Half truth

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Logan and I were sitting on my couch, watching Seinfeld reruns when we got a text saying the camping trip was postponed a couple of days. It seemed like they were all walking on eggshells because The Swords were still not finished with their hazing process and nobody wanted to see what that process entailed.

“Plausible deniability,” Logan said when I asked him about it. “If you don’t like to get shit on your shoes, you don’t step in it.”

“But aren’t you curious?”

“Not at all.”

“Do they know about your hazing?”

“Maybe.” He shrugged a shoulder. “Our hazing isn’t bad though.”

“Walking around knives isn’t bad? Stealing shit isn’t bad?” I asked. “Did they ever find out we stole that painting from them?”

“Not yet.” He chuckled. “When they figure it out, they’ll come knocking. Until then, they’re too busy with their weird little seances.”

“So you do know what goes on over there.” I raised an eyebrow.

“Some, but honestly, Mae? After walking into one of their weird meetings by mistake . . . ” He shook his head. “If you think what your dad and the other guys from that class are doing is sick, you don’t want to know what The Swords are up to.”

His words made a shiver roll through me. They’d said they were grave diggers and experimented on cadavers. Maybe I didn’t want to know what they were up to after all. I checked my phone and saw a text that hadn’t been there when I’d checked it ten minutes ago.

Mom: he’s awake. He’s asking for you.

Me: I’ll be there as soon as I can

I turned to Logan. “Lincoln’s awake. I have to go home.”

“I’ll drive you.” He sat up quickly, brushing a hand over his hair before replacing the backward red and gold Toronto Raptors cap he had on.

It would take us four and a half hours if we drove. While I walked over to my room to pack a few things, I sent a text to my dad’s pilot friend in case he was in town and the private jet he normally flew for dad’s other friend was in the hangar. I set my phone down to focus. Logan called out that he was going to his apartment to get an overnight bag of his own. The text message from Manuel, the pilot, came back quickly.

Manuel Ramos: I’m here. The city again?

Me: PLEASE. DAD WILL PAY YOU AND I’LL BAKE YOU COOKIES.

Manuel Ramos: I’ll pass on the cookies. No offense (last ones you made were pretty bad)

Me: LOL THANKS.

Manuel Ramos: I just brought your dad over here, but he’s taking another plane back, so I was going to head out in 40min. Can you be here by then?

Me: Leaving in like 10.

My dad was in town? And he hadn’t called? I wondered how often he did that. I wondered if he was here to see Ella. Still. You would think he would at least want to say hello to his daughter. I shook the thought away and finished packing, locked up, and ran to Logan’s apartment. He was stepping back out as I reached it. His brows rose.

“What happened?”

“We have a flight to catch in 40min.” I took a deep breath and let it out.

“You booked a flight?” He was looking at me like I’d lost my marbles. I had.

“Private flight. Long story. I’ll explain on the way there. I’m sure we can jump on one coming back. This family travels every three days, I’m not even exaggerating.”

“What the hell family is this?” he asked, still standing by his door. At least he was locking it.

“I’ll explain in the car.” I grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the elevator.

“I need to be back by Monday afternoon,” he said. “I have a game at seven.”

“You’ll be back by then, I swear. Worse case we’ll have one of the drivers bring us back.”

“I’m so glad we didn’t meet when we were in high school.” He shook his head as we walked out of the elevator.

I was still pulling him along as we walked into the lobby. Gary laughed when he saw us. Once we were in his truck and he started driving, I let out a breath. We’d definitely make it in time. I knew Manuel would wait for us a few minutes if he needed to, but not too long. If his boss had called him to go back to the city, he’d have to drop everything and go.

“Why are you glad we didn’t meet in high school?” I looked at Logan as we drove away from our neighborhood.

“Because I would’ve never dated you. Private jets? You are way out of my league.” He chuckled. “I wouldn’t have even tried to date you.”

“You?” My brows rose. “Mr. I Can Get Any Girl I Want, with the harem of girls waiting for you to drop me and pick one of them up? You think you couldn’t have gotten me to date you?”

“Amelia.” He shot me an amused look. “I barely got you to date me now and this has been me trying my damn hardest.”

“That’s so untrue.” I rolled my eyes, but felt myself smile at the thought that I wasn’t like his other girls. “Besides, a private jet or fancy car is not impressive. Travis was from a questionable part of town and I dated him.”

“Can we not bring up that loser?”

“Fine.” I reached over and threaded my fingers through his. “Thank you for coming with me.”

“Anything for you, baby.” He brought our joined hands up and kissed the back of mine.

“Did you have a girlfriend in high school?”

“Yeah. For like six months, then she got tired of the attention I was getting from the other girls and dumped me for some up-and-coming rapper.”

“Ouch.” I laughed. “So it’s not like you’re opposed to having a girlfriend?”

“I have one right now.” He winked at me. “I’m definitely not opposed. I just don’t like the idea of wasting my time with girls I know I have no future with.”

“This ties in with the when you know, you know thing, doesn’t it?” Butterflies swarmed my belly. This entire conversation was emotions overload yet for some reason I wanted to have it.

“When you know, you know,” he stated, glancing over at me.

I felt myself blush.

By the time we reached the airport and were cleared to drive up to the parking lot beside the hangar, my nerves were shot. I was finally going to see my brother and he was finally awake and obviously aware enough to ask about me. I considered sending my older brothers a text message, but decided against it. They hadn’t communicated with me all these days while they were there, so I wasn’t going to communicate with them either. Still, the unknown was getting to me. Logan grabbed my hand as we walked and I squeezed it back, grateful for the reminder that I wasn’t alone in this.

We small-talked with Manuel and his co-pilot and boarded the plane for our short flight. My mind was mostly elsewhere, thinking about Lincoln and my parents. I tried so hard not to think about my father because every time I did, I got flashbacks of that photo album and it made me sick. When I did take time away from my thoughts during the hour and a half flight, it was to admire the way Logan looked sitting across from me. He was reading one of the De

We landed and had a car waiting for us, courtesy of my father. We went straight to one of my parent’s properties, where they’d moved Lincoln with two around-the-clock nurses and a doctor that came by every morning. My mother spared no expenses when it came to her baby boy, her favorite boy, whether she admitted that or not.

“And here I thought the most impressive thing I’d see today was the private jet,” Logan said beside me as we drove up the path to my parent’s Hampton’s estate. “Is this where you grew up?”