Out of Control

Chapter Ten

Answers

Veronica half expected to see police cars already at the Echolls' estate. Not the ones that she had called in, but some coming to take Logan away. Surprisingly, the estate seemed completely abandoned. Looks can be deceiving that way. She slid through the fence easily. The guards were gone now. They were possibly watching the spectacle that Logan and Aaron could be making in the house. She could totally see Aaron calling the guards into the house with indignation at Logan's behavior. Veronica could definitely see Logan bursting through the house, breaking everything around him, going after Aaron without asking the important questions. That was why she was there. She had to find out the truth before Logan was too rash. Before he was out of control.

The door had been left open. Logan was obviously not in the mood to keep people out. She slid in quietly and followed the voices from the living room. Aaron had Logan on the ground, his foot keeping him down. Logan was still fighting back with just as much energy. He was yelling at Aaron, shouting accusations in an almost unreasonable tone.

"You murdered her! After you cheated on her, beat her, abused her, you just decided to get rid of her! Tired of having her as your emotional plaything?" He pushed Aaron's foot off of his chest, trying his best to pull Aaron down so he could have the advantage.

"Your mother cheated on me! Don't always try to make me out to be the bad guy, Son. Besides, it was ruled suicide. Even the police know that your mother offed herself."

Logan pushed Aaron, punching the man behind the knees which did finally knock him down. "Our illustrious police force ruled it a suicide. You're right. Lamb wouldn't know a homicide if it happened in front of him."

The two struggled on the floor, both swinging punches, tying their best to hurt one another.

"You're mother couldn't handle any kind of pressure. She was weak! Particularly in her head. You know how she was."

Logan slammed Aaron's head down onto the floor. "You're weak. Beating defenseless women and children to make yourself feel like a man. I know how you are!"

Veronica couldn't watch this anymore. The two of the beating each other senseless was painful. Blood dripped down from Logan's nose and Aaron now had an indention on the side of his jaw, showing dark bruising around his jaw.

"Stop! The police are coming. And we're going to know what happened before Lamb gets here. Stop fighting." Veronica ran towards the two. "We'll tie him up, Logan. Come on. Just get him somewhere that I can tie him to him."

Aaron grabbed Veronica, slapping his hand across her face. The action sent Logan into a complete rage. He tackled Aaron to the ground, keeping his hands back. Veronica recovered from the slap quickly enough and grabbed her jacket off the side of her messenger bag. She tied the hands behind Aaron's back, keeping the knot together. Aaron continued struggling, but he couldn't get out of the knots. Apparently Veronica had tied several knots before this. For such a small girl, she could really tie a strong knot. Veronica went to Logan now, no longer caring about the confusing feelings she had inside. She touched his nose gently, seeing that at least two bones were broken in the nose. He was bruising all over and the feeling inside now was complete disgust at what Aaron could do to his son. This was obviously not the first time he had beat Logan. Just the first time anyone had witness it.

He seemed just as concerned about Veronica. Aaron's handprint was already showing up across her cheek. His hand reached up to touch her face with just as much gentleness as her's had. The two stared at each other for just a moment.

"That's cute. Maybe you guys can consummate your relationship on the couch over here."

Veronica snapped out of it at Aaron's comment. She turned to Aaron, focusing all of her attention on the man. She strolled in front of Aaron, leaning down in front of him.

"So you already knew about Lynn's affair. How did you find out?"

Aaron glared at her. "It's not like I'm about to tell you. I really don't know why so many people are afraid of you and your shleppy father. You don't seem really too scary to me."

"I've got you tied up, don't I?"

"And I can't say that I'm complaining about that. But if you wanted to play games, you could have just asked." Aaron smiled at her with a leer.

Veronica shuddered. "I really don't know why so many people want to have affairs with you. You're old and creepy. But let's get back to the matter at hand. I bet that really pissed you off. Your wife cheating on you. You're Aaron Echolls. No one cheats on you. She was lucky to have you, right?"

Logan turned his attention on what Aaron had to say. He still wasn't talking yet, but Veronica knew it was only a matter of time. Aaron had ego. He would want to make sure people knew how smart he was. How he got away with the perfect murder.

Logan didn't say anything, for once. He realized that for once Veronica might need to do the talking. She might be the way to finding out what really happened.

"It was clever that you planned the suicide. Everyone would believe that poor, misused Lynn would kill herself. She can't handle the pressure, just like you said."

Aaron nodded obligingly. "She was a drunk. Who would be surprised that she jumped?"

"What happened?"

Aaron thought back to the night that Lynn had come home. She had been furious, running at him, hands flying into pitiful slaps. She was unreasonable. She wouldn't even listen to him.

"A sixteen-year-old? Aaron, that is disgusting! Not only that, but our son's girlfriend. I don't care why you hate me, but I don't understand why you hate our son. You always have. You never hated Trina, but from the moment Logan was born, you've been thinking of ways to make Logan's life miserable. You've been quite successful. But sleeping with Lilly Kane is beyond cruel and disgusting. She's just a child and you took advantage of that girl."

Lynn struggled as Aaron pulled her arms roughly to her side, his strength overpowering her. His movie star smile flashed at her to show her the pleasure he felt by both the affair and the power of hurting her. She turned her head when he lifted one hand up to slap his hand across her face.

"Lilly Kane is hardly an innocent young girl. She knew what she was doing when she and I had our tryst. And you want to talk about affairs? How are things going with Harrison these days?"

If Lynn was surprised that Aaron knew, she didn't know it. The outrage remained on her face, but it was the anger about Lilly that wouldn't leave her. She shook her body, trying her best to get away from Aaron's grasp. She slammed her stiletto heel into his foot which made him loosen his grip. She slipped under him and stood her ground.

"Do you expect me to apologize for Harrison? I only regret that I didn't meet him sooner. Staying with you has been the worst mistake I have ever made. Allowing Logan to stay in this house has been just as bad. But now you've gone too far. This business with Lilly gives me exactly what I need. Robbing the cradle with a Kane? It'll be all over the tabloids by morning. Imagine the headlines. Did you kill her too?"

"You'd hurt your son that way? Allowing the fact that I pleasured his girlfriend better than he did go all over the public? I'm shocked at you." His voice taunted her. He honestly thought that she would keep his secret. Lynn didn't want to hurt Logan. He'd been hurt enough in this life because of her. But she had to get out. He had to get out. Aaron had kept them locked away for far too long.

He didn't even bother to acknowledge the murder accusation of Lilly Kane. What she didn't know wouldn't hurt her. Or him, more accurately.

"Washed Up Actor Takes Advantage of Software Moguls Underage Daughter. Cheating Actor Goes Too Far. Robbing the Cradle with a Kane. It'll be fabulous. I know the headlines well hurt Logan, but he'll get over it. It'll be better to leave this house and get over a little humiliation."

"And Lilly's precious reputation. What do you think the Kanes will do to you when they find out you went to the tabloids with scandal?"

Lynn scoffed at Aaron's pathetic attempts to keep her quiet. "Lilly can handle herself. She got herself into this in the first place. Like you said. She's hardly innocent. And the real question is what will the Kanes do to you when they find out you slept with their daughter?"

Lynn turned her back, ready to strut to the door. "I'm leaving you, Aaron. And the world and the courts won't blame me. No matter what I have done, you've done worse. This is the end of it. I'm glad you made it so easy because you can't keep it in your pants."

Before Lynn knew what was happening, Aaron had a hold of her throat. The full amount of his fury showed in his eyes and soon she couldn't breathe. She had never thought he would kill her, no matter how many times he had hurt her. But as she fell to her knees, gasping for air, losing the battle, she knew that she had lost much more than the last fight. She had lost her life. And now Logan would be alone. She would be gone. And Aaron had won.

He hadn't really told them all that they wanted to hear. He had only talked in bits and pieces. But they had gotten the gist of it. They could testify at trial. Logan went forward to grab Aaron, to beat him before the police arrived. But they had already shown up. Deputy Sachs came in and read Aaron his rights, just off the basis of what they saw the state of the living room in. No one had heard a confession except Logan and Veronica. That worried her. Aaron could lawyer himself up and wiggle out of the charges. They would have to try their best to stop that.

Lamb sent Veronica a condescending smile. "You'll have to come down to the station. Your little friend here too. I'm sure you guys will have a lot to say. I think maybe I can read you your rights. We're not sure what happened here." He slipped his cuffs out swinging and pulled her roughly to him.

"You're right. I've done horrible things. That's why I called you down here."

"That sounded like a confession to me. Enough to at least pull you in. You have the right to remain silent…"

Lamb rattled off the Miranda rights while another deputy arrested Logan. Veronica sent Logan an irritated glance, who seemed just as happy. Who knew what Aaron would tell Lamb? And Lamb may just believe him simply to keep her locked up. She was pushed out of the mansion while paparazzi took pictures off the entire scene taking place.

Logan was waiting for her when she walked out of the jail. Lamb hadn't been able to come up with any actual charges for either of them. Aaron was being held on suspicion of murder due to both of their statements of what they had heard Aaron muttering at the estate. Lamb and the rest of the police force would look into the rest of the house, since they now had most of the story of what had happened to Lynn. They could look in specific places for evidence.

Both looked a bit battered, particularly Logan. His wounds had been attended to at the police station, so they were scabbed over mostly. His nose was broken, so he had bandages over the bridge of his nose. Veronica still had the imprint of Aaron's hand on her cheek and she could only imagine what Keith would have to say about that. She wouldn't be surprised if Keith snuck into the prison to let Aaron know what he thought about it. But at the moment, all she had to think about was Logan.

"So, your dad and Lilly. I bet that was the big secret she told me she had. The day she was murdered. Do you think Aaron did that too?"

"Who knows what my father is capable of?" He was sulking and with good reason. His whole life had once again fallen apart. Not that he cared about. When wasn't his life out of control? He had always known his father was a bastard. But he hadn't wanted to believe that this father had murdered everyone he cared about. Lilly. Lynn. At least Veronica was safe now.

"I'm sorry, Logan. I know that it doesn't really help to know that your father murdered your mother." Veronica grabbed his arm, making him look at her. He nodded in agreement. "Yeah, but I knew she wouldn't have killed herself. It's better to have the truth. Let everyone know the truth. She wasn't always the greatest mom, you know. But I did love her."

"I know."

Logan pulled Veronica in his arms and held tightly. He tried to let his tension release, just to have Veronica in his arms, to relax for a few moments before he would be surrounded by paparazzi and nosy people at school. Before he had to prepare for trial to testify against his father and hopefully see him go to prison for a long time. For once he felt grateful to the man his mother had had an affair with. And he felt grateful to Veronica.

"I'm there when you need me, Logan. For the trial. And any other time."

"You have been for a while now, haven't you? Since my mom died. You've been the only one there. Even after I treated you like you were lower than the dirt my maid sweeps up."

Veronica shrugged a little, not telling Logan that it was okay, but not trying to make him feel bad about it either. "I told you. Your mom was always nice to me. She deserved better. And Lilly would have wanted me to help you. In the end, I think I helped you because I wanted to."

Logan's smirk fell back in place as he tried to rid himself of all the emotional issues he was dealing with. "You just wanted to see if I would service you for this. And what can I say? I can't say no after all this."

Veronica grinned at him, knowing that this was said more out of jest than malice. She kissed his cheek softly before she started to the door. "I can say no."

He grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the police station with him, both already ignoring the questions fired at them about Aaron's arrest and Lynn's murder. Instead, Logan realized that while the rest of his life was out of control, something was going right. He had Veronica back. And she'd help him fix the rest of his life. That's what she did.