‘From what our intelligence agency has been able to ascertain, Greene had a local source. Someone who worked at the museum and was at the opening you attended last week talked about seeing the two of you together. It seems that Greene sniffed out the story and has been lying in wait to get photographic confirmation ever since.’
And Logan had given it to him.
He felt the rise of bloodlust in his veins and wasn’t sure how he managed to not put his fist through a wall.
He glanced over to find Cassidy on her phone, her face chalk white.
Doing what he did best, Logan went into damage control. ‘Cassidy?’
He had to say her name twice more before she registered that he was talking to her. He gripped her shoulders in his hands. ‘Don’t read any more. I’m going to fix this.’
‘How?’ her lower lip trembled and she staunchly bit down on it. ‘You can’t fix it. It’s all true. Oh, God, he has those photos of me.’ She hid her face in shame and Logan glanced at her screen to see an artless photo of a girl in cotton underwear that had clearly been taken years earlier.
‘I sent it to a boy in the hope that he would like me. I never thought you would find out. I never thought anyone would find out. He promised that he and his friends had deleted the images...’
‘God dammit,’ Logan swore fiercely in the face of her open vulnerability. It was his fault that everyone knew about her past because anyone who came into his life was put under the microscope. ‘You should have told me about this before now. I would have—’
What? Wrung the guy’s neck along with that of every other person who had ever hurt his woman?
He ground his teeth, furious that someone would invade her privacy. Only just coming to understand how much he thought of Cassidy as his. Unable to process that right now, he turned his attention to what he needed to do next. ‘Forget the photo. I’ll fix it.’
She shook her head, barely listening to him. ‘I need to call Peta.’
‘It’s the middle of the night in New York. Don’t call yet.’
‘Oh, no, the twins...’ Her eyes scanned her phone. ‘That bastard even interviewed their lowlife father!’
Wondering if she was about to be sick, Logan gave her a shake. ‘I’ll fix it.’
‘You can’t fix it.’
‘I can. And I will.’
Oh, God, he was furious with her—and who could blame him after seeing that photo flashed all over the media with the caption The King’s New Sleaze?
Bile rose in her throat. This was awful. Horrible. The worst possible thing that could have happened to either of them. And yet she couldn’t blame Logan for being angry because he had probably thought that her past was as pristine as the women on his mother’s marriage list. A list she knew she’d never make in a hundred years.
‘What are you going to say about the two of us?’ she asked hoarsely. ‘Because I don’t think no comment will cut it.’
‘I’m going to close it down before it grows any more legs. You need to stay put and not get involved.’
Cassidy’s stomach dropped into her toes. She supposed closing down whatever this was between them was the most obvious solution, and why w
ouldn’t he take that route? She would have been leaving soon anyway. And probably the sooner the better because while she hadn’t meant this to happen, her tarnished history had put Logan’s kingship in jeopardy. And he was furious about it. Which she completely understood. He’d come to Arrantino on the back of one scandal—not to get involved in another.
And while logically she knew that it wasn’t all her fault she couldn’t bear being the reason someone was publicly slated. Just as she had been.
Dismayed, the threat of tears backed up in her throat, and she stared at the floor. ‘I need to get home. I need to be with my family.’
‘You need to stay here and trust me.’
‘No.’ She shook her head, everything inside her going ice cold. The last thing she needed to do was stay here and make it worse. She’d acted rashly by sleeping with him and now she’d face the consequences.
She crossed her arms over her chest. She’d indulged in a silly affair, ‘put herself out there’, and brought public shame on herself and her family again. And on Logan. ‘I’m not waiting around for you to do anything. I want to go home. Now.’
‘You’re overreacting.’
‘I’m overreacting?’ She stared at him. ‘My family name has been dragged through the mud for the world to see, you’re being compared to your father, Leo’s relationship is back in the news and you think I’m overreacting?’