"Hi Veronica," Logan said quietly.

"Hi," she replied and she seemed pleased to hear from him. He used to think he could actually hear her smiling on her end of the phone when he would call. Now he wondered if it was just his imagination. "Did you guys make it to the river all right?"

"Yeah. I wish you were here."

"Me too."

He paused. When he started talking again his voice was strained. "Veronica?"

"Yes?"

"If you didn't love me any more you would tell me wouldn't you?" He heard her catch her breath but before she could reply he forged ahead, letting the words fumble out of his mouth. "I mean, you would be straight with me. You wouldn't let me find out some other way, right?"

"Logan, why would you ask me something like that?"

He squeezed his eyes shut for half a second. Ask her, idiot. But he was too afraid to hear the answer.

"I guess I'm still freaked about seeing you with Duncan this afternoon," he lied.

"Logan, Duncan and I are not seeing each other behind your back."

"I know." Now. "I just---you know what my relationship with Lilly was like. You'd never do that to me right?"

"No," she whispered, "I wouldn't."

"Ok." He mumbled. "Well I better go. I love you."

"I love you too," she said in a strangely strangled voice, like she was trying not to cry. "And Logan, I don't see that changing in the foreseeable future."

"Good to know," he said and he clicked off the phone and tossed it on the seat beside him. Then he turned his eyes back on the road. It had taken them five hours to make the drive to Arizona but that had been in traffic. He figured now that it was the middle of night and he was breaking every speed limit known to man he could make it back in three and a half.

A little voice in the back of his head kept telling him that this was a bad idea. That the last time he'd come home early from a trip to hunt down a cheating girlfriend he'd been accused of murdering her.

Veronica is not cheating on you! She is not Lilly! Then why was he driving across two states to--to what? Confront her? Catch her in the act? He couldn't say for sure, only that he had to do it.

He reached over and turned on the radio. The quiet voice on the CD poured out:

What if you should decide that you don't want me there by your side?

That you don't want me there in your life?

Cursing Meg's choice in music he snapped the radio on instead. A rather anguished voice was raging out:

Is someone getting the best, the best, the best, the best of you?
Is someone getting the best, the best, the best, the best of you?

Are you gone and onto someone new?

Angrily Logan punched another preset button.

Now they're going to bed

And my stomach is sick

And it's all in my head

But she's touching his chest now

He takes off her dress now

Let me go

And I just can't look

It's killing me

And taking control

Shaking his head he tried yet another preset.

I think you're sleeping with a friend of mine

I have no proof but I think that I'm right

With a growl Logan shut off the radio completely. He'd rather fall asleep at the wheel then listen to any more of that. If God, or fate, or some sick and twisted cosmic force was trying to tell him something he didn't want to hear it.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Veronica was still staring at her phone long after she'd hung up.

He knows.

"Trouble in paradise?"

She'd forgotten that Troy was stretched out on her couch and glancing at him now she saw he'd taken his shirt off and made himself comfortable.

"Don't." Veronica warned, pointing the phone at him but her voice was breaking. She turned her back on him and tried to catch her breath. Logan had sounded so--wounded. And she knew it was because he was suspicious of her. Why couldn't she date someone beautiful and stupid?

Troy put his hands on her shoulders and she whirled on him in a rage.

"What do you think you're doing?"

He put his hands up. "You sounded upset."

"Maybe I am and maybe it has everything to do with what you're doing to me. In which case, I'd be moving farther away from me, not closer."

"Why the hostility, Ronnie?" But he took her advice and stepped back.

"Should I give you a list?" She sputtered. "You played with me like a cat toy, used me up, and then threw me away when your steroid ship came in. And now you're blackmailing me and Logan is in Arizona thinking God-knows-what!"

"Whoa. Back up. How did I use you?"

Veronica let out a soggy laugh. "All those months we were dating. Homecoming? Ring any bells?"

"Veronica, those months were real….."

"Those months were you biding your time until you could reunite with your partner in crime, Shawna."

"Veronica---"

He took a step toward her and she put her hands up.

"Seriously, I am on the edge here and if you want to give me an excuse to go Lorena Bobbitt on you keep on coming."

Troy stopped.

"OK, but you need to listen to me. If I was just hanging out, waiting for my next big drug score, and I was just "biding my time" for Shawna to come a callin' then why, out of every girl in Neptune High, would I have chosen to go out with you? The one girl who had the mind and brass to figure it all out and foil my nefarious plan?"

That gave Veronica pause. Put that way it didn't make a lot of sense. But she shook her head.

"You underestimated me."

He shook his head.

"Veronica anyone that underestimates you should be fitted for a clown outfit. When I asked you out, when I asked you to Homecoming, every minute we were together, that was real."

Veronica looked at him and felt some of the ice between them melt. But only for half a second.

"So real that as soon as you closed in on an easy score you trashed it to hook up with some other "real" girl?"

"That's not exactly how it happened."

"You know what? I don't care. I really don't. Quite frankly you didn't mean that much to me."

He put a hand over his heart and pretended to stumble back.

"Direct hit!"

She pushed passed him and walked back toward her bedroom. He followed her.

"Shawna called me. She said she was in trouble and I was the only one she could call. She had meant a lot to me once and she was desperate. So when I found out Luke was bringing those steroids over the border I seized the opportunity."

Veronica whirled around on him.

"Seized the opportunity? That drug dealer almost killed him!"

"I didn't know that would happen. Really. I figured he'd pay for the drugs and he'd be square."

"Big of you."

She walked into her bedroom and slammed the door behind her.

"Listen," Troy continued from the other side of the door. "I know I screwed up. I fell back on old habits because that's what I know. I panicked. Shawna told me her dad was beating her again."

Veronica stopped in mid stride. Troy was a brilliant liar. She knew that. But something in his voice….

She pulled open her door and studied him.

"So what happened when you showed up without the ill begotten cash with which you planned to rescue her with?"

"Turns out her dad was in Europe. Had been for a month. She only told me because she was willing to go with me if I had the cash to show her a good time, but penniless? Not so much."

Veronica tried not to grin.

"You'll excuse me while I pause to enjoy the irony?"

"You wouldn't be you if you didn't." He sighed.

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Author's note: Sorry this installment took so long. I was on vacation last week. Not a computer in sight. Thanks again to everyone who's reviewed! I'm afraid things are going to go from bad to worse for poor Logan.