Chapter 1
Chapter 1
6 weeks
“There’s this girl”, Simon rolled his eyes, the annoyance radiating off him in waves, “she claims that I got her pregnant. Which is ridiculous.”
Silence. Shocking silence.
Logan dared himself to glance at their mother Sarah. She seemed frozen to her seat, while her husband exploded. Uh-oh. His brother was in deep shit.
“You what?” The authoritative voice of Hank Johnson echoed throughout the living room, causing Logan to turn his head and wince at the sound. Simon casually shrugged his shoulders and pouted like a three year old denied ice cream before dinner. He didn’t seem to mind the shitstorm he’d just created by uttering his earlier words. It was as if continuously spreading his seed wasn’t a big deal at all.
Logan knew that this wasn't the first unlucky girl to get pregnant by his younger brother. The youngest Johnson’s obvious inability to use protection had started to take its toll on the entire family. It would surely leave marks one day, maybe in the form of a living, breathing, human. Their parents had taken care of ‘it’ the first time it happened and the second time as well. Third time’s a charm. Fucking insane.
But honestly, though, Logan couldn’t wait to hear his little brother trying to weasel his way out of this one. He leaned back in the leather clad armchair and raised his eyebrows, trying to hold back a devilish grin. This was guilty pleasure at its finest.
By now, their mother silently cried as her husband scolded Simon like a kid that had accidentally ‘forgotten’ to do his homework for a week or two. The situation shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone in the family. It was quite hilarious that their parents always seemed to expect a different outcome when they let their youngest roam free without consequences to his actions.
Usually, Hank Johnson only raised his voice towards lazy employees and his oldest son, so Logan couldn’t exactly deny how a tingling sensation of not being the one who’d screwed up, spread some kind of warmth inside him. It was nice. He’d been on the receiving end of his father’s wrath more times than he could count. However, gloating wasn’t exactly an option, though he really wanted to enjoy it, but, out of respect for his mother, he kept his mouth shut. He knew how to behave. Most of the time.
What played out in front of his eyes wasn’t unusual. Simon managed to screw up by screwing someone and their dominant, insanely rich and well known father had to fix the rest. Usually by throwing money at it.
So, after yelling and cursing for about fifteen minutes – the father, husband and respected businessman – poured himself a double and sat down in one of the sofas, eyeing his youngest son. Even a blind person could tell he wasn’t pleased.
“Fine”, he muttered, “we’ll follow the usual procedure. Tell her you’ll pay for the abortion. And start using protection before you impregnate the entire town. Only God knows how many bastards you have around the world already.”
“I can’t.”
“The hell you can’t, boy! Don’t force me to send you to a sex education class for dummies. If you know how to get lucky with the ladies, then you better know how to use a freaking condom, or have I raised an idiot?”
Logan almost snorted. As if their father had done any of the parental stuff. That’s what they’d had nannies for.
“She’s keeping it.”
Gasp. Oops.
Hank shot up from his seat, rushed over to Simon and raised his hand, ready to strike. But instead of making reality of his threat, the older man managed to gather the inner strength to stop himself. Logan could hear the gasp escaping his mother as the liquid-filled crystal tumbler hit the wall across the room, shards of glass spreading over the floor.
“She’s what?” Hank roared.
Logan turned in his seat to stare at Simon who immediately started to feel sorry for himself. It wasn’t a new method. His brother would even force some tears to escape to get daddy to see how mistreated his youngest felt. But Logan knew the truth. Simon wasn’t exactly the poster child for good behavior.
Okay, truth be told, Logan hadn’t been easy as a teenager. He’d created a lot of trouble but he’d always taken care of his own problems. Fine, except for one time when his father had saved him by waving his money.
He’d been friends with his brother. They’d been close. Almost equals. And then he’d been forced to grow up. Just like everyone else.
As Logan eyed his twenty-one year old brother he realized that the six years age difference clearly mattered. Their parents still considered Simon to be a baby and he would never grow up as long as they continued to treat him like one. The saddest part about that statement? Simon didn’t seem to mind. He was obviously fine with being the baby.
“I talked to her. I tried. I really did.” Simon tried his best to look as hopeless as he managed to sound. “I swear. I didn’t know what else to do but to tell you. I’m sorry, Dad. But please, you have to help me. It’s like she wants to ruin my life. I bet she wants money. Fifteen minutes of fame.”
Logan rolled his eyes. Such a drama queen. He knew his brother well enough to know that he was faking most of it. He could also see the wheels spinning in their father’s head. Hank turned to his wife and ordered her to call the company’s publicist and private attorney.
“Don’t you worry, boy. I’ll take care of it”, Hank grumbled, “pour me another one, will you.”
Simon hazily walked across the room, stopped at the bar and poured another strong one. He wiggled his eyebrows at Logan, who in turn leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.
“What’s her name?”
“What?” Simon seemed baffled at the sudden question and interest coming from his brother and raised a cocky eyebrow that Logan recognized all too well.
“Who knows, S, something. Sally perhaps.” He shrugged, clearly uninterested and handed the tumbler to their seated father. “I didn’t exactly pay attention to the details. If you know what I mean.”
Oh man, his baby bro was getting way too confident – he was starting to remind him of someone he knew. Mainly himself.
“You”, Hank pointed at him, “I’ve got a job for you.”
Logan raised an eyebrow. Shit was about to go down.
A couple hours later Logan stared dumbfounded at his father who nodded towards Rebecca. She’d explained it over and over for about two hours and Logan still felt as if he was drifting off into space, unable to land securely on the ground again. He blinked a couple of times and frowned, glancing between his father and the woman who’d been asleep when Hank had demanded her presence at the mansion.
Fuck, Logan would’ve loved to be asleep. It was 3 a.m. and most people slept at that hour, but not his father. Not when the entire Johnson reputation was in danger because of Simon’s stupid mistake to put body parts where they obviously didn’t belong.
“No.”
The answer to the question wasn’t a difficult one. In fact, Logan felt no need to save his brother’s ass this time. It would’ve been a great lesson if their father actually let Simon handle his own shit for once. However, the mistake wasn’t of a minor character. A one night stand had resulted in a pregnant twenty year old and his father obviously had a plan A, B, C and probably a plan D unless the first couple of plans failed to work properly.
“Think about your brother.”
“Oh, I am.” Logan snorted and rolled his eyes at the stupidity of it all. “Let him deal with his own shit. It’s his mistake, not mine.”
He could see the vein in his father’s forehead pulsate rapidly and the older Johnson seemed quite stressed out about the current situation. But Logan knew that hell would have to freeze over before Hank Johnson begged his youngest son to step up and be a man and take the hit for his own mistakes. So instead of doing the right thing, Hank would try to force Logan into the shitstorm.
Hank Johnson had never begged and he probably wouldn’t start today. Logan eyed his father suspiciously, awaiting the offer he knew would be thrown at him. His father would have to offer him something of epic proportions that he simply couldn’t resist.
They both knew Simon wasn’t mature enough to handle the situation, neither was Logan, but Hank seemed determined that his oldest would be a better choice than the youngest Johnson.
Rebecca eyed the two men as she scribbled something on her pad and started to rummage around in her bag in search of what would soon become a contract Logan wouldn’t be able to escape. It would set the course for the rest of his life.
Rebecca interrupted them before they could start an argument loud enough for anyone to hear within the next five miles or so. Logan pulled a hand through his hair. He needed sleep.
“Logan, I’m sure you understand that this is a very bad situation. If this girl starts yapping to the media the negative publicity could ruin the company and the Johnson name. Since your father is running for mayor next election the press would have a field day if they got their hands on this information. So you see, we kind of need to solve the situation before it turns really ugly.”
Hank nodded encouragingly towards Rebecca before turning to Logan.
“It’s a lot to take in but think about your mother. A scandal like this one, she would lose her social status among her friends. Are you willing to shatter her dreams in order to be selfish?”
Logan shook his head and got up from the chair. He loved his mother but didn’t give a crap about her social status – besides, all of her ‘friends’ had been bought due to the fact that their husbands wanted their CEO to be as happy as possible. Hank wasn’t an easy man to please so his employees knew to tell their wives to praise Mrs. Johnson every chance they got. They knew how much influence Hank’s wife had on him – though the man himself would never admit it out loud for anyone to hear.
“Let’s say that I agree and I’m not saying that I am,” Logan crossed his arms, “what would I have to do?”
“Use your charm, of course.” Hank grinned devilishly.
There was no turning back.
