“Oh for fuck’s sake...” Logan snarled.
“What’s going on?”
Min turned, surprised as Rocco walked in looking unusually pale. But before she could answer him, the Dani and Logan show really exploded.
“You can’t live here. You’re at college,” Logan scolded. “It’s an expensive college and you’re a really bright girl—” His voice lowered. “Dani, you’re...”
Licking her lips, Min shrugged her shoulders. “I thought you gave him the key back?” she whispered to Rocco.
Rocco grimly stared at the wall, as if he thought he could see through it through the hall to the bedroom beyond. “He left the door ajar. He must’ve had his mind on other things.”
“Yeah.” Min jerked her head.
Dani and Logan’s raised voices could still clearly be heard.
“I don’t think it’s g-going so well,” she whispered.
She glanced back to the computer, embarrassed that they were witness to this. Her stomach churned. Rocco stood silent.
“You’re acting like a child. You’re spoilt, selfish child, Dani. You’re not fucking throwing your life away on a stupid whim.” Logan had really lost it now.
Min couldn’t actually make out what it was Dani then screamed back at him, but she saw Rocco’s hands fist.
“You think we should interrupt?” she asked.
Rocco had already walked to the door. But before he could get out of it, they heard footsteps racing. The slam of the front door.
Rocco went out into the hallway.
“She’s run away. Again. Fuck.” Logan turned back to face them, his expression twisted. “I can’t do this—”
“I’ll go after her.” Rocco strode past him.
Logan bent his head. “Good idea. She hates me this second.”
As Rocco opened the front door. Logan called out again.
“Rocco, here.”
Rocco turned and Logan tossed a slim silver phone at him.
“She left this. Had it on the charger, but not turned on. Battery’s flat. And she has no money, Dad cancelled her cards.”
“What?”
“Call Connor, he’ll explain.” Logan ran his hand through his hair. “Thanks.”
Rocco left without another word.
Logan ran his hand through his hair again, wishing he could rub away the killer pounding he had going on inside his head. Jeez, it hurt.
Hell on freaking wheels.
He knew he shouldn’t have stopped to listen to Min’s call, should have let her know he was there. But he’d soon figured it was her mom on the line and he’d wanted to see how she’d coped with her. Because at heart Min was a pleaser, and it distressed her that she couldn’t do and be all that her mother expected. That’s why she’d run away. Why she liked to live alone. Because she didn’t think she could live up to all those dumb expectations.
She didn’t have to. And she shouldn’t be alone. She should be open and warm the way she’d been with him—and with his friends.
But listening in, he’d gotten far more of an insight than he’d expected. Or wanted.
Now he knew just something of how awful she must have felt when she’d heard her ex and his mates laughing at her. Now he knew how horrendous it was to hear the person you cared about, deny your relationship.
Rejection. It was a killer.
What had her life been like? He knew her father had died when she was young, that her mom had then gone from one marriage to the next. There’d been step-fathers, step-siblings and Min had been too quiet, lacking in confidence to cope with all that influx and pressure. She didn’t want that carousel of heartbreak for her future, or her future children.
Logan wasn’t the guy a girl settled with. He’d been told that before, right?
He was the wild fling, the hot ride. The bit of danger. Not that he was that much danger really. That he’d be unfaithful?
Yeah, he could see why she’d doubt him. He’d told her the truth of his past. Almost all of it.
But that didn’t mean it was the truth of him now, right? Couldn’t he have changed?
His heart shrivelled, trying to pull back from the threat. But there was no escaping the reality that she didn’t want him. Didn’t trust him. Didn’t believe in him.
Sure she liked screwing him. Women did, right? That was the thing he did real good. Only it hadn’t been good with Min. It had been intense and frustrating and fun. And so many things he couldn’t bear to think about. He’d never poured so much of himself into a lover—never gotten as close. Not just sex.
But he wasn’t the man for Min. She knew it. He knew it.
He’d fucked up so many times in his life. Hell, he’d just fucked up with his sister. It was only a matter of time before he fucked things up with Min too.
So the best thing he could do, was to let her go now. Before he hurt her. Before she left him.
Before it hurt more.
He turned. She stood in the hallway, watching him, a concerned look in her eyes.
“Your father c-cancelled her cards?” she asked.
Whose cards? He totally blanked. Then remembered. His sister. His poor, desperate sister.
“My father’s a prick,” he said. Feeling uncomfortably like one too.
“But to leave her without m-m-money?” Min looked shocked.
“He’s ruthless,” Logan said baldly. “And unforgiving.”
His father had never forgiven him for making the choice to walk away from the slopes, the competition. Never forgiven him for not being the champion son he’d tried to rear. He’d never forgive Dani if she left for good either.
Logan’s heart ached.
Unforgiving. The word echoed round Min’s confused mind. She licked her dry lips, wanting to talk more. But Logan looked so closed off.
“She seemed pretty upset...” she tried.
“Rocco will catch her.”
Like she was a troublesome pet who needed to be taken back to the pound?
“You’re not g-going after her?”
He pressed his lips together, then looked down. “I’m not the best person to talk to her at the moment.”
“No,” Min agreed, anger bubbling. “You weren’t talking to her.”
His head jerked up. “Meaning?”
“You were too hard on her. You shouted at her from the second you got here.” She frowned at him, shaking her head. Because she felt sorry for both his sister and him. “You have these crazy high standards.”
He laughed roughly. “You think?”
“Yes,” she said. “You?
??re a perfectionist.”
“Me?” He pointed at his heart. “So not.”
Yes. He was.
“What have you done that’s so b-b-bad, really?” she asked. “So you’ve slept with a few women. You’ve partied. That’s hardly illegal.” She was starting to get really angry, because the guy was standing there like some kind of stone.
“I screwed my team-mate’s girlfriend.”
“I didn’t say you were perfect. I said you were a perfectionist. And your father isn’t the only one who’s unforgiving. You are. You don’t forgive others. And you don’t forgive yourself.”
He blinked. “Where is this coming from? Because I was trying to be a good brother to my childish sister?”
“She’s not a child. She came to you b-because she thought she could count on you. But—”
“I’m not going to stand back and let her throw her life away. My lifestyle is not for her. She can do so much better.”
“Did you explain that to her?” Min waited. “You b-b-barely gave her a chance to talk. You didn’t listen. Didn’t communicate.” She sighed. “You know, you want me to huff and puff and sigh in all my p-p-pleasure, but you don’t communicate at all. Not really. You just decide and don’t discuss. Not about anything important. You’re the one who g-goes mute.”
Like he was now.
He folded his arms across his chest. Glared at her. “What did you want me to discuss?”
What was going on with them? What the ‘this’ was that he’d said he loved? No. He’d gone so cold. The fallen angel looked ruthless.
“You’re so all or nothing, aren’t you?” Her own hurt spilled, loosening her tongue so she lashed out. “Skiing, not skiing. Never returning to Summerhill—”
“I was told never to return. He’s the one who said—”
“But he’s the one who said to come b-back?”
Maybe his father had wanted to talk to him? But Logan hadn’t given him the chance. Logan had taken Min and used her to avoid any confrontation with his father.
And he’d do it to her too. Cut her from his life, once this lust was satisfied.
“That was for the show the other night,” Logan said harshly. “Only for the photos. It didn’t mean anything.”
Just as she’d been with him only for the photos. Just as she didn’t mean anything.