Page 44 of Logan (The Valeur Billionaires #1)

Chapter Thirty-Four

LOGAN

“ O pen the goddamn door!” I roar, my fist slamming against the unyielding wood with enough force to rattle the frame. But there’s no answer, no sound of footsteps hurrying to greet me, no click of the lock disengaging. Just a heavy, damning silence that makes my gut churn with dread.

Where the hell is she?

I’ve tried calling dozens of times already, but she turned off her fucking phone.

I need to talk to her, to explain, to help. Hell, I don’t even know how to help, but I need to see her.

“The video was sent to me and other executives last night .” Liam’s voice echoes in my head, an endless, taunting loop. Someone filmed us, some sneaky, sleazy bastard, and now our most intimate moments are splashed across the inboxes of men who hold our fates in their hands .

A red haze descends, fury and panic clawing at my throat. I fumble for my phone, my fingers clumsy with rage as I scroll through my contacts.

“Sam.” I bite out the name through gritted teeth as the line clicks open. “I need you. Now.”

“Mr. Valeur?” He sounds wary, picking up on the lethal edge in my tone. Smart man. It’s why I recruited him, plucked him out of the quasi-legal hacker circles he used to run in.

“I have a job for you. Off the books. You track, you trace, you bury. No questions asked.” I keep my voice low.

“What’s the target?” To his credit, there’s no hesitation, no hint of doubt. He knows better than to balk when I use this tone.

“There’s a video. Of me. In a...compromising position. It was sent to the Valeur exec team from an anonymous account. I need you to find out who’s behind it. I need a name.” I need someone to punish, to crush, to destroy for daring to touch what’s mine.

“I’ll need to see the video. Analyze the metadata, trace the digital trail.” He pauses. “I can assure you of my absolute discretion, but?—”

“Check your inbox.” I cut him off. “Should hit your secure server...now.” I pace the narrow hallway like a caged beast, my free hand clenching and unclenching at my side.

“Dig into this, Sam. Dig deep and fast. And when you have a name, I want this video scrubbed. All evidence erased, all traces wiped. Like it never existed.”

I end the call and lean my forehead against the cool wood of Sloane’s door, my pulse pounding in my temples. When I find out who did this, who dared to violate our privacy, our trust...there’ll be hell to pay .

A reckoning.

But that’s for later. Now...

Dad.

He received the video, too, and he doesn’t know it’s me. I need to talk to him. Better he hear the truth from me before this blows up.

I drive to the Valeur Industries offices and take a deep breath before exiting the car. Dad will be devastated, shattered by what I have to tell him.

My whole life, every choice, every sacrifice, has served to groom me for this role, to fulfill my duty to the Valeur legacy, to prove I’m an integral part of this family. And now I’ve let him down in the most spectacular fashion imaginable.

Dad’s secretary jumps up from her chair when she sees me, her eyes wide and startled. “Hey,” I say, ignoring the frightened look on her face and the way her gaze darts to the closed door of my father’s office. “Is Mr. Valeur in?”

She nods. “Yes, he’s in his office. Shall I let him know you’re here?” She reaches for the phone.

“No need.” I wave her off, already moving past her. “I’ll announce myself.”

I twist the knob and step inside, closing the door behind me with a soft click that sounds like the sealing of a tomb.

The look on Dad’s face is serious and angry, his brows drawn together and his mouth a grim slash.

Has he already received an update? I’m pretty sure Liam wouldn’t report to him without giving me a heads-up first, but Dad has an uncanny ability to ferret out secrets. He’s had to in order to build Valeur into the empire it is today.

“Hey, Dad.” I try to keep my voice steady.

“Everything all right, Logan?”

Okay, he doesn’t know. Small mercies. “I need to talk to you. It’s urgent.”

Dad leans back in his chair, steepling his fingers under his chin. “What’s so urgent that you’re interrupting me in the middle of a workday?”

I bite the inside of my cheek and sit, deciding to just spill it all at once, like ripping off a band-aid. A really big, really bloody band-aid. “I’ve been involved with a company employee.”

Dad stares at me, his expression unreadable. The silence stretches between us, thick and suffocating.

“I slept with a company employee,” I clarify.

Dad’s expression hardens, his lips pressing into a thin, bloodless line. “You what?” His voice is soft, but I hear the steel beneath, the barely leashed fury.

“I slept?—”

“Was it consensual?” Dad cuts me off, his gaze piercing.

“Dad!” I burst out, indignation momentarily overwhelming my shame and fear. That he would even ask me such a question, that he would think I was capable of...

“Was it a one-time thing? Is she planning to go public, to smear you, smear the company? I need to understand what we’re up against here, Logan.” Dad’s tone is cold, clinical. The consummate entrepreneur, assessing the threat to his bottom line .

I close my eyes, bracing myself to drop the second bombshell. “We were filmed. There’s a video.”

“What?” The color drains from Dad’s face. He’s as pale as the wall behind him.

He hasn’t seen the video. The realization hits me. “Someone, it’s still unclear who, recorded us and sent it to some of the executive team. The video is in your email. I assume you haven’t watched it yet.”

Dad surges to his feet, sending his chair skidding back with a screech. He paces the room.

“For God’s sake,” he snarls, whirling to face me. “So you’re telling me everyone saw you fucking this woman? They all got a front-row seat to you throwing away your career, your reputation, everything we’ve built?”

I swallow hard, a muscle ticking in my jaw. “I’m sorry?—”

“What good does sorry do now?” Dad roars, slamming his hand on his desk. I flinch at the sound, at the raw fury and disappointment in his voice. “Has the board heard about this yet?”

I shake my head. “Not yet. There will be a meeting next week, and Liam will update them if the video doesn’t leak to the press first.” I can’t bring myself to meet his eyes, to see the disgust, the contempt I know I’ll find there.

“They’re going to demand your resignation, you realize that?

” Dad’s voice is glacial. “You won’t be able to weather this, to keep your position after a scandal of this magnitude.

What the hell were you thinking, Logan? Did you have to fuck an employee?

Couldn’t you keep it in your goddamn pants, find some discreet escort to slake your needs? ”

“She—”

“Damn it, Logan.” Dad scrubs a hand over his face, looking exhausted. “If she comes forward, if she spins this as some kind of abuse of power, you could face legal action. Criminal charges, even.”

“She won’t say anything.”

“You can’t possibly know that,” Dad scoffs. “Everyone has a price. And even if she keeps quiet, there’s still the video to contend with.”

The video. God. To think of those sacred, precious moments splashed across the screens of the men who hold my fate in their hands...

“How explicit is the video? Are we talking full-frontal, X-rated material here?” Dad’s clinical tone belies the dread in his eyes.

I huff out a breath. “No. Not my face, either. I’m not identifiable in the video. Only the woman is.”

Dad latches onto this like a drowning man to a life raft.

“So, there’s no definitive proof it’s you?

Just the word of this mystery woman? Maybe we can control the narrative.

Paint her as a scorned woman, an opportunist looking for a payday.

I’ve got dirt on most of the board members that would make this little indiscretion look like a Sunday picnic.

They’ll fall in line to save their own skins. ”

Gorge rises in my throat at the implications. “You want to throw Sloane under the bus? Destroy her credibility, her career, to save mine?” I’m on my feet before I realize I’ve moved, my hands clenched into fists at my sides.

Dad blinks, flustered by my outburst. “To save the company, Logan. That has to be our priority. You know that.” His voice is unforgiving, the voice of a man who’s built an empire on the bones of countless sacrificed pawns.

But Sloane isn’t a pawn. She’s...everything .

“No.” The word feels leaden on my tongue, but I force it out. “No, I won’t do that to her. I won’t let her twist in the wind to save my own sorry ass.”

Dad stares at me, a vein throbbing in his temple. “Logan, think about what you’re saying. Think about what you’re throwing away, what you’re risking?—”

“I have.” I cut him off, my voice gaining strength and conviction. “I’ve thought of nothing else since. I’m done putting Valeur first, Dad. I’m done being a good little soldier. If the cost of keeping my throne is letting Sloane be raked over the coals, then I don’t want it.”

I half expect Dad to lash out, to roar at me for my insolence. But he just stares at me, something like surprise flickering in his gaze.

“You love her.” It’s not a question but a statement. “This woman. You’re in love with her.”

I open my mouth. Close it. I want to deny it, to scoff at the very notion. Logan Valeur doesn’t fall in love. He doesn’t lose his head over a pair of pretty eyes and a clever tongue.

But looking into my father’s face, I find I can’t lie. Not to him, not to myself. Not anymore.

“Yeah,” I rasp out, the admission scraping my throat raw. “Yeah, I think maybe I do.”

Dad closes his eyes, a long, slow breath shuddering out of him. When he opens them again, I’m shocked to see a sheen of moisture, a welling of some long-buried grief. “Then you have to fight for her.”

I blink, sure I’ve misheard. “What?”