Chapter 14 #4
“There couldn’t be,” she protested, gasping as he filled her completely.
“Then we’ll continue with your next lesson,” Logan murmured with a smile, proceeding to make love to her until she was consumed in a blaze of passion.
Visiting the theater after the day’s rehearsal had concluded, Madeline found Logan alone onstage, making notes as he paced through some blocking that had been arranged earlier.
At first he was too absorbed to notice her standing in the wings, but soon he turned to look at her.
A smile flickered in his blue eyes. “Come here,” he said, and Madeline complied gladly.
Logan set his notes aside on a nearby set piece. His hands slid to Madeline’s thickening waist, and his gaze traveled over her soft amber-hued gown. “You look like a drop of honey,” he murmured, urging her up to her toes. “Give me a taste.”
Madeline blushed and glanced around the empty stage, wondering if their embrace would be witnessed by a stray employee or two.
Logan laughed. “No one is going to object, madam,” he mocked, and lowered his head. He stole a kiss from her, and then another, his mouth warm and searching.
Smiling and breathless, Madeline drew away from him. “Are you almost finished here?”
“Yes.” Logan pulled her back against him and fondled her hips. “I’ll require only five more minutes. Why don’t you wait for me in my office? We’ll have a private meeting there—with the door closed.”
“I don’t feel like working,” she said provocatively, making him grin.
“You won’t be, madam.” Patting her familiarly on the buttocks, he gave her a gentle push toward the wing.
As Madeline departed, Logan picked up his notes and returned his attention to the final points of choreography.
A rueful smile pulled at his lips as he found it difficult to pick up his former train of thought.
The only thing on his mind was to get to his office as quickly as possible and seduce his wife.
Forcing himself to concentrate, he scribbled a few sentences, using the set piece as a makeshift table.
As he worked, he was aware of a shadowy figure moving through the rows of seats along the side of the theater, gradually approaching the proscenium.
“Who is that?” he asked, squinting in the stage light, unable to recognize the intruder.
There was no reply. Suspecting that the stranger was a curiosity-seeker who had barged into the theater, Logan sighed shortly.
“The Capital is closed to the public. There will be a performance tonight if you wish to return later.”
The visitor moved closer, seeming hesitant to leave the shadows.
Logan straightened and continued to stare at the stranger’s dark outline. “Who the hell are you?” he demanded abruptly.
The man answered in a drunken, familiar voice that sent Logan’s world reeling. “Don’t say you’ve already forgotten me…brother.”
Andrew emerged from the shadows, his face bloated and brilliant with hatred, cheeks burning with a high flush.
Logan stared at him uncomprehendingly. He wasn’t aware of moving until he felt the edge of the set piece pressing hard against his spine and realized he had staggered backward a step or two.
His lips formed Andrew’s name, and for an insane moment he thought he was seeing a ghost…
until he saw the pistol in Andrew’s hand.
“I thought you were dead,” Logan said hoarsely, trying to gather his wits.
“You must be disappointed,” Andrew replied. “All set to take my place, were you?”
“No, I…” Logan shook his head, inhaling a few deep breaths to restore himself. “Damn you, Andrew, what in God’s name happened? Everyone thinks you drowned during that bloody water-party—”
“That’s what I wanted them to think. I had to do something. I had sharks from a gambling-hell following my every footstep, with every intention of ending my miserable life if I couldn’t repay my debts. I had to have some time…had to fool them, until I could get my hands on some money.”
“You put me through hell,” Logan snapped, his shock fading.
“It didn’t last long, did it?” Andrew asked softly. “You recovered sufficiently to announce to the world that you’re my half brother. A fact that no one bothered to tell me.”
“I didn’t know about it until recently.” Logan’s gaze fell to the gun in Andrew’s wavering hand. “You’re drunk, Andrew. Put that damn thing aside, and we’ll talk.”
“I intend to use it,” came the unsteady reply. “On you, or myself…perhaps both of us. My life isn’t worth a shilling. And only think how your career would benefit. You would become the greatest legend in theater history.”
Logan showed no reaction, but his heart beat unpleasantly fast. Andrew had always been an unpredictable drunk. He could very well carry out his threat.
“I’ve never ended someone’s life before,” Andrew muttered, shaking like a tree in a storm—only the storm wasn’t from outside; it was his own inner upheaval. “But you deserve it, Jimmy.”
“Why?”
Andrew’s mouth twisted in a spasm of bitterness.
“I always knew what to expect from you. Even though the rest of the world was filled with liars, I could depend on you. Now it turns out you’re the worst of them all.
Keeping Rochester’s dirty secret, stepping into my shoes when you thought I was gone…
well, you can’t have what’s mine. I’ll kill you first.”
As Andrew spoke, he ventured closer, waving the gun agitatedly.
Rapidly Logan considered making a grab for the weapon and forcing it from him.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Madeline standing in the nearby wing, and his heart skipped several beats.
Dammit, he thought in sudden terror. Leave, Maddy.
Get out of here! But she didn’t move. It was incomprehensible that she would place herself in such danger.
She could be hit by a stray shot…she could unwittingly provoke Andrew into a fit of deadly rage.
Logan broke out into a sweat, not daring to look at her.
“I don’t want anything of yours,” Logan said to Andrew, finding it hard to speak.
“All I want is to help you.” His throat felt as if it had been lined with barrel stays.
He realized that Madeline was moving, walking noiselessly behind the set piece and flats for God knew what purpose.
Locked in agony, he waited for her to stumble, to bump into something. Pregnancy had made her clumsy of late.
“Help me?” Andrew scoffed, swaying before him. “What a fine show of brotherly concern…I could almost believe you.”
“Put down the damned pistol and talk to me,” Logan said curtly.
“God, I despise you.” Andrew’s hand shook as he trained the gun at Logan’s midriff. “I never realized before how much like my father you are. Superior bastards with your filthy secrets, manipulating everyone around you—”
“I never treated you that way.”
Andrew shook his head in torment. “Jimmy…how could we not have known? All those years…”
“Andrew, wait,” Logan said, the blood draining from his face as his half brother cocked the pistol. “Andrew—”
There was a startling crack as the nearby flat collapsed, the hinged pieces snapping downward as if pushed by an unseen hand.
Without any anchoring braces, the reinforced timber frame fell on Andrew before he had time to react.
The gun went off with an ear-splitting explosion, a wayward bullet instantly burying itself in the side of the proscenium.
Madeline stood in the space where the flat had been, staring at the results of her efforts.
Logan gazed at her, frozen for a few seconds, registering that she was all right.
He bent to shove the collapsed flat aside and crouched on the floor to grab his dazed half brother by the collar.
Andrew reeked of wine, gin, and countless other distillations.
His dazed eyes opened to stare into Logan’s downturned face.
As Logan had expected, the flat hadn’t been heavy enough to hurt him. “What happened—” Andrew began.
Logan clipped him on the jaw, knocking him out cold. Subsiding peacefully onto the stage boards, Andrew began to snore.
Madeline hurried over to them. “Is he all right?”
Logan stood slowly. He resorted to the tactic of counting to ten, but it did nothing to stem the flood of panicked rage. He was afraid to touch her, afraid he might throttle her.
“What the hell was going through your mind?” he heard himself ask raggedly. “Did you give a thought to the safety of our child?”
“No, I…” Her bewildered gaze met his. “All I could think about was you.”
“I can damn well look after myself,” he roared, unable to keep from snatching her shoulders and shaking her. “By God, madam, you’ve finally managed to make me insane! I’m going to relive the past minute every day from now on until I’m a raving lunatic.”
“I could hardly stand by and watch him shoot you. There’s no need to be angry. No one was hurt, and everything’s all right now.” Her gaze traveled to Andrew’s slumbering form. “For the most part.”
“Everything is not all right,” Logan said savagely, letting go of her.
His heart still thundered in his chest. Half of him wanted to continue shaking her until her teeth rattled, while the other half wanted to crush her against him and cover every inch of her with violent kisses.
The thought that she could have been hurt, even killed, filled him with sheer panic.
He fought to shut away the tide of emotion, gritting his teeth and clenching his fists in the effort.
Madeline stared at him in obvious bewilderment. “I don’t understand.”
“Then let me explain,” he replied, his voice turning ugly. “Your only value to me is the child you’re carrying. All I’ve asked of you is to take care of him—and you’re too damned impulsive and reckless to do even that.”
Madeline’s face drained of blood. She looked blank except for a stricken expression in her eyes. “I…” She was strangely out of breath. “I’m sorry if you find me so lacking.”