Page 39 of Twisted Love

Joe and his buddies hadn’t just been drunk that night. They’d snorted one too many lines of coke and were out of their minds. The way Joe had growled at her, hissed at her that she’d be next if she didn’t shut up, had truly frightened her. Joe was a prick on good days, on coke he was another beast entirely. One she didn’t want to poke too much.

Her cries of protest had died down and they’d eventually let the kid go. He hadn’t been crying, he’d been screaming. Keily thought it must be the pain, but she knew it was humiliation too. She’d looked away as Joe dragged her to his car, wondering how she was going to get into her house without her key.

And she’d lived with that memory locked away ever since.

Eugene.

That had been the boy’s name. Eugene Baumgarten. Not Logan Sinclair.

But as he pulled his pants over his ass and turned around to put his shirt on, Keily saw it. The anger in his eyes, the features that had morphed from a boy’s features to a man’s.

“Eugene?” Even as she questioned him, she knew it couldn’t be. He’d have said something, wouldn’t he? Shock washed over her as Logan smirked.

“Noticed that finally, have you?” He put his shirt on, a cold smirk on his face. “I guess that’s about all the explanation you need then. Oh, by the way, we’re done, Keily. Have a nice life. I won’t be in it anymore.”

“What? Logan, wait.” She rushed from the bed, not caring that she was a mess. She needed to stop him as he walked out of the bedroom.

“No, Keily. That’s it. We’re done.” He came to a sudden halt in her hallway and turned to face her. “I’ll let you keep the apartment and the car, but otherwise? We’re done. Now please, don’t make this about you and let me go.”

“But…” She stared up at him. The man who’d gazed up at her with complete adoration in his eyes only a few minutes ago now stared down at her with cold…emptiness. She’d been a part of the reason he was like that. Whether she’d tried to stop it or not, she hadn’t, and she’d lived with the man that had done it. She’d married him, to make it even worse.

There was nothing she could say to take it back. To make it better. She couldn’t make him stay. Not after what they’d done to him.

Her mouth closed and he turned away. She heard his footsteps as he walked away, heard the sound of the door closing. It was over.

She went back to her bed, crawled in, and pulled the covers over her head. Tears streamed down her face and sobs broke the silence, but she wasn’t aware of it.

Emptiness, loss consumed her for hours. Her phone buzzed, she remembered for a moment that she was supposed to meet Rosa for breakfast but didn’t care. Logan was gone and gone for good.

Her heart was truly broken now. She’d spent the last few weeks almost positive it was over. Then, when he hadn’t shown up last week as he’d promised, she’d been even more certain. She’d learned about the earthquake, saw the damage on her television screen, and had breathed a sigh of relief. It had struck that night he didn’t show up. He must have flown out to get there immediately.

Logan’s employees were incredibly important to him and she’d read that his was one of the buildings that collapsed. She’d excused his absence, his lack of communication and when he slid into her bed late last night, she’d been too glad that he was there to be angry. Instead of telling him to get out she simply accepted his presence with a sigh of happiness.

He was back, all would be well. When he’d woken her up to the sweetest touch she’d ever known, she’d felt hope spring to life. They could get past whatever had kept him away. They could make this work. They could be together, have a future.

If she’d known that was the last time that she’d ever touch him she’d have spent more time memorizing his body, she’d have made it last a little longer. She hadn’t known, though. She never suspected who he was, never even wondered about how he could be from King’s Hill, but she had no idea who he was.

When he first arrived, she hadn’t known that he was from the area, but she’d gleaned that information from things he said. It just never occurred to her to ask him why she didn’t recognize him. Why she didn’t know his name.

She still didn’t know where he got the name Logan Sinclair from but knew it must be his legal name now because it was the one he signed on all his legal documents. He must have had it changed, well, obviously he had, she thought as she sat up and swiped at her face with the towel that had been wrapped around her hair when she fell asleep the night before.

He was that poor boy that Joe had assaulted. The one she’d walked away from without a backward glance. Every now and then the memory would try to surface but as the years passed, she’d managed to bury it deeper and deeper. Joe had replaced it with more bad memories, she’d learned to stand up to him over time, and eventually, she’d walked away from him.

Joe never mentioned that night, or Eugene, and Keily wondered now if Joe even remembered it. Probably not. He’d dropped her at home and gone out to raise more hell with his buddies. He probably didn’t remember anything about that night at all.

Was that why Logan came back? To get revenge on Joe? To make him pay for what he’d done? There was no better revenge than success, or so she’d heard one too many times. Logan, Eugene, had certainly become a success. He’d brought life back to a town that had given him nothing but pain and humiliation. Because it wasn’t just that night that had brought misery to that kid.

Joe and his friends had tormented him for as long as Keily could remember. Even she’d said snide things to him when Joe was around, just to get a smile from the jerk. To feed his already massive ego. Not that hers hadn’t been huge as well, she’d been no angel when it came to that.

Had Logan known who she was from the start? He had to, everyone knew her name back then, knew who she was. Was that why he’d hired her without too many questions? Why he’d tormented her until she broke down and quit?

Yeah, he’d wanted to sleep with her, that was mutual, but he’d been an absolute jerk to her, and she’d hung on until she couldn’t take any more. Then she’d become his mistress.

Humiliation washed over her as she thought over the last few months. He must have known who she was all along, then. This must have been part of his plan.

Had she just been some revenge fuck? A way for Logan, Eugene, to get back at Joe and his friends? She must have been. That’s why he’d walked out the door, after all, wasn’t it?

He had such a cold look on his face when he left that she knew, deep down, that he wasn’t coming back. That he’d taken what he wanted, and he was done with her now. Just like every other fucker in her life.