“I don’t think anyone was worried about style, Seth,” Henry murmured. “We just wanted you home. I think Logan’s felt abandoned.”
“You wouldn’t know it. Henry, it’s not like I didn’t call. I called at least once a week, and then eighteen months ago he stopped talking to me. Oh, he would answer the phone, but I got nothing out of him. The only way I knew he’d been in the hospital was Momma Marie called me.”
“But you didn’t come to visit.” Everything Henry said was with an even, calm tone.
“He told me not to.”
“And you listened to him?”
“He promised me he would come to New York and then he went to Dallas instead. God, Henry, I didn’t know how bad it was. When Marie talked to me about it, she said he’d been in a work-related incident.”
Henry’s eyes went slightly cold, and Seth could see that John Bishop was still in there, buried deep. “Marie has a habit of understating things. He was brutalized. He was tortured for hours by a member of the Russian mob, and I think it broke him in ways not even he understands. I was very happy to hear he’s been working with a therapist. That’s why he went to Dallas.”
He’d known it was bad. He’d suspected Marie was understating it. Why hadn’t he come home? “I know. Jamie called me when some guy named Wolf wanted to set everything up. Logan was supposed to go there on some sort of payment plan, but I didn’t want him to have to worry about money. I paid for his membership at some club that the therapist insisted on. A BDSM club. Apparently the therapist uses BDSM to help control impulse issues. I’ve been studying up on it, actually. I’ve been to a Manhattan club.”
Henry watched him for a moment. “I wouldn’t pick you for a lifestyler.”
“I probably wouldn’t be but Logan needs it, and I think the woman I love needs it, too.”
Henry pointed at him triumphantly. “Ah, there’s your plan. I knew it would be in there somewhere.”
Damn it. Why did that make it sound cheap? “It’s not a plan. I’m just trying to bring us together.”
“Let me see if I can guess what’s going on here. You’ve found a woman you like.”
“I’ve found a woman I love,” Seth corrected.
“Fine. You’ve found a woman you love, and you’re ready to move on but you want the ménage you’ve always dreamed of and Logan’s not where he needs to be. So lucky you. You manage to find a naturally submissive woman. Logan is a trained Dominant male. You intend to ask him to teach you how to top your girlfriend. Are you going to give him rights to her body?”
Guilt was gnawing at him. It sounded a little dirty when Henry put it like that. But it was going to work. It had to work. “Yes. It won’t work if he doesn’t have sex with Georgia.”
“Sex could bind them together. For the female, it will be very difficult for her not to fall for him.”
He was a little sick of feeling like the bad guy. It brought out the beast in him. “Oh, Henry, you see this is where you’ve underestimated me. You want to make me the villain? You haven’t gone far enough. Georgia knows Logan. She spent time with him six months ago, and I believe they fell for each other then, but his mental state kept them apart. Well, that and her deep stubborn streak. I was lucky enough to find her. I intended to simply hire her and keep her safe for Logan, but I took one look at that blonde with her bratty mouth and her soft heart and I knew I would keep her for myself if I had to. Six months. I’ve kept my hands off her for six months until the time became right for me to bring us all here and under one roof. I will maneuver them both into a situation where they are living together, sleeping together, playing together, and I will get what I want in the end.”
A slow smile crossed Henry’s face. “There’s the Seth I expected. It’s an interesting play. Where do you fit? If Logan is the Dom and this Georgia is the sub, what is your role? How do you know that once you manage to get them together, they won’t need you anymore? Ah, there’s the rub.”
Henry had gotten really obnoxious since he hit forty. John Bishop hadn’t talked this much. Of course, John Bishop had also tried to kill him once, but Seth had been cock blocking the man, so he understood.
“It won’t happen.”
“It could happen. You could end up feeling like the second dick or worse, just the guy they keep around because they feel guilty.”
This hadn’t gone down the way he’d hoped. He utterly lost his appetite. Seth felt his body flush, and he took a deep breath to banish the unwanted emotions that threatened to take over. “Well, I can see what you think of me. Uhm, I’m going to get back home. Give Nell my love.”
Henry’s hand shot out, grabbing Seth before he could stand. “Don’t. I know you thought you could walk back in here and everything would be roses and moonlight, but if you want to live here, if you want to be a part of this family, you’re going to have to change your expectations. I know you think of me as a father figure.”
This was the part of the day where he would normally tell whoever was making him feel like crap to fuck off and walk away. If it had been his biological father, he certainly would have done that. “If you don’t want me to bother you anymore, Henry, I won’t.”
“See, this is what I’m talking about. The minute you come against something you can’t barrel your way through, you drop it like a hot potato. Stop. Take your little boy hat off and listen to me. You think of me as a father figure and I love you like a son. That means I’m going to poke at you and try to make you the best you can possibly be. It’s what parents do. I’m worried about this. I’m not worried that you won’t have a place in this relationship you want. I’m worried that you won’t see it. You get so damn caught up in a problem that you don’t see the emotional ramifications of what will happen when you get what you want. You’re obsessive and you tend to let the rest of the world fall away when you’re focused. I think this could be very good for you. I think you and Logan have always balanced each other, and you two got into serious trouble when you no longer had the other to count on. You drifted into your work and he could not cope with having his innocence stripped away. You two need each other. Don’t look at this like one of your plots, Seth. It’s too important.”
“It’s everything,” Seth concurred, relief flooding his system. He hadn’t realized just how much he’d come to depend on Henry being there. “Henry, I understand what you’re saying and I appreciate it. I’ll think about it, but I think we all need this.”
“All right.” Henry sat back. “Looks like breakfast is here. Scrambled tofu and veggies. Damn. Nothing gets a morning started like that.”
The waitress put a plate in front of Seth, but he had to force himself to eat. As Henry started talking about everything that was going on around the county, all Seth could see was Logan, battered and bruised. What if he was wrong? What if he didn’t understand what the problem really was? What if love couldn’t cure Logan?
Chapter Seven
Georgia stuck her head out of the door and wasn’t immediately assaulted by a giant raging beast.
It was the first thing that had gone right all day long.
She stepped out on to the deck that faced the river. Wow. She wasn’t all nature girl, but there was no way to not find that view spectacular. The river was wide and the sound of it rushing by was soothing. It was the sound that had put her to sleep the night before.
It wasn’t like she’d never camped in her life. Her brothers had loved camping, and despite the fact that she’d been so young and had gotten into trouble a lot, Win always made sure she came along. At first she’d thought he felt guilty about everyone else getting to go because her brothers all went together, but later she learned that he’d left her behind once and when he’d gotten back her nanny was in bed with their father and she hadn’t been fed in two days. He’d never allowed her to be alone again.