CRASH (A Logan Brothers Novel) (5 page)

Their eyes were pleading no at
option one.

“
The second option is that you
leave the money with me. I'll even let you walk away with the money
you walked in here with. But, if I need something from you, you'll do
it for me. If I need a little job done, I'll call on you.”

I let the words sink in for a
moment. “Those are your two options. Which do you choose?”

They looked at each other again,
their eyes in agreement. “Um, we'd like to walk away from here Mr
Logan, we'll take the second option.”

I smile spread across my face.
“A fine choice gentlemen. Please, what are your names?”

“
Brian,” said the man in the
red cap.

“
Steve,” said the other.

“
OK Brian, Steve. I'll give
you a chance to redeem yourself in the future. My men will take your
details. Don't even think about skipping town.”

“
Thank you sir, thank you.”

I turned away and paced back
towards the casino.
I wouldn't thank me yet, you don't know what
I'm going to get you to do.

Truth be told, I didn't know
myself yet either.

....

The phone rang again as I sat
back at my desk in my office. It never stopped fucking ringing these
days.

I saw Jude's name flash up.
Great, what now.

“
Jude, what's wrong?” I
always just assumed something was wrong when Jude called.

“
Nothing Crash, nights going
well. Discount drinks are actually bringing more people in.”

“
OK...so why are you calling?”

“
Erm, just to fill you in.
Kyle's here with the twins and a couple of others girls. He's got
Alice with him.”

Fucking shit. I talked to him
about this.

“
All right, thanks for letting
me know. I'm coming down.”

I stepped from the office and
out the front of the casino, straight for my Hummer parked in my
private parking spot. I could feel a sense of anger building in me as
I drove.
He'd disrespect our father like this, the arrogant little
shit.

It didn't take me long to get to
the club, and I quickly parked on the other side of the road and
stormed in past the bouncers. I went straight through and into the
back, where they were all sitting around one of the VIP tables.

Kyle's eyes landed on me as soon
as I appeared. Yeah, he knew I wasn't happy.

I looked down at Alice. I had
nothing against her personally, but she shouldn't be here, and she'd
brought that fucking friend of hers as well, Tess. These girls didn't
belong.

There was another girl there
between them, though.
Not another fucking college girl
. Alice
introduced her as Elle or something.

Not interested.

“
Kyle, a word,” I said,
glaring at him. He knew why I was there.

I turned and walked out of the
club, Kyle behind me.

“
I know what you're gonna say
Crash,” he said as we walked, “and frankly I don't give a shit
what you think, what anyone thinks.”

I didn't reply. I kept walking
down the street to the left outside of the club, hearing his footfall
still behind me. He grabbed my arm and spun me round.

“
Would you fucking stop
already,” he said.

I turned on him, my eyes so
narrow I could barely see through them. “What are you doing with
her
. Why aren't you at the club?” I tried to keep my voice
calm, but could feel my anger bubbling below the surface. A volcano
about to explode.

“
I've got Ron running the club
tonight. It can't take up every moment of my fucking time.”

“
Don't raise your voice to me
Kyle.”

“
Excuse me? You're not my
father, you're only 2 years older than me Crash. Step off mate.”

“
And that's why I'm here,
brother
. Father was explicit in his wishes for us. They didn't
include that fucking girl. They didn't include you leaving someone
else to run the club for you.”

“
I don't give a fuck about
what
Charles
wanted, he's dead now. I can do what I fucking
want.”

My anger spilled over as I
grabbed at his neck and pushed him against the wall. “You'll do as
I command,” I spat.

He laughed in my face. “Fuck
you Crash. You've got no power over me.”

I could feel my spare fist
clenching by my side. It took everything in me to stop from launching
it at his smug face.

He grabbed at my hand and tore
it from his neck. His teeth were clenching like a dog. Fucking mutt,
he needed to learn his place.

He stormed off away from me,
back down the street, back into the club. I watched on as Alice
chased in after him. That girl, she was fucking everything up.

My eyes spilled over the street,
locking on the new girl, Elle. She looked at me, staring, and I
stared back, my eyes popping. I intensified my glare, seeing hers
drop to the ground. I felt a pang of guilt, the poor girl had walked
into a fucking maelstrom.

But she stood firm, her eyes
raising back to meet mine. I liked her guts, not many people stared
me down.

My phone buzzed in my pocket.
Another fucking problem no doubt.

I picked it up, still looking at
the new girl.

“
Mr Logan, we've got an unruly
group at the casino.” It was my floor manager again.

“
Well fucking deal with it
then!” I barked. Why did every little problem have to go through
me.

“
Throw them the fuck out and
rough them up.”

“
But sir....”

“
I don't give a shit. Take
them out back and show them why you DON'T FUCK AROUND IN MY CASINO,”
I bellowed down the phone.

I thrust it back into my pocket,
Elle still looking on at me. Silly girl, doesn't have a clue who I
am.

I turned and stormed back
towards my Hummer. More fucking duty calls.

Elle

I woke suddenly and my eyes
stumbled into focus. My head felt like it was being pounded by a
gorilla, throbbing inside my skull.

I rolled over and saw that
Alice's bed was empty.
What the hell was that last night?

My mind was a little hazy but I
remembered most of it. We were having a good night until that guy
Crash arrived, storming in like he owned the place.

Oh yeah, he did own the
place.

Alice had gone home with Kyle.
He'd been in a foul mood after Crash drove off and I think she wanted
to calm him down. She was still looking out for me, though, making
sure Tess got me back to the room safe and sound. Such a sweet girl.

I vaguely remembered having some
sort of staring match with Crash in the street. His eyes pierced me
like an arrow, they were so intense. The thought of it made me feel a
bit silly now, staring down this guy. That wasn't me at all. Well,
not the sober me anyway.

I was one of those
contradictions, that shy girl who suddenly grows an almighty backbone
after a few drinks. I hated waking up the next day sometimes, not
quite knowing whether I'd done something stupid. That's why I tended
not to drink too often.

My mind swam back to a night
when I was just 16. Back then I was properly shy. I mean, now it took
me a while to warm to certain people, but back then I literally
couldn't even talk to a boy. I went through high school barely
speaking a word to any guy, building a friendship group that was
exclusively female

That night it was my best
friends 16
^th
birthday. Her parents were out of town and
gave her an allowance to throw a party. She took it as an opportunity
to be a bit reckless, something she wasn't really known for. I think
she wanted to win the battle of the sweet 16's that was going around
that year.

Frankly, I can't remember if she
did.

It was my first experience of
alcohol, and was my last for about a year. I got drunk on only a
couple of cups of punch, and that's where my memory ended. What I did
from there was embarrassingly pieced together from a variety of
accounts over the coming days and weeks at school.

I guess stripping off and
skinny-dipping in the pool was something that not many of my
classmates would forget in a hurry. Not only was it completely out of
character, but it was at only 9 in the evening. By that point most
people had barely had a chance to get tipsy, and there I was doing
the Full Monty in front of my entire year.

After that, interest in me from
the guys in my year shot right up.

The worst thing I ever did under
the influence of alcohol, however, was sleep with that creep Brad. It
was only a week or so into college when we went out together for
drinks and I woke up in his bed.

In retrospect, it was the
biggest mistake of my entire life.

But that was in the past now,
something that would become a footnote in my life. He was long gone
and I was well shot of him. I'd made the right decision to move.

It was something I had to remind
myself of as I sat up in bed, looking out of the window. It was
difficult being somewhere new, somewhere foreign. I had a sudden
feeling of isolation, a familiar pinch at my gut. It was the same
feeling I'd felt when I'd originally moved to college 18 months ago.

I guess having such a stark and
stripped down room didn't help. Alice's side was bristling with
color, while mine was dull and cold, all except for my bedding.

I climbed out of bed and
straight into my clothes. It was Saturday morning and I didn't really
have much to do, so set to the task of decorating. I had a few
pictures and posters to put up, throws and cushions that I could use
to bring my side of the room to life.

I unpacked all of my clothes and
stored them in the closet. A quick glance over them made it clear
that I'd probably need to go shopping for a bit of extra winter-wear.
It was coming into spring, but I got the feeling that round here even
summer would be cooler than the winters I was used to down in
California.

It was about midday when I heard
the door click and open. I turned to see Alice traipsing in. She
looked worn and weary, as if she hadn't gotten much sleep, and not in
a good way.

“
Hey Elle, room's looking
good,” she said, collapsing into her bed.

A smile appeared on my face. Not
for the compliment, just for the fact that I was seeing a friendly
face. Hell was I glad my room-mate was nice.

“
Thanks, guess it's one plus
side of having a room-mate in - makes the whole space look a bit
nicer.”

She laughed lightly, too tired
for much more. Her face still carried a look of concern on it, a
lingering remnant of the same look she harbored the previous night
when Crash came bounding in.

“
You OK Alice,” I asked,
“you look pretty tired.”

“
Yeah, just a late night,
that's all. Kyle and Crash don't get along well, as you may have
noticed.”

“
Yeah, that one was hard to
miss,” I said casually. “Crash seemed - I don't know - intense.”

“
That's what he's like. To be
fair to him, he does have a lot on his plate. I don't know him very
well, I've only been seeing Kyle a few months, but they've been at
loggerheads ever since...” She trailed off.

“
Since what?” I couldn't
help but ask. I wasn't usually this inquisitive or probing.

“
Since their dad died. It's
been a burden on all of them.” She sounded grave. It seemed like
there was more behind it than merely grief and bereavement.

I didn't say anything more. It
really wasn't my place to probe on such a sensitive issue.

“
Hey, I'm going to go shopping
if you wanna come along? Didn't know it would be so cold here!”

“
Maybe in a bit. I need to
chill for a little while, can't face that right now.”

“
Fair enough. Do you know
where's best for clothes?”

“
Main Street, you'll find the
best stuff along there.” She answered quickly, her eyes now closing
as she settled into a more comfortable fetal position.

“
OK, um, here's my number.”
I wrote it out on a piece of paper and placed it down on her bedside
table. “Let me know if you're interested later.”

She nodded, her eyes closed, and
grunted some sound of acknowledgement that she'd heard me.

I guess it will just be me
then.

....

About an hour later I was
cruising along in my little Mazda, looking for somewhere to park. My
stupid damn satnav had decided to pack up for some unknown reason,
leaving me reading signs and using the force to try to locate Main
Street.

Eventually I'd found it,
although not without several detours. Now, however, I needed to park,
and that was proving more troublesome that I'd have hoped.