Of Loss & Betrayal (Madison & Logan 2)

I laughed, putting my hand on Logan’s arm. “Logan is an exception. He’s a noble lawyer.”

Mack raised his eyebrows. “Isn’t that an oxymoron?”

My laugh fizzled out when I saw the way Logan was looking at us. He didn’t look displeased, exactly, but he didn’t look too pleased either. I wondered if I was being too chummy with Mack.

My thoughts were interrupted by the waiter bringing our food to the table. Before my fork was even raised, a cell phone started ringing. Logan sighed and pulled out his phone, frowning at the screen.

“I’m sorry, guys. I have to take this call for work. It’s from an international time zone, so it’s my only chance to talk to them.”

I gave Logan a quick smile. “Don’t worry about it.”

“I’ll take this out into the lobby so it doesn’t interrupt your dinner.” Logan dropped me a quick kiss before standing up. “Go ahead and start without me.”

My pulse quickened as I watched him walk across the restaurant. This was my chance. I was alone with Mack and I could finally ask him about Kristina. The problem was that my throat felt like it was closing up from nervousness.

I was aware of Mack watching me so I gave him a forced smile, wracking my brain as to how to bring up the subject.

“Logan told me you guys became friends during law school.” It was a lame start, but it was all I could come up with at the moment.

Mack nodded his head. “Yeah. We lost touch afterwards, but when he moved to L.A. we started hanging out again.”

That was my in. Mack had brought up L.A. so I went with it.

“Did you guys spend a lot of time together when Logan lived in L.A.? I know how crazy Logan’s work schedule can be, and I can only imagine yours is the same.”

Mack leaned back in his chair with a grin. “I believe in a balance between work and play. Logan, on the other hand, tends to lean more towards all work and no play.” He raised an eyebrow. “Although I guess things are different now with you in the picture. He seems to value his personal life more than work now.”

“So, he wa

sn’t like that in L.A.?” I took a deep breath before continuing. I had to hurry up and move this conversation along before Logan came back. “I know he was dating Kristina while he lived there. They seemed like they had a pretty good connection.”

Mack’s expression became guarded. “I don’t really know much about their relationship.”

I frowned. “But I got the impression that you and Logan hung out a lot in L.A. That means you must have spent time with Kristina as well.”

He shrugged his shoulders noncommittally. “I mean, I spent time with her because of Logan, but we didn’t have any deep, meaningful conversations or anything. She was just Logan’s girlfriend.”

Coupled with his apparent penchant for being a playboy, I started to wonder if Mack was some sort of misogynist by the way he referred to Kristina as just Logan’s girlfriend. I pushed the thought aside, since it didn’t really matter to me.

“But you were close enough to tell her about Logan’s accident.”

Mack’s face was expressionless but I saw the way his eyes were assessing me. “Logan told you that?”

“It really doesn’t matter how I found out. I know that you told her about his accident and that she visited him in the hospital.”

He shifted uncomfortably and looked down at his plate, although he hadn’t touched his ribeye. “You should talk to Logan about that, not me.”

I pressed further. Now that I had started, I couldn’t stop until I got some answers. “You’re the one who told her about the accident, so you chose to be involved. I just need you to tell me if there’s anything going on between the two of them.”

Mack’s gaze shot up to meet mine. He frowned. “Are you asking me if Logan is cheating on you with Kristina? Of course not.”

Despite his tone sounding incredulous, I wasn’t sure if I believed him. His track record with women, which had previously been a joke in the conversation, now made me wonder if he was too good of a liar for me to see through. He sounded sincere, but now I knew that he went through women like a bag of chips.

“Mack, I’m going to find out the truth sooner or later. I know you’re Logan’s friend, but I’m asking you to be honest with me.”

“Don’t you know that you mean everything to Logan?” He shook his head with a sigh. “Even when he was with Kristina, he talked about you. Hell, I knew all about you when we were in law school. I’ve never known a guy to be so focused on one woman. He would do anything for you and you’re questioning his faithfulness?”

I wanted to believe his words, to believe that there was nothing going on between Logan and Kristina, but I couldn’t get past the fact that she had visited him in the hospital.