TWIN PASSIONS: (A Logan Brothers Novel) (7 page)

“
Hey fuck you Zack, you're
meant to be helping me out here. You know I haven't had serious
girlfriends like you. This is all a bit new to me.”

His laugh died down and his
voice went serious again, deflating suddenly. “So this
is...serious?”

“
Well, if not it's as close as
I've ever got. Yeah, OK, I don't have a fucking pussy sensitive girly
side like you, but that doesn't mean I don't like the girl. I'm just
not that good at showing it.”

“
Mate, look, it's really quite
simple. Talk. Talk to her and tell her what's going on. That's all
girls want really – for you to talk to them and tell them the
truth.”

My cell suddenly began buzzing
in my pocket as he spoke and I reached in to pull it out.

“
Oh shit, speak of the devil!”

It was Gem.

“
Fuck, what shall I do?” I
asked quickly, “I can't answer here.”

“
Well go outside then.” He
sounded kinda annoyed.

“
All right, I'll be back in a
minute.”

I stood quickly and rushed
towards the exit as the phone buzzed in my hand for the third time.
The last thing I wanted to do was answer in a strip club. That would
kind of back up the things I'd been saying the other night. Foot
firmly in mouth.

I rushed through the door and up
the stairs towards the door, picking up the phone and trying to calm
my breath as I answered.

“
Gemma, how are you?” I said
as formally as possible, making sure I didn't sound out of breath
from my short burst to the door.

“
I'm good Cade, yeah, I'm OK.
Are you at the gym or something?”

“
Err, no, why?”

“
You sound like you're panting
and I can hear music in the background.”

Fuck it.

“
Um, yeah, I'm just having a
drink with Zack.”

“
Zack?”

“
Yeah, Zack.”
Was that so
hard to believe?

“
OK, well I just wanted to
call about Friday. I'm sorry about all that, I shouldn't have reacted
like I did.”

Fuck yeah, I win!
“Yeah,
I'm sorry too. I was a total dick, I guess it was the adrenaline of
the fight and all that.”

Be the bigger man. Good
advice Zack.

“
So, we should get together
and talk I suppose? Dinner tomorrow?”

I felt a huge sense of relief
surging through my body. Maybe she meant more to me than I realized.

“
That'd be great babe. I'll
come pick you up from your apartment at 8ish. Does that work?”

“
That's great, yeah. I'll see
you then.”

“
OK baby, sweet dreams.”

I hung up the phone and went
back down into the club to see Zack up at the bar ordering a drink.

“
So it went well then?” he
said, noticing the beaming smile on my face.

“
Well you could sound at least
a little happy for me bro! What, jealous that it's me with the proper
girlfriend for once!” I joked, gesturing to the waitress to fetch
me another whiskey.

One more won't hurt.

He didn't seem overly pleased by
the comment. Well screw him, he always seemed to be in a bad mood
these days.

“
Right mate, time to
celebrate.”

I raised my hand to usher over
the hottest stripper I could see. “You got time for a private
showing honey,” I said as she approached.
Fuck she was hot.

“
For Cade Logan, absolutely.”

My smile widened further. It was
great to be me right now.

“
You can do my brother next,”
I said, winking over at Zack.

He was shaking his head, this
disapproving look in his eye.

“
What about Gem?” he asked.

I shrugged my shoulders. “What,
this is nothing. Just a dance, right?” I said, turning my attention
back to the stripper.

“
For now,” she said, licking
her lips.

“
See bro,” I said, turning
again to Zack, “look, but don't touch!”

Present Day

Gemma

I watched on nervously as Martha
Banks' eyes casually rolled over the page, an impassive look on her
face. She was frowning lightly, shaking her head in places as she
read.

“
This isn't really what we're
looking for Gemma,” she said after several awkward minutes of
silence.

“
What do you mean?”

“
Well, quite frankly, this is
boring. OK, so we get to know a bit more about Branton's new favorite
son, but there's no edge to it, no spice. I want some drama,
something that's going to get people talking. This isn't it.”

I knew it, I just knew that's
what she'd say.

She leaned back in her seat
behind her pristine white desk and placed the paper to one side.

“
Gemma, are you serious about
becoming a journalist?”

“
Of course,” I said quickly,
“it's what I've always wanted. I want it more than anything.”

“
Well then, you need to be a
little more cutthroat, more ruthless. Our readers want to know about
people, warts and all. That Logan family must be teeming with juicy
stories. I want you to find one for me, find something involving
Cade, link it to his boxing somehow. It's what the job's all about.”

“
But...”

“
I know what you're going to
say. He's your boyfriend, right? You're struggling with the moral
dilemma of betraying him aren't you. Well, that's totally
understandable, it really is. So, let's compromise shall we?”

“
Compromise? How?”

She took a long breath.

“
No one has to know of your
involvement, Gemma. You find the sort of story I'm looking for, and
we'll publish it under someone else's name.”

“
So what, I do all the work
and someone else gets the credit?”

“
Yes,” she said bluntly.
“Remember, you're doing this to secure a promotion, not to put your
name to a great story. Once you're in your new role you'll have
plenty of opportunity to build a name for yourself, but this one
we'll keep on the down-low, OK?”

Jesus, the world of journalism
was clearly more callous than I thought. I guess I could handle
digging into things in general, but with Cade? I wasn't so sure.

I had tried to bring it up over
dinner earlier in the week, when we'd sat down to smooth things over.
We talked about the extra attention he was getting, how he was
getting more famous in town by the day. Even nationally, his profile
was growing, with boxing agents and promoters beginning to take
notice of his successes.

He told me, as he had often, how
my presence had helped him get to where he was and how he really
cared about me. He'd literally never spoken to me about his feelings
before, so I was pretty taken aback.

I told him that people would
want to know more about him now, that they'd want to hear his story.
He said he wasn't interested, that his brother Crash had warned him
of the attention that might come his way and how he should shun it
completely.

“
But what about just a story
about your boxing career so far and how you got into the sport,” I
asked during dinner. “That's not too personal is it?”

He shook his head. “I don't
really care if people know about me or not. I just want to
box and get my shot, that's all.”

“
But I know that our magazine
would love to do a short piece on you. You know our readership is
pretty much all women? Well, they'd love to know about their new
pin-up.”

He stayed closed off to the
idea, and strangely uncomfortable at the mention of him being a
pin-up and a growing sex symbol in town and even beyond. It was
probably a sore spot after our fight the other night and he wouldn't
want to stoke the fire, especially after how I'd reacted. But then,
there was a whole other reason for that...

“
So, would you write the
piece?” he asked after a few moments of quiet thought.

“
Of course,” I said quickly.

“
And do you think it would
help your career?”

“
Yes, definitely.”
More
than you know.

“
Gemma, you've helped me and
I'd like to help you. If it's going to be good for your career then I
guess, maybe, I could do an interview or something, talk a bit about
my boxing career so far.”

My face began to light up.

“
But nothing too personal,
nothing about my family, OK?” he continued, being sure to temper my
enthusiasm.

I nodded. “OK, yeah that's
fine. Would you really do that for me Cade? Give me an exclusive?”

He thought for a moment. “I
doubt that Crash will be too pleased but, sure, I'll do it for you.”

“
Babe, you have no idea what
that means to me!” I exclaimed loudly. “That's great news!”

But it wasn't great news, not in
the end. Not if Martha Banks didn't see it as such.

The paper in front of Mrs Banks
listed that proposal – the option of an exclusive interview with
Cade Logan about his boxing career. It was the proposal that she'd
just dismissed, the only real option I had.

So, I was back to square one.

“
Gemma, you need to think very
carefully about this and realize that you've got a great opportunity
here. Please don't think me so callous as to not see the moral
dilemma you're in. I know this is hard, especially if you care for
the boy.”

She took a break to take a drag
of her electronic cigarette before continuing.

“
However, you must also see
that I am giving you every chance to distance yourself from this
entire thing. Cade and his family will never need to know you were
involved.”

Bullshit. Total bullshit. Who
else would have supplied the information except me?

“
With all due respect Mrs
Banks, I think they'll probably see though it and know that it was
me.”

She smiled wide. “That really
depends on the spin you put on things and the story you end up with.
You'll soon realize that there are always ways of distancing yourself
from something, if you wish to.”

“
Look Gemma,” she continued,
“I'm giving you a lot of slack here, and you're getting
preferential treatment for this promotion. My generosity has its
limits. Don't let me down, or you may just find that not getting this
promotion is the least of your concerns.”

Generosity! Yeah, right. I knew
she just wanted to sell more magazines. It was all she ever wanted.
She was using me more than I was using her, and she was the one
holding all the cards.

“
I understand, Mrs Banks, and
thank you for this opportunity.” I left a hint of sarcasm in my
voice for effect. “I'll see what I can do.”

3 Months Ago

Zack

I sat in prime position at the
main table in the center of the hall, several others dotted around
me. To my right sat Cade, and next to him, Gemma. I'd seen her a
couple of times with Cade over the last few months, but never alone,
and always briefly.

Despite it being my birthday, I
felt awkward and uncomfortable. A feeling that used to plague me in
my youth was once again bubbling up inside, that biting cold of
living in Cade's shadow. His boxing career had recently been going
from strength to strength, and the sight of Gemma on his arm was
strangely upsetting for me to witness.

I hadn't spoken to him about her
at all since he'd stumbled upon us as at dad's funeral, all except
the odd comment from him about their burgeoning sex life. The thought
gnawed at me like a rat.

He didn't know that I'd known
her when I was younger, that we'd been close friends. I doubt she'd
mentioned it either, given that he hadn't said anything. I had begun
to wonder, as the days and weeks went by, why that was the case.

Now I sat there, my brothers all
around me at the central table at our formal birthday dinner, and
once more I felt the spotlight inexorably gravitating towards Cade.
About a week ago he'd had yet another successful fight, and it was
one of the hot topics of the night, everyone wanting to hear more
about it.

They were also interested to
hear about the girl sitting to his right and whether they were an
item or not. He was coy about it, not wanting it to become public
knowledge, and made that clear to anyone who asked.

During dinner I shared several
glances with Gem, finding it hard not to look at her too often. We
spoke the odd comment to each other, but mainly as part of a group
conversation. It was weird pretending that I didn't know her when
we'd spent so much time together before. I feared that after a few
drinks something would slip out that would give the game away.