoring students to make extra money, and that was when he
met Mom. He had fallen in love with her right away, but so had James. James
made a play for her, but my dad won her heart right away. Things were looking
up for him; he got another opportunity to take a college entrance exam, but the
night before he was to take the test, the police took him in for questioning. A
car had been stolen, and he had been identified as the thief. My dad thought
there had been a mistake. He didn’t understand why or how two such huge and
horrible incidents had been pinned on him. But then he found out it was James.
It had been James all along. James wasn’t as smart as dad, and he had stolen
the tests. He had also been mad about being rejected, so he had stolen a car
and left some of dad’s belongings in it. He’d gotten his cousin to pretend to
have seen dad stealing the car. Because James was from a prominent family, the
police believed everything he had said easily.

So that had ruined
dad’s chances. He hadn’t been able to go to college and get a loan or
scholarship because he had a record, and no one in River Valley would hire him
because of all the rumors saying he was a bad seed. Then one day Marty had
showed up and presented him an offer: steal cars and sell them to him. And my
dad took the offer. That was why he had never really spoken up to Marty. In
some weird way, he thought Marty had given him an opportunity to make a living.
I didn’t see it that way; I felt that Marty had made Dad’s life worse because
after my dad turned to that life, nothing was ever the same again. He married
my mom, and he had us kids, but he was never able to turn his life around. And
he blamed it all on James Wright. And when James became mayor, my dad became
obsessed. He took us to his house every week, and we would sit in the car and
listen to the story of how the mayor had ruined his life, and our lives as
well. And that it was us who should have been living on Manor Road. We just sat
and listened and grew to hate the mayor, not only for what he had done to Dad
in the past but what he had done to him now as well. We hated the mayor for
making us grow up with a father who was a violent drunk, and for making us lose
our mother, and for making our family the social outcasts of River Valley.

As I stared at the
ceiling, I knew what Jared had said was correct: this was possibly the best way
to get revenge on James Wright. Everyone in town knew how much he doted on his
daughter Maddison; there was nothing that was too much for her. I’d always
wondered who Maddison was, and I’d always imagined she would be a big bitch. I
hadn’t ever pictured someone like Maddie. I’d never thought that someone like
Maddie could come from someone like the mayor. She was too honest, too
vivacious, and too sweet. I groaned as I thought about her. I couldn’t allow
myself to be swept away by her charm. She was no one to me. She was just some
stupid girl, with a stupid crush and a James Dean, bad-boy fantasy. I was just
someone for her to live out her schoolgirl fantasies with. I didn’t owe her
anything. Why shouldn’t I get my revenge on her? I closed my eyes again and
thought about her sparkling eyes. Did I really hate the mayor that much that I
would want to hurt Maddie as well?

Chapter 6

Logan

It had been a week
since I had stolen the Toyota, and I had finally gotten a call from someone in
a town about an hour away. The offer had been low but they had been willing to
take the car without the title, and so there wasn’t much else I could say. The
only problem was that he wasn’t willing to come to River Valley to pick up the
car; he wanted me to drive it to him. I was loath to drive a stolen car an hour
away, but I needed the money from the sale. I had literally used all of my
money up paying the rent and had about fifteen dollars to my name until I sold
the car. I also knew that Vincent needed to get a textbook for a class, so I
had to take the risk.

I ran down the
stairs and grabbed a book to take with me for the bus ride back. My dad was in
the living room watching Judge Judy, and I walked by the room quickly, hoping
he didn’t call out to me. I didn’t have time to get into it with him.

“Hey.” I nodded at
Vincent and Jared as I walked into the kitchen. They were sitting together,
whispering, and I frowned. “What’s the big secret?”

“Nothing.” Jared
shrugged and looked away.

“Vincent?” I
looked at my other brother and his face flushed.

“Nothing,” he
sighed. “We were just wondering if we needed to go get a car.”

“What?”

“There’s no food.”
He nodded towards the fridge.

“I’ll get some
today.”

“With what?” Jared
turned around and looked at me hard. “I know you can’t have much money left,
you haven’t sold the Toyota yet.”

“I’m taking it
now.”

“We can’t continue
like this.” Jared looked at me and Vincent. “We need to make a change.”

“It’s not like we
can get any other job.” Vincent shrugged. “No one will hire us, the
Martelli
name is like death round here.”

“We can all move.”

“Where we going to
move to?” Jared hissed. “We have no money.”

“We’ll get out of
River Valley, and then we can have a fresh start.”

“You’ve been
saying that for years, Logan. And guess what? We’ll still here.” Jared slammed
his fist on the table.

“We’ll figure
something out once you and Vince get through college.”

“Stop calling it
college.” Jared’s eyes narrowed. “He’s a fucking freshman in a two-year school.
He’s not a senior at Harvard.”

“It’s better than
nothing.” I glared at Jared. “We got to break the cycle.”

“It’s not our
fault that it’s a cycle in the first place.” Jared glared back at me. “The
fucking mayor set Dad up, and he’s had us stealing with him since we were old
enough to walk.”

“We don’t want to
steal forever, do we?”

“I don’t know, do
you?”

“Guys.” Vincent
stood up and put his hands on our shoulders. “Don’t fight.”

“Why don’t you
grow a backbone,
Vinny
?” Jared pushed him. “I’m fed
up with this shit. Logan, you’re not doing anything. Have you even thought
about what we talked about?”

“I’m not going down
that road.” I shook my head. “Our issue is with the mayor, not his daughter.”

“What?” Vincent
looked at us, confused. “What are you guys talking about?”

“I’m talking about
the fact that the mayor’s daughter is in love with Logan, and he’s not taking advantage
of that fact, so we can get some motherfucking revenge on her dad.”

“Huh?” Vincent
looked at me, confused. “You met the Mayor’s daughter? How? When?”

“Why don’t you ask
your smartass brother? The one who set it up?” My voice rose. “Don’t try and play
a punk with me, Jared.”

“You
wanna
do something about it?” Jared stepped towards me, his
nostrils flaring.

“You don’t want me
to do anything about it.” I stepped towards him and stared into his eyes.

“Oh, yeah?” He
pushed me, and I made to push him back when the doorbell rang. We all froze and
stared at each other.

“Who the fuck is
that?” Jared’s eyes looked worried. “You paid the rent, right?”

“Yeah.” I walked
to the door slowly, fear in my heart. What if it was the police? What if they
came to arrest me for the Toyota? What if this was the time they finally
decided to arrest me? Maybe it was because I hadn’t contacted Marty. Marty had
some sort of deal with the police station and they never came to our house to
look for stolen cars. It was like a safe zone for us. We had to worry whenever
we were in the street with the car, but we never had to worry when we had it
parked at home.

“Don’t open it.”
Jared’s eyes were full of fear, but I gave him a confident smile.

“It’ll be okay.” I
nodded, took a deep breath and opened the door. “Hello?” I poked my head out,
and my heart skipped a beat as I saw Maddie standing there with a huge smiled
on her face.

“Hi,” she beamed
and pushed her hands forward. “I brought cookies.”

“What?” I frowned
and stepped outside the door quickly. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

“It’s nice to see
you again, too.” She smiled again, though less confidently this time.”

“What are you
doing here, Maddie?”

“I brought you a
peace offering.” She pushed the plate towards me again. “Chocolate chip, I hope
you like them.” I stared at the plate in her hands and blinked. I then looked
back into her face and she gave me an awkward smile. I noticed that her eyes
looked bluer than usual today. Her hair was pulled up into a ponytail, and she
looked like a younger and more innocent version of herself.

“I’m on my way
out.” I shook my head. “Sorry.”

“Okay.” She bit
her lower lip. “I guess I’ll be going then.” She turned around and I watched
her walk away from me quickly.

“Wait,” I called after
her. “Why did you come over?”

“Does it matter?”
She turned to look at me.

“I guess not,” I
walked up. “But seeing as you’re here, you may as well tell me.”

“I wanted to see
if you changed your mind.”

“Changed my mind?”

“About being
friends.”

“Ha, friends.” I
laughed at her words but felt the disappointment in the pit of my stomach.

“I guess that’s a
no then.” She turned away from me again.

“I guess it
depends on the cookies.” I reached out and grabbed her arm. “If the cookies are
good, then we can be friends.”

“So the cookies
will make the decision for you then?”

“Yeah, problem
with that?”

“I put Betty
Crocker to shame, so no.” She smirked at me as she handed me a big, gooey
cookie and I took it from her slowly, allowing my fingers to graze hers softly.
She stared into my eyes as I ate the cookie, and she laughed when I finished it
off quickly.

“You’re a messy
eater.” She laughed.

“Oh?”

“You have crumbs
everywhere.”

“I do?”

“Yes.” She leaned
towards me and her tongue darted out and licked the corners of my mouth. “There
we go, all clean.”

“Thank you.” My
breath caught as I felt her breath on my mouth, the corners of my mouth still
tingling from her touch.

“No problem.”

“It’s nice to have
friends who look out for you.”

“I agree.”

“I guess you just
had a cookie as well, huh?” I smiled at her and raised my eyebrows.

She shook her
head. “No, why?”

“’’Cause you have
crumbs all over your mouth as well.”

“I do?” She ran
her fingers across her lips and then looked at them. “I don’t see any crumbs.”

“I think you’re
lying.”

“Oh?”

“I think you just
had a cookie.”

“I’m sorry to tell
you, but I didn’t.”

“I need proof.” I
said.

“I’m not sure how
to prove that.”

“There’s only one
way.” I stepped towards her and grabbed ahold of her waist and pulled her
towards me before leaning down to kiss her. My tongue pried her lips open and I
explored her mouth, allowing my tongue to taste every inch of her. She kissed
me back passionately, running her hands up and down my back. I ran my hands
down the back of her hair and back and to her butt, pulling her even closer to
me.

“Hey, what’s going
on?” Jared called out to me from the front door and I jumped away from Maddie
quickly.

“Nothing.” I shook
my head.

“Hi, Jared.”
Maddie waved to him. “I brought some cookies over.”

“Hi, Maddie.”
Jared grinned and walked towards us. He stared into my eyes as if asking a
question, and I looked away from him.

“Maddie was just
leaving,” I said pointedly.

“
Aww
, I don’t want to leave.” She grinned up at me.

“Why does she have
to leave, Logan? I’d love for her to stay.”

“I’m afraid I have
to go out of town today.”

“Oh.” Maddie gave
me a disappointed look. “For a long amount of time?”

“Not really.”

“Why are you
going?”

“None of your
business.” I frowned at her and turned. “You should go home.” My voice was
unnecessarily harsh, but I didn’t want Jared to get any ideas into his head
that I had changed my mind.

“But I don’t want
to go home.”

“No one invited
you over. Didn’t you know it was rude to just show up at someone’s home?”

“I came with a
peace offering.” She glared at me.

“Why don’t you
take her with you, Logan?” Jared interrupted us. “I’m sure Maddie would love to
join you, for a
ride
.”

“Where are you
going?”

“He’s going to
sell the car.”

“Oh, you got
another car?” Maddie looked at me in surprise. “What did you get this time?”

“I didn’t get
another car.” I shook my head. “I’m selling the Toyota.”

“Oh? I thought you
would have sold it already.”

“Well, obviously
not.”

“We had to switch
guys.” Jared smiled widely at Maddie. He was a good actor. Anyone would think
he really liked her, to see the way he was treating her, but I knew
differently. I know he was trying to ensure that I continued to see her, so
that I could break her heart and exact some revenge.

“Guys?” She looked
confused.

“Marty, the guy we
used to sell to, well, let’s just say we don’t sell to him anymore.”

“Marty?” Maddie
looked at us considering. “My dad knows a Marty, I wonder if it’s the same
guy.”

“Doubtful.” Jared
smiled at her again. “A stand-up guy like your dad wouldn’t know the Marty we
deal with.”

“Yeah, true.” She
nodded.

“It must be nice
being the mayor’s daughter,” he continued. “Living the life of luxury.”

“If you’re asking
if I’m daddy’s little girl, then I guess I have to say yes.” She laughed and groaned.
“Though he can be a little out of control sometimes. It’s like he thinks
everyone is out to get me. He doesn’t like to let me out of his sight.” She
shook her head. “He’s terribly overprotective.”

“Well, that must
suck for you.” Jared looked sympathetic. “I guess he knows that he’s a target,
being a successful businessman and all.”

“Yeah, poor Daddy.”
Maddie sighed. “Oh well, he seems to finally be loosening the strings.”

“That’s good.
Though, I’m sure it would break his heart if anything happened to you.”

“Yeah.” She
grinned. “That’s dads for you, you have to love them.”

“Yeah, we love our
dad too.” Jared slapped me on the back. “Well, I better get back in and finish
eating breakfast. It was nice seeing you again, Maddie. I sure hope you can
convince Logan to take you with him. I think you’d both have fun.” And with
that he sauntered back up to the house with me glaring at his back.

“Your brother is
so nice.” Maddie laughed up at me. “And he is super cute.”

“You have a crush
on him as well?” I said harsher than I intended.

“What? No.” She
blushed, and looked away from me. “And what do you mean on him as well?”

“Well, don’t you
have a crush on me?” I looked at her arrogantly. “Haven’t you had a crush on me
for a while?”

“I— what? Who told
you that?” Her face grew red, and a part of me was happy to have the answer
confirmed.

“Joey and his
sister aren’t exactly the best people to keep secrets.”

“Argh, I’ll kill
Lucy.” She shook her head. “And it was a teenage crush, I don’t have it
anymore.”

“Oh, no?” I smirked.
“Really?”

“Really,” she
flung her hair over her shoulder. “I’m wiser now.”

“Yeah, you’re
wiser.” I laughed out loud and shook my head. “Well, are you coming or not?” I
turned around and walked to the Toyota.

“Where are we
going?” She hurried after me.

“To sell this
car.”

“You just sell
it?” She looked shocked. “Don’t they ask to see your papers?”

“They know there
are no papers.” I grinned at her, all of a sudden feeling lightheaded.

“Oh.” She licked
her lips and I could tell she was nervous. “Do you mind if I come?”

“Not if you don’t
mind taking the bus back.”

“I don’t mind.”

“Then hop in.” I
jumped into the car and started the engine as she slid into the passenger seat.
I looked over at her, and she smiled at me with her plate of cookies sitting in
her lap. She looked beautiful and innocent, so unlike she had the first night
she had gotten into the car. I stared at her, my eyes taking in the dimple in
her left cheek and the way her lips had a natural curve when she wasn’t even speaking.
I looked further down her and tried not to stare at the swell of her breasts
and the small rising of her chest.

“What are you
waiting for? Aren’t we going?” She grinned at me excitedly.

“One would think
you’d never been in a stolen car before.”

“One would think
you’d never had a girl in a stolen car with you before.”

“Then one would be
thinking incorrectly.”

“I see.” She
turned away from me quickly, and her tone sounded hurt. Good, I didn’t want her
to know that she was the first girl I’d had in a stolen car with me, and the
first girl I had been on a drop with. It was crazy, and she was the last person
I should be taking with me, but I couldn’t help myself.
Bad move, Logan
, a voice in my head whispered.
Bad move
. But it wasn’t a bad move if I listened to Jared and his
suggestions. Maybe I was doing this because subconsciously I wanted to hurt
her. I’d teach her a lesson, and she would be crushed. And then she’d be home
and crying and the mayor would be beside himself.
But what would that do?
The voice whispered again, a little
heartbreak wasn’t going to do anything to the mayor. How many times had she
cried over a guy before? I’m sure she’d had her share of dalliances and
heartbreaks. She certainly wasn’t some innocent little
virgin,
that
was for sure.