Insider (Exodus End #1)(134)
Author: Olivia Cunning

“Is that acceptable?” Mom lifted her eyebrows at Logan.

“Works for me,” Logan said. “I’ll have my accountant send you a check and whatever documents are required. I figure a year’s grace period ought to give you time to get your feet beneath you before you have to start paying me back.”

Daniel sagged into his seat. “That’s fair,” he said. He began digging into his breakfast like a man who hadn’t eaten for days. And maybe he hadn’t. Logan was relieved to see a bit of color return to his brother’s cheeks. And he was oddly satisfied knowing he’d been able to help him out.

Normally Logan would have enjoyed his nostalgic biscuits drizzled with honey and the congenial chit-chat he shared with his family, but the idea of Toni thinking he was being entertained by another woman had him entirely distracted.

Holding his phone beneath the table, he started sending her a string of text messages. Maybe she was too upset to talk but would still read his texts.

Toni, the woman who answered my phone this morning was my mother.

She was just joking with you.

She didn’t know you were my girlfriend.

Please answer your phone.

You’re killing me.

I know I once said I didn’t know if I could be faithful to one woman.

But I can.

I can if that one woman is you.

Toni.

Please respond.

Please.

Toni.

He might as well stop typing his guts out to her. The messages weren’t going through as delivered anyway.

“Are you feeling okay?” his mom asked, even checking his forehead for fever.

“Just worried about Toni. Can you take me back to the hotel? Maybe she’ll answer if I call her from a landline.”

“I’m sorry I messed things up for you,” Mom said.

“I’m sure it’ll work out. She’s a reasonable person. I just really need to talk to her and explain things.”

“Of course.”

When they pulled up to the hotel lobby about twenty minutes later, Mom grabbed Logan’s arm to keep him in the car a moment longer.

“I don’t want to hear any excuses out of you when I invite you to our Labor Day barbecue this year. You’re coming.”

“I’ll have to check my schedule. If I remember correctly, we’ll be touring in Indonesia in September.”

“You can’t keep blowing me off. I need to see you more often,” she insisted.

He smiled. He never thought he’d hear her say that and believe that she meant it. “Definitely.”

“And I need to meet this girl who has you out of your head.”

Logan laughed at his transparency. “Definitely.” He leaned over and kissed his mother’s cheek and hugged her the best he could given the hindrance of her seat belt.

“Please offer Toni my apologies for upsetting her.”

Staring into his eyes, Mom pet his curls as if he were her favorite lap dog. He didn’t mind in the least.

“You’ll have to do that yourself when you meet her.”

If Mom ever got to meet her. First he had to set things straight and if Toni didn’t answer her phone or read his texts, he was going to have to hunt the woman down and reassure her—and himself—that everything was all right between them.

On the elevator, he checked his phone, praying he’d somehow missed a text or an email or a call. Nothing.

The elevator stopped on the third floor and the door slid open. Logan had never been more happy to see Butch in his entire life, and the man had gotten him out of some real jams in the past.

“Butch! Are you busy?”

“Never too busy for you.” He grinned crookedly beneath his mustache. Logan wondered how quickly the band would fall apart if this man ever left them to their own devices.

“I need to use the jet after the show tonight,” Logan said.

“Let me guess,” Butch said with a wry grin. “You want to go to Seattle. And you want a car waiting with gifts of chocolates and flowers and sex toys and socks.”

Logan laughed, not even caring that he was so easy to read. “Actually, I thought I might head to the Caribbean for some parasailing, but I guess I’ll go with your plan.”

“You’re damn right you’ll go with my plan. Do you know how hard it was for me to force that little sweetheart to leave? It broke my heart to make her cry. And then to find out that whole mess wasn’t her fault?” Butch shook his head. “If you don’t go get her, I will.” He grinned again. “And I’ll buy her a whole busload of socks if that’s what it’ll take to have her forgive me.”

“I could go now,” Logan said.

“You’ll never make it back in time for the concert tonight.”

He had half a mind to say fuck the concert. He had more important things to do.

The elevator doors opened on the top floor, and they stepped out into the corridor.

“She won’t answer her cellphone,” Logan said to Butch. “Can we get her home number? Office number? Send a carrier pigeon? Something?”

“Carrier pigeons are extinct,” Butch said. “But I’ll get a message to her somehow. What do you want it to say?”

Heat flooded Logan’s face. Was he actually blushing? Lord. “Uh. I love her. It was my Mom who answered my phone this morning. I’m not cheating on her.”

Butch’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head. “She thinks you’re cheating on her?”

Logan sighed and nodded.

“No wonder she won’t answer her phone. I thought she must still be upset about being accused of selling you all out to the tabloids.”

“I told you I straightened that out last night. This is a whole new fuck-up.”

Butch chuckled. “I guess I’ll add a florist and chocolatier to my speed dial. I have a feeling I’m going to need their numbers often.”

Butch was probably right, but Logan shook his head at the dig.

“I’m still going to try to get a hold of her, but yeah, I need everything ready to go so I can head to Seattle directly after the concert.”

Butch shrugged. “No problem. It’s not like I have anything better to do.”

Logan was certain Butch had thousands of better things to do, but the man was Logan’s hero and had yet to let him down. “Thanks for having my back, dude.”

“One of these days I’m going to call in all my favors. And then you won’t be thanking me.”

Logan doubted that. If Butch helped him get Toni back, Logan would owe the man his every happiness.