“We don’t want Vincent to get into any trouble now, do we? I’d hate to see his college dreams come crashing down as he sits in a jail cell.”
“Leave my brother out of this.” I turned around, heart racing. “What do you want?”
“I want you to give me this car, and Marty wants you to consider this a warning.”
“Piss off.”
“You think we’re playing with you?” His voice was full of venom. “We know Jared’s been messing around with Joey Kennedy. I’d hate for him to go down as well. Two brothers in jail? Well, how would that feel, Logan? No one would be surprised. In fact, everyone would just be waiting to see when the third and final Martelli brother made it to jail.”
I stared at him with my blood boiling. If Maddie hadn’t been in the car, I would have decked him, not caring what would have happened next. But I didn’t want her to see the blood.
“You want the car, you can have it.” I took a deep breath. I was pissed at myself for caving, but I needed the money.
“Here.” He pulled out a stack of twenties and handed them to me. “Leave the car in the parking lot, we’ll have it picked up and towed tonight.”
“This is only five hundred.” I glared at him.
“Be thankful you got anything.” He came towards me and bent down and whispered in my ear. “I’d get out of the car business if I was you. Next time, Marty won’t be so nice.” He turned around and walked to his car. It took everything in me to not chase him down. I took another deep breath as I watched him drive away. I walked back to the car, opened the car door, and saw Maddie crouched over still.
“You can sit up, he’s gone.”
“Okay.” Her voice was cold and she jumped out of the car. “Did he decide not to buy it?”
“He bought it, he’ll pick it up later.”
“Oh.” She looked at me and then away again. “That’s good, then.”
“Yeah.” I stared at her standing in front of me, clutching her plate of cookies. “Look, I want to apologize.”
“Don’t bother.” Her eyes flashed in anger. “I’m glad you were honest with me.”
“You’re mad.”
“Does it matter?”
I bit my lip as I stared at her. Damn, Maddie was making things hard for me. “We can be friends.” I sighed.
She looked up at me in surprise. “You want to be friends?”
“I didn’t say all that. I said we can be friends.”
“I guess that’s a start.” She grinned and linked her arm through mine. “I knew you couldn’t resist me.”
“Well, you knew wrong.” I shook my head at her. “Don’t go getting any ideas.”
“Did you get a lot of money for the car?”
“No.” I turned away from her, frustrated. I needed to be alone. I needed to think about everything that had just happened and where I went from here. I knew that I was a threat to Marty now, and my brothers and I were his targets. Frustration ran through me, along with another emotion—I was scared. I had no idea where to go from here. And I had no one to turn to for help. There wasn’t time for Vincent to get through college and law school anymore. Our lives were in the balance, and it was all the mayor’s fault. I stared at Maddie, and Jared’s words came crashing down on me. It was true; Maddie was the apple of the mayor’s eye. If anything happened to her, he would be crushed. I knew that a simple heartache wouldn’t do the trick, though. He had screwed my father over and ruined his life. If I wanted to get revenge for my father, mother, and my brothers, I had to make sure it would be something that affected the rest of his life, just like he had affected mine. Ideas crashed through my mind, and suddenly it struck me. What would make the mayor’s blood boil more than anything? A baby. A Martelli baby in his family. And as I watched Maddie, smiling down at me, with her seductive purple-blue eyes, I knew exactly what I had to do.
Chapter 7
Maddie
I was so angry that I had a hard time looking at Logan. He was insufferable and I was fast losing my patience and the ability to just get over it. I hadn’t expected my feelings to be so hurt at his words; I mean, I knew he had issues, and I had told myself that I could wait it out. I could make him fall in love with me if I had enough time. At least that is what I had told myself. I heard the sounds of a family walking towards us, and I turned to smile at them, needing to focus on someone else, if just for a few moments. I stepped away from Logan, glad I didn’t have to pretend I was okay for a second. I smiled at the little girl skipping along and blowing bubbles, and I was reminded that I used to be that girl: innocent, carefree and happy. I could still be that girl if I wanted to, but I knew that too much had happened and I wouldn’t change any of it.
“Let’s go find a car.” Logan grabbed my arm and I looked at his face. I couldn’t read his eyes or the expression on his face, and I wondered if he was okay. There was so much going on with him, and I wished he would trust me enough to let me in. But I suppose that would all happen in good time.
“A car?”
“That’s what I said.”
“I thought we were taking the bus back.” I paused. “Are we going to steal another one then?” I whispered and looked around to make sure no one was around to hear me.
“No.” He grinned at me, and this time his eyes were sparkling with mirth. “We won’t be stealing it.”
“So then why are we looking for a car?”
“So we can window shop.” Logan shook his head. “What’s up with all the questions?”
“Do you think you can just talk to me however you like and I’m just going to take it?” The words spurted out of my mouth angrily and I let out a deep breath. I guess it was harder for me to keep it in than I thought it would be.
“Huh?” He frowned at me, and I could see a brief flash of anger and respect in his eyes.
“You practically went off on me in the car earlier. Do you really think I’m going to just be friends with you and we could go look at potential cars for you to steal? I know you think I’m some silly girl who is kinda crazy and infatuated with you. But lookey here, mister, I’m not a doormat, and I’m not going to allow you to talk to me however you want. You want to go off on me because of something I’ve done to you, then fine. But to take out the issues that you have with my dad on me, which I don’t even know about, well that’s f**ked up.” I took a breath and looked at the shock in Logan’s eyes and I grew even more incensed. “I don’t know why you’re so shocked. Did you think you were the only one who could get angry and spout off?”