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“I’m getting out of here.” That much I can promise.
* * *
Itwirl the burner phone in the privacy of my bedroom. It’s the only place we’re given privacy, and yes, I checked everywhere. Jack and I are supposed to share this room like we’re in some sort of arranged marriage from the eighteen hundreds. But it’s a world better than that facility. It took three showers to wash the prophylactic stench from me. I was relieved to see my father when he came to retrieve me, and wasn’t that sobering? Glad to see my captor. A shiver runs through me.
My back aches from sleeping on the floor. I can only imagine the knots twisting in Logan’s stomach. When this is over—because it will be—I want to be able to tell him that I didn’t sleep in the same bed as Jack.
“What if Stanley forgets me, Rhett? We usually talk every night, and I tell him Jack misses him and that I’ll be home soon,” Jack says. “But it’s been a whole week of silence from me.”
“Why aren’t you referring to yourself as Daddy, Jack?”
“Well, because?—”
“No. You need to stop that. Mercy needs to stop it too.” They’re so fucking weird about that.
Jack rubs the back of his neck. He’s sitting on the sofa, playing with the rim of a hat that he claims doesn’t belong to him, even though it does. It’s just not his lucky hat, which he forgot at his New York apartment for the first time in his life. He cites that as the reason we were taken by my father.
We’re in my other New York apartment, fresh off last night’s game, waiting to be shipped to Vancouver. The noisy city bustles below us, but we can’t hear it with all the windows shut. I was looking forward to bringing Logan here and showing him the view. It’s especially awe-inducing when it snows. I miss Logan so damn much. The next time we’re together, I’m putting a ring on his finger and no one’s stopping me.
“I feel like an imposter,” he says. “And I think Merc does too, but you’re right. I’m regretting every time I didn’t say it now. I wouldn’t regret if I had.”
The phone in my hand rings, and my heart beats too quickly. Will it be Logan? What do I say if it is? I’m a failure. I doubt he thinks any of this is real, but it still proves that I couldn’t defeat my father for him.
Like I promised I would.
The least you can do is pick up the phone, Elkington.“Hello?”
“Baby?”
“Lo. Fuck. I’m sorry.”
“Sorry for being abducted by your dick dad? No way. You take that back.”
“Fine. I take it back and you’re moving your shit into my apartment as soon as this is over.”
“It’s not gonna be over if you don’t calm down a second. Look, we have a plan, but if we don’t succeed, I wanted you to know that I understand if you have to give in to your dad’s demands, alright?”
His voice breaks, which means it’s not really okay. My anger for my father reaches a breaking point.
“Jack and I are not having sex, baby.”
“Whoa, sex? Does that asshole want you to fuck Jack? God, no. I don’t care if you have to set your dick on fire to prevent that. Your dick is mine and only mine, Rhett. I meant a kiss, gorilla. I know you might have to kiss him.”
In some ways, Logan is so innocent. That’s not okay with him either, but I may not be able to avoid that one. “Remember that my kisses for you are special. I don’t kiss anyone else the way I kiss you.”
“I know,” he says, with a watery voice that pierces my guts. “The smell’s wearing out of your jersey.”
“You’ve been wearing it?”
“When I’m at home, so no one sees.”
“Don’t you worry. When we’re back together, you’ll be so full of my juices you’ll smell like me forever.”
“Rhett,” Jack complains.
Logan laughs. “One more thing. Our plan involves knowing your dad’s Rogers Arena box suite information, can you text it to me with the burner phone?”
“I’m supposed to take care of you.” I don’t like having to be the one on the receiving end of valiance. I want to be Logan’s knight.
