Remorseless (Fractured Farrells: A Damaged Billionaire Series Book 3) (14 page)

There was no wait at the restaurant, and they were seated right away. “Can I ask you something?” said Julie once the waitress left with their drink orders.

“Shoot.”

She fidgeted in the booth. She hadn’t taken off Logan’s jacket and strangely enough didn’t want to. It was warm in the restaurant, but the leather jacket was oddly comfortable. “Why aren’t you worried?”

Logan didn’t seem nearly as awkward as she did. He leaned back in the booth as if he had been there thousands of times before. He wore one of his new shirts, a black sweater that was just a few shades darker than his hair and made his eyes seem even brighter. But she wasn’t trying to ask him about his looks. “Why aren’t you more afraid?”

His expression got serious. “You mean about the guys following us?”

“No. The story. I told you that a tabloid is about to spread Brandon Willis’s story all over the country, if not the world, and you haven’t asked me a thing about it.”

“Oh, that thing.”

“Yes, that thing.” The thing that hadn’t allowed her to get any sleep last night and had her running around all morning to try to fix it.

“You made it sound like it was going to happen no matter what.”

“It was like pulling teeth to get you to tell me a thing and now the entire world is going to know.”

“I’m busy. Someone tried to kill you. I’m lucky Alecia is helping me at all. If the truth comes out, I’m not happy about it, but there’s nothing I can do.”

Julie leaned forward. “But there’s something I can do. If you let me do my job, we can—”

“You can do it in a way that won’t get in the way of my investigation?”

Her jaw dropped. “Your investigation! Logan, you’re in no way qualified or prepared to investigate anything, let alone people who have proved on more than one occasion that they’re not above murder. There are people, smart people, who your family has connections with. If you just let me—”

“What makes you think it’s not the family?”

“What?”

“My family are the ones who got me arrested in the first place. Walter wouldn’t be above making sure no one ever found out he was the one who arranged the deals they pinned on me.”

“You’re going through all this trouble to prove that a dead guy tried to kill you?”

“Walter had a lot of enemies. He’s just one of the possibilities.”

“Have you ever considered that running around the country without telling any of your brothers where you are is actually dangerous? If you were in the limelight, you could be safer.”

“I thought your job was to keep me out of the limelight.”

She sighed. “It’s to keep you out of the spotlight for dangerous things. Like whoring and boozing and, you know, killing prison guards.”

“Julie, I—” He broke off as the waitress showed up with their drinks. Julie hadn’t looked at the menu at all, so she just ordered eggs and toast. Logan, unsurprisingly, ordered the countryman breakfast with every type of meat possibly served at breakfast. As soon as the waitress was out of earshot, he leaned forward. “What do you want me to do?”

“Come back to New York. Talk to your brothers.”

“I’m not doing that.”

Julie rubbed her temples. “Robert and Alex have been working like mad to clean up the family’s reputation, and if this article gets out—”

“Fuck the family. They’ll survive and I’m not going to feel bad for even one second. This is my problem and my problem only.”

No.
This was her reputation on the line too and he damn well knew it. “You’re being a little—”

“I’m being a little what, Julie? I dare you to finish that sentence.”

“You dare me?”

“I’m looking forward to you trying to change my mind. Go ahead.”

Julie sat back in her seat and looked at her phone, checking the time. It was still early, but maybe she could move the schedule up. Apparently playing Logan’s happy companion was harder than she anticipated, no matter how comfortable his jacket was.

And Logan might be looking forward to seeing what she had planned, but once he learned the truth, there would be no more jokes. Just one furious billionaire.

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L
ogan rushed through breakfast. He kind of had to since he’d ordered so much more food than Julie had, but he didn’t like being cornered with her any longer. The way she looked at him as if ...as if she was waiting for him to change his mind.

He thought about what she said. About hiring someone to help. Maybe he couldn’t trust the family to help, but he trusted Julie. She could find someone to look into Brandon Willis for him.

After breakfast, she had remained mostly quiet. She only commented on the things around him and seemed to drop the argument. But he didn’t peg Julie as the type to give up easily, so her silence on the subject worried him more than calmed him.

It was only when they were well into Denver’s historical downtown district that she mentioned anything at all. “So do you know anything about this Brandon Willis guy then? Or is this entire homegrown investigation of yours based off what you hope his sister can tell you?”

“You mean what little I got done while I was locked up?”

She rolled her eyes. “Come on, Logan. Please tell me you’re not wildly chasing answers that might not exist anymore.”

“I already know some likely suspects.”

“Besides your family?”

“Besides Walter.” He didn’t know his brothers that well, but he didn’t want to think that they were in on what Walter was doing. For his own peace of mind, or what little peace he could get, he had always kept Walter separate.

“Did you have a list of enemies?” Julie moved to avoid someone walking toward them and he reached out to put an arm around her back before he stopped himself. Julie was still wearing his jacket and her short little dress. Now that he was willing to share some of the things he’d been trying to keep from her, it was harder to compartmentalize. She was a beautiful woman normally, but seeing her wearing his jacket caused a possessiveness he didn’t know existed to course through his veins.

“I was still fresh out of college when Walter set me up. I hadn’t been around long enough to rack up too many.” Julie looked skeptical, so he continued before she could call bullshit. “I’m not saying everyone liked me. But we’re talking hating me enough to blackmail someone to kill me anger.”

“Could be a really, really, really angry husband of one of your girlfriends.”

“I didn’t sleep with that many married women.”

Julie stopped in her tracks. “I was kidding! You’ve slept with—”

He reached out for her hand and tugged her along. “It was a long time ago.”

“Okay then. Besides the jilted husbands, who else might be upset?”

“You know I was convicted of insider trading. How much do you know about the company’s stocks that were involved in the deal?”

“Honestly, I read the details in some article, but nothing really stuck. One of the partners of the company was leaving, I think. Farrell Enterprises sold all the stock before the announcement. Before the stocks tanked.”

Huh. That was more than most people knew.
He’d had to teach every cellmate he’d ever had after his transfer what insider trading was. “The thing about it was that not even the other partners at the company knew the head was about to step down. The guy was a young hotshot who made the mistake of sleeping with Walter’s fourth wife.”

“Nathan’s mother?”

“The one after her. About the time he learned that the kids equal more money in the divorce. Walter would sleep with anyone dumb enough to be impressed with lots of money and a horrible personality, but he was pissed when he found out about Nadia’s side business. So he immediately had divorce papers drawn up and set out to ruin the guy she slept with. The reason he knew he was leaving the company was because he made it happen.”

“Walter told you this?”

“Hell no. He didn’t tell me a thing. But I was able to piece it together during the trial preparations and the divorce. The company never recovered and ended up closing doors not long after. We’re talking millions of dollars lost by powerful people.”

“You sound pretty sure it’s them. Why bother dragging Alecia into this at all?”

“Because four guys—Peter McKenzie, Ben Brody, Adam Donovan, and Tate Gallagher—were owners. It was a software start-up that would’ve made bank if it took off. Peter handled financing, Ben handled the technical side, Adam handled marketing and organizing the start-up process, and Tate was the main guy who acted as CEO and the face of the company.”

Julie came to a stop in front of one of the old and ornate cathedrals, but she didn’t let go of his hand. “So Tate is the one who pissed Walter off.”

“You guessed?”

“People like to assume that the face of a company does more than they do. I can see if Tate left suddenly why investors would get scared. Especially if it was a new and potentially risky investment in the first place.” Julie's brow furrowed as she thought about it for a moment. “So why make such a big deal about your brothers betraying you and being behind everything if you always suspected it was one of these four?”

“Let’s go out to dinner.”

A concerned look came over her face. “It’s barely lunch time.”

“Not now. Tonight. You and me, somewhere that is more expensive than our hotel room. A proper date.”

“A date? Are you trying to distract me so I don’t ask you any more questions?”

He cocked his head. “No. I’m trying to go on a date with you.”

“Two nights ago, you didn’t even—”

“I didn’t want to fuck you in some random hotel room right after what happened. Things are different now.”

Julie reached into the pocket of his jacket with her free hand and pulled out her phone, looking at something on the screen before she put it back. “I wish you would’ve waited to ask me this.”

He didn’t know what to think. Sure, they hadn’t always gotten along, but she’d sure as hell responded to him two nights ago. She was a beautiful woman, and he was horny as hell with a seemingly endless stream of X-rated fantasies starring his own Julie Anne. He knew he was out of practice, but it seemed logical that when two single people liked each other, they would date. “Do you have a boyfriend or—”

“Logan, I—” She broke off and her gaze seemed to go past him, to something over his shoulder. He started to turn to see what she was staring at, but then Julie stepped forward, and, wrapping her fingers in his shirt, she pulled him close and kissed him.

It didn’t make any sense, but Logan didn’t think twice before he kissed her back. He didn’t give a damn whether they were on a crowded street or whether she was working for his family.

Julie put herself fully into the kiss, and she pressed herself tightly against his body, pushing hard enough that he turned a bit. He set an arm around her waist and took his time as he savored her taste. His body demanded that he push her up against the nearest building and hike that short skirt up until he could do whatever he wanted to her, but he knew they were in public. He forced himself to pull away before he did something he knew they’d both regret. Once he got her back to the hotel though...all bets were off.

Something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye and, as if he were in a flashback from his old life, there was some jackass with a camera, snapping photos. And not just any camera. A nice one, like a...
fuck
. He took off running toward the reporter but Julie grabbed his arm and held him back. “I need to get the—” He looked back at her and her somber expression made him stop. “What happened?”

“Logan, I need to explain.”

He pulled his arm away. “You knew he was going to be here. You called a reporter? You’re supposed to keep me out of the fucking papers.”

She tightened her lips. “I’m here to keep negative things about you out of the papers.”

“And how is me making out with you supposed to help anything?”

She averted her eyes, and he knew there was more he wasn’t getting. Then he looked up and around, and for the first time that day, he actually saw things. Things he’d missed continuously throughout the morning. Her white dress. They’d stopped in front of a church.
She’d arranged to have them photographed kissing outside a church.

The hotel room.

“What. Did. You. Do?”

“I fixed a problem. I am keeping you and Brandon Willis’s family safe from that story by giving the papers a better one.”

“How the hell is this better than murder?”

“It’s a secret marriage of one of the most scandalous, richest men in the world. Most importantly, it’s current and provable.”

“Provable? It didn’t happen. Unless you...”

“No!” Julie shook her head and set a calming hand on his arm that didn’t do a damn thing to calm him. “Everything is fake. I’m not after your money or anything. This is only to help you.”

“Help me?” He clenched his jaw. “You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”

“Logan, I know you’re upset, but—”

It was his turn to grab her and turn her around to lead her back in the direction of the hotel. “Today is over,” he said.

Julie was quiet and she kept up with his pace. Maybe she did feel bad, but Logan could barely control his rage. He’d allowed her to follow him around. He’d told her the truth when it went against every instinct he had. And this was what he got in return. She wasn’t his friend. She wasn’t going to be his girlfriend.