Chapter 15
“It’s three o’clock in the morning. I doubt the police are going to let all three of us in there at the same time,” August warned as she walked down the hospital corridor with Bryce and Logan on either side of her.
“You two go in,” Bryce suggested. “I’m going to stay outside and have a little chat with the policeman—woman on duty,” he amended as they turned the corner of the corridor and they could all see it was a policewoman standing guard outside the hospital room.
A young policewoman who kept them all in her narrow-eyed gaze as she adhered even more strictly to the rules than her colleagues had yesterday. Even going so far as to radio her superiors for confirmation before giving August and Logan permission to enter the room of the patient she was guarding.
“So tell me,” August heard Bryce murmur throatily as she and Logan approached the closed door to the hospital room. “Why did someone as lovely as you decide to become a policewoman?”
“He has his moments,” Logan drawled when August gave him a surprised glance.
She snorted. “He needs to up his seduction routine if he’s hoping to get anywhere with her.”
Logan chuckled. “Wait and see. Women can’t resist that I-need-a-good-woman-to-bring-me-over-from-the-dark-side thing Bryce has going.”
“They actually fall for that?”
“It’s real.” He sobered. “For all of us.”
“I know that, but—”
“You did that for me earlier.” Logan held her gaze with his as he stepped so close, August could feel the heat of his body through her clothing.
Yes, she had made love to Logan, and she was probably going to spend the rest of her life paying for it.
For having fallen in love with Logan.
The fact the Steele brothers were all still single aged in their thirties told August that men like Logan and his brothers didn’t fall in love. They enjoyed the chase. They seduced. And, after they had devoured their prey, they walked away.
“Don’t flatter yourself it meant anything to me,” she snapped before turning the handle on the door and entering the room before Logan could say anything else.
Realizing she had fallen in love with Logan was one thing, but having him guess or know that she had… No. She might only have her pride left where Logan was concerned—she had willingly given him every other part of herself, including her heart—but she wasn’t about to give him that too.
“August, you really didn’t need to come and see me at such an unsociable hour. Mr. Steele too.”
August’s attention was focused on the man lying in the hospital bed, his rounded face almost as battered as Jenna’s had been.
Edward Jervis.
The man who had been her employer for the past year.
A man she had admired and looked up to and been thrilled to work for.
The same man whom she was now convinced had hired two men to question and beat her for information he already knew in order to cover up his own crime. Except those men had made a mistake and kidnapped the wrong redhead, and Jenna had become the victim instead of August.
Was that even possible?
Edward had always been an affable man to work for. A little fussy and occasionally excitable if there was any sort of hiccup in the running of the gallery, but for the most part, a kind and generous employer.
What about the man behind that employer?
August knew Edward was gay, and that until six months ago, he and his long-time partner, Jon, had owned the gallery together, although Jon had preferred to keep his job as a doctor in a GP practice rather than be involved in the day-to-day running of the gallery.
Their break-up had devastated Edward, and for several weeks, he had been a mere shell of himself as he quietly continued to run the gallery. Having the Jervis Gallery being chosen to display the famous Waterston collection had perked Edward up, given him focus and a return of his previous enthusiasm.
Could it also be the catalyst to what had been happening the past few days?
As August watched Edward’s pale blue gaze turn wary the longer the silence continued, his cheeks paling beneath the bruises, she knew that it was.
“Why?” she demanded evenly.
Edward blinked. “I’m sorry?”
August heard Logan’s cell phone ping with a new text message as she stepped to the side of the bed. “Why did you do it?”
Edward’s hands fluttered on top of the bedsheet. “I really don’t know what—”
“It’s over, Edward,” she sighed heavily. “All anyone needs to know now are the reasons, or reason, why you would do such a thing. After that, the police can have you,” she added disgustedly.
“I’m going to overlook your strange behavior because I know the past few days have been a strain for you.” Edward reached out and placed a soothing hand on August’s arm, only to quickly remove it again as Logan gave a warning growl.
“Touch her again,” he ground out, “and you’ll have broken fingers to go along with your other injuries.”
“Really, Mr. Steele, I’m sure there is no need for any more violence—”
“There’s every need, you sack of shit,” Logan rasped furiously, sliding his cell phone into the back pocket of his jeans as he moved to stand on the other side of the bed. “I’ve just received information that you and your gallery are deeply in debt.”
August knew that Logan had asked Haydn to check into Edward Jervis as only Haydn was capable of doing. The text message just now must have been from him.
Edward’s face was deathly white. “That doesn’t prove anything—”
“The two men you hired to kidnap and attack August but took Jenna instead are currently with a friend of mine and telling him everything he wants to know. Like the fact you met them after they attempted a robbery on the gallery two months ago. That you then promised not to prosecute if they would do something for you. That they beat you up last night because you refused to pay them after they attacked the wrong woman.” Logan’s top lip curled. “The sale to a private collector of a single painting from the Waterston gallery would no doubt have taken care of your debts and left enough over to keep you and your gallery in comfort for the rest of your life.”
“It wasn’t like that.” Edward looked at August, tears glistening in his eyes. “Business hasn’t been good lately, and then Jon left and I had to buy out his share of the gallery. Then three months ago, Adam Waterston picked the Jervis Gallery as the one where he would show his father’s collection.” He gave a disgusted shake of his head. “That a man like that should ever be in possession of such a magnificent collection is sacrilege.”
“So you decided to relieve him of one or two of them,” Logan accused.
“It wasn’t like that. I was only…” Jervis was becoming more and more distressed as Logan continued to stare at him through narrowed lids. “I truthfully never meant for anyone to be seriously hurt—”
“Your bumbling thugs beat up my sister,” Logan rasped. “An attack that was meant for August.”
“I was going to lose the gallery!” Jervis wailed.
“And now you’re going to spend several years behind bars instead,” Logan stated with satisfaction before moving round the bed to take a firm grasp of August’s arm. “I’m going to ask the policewoman outside to come in here now. If you have any sense of self-preservation left, I advise that you tell her, and anyone else who wants to know, exactly what you’ve just told us. Any deviation from the truth will have serious repercussions. For you,” he added in warning. “My brothers and I don’t take kindly to anyone attacking a member of our family.”
August was too numbed by all she had just heard to be able to say anything before Logan’s hand on her arm guided her from the room.
“He’s all yours,” he grimly told the policewoman once they were out in the corridor.
“So your brother informed me before he left.” She nodded. “I’ve called it in, and reinforcements are on their way now to charge and arrest Mr. Jervis.”
August turned to look at Logan as the two of them walked down the eerily quiet corridor. “A friend of yours is questioning the two men who took Jenna?”
Logan’s jaw tightened. “Nikolai Volkov is more of an associate than a friend, but he doesn’t like violence happening in London that doesn’t have his permission or originate from him. I’m guessing Bryce left after receiving the same message I did to observe the Russian’s method of persuasion,” he added dryly.
August glanced back at the policewoman standing outside Edward Jervis’s room “Do you think Bryce managed to get a date with her before he left?”
Logan bared his teeth in a smile. “Bryce doesn’t do dates.”
Any more than Logan did, August acknowledged heavily.
To make matters worse, not only had August lost her heart to a man who would never return those feelings, but she was also out of a job now that her employer was going to be charged for several crimes and sent to prison.
She drew in a steadying breath as they stepped outside. “Presumably, I can go back to my own apartment now?”
“You could.” Logan nodded. “But you aren’t going to.”
“I’m not?”
“Nope.”
“Why not?”
“Because I want you and your unicorn collection to move in with me.”
August came to an abrupt halt. “What on earth are you talking about?”
He grimaced. “Can we wait to talk about this until we get back to my apartment?”
August had no idea what “this” was. Nor did she want to wait to talk about it. “If you think having made love to me once—”
“You made love to me once too,” he reminded.
“—gives you some sort of right over me,” she continued firmly, “then you’re—” Her tirade was stopped when Logan’s lips came crashing down on hers.
And he kept on kissing her, long and deeply, until all the fight went out of her and she was pliant in his arms.
He released her mouth to rest his forehead against hers. “We are not doing this in a hospital car park.”
August still had no idea what “this” was, but she no longer had the will or inclination to fight Logan as he unlocked and opened the passenger door of his SUV for her. He then fastened her seat belt once she was comfortable, before closing the door and going round the vehicle to get in behind the wheel.
He turned to give her a grin once he had fastened his own seat belt and started the engine. “I’ll have to remember that in future.”
“Remember what?”
His grin widened. “To kiss you into silence.”
“In future?” August echoed doubtfully. “You don’t do second dates,” she reminded.
“Strictly speaking, we haven’t had a first date yet.” He shrugged as he reversed the SUV before accelerating out of the car park. The London roads were almost completely empty at four o’clock in the morning. “But I intend to rectify that this evening.”
“You do?”
He nodded. “We’re going for a ride out into the countryside on my Harley.”
“We are?”
He chuckled. “You’re very cute when you’re lost for words. Well, you are,” he defended when she shot him a narrow-eyed glance.
“Cute is for bunnies and—”
“Unicorns?”
August felt a blush warming her cheeks. “Stop teasing me.”
Logan instantly sobered. “It’s the relief. Of knowing you’re no longer in danger,” he explained as she gave him a puzzled glance.
August could feel a stirring inside her of something that felt very much like hope. That Logan might love her as much as she loved him.
Which wasn’t very sensible on her part when he had never made any secret of the fact he didn’t do forever.
Besides, they still didn’t know each other that well.
But did she really need to know whether or not Logan squeezed the toothpaste tube from the middle or the bottom in order to have fallen in love with him? Or that he threw his dirty washing on the floor instead of in the laundry basket? Or any of those other annoying little things that seemed to cause so much dissent between couples?
It was too late to ask that, when she already loved him.
“I know all this is a bit sudden. That you’ll need time to take it all in,” Logan continued. “But I still think we should discuss whether or not you want a small family wedding or if you want the whole fluffy white gown and hundreds of guests at the reception thing?”
August gave him a wary frown. “Did you hit your head on something and I didn’t see it happen?”
He laughed softly. “I’m going to take comfort in the fact that you didn’t say an outright no to there being a wedding.”
She gave a dazed shake of her head. “That’s only because I’m worried you have a head injury.”
He glanced at her. “Liar.”
“Logan—”
“I love you.”
“I… You… I… What?” August was sure she had to be hallucinating. Possibly from all the stress of the past few days. Because Logan couldn’t possibly have told her he loved her and be talking about the two of them getting married. Could he?
“Thank God,” Logan muttered under his breath as he drove into the underground car park beneath his apartment building. He quickly parked the SUV before going round to help the still-dazed August out of the vehicle and into his private lift. “I love you, August,” he repeated before he gently took possession of her slightly parted lips, knowing he would never get enough of the taste of her delectable lips. “I love you, I love you, I love you,” he murmured in between kisses.
As for having hit his head on something…
The only thing that had hit him squarely between the eyes tonight was the knowledge that he loved August and had no intention of allowing her to go back to her apartment and leave him, let alone quietly disappear from his life.
Yes, it was sudden, perhaps too much so for August, but that didn’t make it any less real. Logan knew without a doubt that he loved August. And if it took time for her to believe him, in him, and for him to persuade her into loving him back, then he would give her that time. Well…a week or two. If he had to.
He had spent years avoiding marriage, in not even knowing what love was, but he had no doubt that was what he now felt for August, or that he wanted her to be his wife. She was beautiful intelligent, funny, and she felt no hesitation in standing up to him if she thought he was wrong. Most of all, it made Logan’s chest ache to think of ever being without her in his life. In his arms. In his bed.
His hope that she might feel the same way about him was fueled by the knowledge August had chosen him to be her first lover.
Her only lover, if Logan had his way.
She looked even more dazed when Logan broke the kiss as the two of them stepped out of the lift. “You can’t possibly have fallen in love with me in just two days,” she protested weakly.
“I felt possessive of you in the first two minutes,” he assured her gruffly, his arms about her waist keeping her molded against him. “The moment you called me an arrogant arsehole, to be exact,” he mused. “But then you told us Jenna was missing and I had to push those feelings aside until we knew what had happened to her. Well, not completely aside,” he allowed at the memory of making love to August only hours later. “I know you feel something for me too, August. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have made such beautiful love together.”
Her throat moved as she swallowed. “Of course I feel something for you. It’s just… Are you sure you’re not just in lust with me?”
“Absolutely not. Well, I am, of course, I am, but that isn’t all I feel,” he stated with certainty. “I don’t like any other man even coming near you, and I wanted to rip Waterston’s head off the first time I met him, even though you had already assured me you weren’t even interested in him. I’m never jealous, August, had no idea what it even felt like till I met you. Besides, I asked you to come for a ride on my Harley.”
She gave a shake of her head. “Did I miss something again?”
“I don’t take anyone on my Harley. Absolutely no one. Asking you to come out for a ride with me on it tonight is the equivalent of a marriage proposal.”
“Does that mean I don’t get a real one?”
“It is a real one,” he insisted. “But I have absolutely no problem going down on one knee and asking formally for your hand, if it would please you.”
“Logan…”
“Yes?” he prompted tensely.
“Can this possibly be real?”
“It is for me,” he assured seriously. “You don’t have to decide now if you want more time. A wedding next week will be just fine.”
“Next week?” she squeaked.
“Possibly the week after, if you insist on the full white gown and hundreds of guests.” He kissed her again until she was breathless. “Say yes, August.”
“I—”
He kissed her again. “Say yes, August.”
“But—”
And again. “Please say yes, August.”
“But you haven’t even asked me yet,” she finally managed to protest.
“A ride on my Harley just doesn’t do it, hmm?” he teased.
“No, it doesn’t.” She drew in a ragged breath. “Not that I don’t want to go on the back of your Harley, but—”
“But you want more.” He nodded, keeping hold of one of her hands as he lowered to one knee. “August Harvey, will you marry me?”
This was insane. Logan was insane. But if he was, then so was August.
“It is too soon, and I can’t possibly marry you next week, but somehow, I’ve managed to fall in love with you in just two days too. So my answer is yes. Yes, Logan, I’ll marry you.” She moved down onto her knees in front of him, tears blurring her vision when she lifted her hands to cradle either side of his face and began to kiss him this time. “I love you, Logan,” she choked. “You really are a pain. You’re also arrogant and altogether too bossy, but I love you anyway.”
“Thank God!” The two of them kissed until they were both out of breath, Logan resting his forehead on hers when they finally broke apart. “I’ve just thought of a really great wedding present I can give you. I know of this upmarket art gallery that’s soon going to be on the market and—”
“Logan, stop it.” August giggled. “I’ll find another job. Maybe not as good as the one I had, but I’m not going to be a kept wife.” Dear God, just saying that word in connection with Logan was enough for her to catch her breath.
Logan loved her. He wanted to marry her.
Two things August had been sure were impossible until a few minutes ago.
“Oh, I’m keeping you,” Logan assured gruffly as he swept her up in his arms. “You are a keeper, and I’m going to love you and keep you with me for the rest of our lives.”
For once, August felt no desire to argue with him.