Mask - A Stepbrother Romance (34 page)

It didn’t matter if we argued sometimes, and it didn’t matter what kind of ridiculous misunderstandings we had. We’d still always sort things out in the end, and that was normal—all couples fought occasionally. It meant we were just a regular old couple like everyone else, and you know what? It felt amazing. We weren’t perfect, but we were together, and we were
us.

We drove the rest of the way to Robin’s house in silence, content with just being next to each other.

“It’s here,” Sasha said, gesturing to a small red brick house on our right.

“Okay. Let’s find out what the fuck is going on,” I said, pulling up in the driveway.

Robin must have already seen us pull in, because she opened the door before we even knocked.  “Hey. You sounded freaked out on the phone. Is everything okay?” she asked, a worried expression on her face.

Sasha shook her head. “Not really.”

I didn’t say anything, because I wasn’t sure about this Robin chick. For all I knew, she was in on Becca’s whole scheme. Why else would she still be talking to her and telling her stuff after what she’d done to Sasha?

We wandered through the hallway and into the kitchen before sitting down at the dining table. “What’s going on?” Robin asked, obviously not the sort of person to make small talk.

“It’s Becca. I know you’ve been talking to her about me. What I
didn’t
know was that you’re still friends with her.”

As soon as those words left Sasha’s mouth, Robin went pale. “What? What do you mean? I’m not friends with her at all. She’s a bitchy coke-whore, and after what she did with Travis, do you really think I’d be her friend ever again?”

I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes at what appeared to be a blatant lie, and I filled her in on everything that had happened with the text messages from Becca. Robin’s face turned even paler as I spoke, and she twisted her hands in her lap, her eyes wide.

“Oh, shit. I know what you’re talking about now. I know this looks really bad for me, but I’m
not
friends with her anymore, I swear. I bumped into her the other day, and she was asking about you, Sasha. I didn’t want to talk to her, but she kinda cornered me. She was acting all sweet and concerned, asking how hurt you were by the break-up with Travis. I couldn’t stand seeing her pretend to worry about you when I knew full well that she doesn’t give two shits about anyone except herself, so I told her you were totally fine. I just wanted her to see that you didn’t care, and that you’d moved on with your life. So I told her a bit about your Mom getting married to this great new guy, and how you had this awesome new mansion for a house, and how you were so happy.”

She seemed so genuine that I actually believed her. She hadn’t been going behind Sasha’s back; she’d just been trying to defend Sasha instead.

“Shit, I’m so sorry. This is all my fault,” she continued.

“No it isn’t,” Sasha said with a sigh. “You aren’t in the naked pictures, I am. You didn’t date that asshole Travis, I did. You just got sucked into one of Becca’s manipulative games. I’ve been there—I know what a clever bitch she can be. I’m sorry I accused you of anything.”

“No, I get it. I deserve it. I won’t ever talk to her again, I promise. Not even to tell her to fuck off,” Robin replied.

“What we need to do now,” I said, quickly ending the blame-fest that was getting us nowhere. “Is decide what we’re going to do next.”

They both nodded, enthusiastic about this point. “Getting my Dad involved with this is a last resort measure. There’s gotta be something we can do to stop her on our own,” I added.

Robin arched an eyebrow. “Okay. So what the hell are we going to do?”

Good fucking question…

Chapter 15

Sasha

The drive home from Robin’s was filled with a weird, intense silence between Logan and me. Neither of us spoke, not even about the plan we’d spent the last couple of hours concocting. We just sat there, silently staring at the road as we mulled the plan over in our heads—at least that’s what I assumed he was thinking about.

As we pulled up outside our house, we saw that none of the lights were on, meaning that we were going to be alone once more. Martha had gone home for the day already, and our parents must have been out at some function. They’d probably told us about it, but with everything that had been happening, I couldn’t remember.

I smiled up at Logan as we headed inside. I knew exactly how lucky I was to have him on my side again. He’d been rightfully mad at me over the psychology paper thing, but that was all sorted out now, and he was doing everything he could to help me out with the Becca situation, which made my blood run cold every time I thought about it.

He walked over to the fridge to grab us some Cokes, and I watched him as he poured the soda into tall glasses.

“Logan,” I said hesitantly. “I’m sorry to bring this up after we already resolved it, but I’m trying to work on my communication skills, so I just wanted to say thanks again for being so understanding about everything. I really don’t know what I’d do without you right now, so I’m glad you’re with me, and I’m also glad we’ve cleared the air.”

“It’s cool.” He took a sip of his soda before continuing. “You know, in the name of clearing the air and communicating, there’s something else I should apologize for other than yesterday’s overreaction. I haven’t always been nice about your Mom, and I’m sorry about that. It’s obvious that she really does love my father, so I’m sorry if I’ve ever implied otherwise. I know we had an argument about that a while ago, and it sounded like I was calling her a gold-digger. I honestly didn’t mean that,” he said.

“I know. And to be fair, she has been acting kinda weirdly lately, trying so hard to fit in.”

He let out a deep sigh and looked down at his shoes. “Yeah. I’m just a bit guarded about letting people into this family because of who my Dad is. I guess you kinda figured that out already.”

“Yeah,” I said quietly, moving closer to him and gently rubbing his back. I could only imagine what it had been like for him his whole life, seeing people hounding his father and befriending him just to get things out of him. It had to make it incredibly difficult for him to trust anyone, so I understood perfectly now.

“It’s not even just that,” he said, running a hand through his hair. His eyes were still trained on the floor. “There’s some other stuff that I haven’t told you, but I want to.”

It meant the world to me that he was willing to open up so much, but I didn’t want to make him feel as if I were forcing him to reveal things to me that he wasn’t comfortable sharing just yet.

“Logan, you don’t have to—”

He cut me off. “No, I really want to tell you. Come sit in the lounge room. I’ll tell you there.”

I walked behind him, noticing how dejected and resigned his body language had become. Gone was the arrogant know-it-all that used to drive me so crazy, and in its place was a man who needed some support and kindness.

I decided to make it my mission to make him feel better about himself tonight. He was going out of his way to help me with the Becca situation, so the least I could do was try to put a smile on his face. He slumped onto the sofa with his head in his hands, and I chose to perch on the edge of the sofa.

He finally spoke without even looking up. ““It’s about my Mom. She died when I was young. I don’t know how much you know about that.”

“I don’t know much at all,” I said.

“Well, it was all my fault, and that’s why my Dad treats me the way he does. You’ve seen how he barely acknowledges me half the time. I think he hates me.”

He finally met my eyes to gauge my reaction, and I wanted to flinch, but I kept my expression poker straight. It was as if he was challenging me to defy him, so he could argue that I didn’t know anything about it—which, to be fair, I didn’t. I didn’t know anything for sure, so I couldn’t say a single damn word.

He took a deep breath and continued.

“When I was a little kid, around six years old, I was obsessed with fire, and I was always sneakily playing with matches and candles. Mom would catch me with the matches and tell me to stop because it was dangerous, but I just thought it was fun. I was really young, so it didn’t occur to me how bad it could be, no matter how many times she told me to stop. I was a real little shit as a kid, as I’m sure you can imagine.”

He looked as if he was on the verge of tears, but he kept his composure.

“I wish I’d listened, but I didn’t. However much she tried to hide them from me, I always found them in the upper cupboards or wherever else she and the housekeeper hid them. It was like a little game in my mind, one that I always wanted to win.”

I watched his fists ball up over and over again, as if he was somehow physically hurting himself with his words.

“Then one day I burned the fucking house down. I killed her.”

I gasped. I didn’t mean to; I wanted to be totally cool and calm throughout the whole story in order to keep him from getting more upset, but it burst out of me before I could stop it. I clapped my hand to my mouth, wishing I could force it back in, but it was too late.

“I’m sorry, I…”

“It didn’t happen right away,” he said, as if I hadn’t even spoken. “She didn’t die in the house, and she wasn’t burned, if that’s what you’re wondering. But when the fire started, she stayed in there for too long, trying to make sure everyone got out—me, Dad, the live-in housekeeper we had at the time, and our pets. She put my safety before her own, even though it was my fault. She ended up suffering from pretty severe smoke inhalation, and then she finally passed away in hospital a few days later. It was my fault. All my fault. You know, I can barely even look at a fucking candle these days, let alone any other kind of fire. Scares the shit out of me after what happened, as much of a pussy as that makes me sound like.”

We sat in silence for a few moments, just absorbing the enormity of his story. It was all starting to make a strange sort of sense to me—he was the way he was because of this crushing guilt weighing down on him, and he’d been carrying it around with him for almost his entire life.

“Do you know what the worst part is?” he said. “I can’t really remember much about her now. Her face is all blurry in my mind, and I can’t remember her voice or her laugh. I can’t even remember going to her funeral.”

“You were so young.”

“And Dad is no help. He’s hidden everything away from me—photographs, her old stuff…all of it. It’s like she never existed, and he blames me almost as much as I do. I spoke to him about it once, and he said it wasn’t my fault, and that the fire was actually caused by faulty wiring, but he couldn’t even look at me as he said it. He knows it was my fault as well as I do.”

“I don’t think that’s what he really—”

Again, Logan wasn’t letting me get a word in edgeways. “Of course he does! Like I said, he can’t even look at me. And why would he? I practically killed his wife.”

This sent me into a subdued silence. No wonder he hadn’t wanted me and my Mom around at first. It didn’t really have anything to do with money. He just didn’t want his father to get hurt all over again.

My mission to make Logan feel better sank like a lead balloon as I considered his story. How the hell could I help him overcome something like this? It was years and years of bad feelings and emotions that had built up over time, and there was no way I could I could even begin to undo that in one night.

I stood up and moved closer to him to hug him. He resisted at first, but soon he sank his body into mine, allowing me to hold him. He was crying. We both knew it, but neither of us acknowledged it. We just sat there as he shook against me.

After about ten minutes, he straightened himself out, pulling back from me whilst coughing awkwardly. I knew this moment could go either way. It could either make us feel uncomfortable around each other for a while, or it could bring us closer together.

I decided to make it the latter.

I didn’t let him move too far away from me before I leaned forward and kissed him. At first, he seemed surprised by my reaction. I guess it was a little out of the ordinary considering what we’d just been discussing, but I wanted him to see that I wasn’t going to treat him any differently now that I knew his story. I wanted him to see that he hadn’t been emasculated by opening up and showing his grief. Everyone needed to let their emotions out sometimes; even the most manly of men.

There were probably a million and one things I should have said to him after his confession, but I was sure that he’d heard it all before, and that none of it had ever made him feel one iota better. So instead, I just continued to kiss him.

There was nothing else I could do right now, and there was nothing else I wanted to do.

Logan was
it
for me.

Chapter 16

Logan

“Are you sure about this?” Sasha asked Robin and me for about the hundredth time.

She was panicking about what was going to happen with Becca tonight, and I wished she’d realize that it was all going to be fine—at least it would be if I had anything to do with it.  I hated seeing her upset. It had been bad enough seeing her reaction when I told her what had happened to my mother. When I told her the story, I’d practically been able to see her heart breaking for me, and I hated that I was the reason she was upset. She’d been there to support me, though, and that was all I could ever ask for. She hadn’t judged me one bit; all she’d done was hold me and let me get it all out of my system.

I’d never told anyone else that story about my mother, and I probably never would. I had Sasha, and she was the only confidante I needed.

She was the only one I’d
ever
need.

“Yes!” Robin said, rolling her eyes. “It’s going to be fine. I’m all ready. I know exactly what I need to do.”

Our plan was fairly simple. Robin was going to meet up with Becca and pretend to be friendly with her, citing the incident where they’d recently bumped into each other as something which had made her want to reach out to Becca and rekindle their friendship. She was also going to pretend that she’d had a big falling out with Sasha, in the hope that Becca would eventually mention what she was doing to blackmail Sasha. Since Becca was clearly such an idiotic, strung-out blabbermouth, this shouldn’t prove too difficult.

Robin was going to record their conversation for evidence that could be handed over to the police if necessary, and then Becca would get to experience what it was like to be on the other side of blackmailing. Robin wasn’t going to threaten her or go over the top; she was just going to make her understand that she couldn’t keep being a bitch to Sasha and get away with it.

Hopefully, tonight would be the end of it all.

“Where are you going to put the phone? Are you going to hold it in your hand?” I asked, trying to work out just how we were going to pull this off. I didn’t want Becca to get suspicious halfway through.

“No, I wore this jacket because of the mesh-fabric pocket.” She indicated towards her chest. “If I just slip the phone in like this, it’ll film and record our conversation, and it’s quite discreet.”

I couldn’t help but be impressed by how prepared she was and how much she’d thought it through. 

“Okay.” I nodded thoughtfully. “That’s good.”

Sasha started to worry all over again. “Maybe I should just tell my Mom, and she can…”

“No,” Robin cut in. “This’ll work. Besides, I want to help. I want to make up for my part in this whole shit-storm. Becca probably wouldn’t have even known you had a wealthy stepfather to extort if I hadn’t let it slip to her.”

“I don’t…” Sasha started to talk again, but I couldn’t let her continue. She was going to worry herself into a frenzy at this rate.

“It’s too late for changes. Robin already called her and arranged their girly date. It’s time to go,” I said, grabbing my car keys to reinforce my point. “Come on.”

We got in the car and drove towards the bar that Robin was meeting Becca in. It was early in the evening, which meant it would be quiet enough for Robin’s phone to pick up the entire conversation, but still busy enough so that Sasha and I could hide amongst the crowd in case we were needed at any time. We weren’t quite sure just how far Becca would go. I had no idea how truly dangerous she could be—although I doubted she was—and there was no way I was going to risk anyone getting hurt.

Once we arrived at the bar, we separated. Sasha and I went inside first to find our hiding place, because the girls were both sure that Becca wouldn’t be early. Apparently she spent her whole life being consistently
‘fashionably late’
.

I quickly found a fairly discreet booth that we wouldn’t be spotted in. It also gave me a view of the bar and the door, which was a plus. I slid into the seat closest to me, and Sasha sat on the opposite side. She was still on edge, unable to bear the tension.

“Calm down,” I whispered, laying one of my hands on top of hers. “It’s going to be all right.”

“You think?” She was practically shaking with nerves.

“Robin knows
exactly
what she’s doing. We’ve got this.”

“But Becca—she’s obviously crazy. If she thinks we’re up to anything, she could just press ‘send’ on those pictures of me and email them to the media.”

“That’s why we’re here, to intervene if she tries anything. It’s all going to work, don’t you worry. There’s no way this can fail.” I sounded more confident than I felt, which seemed to reassure her. “Just put the menu up so she doesn’t see your face, in case she glances around.”

Sasha complied just as I spotted Robin coming in through the doors. I nodded quickly at Sasha to let her know, and she instantly sat up straighter, ready for action. Unfortunately I had no idea what Becca looked like, so I couldn’t warn her when she arrived. I just hoped that it would be soon. The quicker this was over, the better.

We sat in silence, just waiting for everything to kick off. My leg tapped up and down anxiously, and Sasha kept staring at the menu, hiding her face from everyone.

Finally I saw a trashy-looking blonde girl join Robin at the bar. “Okay, she’s here; I think that’s her. At least I assume it is.”

Sasha spun around for a split-second. “Yeah, that’s her. Just watch and see if you can see anything going on. I’m gonna hide again,” she said, burying her face in the menu once more.

“I’m going to go and get a drink.” I moved to stand up, but Sasha grabbed my hand.

“Don’t leave me.” She looked utterly panicked.

“Don’t worry; I’ll only be a second. She doesn’t know who I am, so it’s fine. We need drinks anyway, or we’ll look suspicious. We look a bit weird just sitting here.”

I knew she couldn’t argue with that logic.

“Okay.” She finally slid back into her seat, and I shot her a reassuring smile before sauntering over to the bar. I didn’t stand close enough for Robin and Becca to take notice of me—I didn’t want to blow my cover—but Becca had such a loud, obnoxious voice that I couldn’t help but overhear their conversation anyway, which was exactly what I wanted.

“…oh my god, he’s so hot! I don’t even mind having to fuck him for the grade. I might even do it if I had nothing to gain. Seriously, for a professor, he’s sooo sexy. You’ve got to take his class next semester,” she said before lowering her voice to a murmur, which I could still hear from where I was. “By the way, I’ve got some coke. Wanna go to the bathroom and have a bump?”

She giggled—a noise which sounded like fingernails running down a chalkboard to me. How Sasha’s ex-boyfriend had cheated on her with this nightmare was beyond me. She was nowhere near as beautiful as Sasha…and apparently, she also had a coke problem and a predilection for sleeping with her college professors in exchange for better grades. Even if she hadn’t opened her mouth at all, I could still tell from a mile off that she was one of those crazy chicks that no one should even touch with a barge pole.

“No, thanks. So…you’re actually sleeping with your professor?” I heard Robin say in an overly-exaggerated, gossipy manner. She was only doing it to get more information out of this girl, but Becca was so self-obsessed that she didn’t even realize it was fake.

She giggled. “I know, right? I haven’t told Travis yet, but he’ll be fine with it. He’s quite used to me going the extra mile to get what I want…”

“What do you mean?” Robin asked.

I quickly glanced over to see her adjusting her position to ensure that Becca was on the screen of the phone. She was doing a good job of playing this role whilst keeping her promise to Sasha; in fact, she was totally nailing it, much better than I could have hoped for.

“Promise you won’t say anything?” Becca asked in a dramatic whisper.

The bartender picked the worst possible moment to interrupt to take my order. “Can I get you anything?”

“Two Cokes please,” I snapped back quickly.

As he walked off to get the drinks, I allowed myself to casually move a little closer, and I realized that Becca was saying exactly what we needed her to. Christ, she really was a drug-fucked idiot.

“…so
obviously
she’s not going to want the photos to be leaked. Especially not with her Mom’s new husband. By the way, thanks so much for telling me about him. I should really give you a cut!”

The bartender returned. “That’ll be $5.20, please.”

As I tossed the money over, I heard Robin speaking a little louder. “Oh, it’s fine. I’m so sick of Sasha anyway. She’s such an annoying bitch. Anyway, does Travis know about this plan, or is it just you?”

Becca waved her hand dismissively. “It was actually his idea. We need the money.”

Anger coursed through my veins. That fucker…Sasha’s ex. He was actually a part of this? It was even more fucked up than I’d previously thought. I’d thought that Becca was doing it behind his back after finding the photos on his phone, and I seethed at the thought of Travis going out of his way to plan something like this. No guy should ever use something they were given out of trust in a relationship for blackmail at a later date.

I stormed back to the table where Sasha was sitting, my face like thunder.

“What’s wrong? Did you hear something?” she asked.

“Yeah. I think you should know that Travis is actually a part of it all. He fucking started it. It was his idea to blackmail you, not Becca’s. She’s just along for the ride.”

She sat in silence for a few seconds, just stewing. I knew I should say some comforting words, but I couldn’t. I was too consumed by my rage. Then I heard her chair scrape back, and she strode across the bar.

Oh, shit.

“Wait!” I called out to her.

There was no point in telling her that this wasn’t part of the plan—she knew that, and she’d still stormed off. Instead, I got up and followed her. Everything had gone out of the window, so there was no point in trying to stick to the plan now, and if things were going down, I needed to be a part of it.

“…you’re totally pathetic,” I heard Sasha saying. She was right up in Becca’s face now, giving her the hell that she deserved. 

As I watched Sasha shout, I finally got a good look at Becca. She had a smug, defiant expression on her face as she listened to Sasha’s tirade, and she even looked somewhat bored, as if she simply knew for a fact that she was going to get away with her bullshit plan.
Bitch.

“Are you really this stupid? Do you really think that you’re going to get away with this?” Sasha asked.

“Yeah,” Becca replied with a roll of her heavily-mascaraed eyes. “I don’t see that you have any option. You’re going to have to pay up, or I’m sending those photos to the media.”

“Robin, show her the video,” I said as I arrived by Sasha’s side.

Becca’s eyes widened.

“What video? Who the fuck are you?”

“Logan Ryder. Sasha’s stepbrother.”

Becca muttered something under her breath about not knowing that Sasha had a stepbrother, and Robin tugged the phone out of her pocket and quickly hit play. I watched Becca silently looking at herself on the screen, discussing her inventive ways to get good grades and money, and her skin paled and eventually went a little green.

“See?” Sasha said as Robin finally turned her phone off and put it down on the bar. “That’s how freaking stupid you are. And you actually thought you’d get away with this crap. So what’s it going to be? Are you going to keep up the blackmailing bullshit, or are we going to have to visit the college Dean to show them this video? I’m sure he’d
love
to hear how you exchange sex for grades.”

“I’m sure the police would also love to see this video and hear about your blackmailing attempts, not to mention your love for nose candy,” I interjected. “And by the way, Robin’s phone is synced to the cloud, so the video has already been uploaded to her computer at home. There’s no way you can make it disappear.”

“I…” Becca’s rat-like eyes were flickering everywhere, desperate for an escape. “Okay, okay. I get it. I’ll leave her alone. It was just a joke, anyway.”

“Bullshit. This was no fucking joke. If you ever contact Sasha again, or if we even hear an inkling that you’re shopping around those pictures of her, we’ll go straight to the police. We won’t even think twice about it. You’re fucking lucky we aren’t going to them right now.”

We
could
go to them right now, but I knew that would bring negative attention to my father if the media caught wind of exactly why we’d gone to the cops. As much as I knew he didn’t like having me around, he’d still taken care of me all these years, so I had to respect his job and try to help keep negative stuff away from his reputation. Judging by what had just happened, Becca and Travis were most likely going to drop this whole thing anyway, so we didn’t need the cops involved.

“Fine, whatever. Fuck you guys. I don’t need any of this shit. But you better watch your backs. You never know what could happen,” Becca said, grabbing her bag and stomping away.

“Sure. We’re terrified,” I called after her, my voice dripping with sarcasm.