Suits & Aces (#3)

09 // War

Logan was not particularly happy to see her, but she did not expect anything less from him. He had every right to be mad at her.

She was not planning on being in the same room as him after their confrontation, but after everything she heard from Samantha, she wanted to look him in the face and ask him why he did what he did.

He put her brother's life in danger and put all their lives at risk.

She went to look for him in his office and found out from Natalia that he was at La Café, she did not expect to find his bodyguard with him, but from the look of things, the news of his latest adventure had travelled fast.

"What are you doing here?" Thuso asked, but MJ ignored him.

Her attention was focused on Logan, she had no idea how to feel about him or the situation he put them in, all she felt was a burning feeling in her chest, and it felt as if she was going to explode.

"Just give me a reason why, one good reason," she said quietly. "I know that we deceived you. And I never for a second expected you to let your guard down, I knew you were going to strike back sooner or later. But this time, Logan Parker, you've gone too far."

Logan remained unmoved, and that bothered her. Did he not in the least care about his best friend?

She may have said hurtful things to him in the last forty-eight hours, she may have pushed him to this point.

But attacking Samantha was probably the worst thing he had ever done.

MJ always knew that Samantha was dangerous, she did not meet her by mistake, her worst mistake was letting her get too close. She knew secrets that could bring MJ to ruins, and she was going to use them to get her way.

Now, MJ had to choose between her brother and Logan. She had no reason to protect Logan, but she did not want to see him dead either. She was also not willing to hand her brother over to that witch.

She shook her head at him. "Jorge is your best friend, he would never do to you what you did to him." She watched as Logan's face changed, guilt and panic in his eyes. "How could you put his life in danger like that? Gosh, he is as good as dead!"

Logan leaned back in his chair and shut his eyes, subsequently massaging his forehead. "Listen," he said in a hoarse voice. "I was going to tell you, but Montana arrived and everything went south."

MJ frowned. "So, you planned this ahead? And all this time, it did not occur to you that Jorge was on his deathbed? Are you crazy?" She yelled. "You brought her closer to Jorge, that witch was admitted in the same hospital as Jorge, and she will do anything to get her claws on him!"

Logan stared daggers at her, his nonchalance peeved her. "You are the one who brought her here!" He snapped, slamming his fist on the desk. "This is all your fault. You are here pointing fingers and trying to shift the blame, but have you wondered for a second why I did it?" His chest rose erratically, his breathing hastened.

"Of course, I did! You did this because she lied to you on the phone, she helped me to deceive you months ago. All this over a petty phone call?"

Logan laughed coldly, holding on to the edges of the desk as if to prevent his inner beast from coming out. "You know what?" He gulped, his eyes displaying a wave of hurt, but all that vanished in seconds. "You two have already wasted enough of my time. I have a lot of work to catch up on," he dismissed.

Thuso did not waste another second in the room.

MJ pulled out a chair and sat down. This was not getting her anywhere. "I don't want to be here as much as you don't want me, but I have no other choice. Samantha has given me an ultimatum." She gulped, recalling the woman's twisted eyes. "My brother for your life."

Logan sighed deeply and shut his laptop. "Why are you here then? What, do you expect me to beg you for my life?" MJ flinched. "MJ, I don't need you, you can do whatever the hell you want. Whether you let her kill me or spare my life, I don't care. If you are capable of threatening your own brother and putting a price on his head, who am I?"

MJ felt her heart stop. He was there, he was at Alastair Cooper's memorial service that night when she threatened Jorge.

Did he think she sent people to kill him?

"The last thing I would ever do in this world is hurt my brother. I admit he's not perfect, neither am I, but we are still family. You were there, you witnessed everything – Jorge raised me."

She recalled how they had countless arguments before where they both ended up saying hurtful words to each other, and what happened in London was also a banter. She would never hurt him in that way.

"Don't bother yourself about me, if your secretary put a price on my head, it is on me. I can take care of myself, besides, it wouldn't be the first time she tried to kill me."

MJ's eyes perked up. "What?" She asked, hoping that she heard him wrong.

"Did you really think I was doing this over a petty phone call?" He sneered.

That could not be.

"Excuse me, what did you just say?"

"I'm sure you haven't seen nor heard from Kyle since the night you ruined his marriage. I'm sure he will be more than happy to update you on everything that has been happening, but what I can tell you for now is that your assistant wanted to get me out of the way. Why? I'll never be able to tell you, she's the only person that knows why she wanted to off me."

*You may not have been his first love, but he was definitely yours. And until I get what is rightfully mine, neither will you.*

*Do you think I don't see it? The spark in your eyes at the mention of his name. You should see the look on his face at the mention of your name, I've never seen anyone struggle to choose between love and hate as he does.*

*Who do you think put me on this bed?*

*Where there is love, there is hope.*

*Why would Logan do this to you?*

*Why do you think? He found out that I helped you to deceive him. And now, here we are. If he could do this to me, what do you think he is going to do to you?*

Samantha's words rang in her mind like a church bell on a Sunday morning. Samantha was playing mind games, she knew that MJ was going to confront Logan as soon as she left the hospital.

She knew MJ would try to salvage the situation, she was playing with chance, what if MJ had not confronted Logan?

She would have never learned about Samantha's assassination attempt on his life, she would have never even considered sparing his life. Samantha did not want to kill Logan, she wanted MJ to be the one to do it by making her believe that Logan was a threat to her.

But at the same time, she wanted MJ to find out the truth from him, she wanted her to know that she did not need her help to kill Logan or to get Jorge.

She wanted her to know that MJ would not be able to save neither her brother nor Logan even if she was given the chance.

She wanted MJ to know that she was in control, Samantha called the shots.

She was coming after Jorge and Logan, and she was not going to spare MJ.

"Samantha is not someone you want to mess with," she said after some thought. "Trust me, I know. I just don't want to see you get hurt." The words hung in the air as they looked into each other's eyes, a lot still to be said. MJ cleared her throat, breaking the trance. "Well, I should get going."

"Yeah, you should," Logan said, but MJ still could not bring herself to get up.

She did not know where to start now that she knew what Samantha did and what she was planning next, she had to put her brother first.

"Babe, I've been trying to call you since yesterday!" A woman barged into Logan's office and walked over to where he was seated.

The atmosphere in the room suddenly changed. "Oh! I had no idea you had company," the girl said, placing her arm on Logan's shoulder.

It was the same woman who was trying to get Logan's attention on the evening of the launch.

MJ felt her heart drop when Logan put his arm around her waist and pulled her onto his lap. "I'm sorry, baby, I've been meaning to call you. But I just got caught up with work," Logan said tenderly.

"I was just wondering if we could go out for lunch, but we can just have dinner if you are busy," the girl suggested, looking at MJ.

Logan kissed her hand. "Oh, no! She was just leaving."

MJ felt like someone had just splashed cold water to her face.

She pushed her chair back and stood up, and walked out of the room just as Logan was about to kiss the girl.