Crazy Beautiful Love (The Martelli Brothers #1)(56)
Author: J.S. Cooper

“We’re not all going down if it goes wrong.” I was emphatic and my voice was loud. “I know you guys will roll your eyes and groan but I’m the eldest and I’m in charge. Mom asked me to take care of you guys. I don’t even want you guys to be involved with this, but I know I need your help. I will never forgive myself if anything happens to either of you.”

“Fine,” Jared sighed. “But only because nothing is going to go wrong. We got this, bro, and once we arrive home tonight, you can call Maddie, and you guys can make up.”

“Yeah, like you care.” I turned away from him with my face red. I was sure he was happy at how this had turned out.

“Of course I care.” Jared shook his head and stared at me for a moment. “Anyway, I need to call Joey and let him know I got the package.”

“Okay.” I looked down at my half-naked body. “I’m going to go shower. I’ll be back down in a bit.”

“Try not to call her too many times, bro.” Vincent patted me on the back and I ignored him as I ran back up the stairs and tried calling Maddie again. I kept calling and calling, hoping she would pick up the phone. I called one last time and left another message. “Hey, Maddie, it’s Logan. I’m sorry. Please call me. I f**ked up. I know that. I’ve been a bit of a dick. I want to tell you everything. Please call me. I miss you.” I hung up and went into the shower. My stomach was in knots and my brain was cloudy with misery and regret. I had a bad, bad feeling about everything, but out of all of my worries, I was most worried that I might never see Maddie again.

***

“We did it!” Jared high-fived me as we drove out of the driveway. I checked the rearview mirror and made sure that the garage door was closed. I grinned at him, unable to believe how smoothly everything had gone. Everything had gone according to plan, and we had gotten into the Bugatti in record time. Vincent was already on the way back home, and I was enjoying the smooth ride of the expensive sports car.

“Joey was right, the key was exactly where he said it would be.” Jared sounded surprised. I didn’t want to ask him why he was surprised his friend had told the truth, if he had trusted him so much.

“I’m glad Tolstoy told us that we wouldn’t be able to hotwire this car.” I shook my head, not believing that we had almost tried to steal a car that wouldn’t start without the key, due to the chips used in the design. “Could you imagine what would have happened?” I sighed. “Thank God, Joey’s connection had more detailed information or we would have been screwed. And this is exactly why we don’t steal super-expensive cars.”

“I nearly had a heart attack you know.” Jared grinned at me. “Damn cat.”

“I know.” I checked the rearview mirror to make sure no one was following us. “When you screamed, I thought that was it.”

“I felt him on my back, and thought for sure this was someone catching us in the act. Never again.”

“I know.” I looked at him with thoughtful eyes. “I used to get such a thrill from stealing cars. It was such an adrenaline rush, but today I was just scared. I was nothing other than scared about what would happen to us if we got caught.”

“Yeah.” Jared nodded. “But we did it, bro. We’re home free.”

“We still have to make it home, but it looks like we did it.” I grinned back at Jared, hardly able to contain myself. Maybe everything in our lives was finally changing for the better. I only hoped that the one person who mattered to me aside from my brothers would be able to share it all with me.

“I’m going to call Joey and let him know.” Jared whipped out his phone. “Oh, and when we get the money, I figured out where we can send Dad and how we can get there.”

“Oh?”

“There’s an alcohol rehab I found that I think will really help him.” Jared nodded and then held his hand up as his call connected. “Joey, you there?” He laughed into the phone. “We got it. Yup, everything was smooth. Let the buyer know. Oh, you’re busy? On a date? What? With who?” Jared looked at me with a grin. “He’s getting laid,” he mouthed to me with a grin and I shook my head in exasperation. “Maddie? Maddie Wright?” Jared’s voice dropped and he turned away from me. “You’re with her now? Did she say why?”

“What’s going on?” I slowed down and looked over at Jared. “Maddie’s with Joey?”

Jared shook his head and kept his eyes averted from mine. “Well, just call us tomorrow with the information for the drop. Tell Maddie I said hi.”

“Maddie’s with Joey?” I glared at him. “She’s f**king him already?”

“No.” Jared shook his head slowly, and I could tell he was thinking furiously. “She’s not f**king him.”

“So what then?”

“I guess they’re on a date?” He bit his lip and stared out the window. “Something must be up.” He mumbled under his breath and he cursed. “Fuck it.” He took a deep breath. “Hurry up and drive home.”

“What’s going on, Jared?” I stared at him angrily. “Did you know Maddie was seeing Joey? Is that why you didn’t want me to fall for her? Because you knew she was involved with your friend?”

“It’s complicated, Logan.” He looked at me with a frazzled expression. “I can’t get into this right now, I need to sort some stuff out.”

“What stuff?” I looked at him with narrowed eyes.

“I don’t know.” His looked panicked. “Just drive home.”

“What the f**k is going on?”

“I don’t know, okay? I don’t f**king know.” He slammed his fist against the glove compartment. “Let’s just say that you may have been right.”

“Right about what?” I felt like I wanted to shout. “So she is dating Joey?”

Jared stared into my eyes and I was scared. I had never seen such a look of fear in his eyes before. He closed his eyes and sat back in the chair and rubbed his temples. I concentrated on the road ahead and didn’t say anything else. I went as quickly as I could without going over the speed limit, and I breathed a sigh of relief as we made it back home and I saw the white Honda in the driveway. I drove the car and parked it on the grass, and we jumped out silently and pulled the sheet that we had left on the grass over the car, so that it wasn’t completely visible from the road.