Chapter 11
Gaia stepped into her office on Monday, unaware that she had a silly grin on her face.
“Someone had a good weekend!” Janice chirped a moment before she picked up the phone and greeted the newest caller.
Gaia continued through the office until she reached her cubicle, dumping her bags on the chair. She honestly couldn’t remember a time when she’d been happier. And yes, she was sore.
It didn’t matter, she thought. It had been the most amazing, wonderful weekend she could have imagined.
Looking around, seeing all of the fabric samples spread out over her desk, she laughed and dove right into her work.
By lunchtime, she knew that she’d have to go out and get something to eat. She was starving! Just as she was walking out of the building, her cell phone rang. She picked it up, thinking it was Logan since he’d been texting her this morning. She smiled as she glanced at the caller, but then her smile fell away when she realized it was Freddy calling her.
For a moment, she debated just sending his call to voice mail. But in the end, she pressed the button to take the call, knowing that he’d left a few messages over the weekend trying to get in touch with her.
“Hi there!” she answered with a happy tone that she wasn’t feeling. At least, not anymore. The guilt that hit her with that realization was deep and painful. This was her brother! She should be happy to hear from him.
“Where have you been?” he started off, his voice belligerent and she could hear horns blaring in the background.
“Are you at work?” she asked, her stomach tightening with dread.
“No. I quit. You’re not answering my question, Gaia. Where were you this weekend? I tried calling you several times and stopped by your place. You didn’t answer the door.” There was a pause and he sneered, “You were with him, weren’t you?”
She stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, her mind freezing with his words. “You quit? You quit your job with Steele Industries? But you loved that job!”
He snorted and she could picture him shaking his head. “I couldn’t work for the enemy. And you still haven’t answered my question. But I guess the fact that you aren’t willing to answer me tells me exactly what is going on. Was he worth it?”
Gaia pressed a hand to her forehead, trying to figure out what was going on. “Freddy, I’m trying to find something for lunch. Want to meet me somewhere? How about that burger place you love so much?”
More horns in the background and Gaia’s worry increased. “Freddy, what’s going on? Why are there so many horns blaring around you?”
“Because there are a bunch of assholes who are driving too close to me!” he snapped and honked his own horn.
“Freddy,” she asked cautiously, “where are you? Can you meet me at Bubba’s?” Referring to the burger place just down the block. The last time they’d been there, he’d almost been normal. He’d laughed and joked with her and he was almost his old self.
He sighed and she could picture him looking around, trying to find a way out.
“Come on, Freddy. It’s just lunch. I’m five minutes away from the restaurant. How long would it take you to get there?”
He sighed again but acquiesced. “I can be there in a few minutes.”
Gaia felt some of the tension leave her shoulders. “Good. I’ll see you when you get there. I’ll get us a table, okay?”
“Fine,” he grumbled, but the word wasn’t as huffy as it had been before.
She ended the call and took a deep breath. She had no idea what she was going to do about Freddy, but she suspected that he was becoming a danger. Possibly only to himself, but maybe to others.
Ten minutes later, she was sitting in a booth when Freddy walked up to the table.
Well, more like, he stumbled up to the table. He had a beer in his hand and he pretty much fell into the booth opposite her.
Looking at him, she realized that he hadn’t changed his clothes in a while. “Freddy?”
“Yeah?” he snickered and took a long swallow of his beer.
“What’s going on?” she asked, more worried now.
The waitress arrived and looked warily at Freddy. Gaia’s hackles rose with the woman’s disdainful look but she refrained from saying anything snide. “Two cheeseburgers with fries,” Gaia told the waitress.
The woman nodded her head and wrote down their order as she walked away.
When they were alone again, Gaia focused on her brother. “Freddy, what’s going on?”
He slapped a hand over his face and shook his head. “You weren’t here this weekend.”
The sob brought her guilt right back to the forefront. “I was here, Freddy. I was with someone though.”
His hands fell to the table. Thankfully, he was ignoring the almost full beer. “You didn’t talk to me.”
She sighed. “No. I didn’t realize you were calling me.”
His pouting expression turned her stomach for a moment. But it was worse when he pushed away from the table.
“Where are you going?” she demanded.
Freddy glared down at her, his eyes so bloodshot from the alcohol that she wasn’t sure he could even focus on her. “What do you care?”
“I care, Freddy!” she protested, standing as well, her eyes pleading with him to stay, to talk to her.
“I’m going to finish what I started,” he said. Without another word, he turned around and walked out of the restaurant, leaving Gaia to stare after him.
When he stepped into his car, she knew what she had to do. There was no stopping him now. Something was wrong with him, and she’d tried for too long to get through to him. But now, while driving while intoxicated, he was putting others in danger and that she wouldn’t allow.
After dialing nine, one, one, she slapped a twenty dollar bill onto the table to cover the two burgers and, hopefully, a large enough tip for the poor waitress.
“What is your emergency?”
Gaia closed her eyes, pausing at the doorway. Freddy was already gone from the parking lot. “My brother just drove away and he’s drunk. Seriously drunk. I couldn’t stop him. Please, is there a police officer around? Someone who can pull him over?”
The emergency dispatcher quickly responded. “Can you describe the vehicle he is driving?”
Gaia gave the dispatcher Freddy’s car description and license plate number, her fingers clenching the cell phone. She knew she was doing the right thing, but Freddy wouldn’t see it that way. She just prayed that the police would stop him before he hurt someone. Freddy could drink all he wanted, she thought, but the moment he stepped behind the wheel…that was too far. No way!
With a sigh of relief, she heard a police siren in the distance. The dispatcher hung up and Gaia walked over to her car, unaware of the tears streaming down her cheeks.
Was Freddy okay? Had he been arrested? She hoped so. He’d been spiraling for too long. He needed something like this to help him understand that something wasn’t right.
Her phone rang again and she looked down at the screen. Logan!
“Hello?” she gasped, more relieved than she wanted to admit.
“What’s wrong, Gaia?” he demanded, obviously hearing the gut wrenching fear in her voice.
“Can I come see you?” she asked, feeling stupid and silly. And way too vulnerable, but she couldn’t help it.
“Where are you? I’ll come get you.”
Gaia smiled through the tears at his response. “I’m in my car, about five minutes from you,” she told him, thinking to drive in the opposite direction from where Freddy had headed. But that was cowardly. She couldn’t do that.
“Fine. I’ll meet you down on the street,” he told her.
Gaia drove down towards Logan’s office, her eyes scanning the streets to the right and left, trying to see if the police had stopped Freddy. She prayed that they had, that they’d stopped him before he could hurt anyone. But she didn’t see any flashing blue lights.
Pulling into the parking garage, her heart skipped a beat when she saw Logan storming up to her car. When he opened her driver’s door, she tried to quickly wipe the tears away, but he wasn’t allowing that.
“What’s wrong?” he demanded even as his strong arms wrapped around her, giving her the needed strength to get through this.
“My brother,” she wailed, but hiccupped through the tears. She wrapped her arms around him as the sobs took over.
“What’s wrong with your brother? Is he okay?”
She shook her head, but it wasn’t very effective because her face was pressed against his chest. “No. He’s not okay. He hasn’t been okay for a long time.”
She took a deep breath and pulled away. Looking around, she realized that they were in the parking lot and others were coming out, heading to their lunch appointments. “Is there some place we could go? Some place more private? I have some things I need to tell you and I don’t…”
“You don’t want anyone else to overhear?” he offered when she stumbled on her explanation.
“Yes,” she said as another sob wracked her body. Freddy was in trouble and, as his only family, she’d completely failed to help him out.
He took her hand and gently tugged her into the building. Once they were in his office with the door closed, he led her over to the leather couch, pulling her down onto his lap. “Okay, spill it. What’s going on with your brother?”
She laughed because Logan never pulled punches. He was almost painfully direct. With those sexy glasses, it was like he had x-ray vision and just knew, could almost read her mind.
“You already know that my brother blames your family for the death of my father,” she began, spitting out the truth, no matter how ugly it was. She was sick of all of it. Sick of the lies, the deceptions, and trying to fix everything herself.
“Yes. So, what happened today?”
She buried her face in his neck. “He met me for lunch today. I was going to talk to him. I’ve been trying to get him to see a therapist. Something is seriously wrong with him, Logan. I just…” she shuddered as she breathed in his wonderful scent. “I can’t figure out how to get him to recognize that. He has blinders on when it comes to your family.”
His hand moved up and down her back once again. “Gaia, what happened today?”
She stepped away again, accepting that she didn’t deserve his comfort. “He was drunk. I called the police because he was drunk and driving, and he might have hurt someone.”
“Or worse,” he said, pulling her right back into his arms.
“Yes,” she said, knowing it was the truth. “He could have killed someone.”
“So, you did the right thing.”
She shivered. “Did I?”
Logan pulled back. “Absolutely!” He pulled out his phone and dialed. “Hey, call Ben over at police headquarters,” he told who Gaia assumed was his assistant on the other end. “Find out if a Frederick Fisher was arrested. His arrest might not be in the system yet,” he explained and glanced at Gaia who only nodded her head as she wrapped her arms around her body, trying to find solace in the fact that she’d done the right thing.
He hung up the phone and came back over to her. “Until we find out what’s going on with your brother, why don’t you tell me that you love me?” he suggested, tangling his fingers with hers.
Gaia had been so focused on what he was doing with her hand, she jerked slightly when his words sunk into her brain. “I’m sorry?” she gasped and pulled back. But his fingers tightened, not releasing hers.
“You heard me correctly,” he replied, pulling her body closer. “I want it all, Gaia.”
She shook her head. “How did we go from my crazy brother’s arrest to…this?”
He laughed softly. “Because I want you. I love you and, if you’d just release yourself to your feelings, you’d be able to admit that you love me as well.”
She pulled back, but he wouldn’t let her out of the circle of his arms. “You can’t love me!”
“Why not?”
“Because I have a crazy brother who is trying to harm your family, gets arrested for drunk driving, has no career opportunities, and blames you for the destruction of our family?”
Logan laughed, shaking his head. “Well, there is that!” He bent lower and kissed her. “I still love you, Gaia.”
She laughed right along with him, but she didn’t understand him. “No, once you realize what’s really going on, you’ll understand that…”
She couldn’t finish that statement because he was kissing her. When he lifted his head, he took her hands, about to lead her out of his office. “Come with me,” he started to say, but the phone ringing stopped his momentum. He looked down at his phone, then at her. She smiled, thinking he looked incredibly hot with those glasses slightly steamed up.
“Are you going to get that?” she asked, taunting him almost.
He pressed his lips together, contemplating the idea of just ignoring it. “I might, if we weren’t waiting on information about your brother,” he came right back.
Gaia’s smile disappeared. “Right. Answer the phone.”
He tugged her closer and wrapped his arm around her waist even as he lifted the phone up to his hear. “What did you find out?” he asked without any preamble.
He listened for a long moment, and then nodded. “Call James Shaw over at the University of Washington, he owes me a favor. Ask him to schedule a psych evaluation for Mr. Fisher.” Another moment’s pause then he nodded again. “Absolutely.”
After putting down the phone, he turned back to Gaia. “Now, where were we?” he asked.
Gaia put a hand to each of his shoulders, trying to hold him back. But no one held Logan back when he wanted something. He was just too big and too strong. She backed up a step and shook her head. “Logan, what is ‘absolutely’? And who is the guy who is going to do an evaluation on my brother?”
“His name is James Shaw and he is head of the psychology department over at the University of Washington.”
She almost rolled her eyes, but the playful look in his stopped her from going there. “Logan, I want to know what’s going on,” she told him, but the relief surging through her now that she knew that her brother was both in custody as well as about to talk with someone, a professional, was intense.
“And I want you to admit that you love me,” he said, but once again, a response was prohibited since he lifted his phone again and dialed. “Jennifer, I’m taking the rest of the day off. And I might not be in tomorrow. Cancel all of my appointments, okay?”
Jennifer looked up from her computer, her eyes smiling over the rims of her glasses perched low on her nose. “Sure thing,” she called out, already lifting the phone to start making the calls. “Should I let your brothers know about your change?”
Logan didn’t even pause as he tugged Gaia towards the elevators. “No! Hell no! They won’t leave me alone if you tell them anything.”
Zeke stepped out of an office at that moment, looking around. “Tell me what?” the oldest brother demanded.
Logan shook his head, tucking Gaia under his arm. “Gaia’s brother is trying to sabotage the waterfront project.”
Zeke sighed. “We already knew that. Did Gaia agree?”
“Agree to what?” she asked.
Logan shook his head. “She hasn’t verbally, but yes. I’ll text you the date.”
“Date for what?” Gaia asked, her concern growing.
Jennifer only chuckled as Zeke crossed his arms over his chest, a gesture so similar to one Logan repeatedly made that it caused Gaia to do a double take. She didn’t have long to figure out what was going on though because Logan was pulling her into the elevator.
As soon as the elevator doors closed, he pulled her into his arms. “Tell me you love me,” he commanded.
Gaia shook her head, but Logan didn’t give her a chance to argue with him. He simply pinned her against the wall of the elevator and kissed her until she was clinging to him once again.
“Logan, you can’t…”
She couldn’t finish that sentence because the elevator doors opened up and a surge of people entered the elevator. Logan looked down into her eyes, an expression in his own green ones that told her she was in trouble…but the good kind of trouble.
As soon as the elevator doors opened up on the parking level, they exited with the rest of the crowd, but instead of allowing her to walk to her own car, Logan pulled her over to his own and handed her into the passenger seat. “What’s going on?” she demanded. But he only closed the door and walked around to the driver’s side.
Ten minutes later, they were pulling into the parking garage to his building and Gaia knew that she was in big trouble.
“Logan, we really shouldn’t…”
He simply stepped out of the vehicle and slammed the door, not listening to whatever she thought they “shouldn’t” do.
Sick of being ignored, Gaia stepped out of his car as well, ready to confront him. But he was faster.
“Tell me you love me, Gaia,” he repeated, pinning her against the car.
She shook her head. “Logan, this isn’t the time for this conversation.”
He laughed and kissed her once again. “I think it is the perfect time. We’ve been dancing around this issue for too long. You love me, but I want the words.”
“But my brother!”
“He’s in custody. What else do you want?”
They were in the elevator now and he pinned her against the wall. “Unless you are going to tell me that you love me, I don’t want to hear it.”
She tried one more time, but the hard muscles in his thigh were pressing her legs apart even as his hands stole up underneath her sweater. “Logan…!”
“Tell me you love me,” he coaxed as his mouth teased the sensitive skin on her neck, her ear, near her collarbone.
“I can’t….”
“You can,” he contradicted. “Just admit it. I know you do.”
Her hands reached for his wrists, trying to stop him, but his fingers against her skin just felt too wonderful. “Logan!”
“Yes?”
“We can’t do this!”
“And yet, here we are. It is happening.” The elevator doors opened up and he pulled her out, unlocking the door to his condo and tugging her gently inside. “You love me. You’re going to marry me. Every family has crazy members. Wait until you meet my great aunts! They’ll terrify anyone!”
Gaia would have laughed, but he was taking off those glasses, making her weak in the knees as he led her deeper into the room. Deeper under his spell.
When those glasses landed on the countertop, Gaia knew she was in trouble.
Oh yeah, she was right!
“Yes! I love you!” she finally admitted when she felt herself climaxing in his arms, his body doing things to her that should be illegal!
He pulled her back against his chest, his fingers sliding against her skin. “And you’re going to marry me.” It wasn’t a question.
She sighed. “If you say so.”
“Yes, I definitely say so.”
He felt her body soften and knew she was about to fall asleep on him. “I love you, Gaia,” he told her and kissed the top of her head.
Gaia shifted so she could see his face. “I love you too, Logan! I love you so much!”
He hugged her, pulling her against him even as he tugged the sheet over top of her. “Go to sleep.”