CRASH (A Logan Brothers Novel) (7 page)

It seemed that drink had
loosened her tongue slightly as a grin swept over her face. It was
cute, like the rest of her.

“
Thanks again for the help,
and the drink,” she said as she stood.

I walked her to the door and
ushered her out, watching Kyle eye her closely as she passed by him.
There looked to be an element of distrust in his eye. Or maybe it was
just confusion at seeing her in my office.

“
You move fast brother. She
only just arrived yesterday.”

I walked around to the other
side of my desk and sat down in my chair. “Not what you think, and
not why you're here.” I didn't have any interest in small talk with
Kyle. Not right now.

“
Sit down, you look
uncomfortable lingering there.” I could see his expression
hardening at my words. He'd never liked taking orders from me.

He slowly pulled out the chair
opposite me and sat down, staring at me the entire time. Our
relationship had been strained ever since our father died, ever since
I'd taken up the mantle of being head of the family. I guess taking
orders from dad was one thing, taking orders from a brother only two
years your senior another.

I understood where he was coming
from. I wasn't so arrogant and conceited that I couldn't put myself
in his shoes.

But there was more to it than
that. Kyle had spoken to me of his desire to do something else with
his life, move somewhere else and start afresh. He wanted to take
Alice with him, this girl he'd only known a few months.

It wasn't our fathers' wish. It
wasn't his will.

I was his will now, and his
voice. If Kyle was to leave, he'd be cut from our inheritance, his
lines of credit removed, his fancy lifestyle no more.

He sat there now, ahead of me,
an anger in his eyes. I could feel it radiating from him. He'd been
like that for weeks.

“
It's time we cleared the air
Kyle,” I said, trying to sound as pragmatic as possible. “You're
my brother, and I love you. We should be closer now that father's
gone, not divided.”

“
I agree. You can start by not
trying to rule me like a fucking peasant.” His words were heavily
set with resentment.

“
Rule you?” Do you really
think I'm trying to rule you?”

“
You're forcing me to stay in
a job I can't do any more Crash. I can't run that club. It's not
right for me now. Not with...” he stopped short before finishing
the sentence but I finished it for him.

“
Alice.” I said.

His eyes flashed at the sound of
her name and he nodded.

“
You know how father would
feel about her Kyle. You never mix business with pleasure. You're
disrespecting him with her.”

He gritted his teeth, his eyes
deeply set in his skull. There seemed to be so much he wanted to say,
but he wouldn't spill it up.

“
I love her Crash. I can't
help that.”

I sat up and leaned in, seeing
his eyes soften. “You love her? How can you love a girl like that?”

He stood up fast, the chair he
was sitting on flying backwards. “Don't you fucking dare talk about
her like that. You don't know anything about her.”

I raised my hand in apology.
“You're right, I don't. I'm sorry.”

He gathered the chair and sat
back down, his eyes still fiery.

“
What would you do then?” he
said. “If you were in my position, what would you do?”

“
I'd honor our fathers wishes,
his will.”

He sat back in his chair,
tilting his chin to the heavens, and laughed. “Of course you would.
You're the golden child, the second coming of Charles Logan, the man
who'd do anything to honor his lordly father.” His words were full
of sarcasm and bitterness. I never knew he harbored such feelings
towards me, or dad.

“
So what would you like me to
do? Ignore fathers wishes, let you run off with your little
girlfriend and fuck around with his money? You know the will, Kyle.
If you leave the family business, you're cut.”

“
I won't fuck around with his
money!” he shouted, his voice rising. “I just want to do
something else in the business, get away from that fucking club. I've
served my time there, let me run the bar and Jude can take the club.”

I sat and thought.
What could
be so bad about running a strip club. Hell, I knew a lot of people
who'd kill for a job like that.

“
You never seemed to hate the
job so much before? What's changed?”

He sat up straight and looked me
straight in the eye, his eyebrows raising slightly. “You know
what's changed Crash, don't act dumb.”

That fucking girl. Always a
fucking girl.

I thought for a moment. I wanted
to build bridges with him, I wanted him to be happy. Perhaps it was
time for him to move on, leave the club, step up to work with me at
my side.

“
There is something I'm
working on. It's big.” I said finally, seeing his eyes rise to
mine.

“
What?” he asked quickly, an
interest creeping into his voice.

“
It's a long term project,
something that will put everything else in its shadow, even this
place.”

I could see his eyes sparkle
with intrigue.

“
Look, there's nothing
finalized about it all yet. I don't know whether it's going to go
through. If it does though, maybe you could help me with it, or run
this place or something?”

He nodded slowly, his eyes
growing wider with a sense of hope.

“
I'd like that Crash.”

“
For now, though, I need you
back at the club. I'll think about a replacement for you. Not Jude,
it's too much for him. I'll think of someone else.”

He stood up and looked me
straight in the eye. “You know, maybe I was wrong about you. Maybe
you're not such a dick after all.” The corners of his mouth crept
up in a smile, his eyes narrowing.

I love you too brother.

Elle

I stood in a long white corridor
staring at a noticeboard. In front of me were a series of timetables,
but I only had my eye on one of them.

I traced my eyes over it,
looking for my preferences.

Contemporary, Jazz, Latin,
Street, Ballet. The list of different styles went on, each one with
several classes for beginners through to experienced dancers
throughout the week.

I was stood in a local dance
school nearby to the college. It wasn't connected at all, but I'd
been told by someone in my literature class that they catered to just
about every sort of dance style you could imagine.

I felt invigorated standing
there, all of this possibility in front of me. Last time round I'd
taken an age to start dancing again, held back by Brad and his dead
weight.

I wasn't going to make the same
mistake again.

I heard a door open over to my
right and saw a bunch of girls come flowing out into the corridor.
They wore tights and T-shirts, most of them lean and slim, their hair
tied back and glistening with sweat.

I quickly ran my eyes over the
timetable - contemporary, that's what they'd been doing. It was a
style I enjoyed.

I looked back up to see one of
them approach. She was petite, with short blonde hair and big bright
blue eyes. She probably looked similar to me to a passer by.

“
Hey,” she said, her voice
as light and bright as she appeared, “I haven't seen you here
before. You thinking of joining?”

“
Yeah, I am. Was that
contemporary you were just doing?”

She nodded and smiled.

“
Is the tuition good?” I
asked.

“
Ah its amazing yeah. Costs a
bit though. Are you looking to be a full time dancer or just a bit of
part time stuff?”

“
Oh, I'm at college, so it
would just be evenings. How much is it per class?”

She squiggled her nose up as she
thought about it. “I'm not sure on a, like, per class basis. But
you can pay monthly for a certain number or maybe buy a batch?”

“
So what do you do? Are you
full time?”

“
I'm here most days yeah. I
work evenings mainly so I have a monthly subscription here where I
can go to any class. Private tuition is extra though.”

“
Of course. Who should I talk
to about joining?”

“
Err, Madame West runs the
whole school, so I guess if you're serious about things she's the
person to see.”

“
Thanks a lot...” I left it
open for her to finish the sentence with her name.

She didn't quite pick up on it
at first, before realizing what I was doing and laughing in a sweet
way.

“
Lexi, my names Lexi.”

“
Nice to meet you Lexi, I'm
Elle. So, Madame West - is she this way?” I nodded my head down the
corridor.

“
Err, yeah her office is that
way, but she's not around right now. She has Thursdays off I think.”

“
Ah, OK, well thanks for your
help. Maybe I'll see you around here sometime?”

She smiled again and nodded
before prancing off down the corridor, not a care in the world.
I
swear there must be something in the air round here. Half the people
seemed to be high all the time.

....

Half an hour later I was lying
on my bed back in my dorm, Alice working away diligently at her desk.
It was about a week since I'd moved now, and her mood had picked up
since the morning she trundled in, half dead with exhaustion and
concern.

I hadn't asked her about it, or
at least she didn't tell me much if ever I did. I guess I wasn't
quite into her inner circle of trust yet. That said, Alice seemed
like the sort of girl who had a very small inner circle.

Like, super small.

Like, only herself.

I wasn't even sure that Tess was
privy to everything.

Not that she wasn't popular. No,
people seemed to like her, especially the guys. Any time I stepped
out with her there were eyes literally locked on her every step. She
was like this magnet for drooling men, not that she even seemed to
notice.

I guess she liked to keep her
own council, sort through problems herself. She told me she didn't
have any siblings, that her mom was dead and she didn't really have a
relationship with her dad. It kinda made sense, then, that she'd
learned to keep her emotions close to her chest.

The experience of starting at
this college, though, could hardly have been more different from my
last, failed, effort. Then I'd fallen for Brad straight up, too shy
and scared to branch and out and develop my own social circle until
way into the first year.

Here, I'd gone at it hammer and
tongs. I mean, part of that had been forced, you know, by having a
room-mate and all that. But the rest was all me. I'd already met a
few people in my Literature class who I'd been to coffee with, and
now there was the promise of joining dance class outside of uni
hours.

A smile spread from ear to ear
at the thought as I lay on the bed staring up at the ceiling.

Alice must have picked up on it
as her voice broke me from my daydream.

“
What are you grinning so
widely about,” she asked, half speaking, half laughing. “You look
like the fucking joker.”

I laughed spontaneously.

“
I dunno, I guess I'm just
happy to be here. You have no idea how much better this start has
been to my last effort at college in California. Like, black and
white, I'm not kidding.”

She laughed at my drollness.

“
So what's so different this
time?” she asked, her tone so light and breezy. She sounded
genuinely interested, not a hint of scepticism in her voice.

“
It's just different. I'm not
burdened by a nightmare boyfriend for one thing. Literally, the guy
was the Freddie Krueger of boyfriends, haunting my dreams.”

We both laughed together. God it
was nice to laugh about it.

“
It's just nice to be free of
him, you know. Have you ever just had a boyfriend who would not let
go when you broke up?”

She shook her head, still
giggling.

“
Well, this guy latched on
like a bear trap. I had to move here to get away from him, God's
honest truth.”

Her laughter suddenly dried up.

“
Are you serious? It was that
bad?”

“
Worse. You have no idea.”

“
Jesus babe. I wondered why
anyone would move to a new college mid-year. Now I know.”

“
Yeah, I'm well shot. I'm so
glad you're my room-mate though Alice. It could have been totally
different if I'd moved in with some weirdo slob or something. I had a
friend at my last college whose room-mate constantly brought guys
back and slept with them in front of her.”