Page 108 of Down & Dirty

“Good. Enjoy the rest of the weekend.” Jensen slipped out into the hallway, the puff of air from the door sighing shut punctuating his departure.

I shoved up from the table. “Jesus Christ, Ron. What the fuck have I been telling you?”

He leaned back in his chair, shaking his head with a smug grin on hisface. “I haven’t broken any of the rules, Sky. This is bullshit.”

My mind was whirling. We had so much riding on this contract. If he got dropped by OTM I wasn’t sure we’d be able to get him picked up by another team, and the cost to try and go privateer would be way more than we could afford. Every vision I had of the next nine months hinged on us traveling the circuit. All of us.

Ronnie and Cory. Tommy and Geena. And me and Micah.

“What the hell are you thinking? Why are you skating the line like this?”

“We both know they have two sets of rules. There’s no reason I can’t have as many outside endorsements as other guys.”

He kept his eyes down when he said it, but I felt the words like a heat rushing across my skin. “You mean like Cory?”

Ronnie leveled me with a cold stare. “He’s a good example.”

The door swung open, and my breath caught in my lungs. Relief and anxiety bursting in my chest as Ronnie’s expression soured in equal measure to Cory’s eager grin.

“Hey gorgeous, I found ya...” Cory stalled as he approached me, his gaze swiveling between Ronnie and me. “Bad time?”

The laugh that filled the room wasn’t one of humor. It was menacing and unkind and Ronnie’s disregard for the two of us showed in his eyes. “No, no, this is perfect. We were just talking about you.”

Cory’s posture went rod-straight before he turned to face Ronnie head on, putting himself between us like he was my shield. “Oh yeah? Anything you want to share?”

“No,” Ronnie said, rolling his chair back so he wasn’t looking straight up at Cory’s face. “Youmight have something, though. How is it that you’re allowed all those cush endorsement deals, but the rest of us slobs can’t sneeze in the wrong direction?”

I sighed, disappointment twisting in my gut. Ronnie was better than this. “His deals are none of your business—” I started, before Ronnie barked over me.

“He can answer for himself! Or are youhisassistant now, too? In addition to whatever otherrolesyou might be filling?”

Cory snapped. “Family or not, you’ll watch your damn tone when you talk to my wife.”

Like snow muffles sound in a storm, Cory’s words filled in around us until they were all I could hear. His wife...His wife.

“What the fuck did you just call her?” Ronnie pushed up, sending his chair banging into the wall.

“You heard me or you wouldn’t be asking.”

Sickening anxiety rippled through me. This wasn’t how this was supposed to happen. I wasn’t ready for my family to know about us. I wasn’t telling them about the arrangement, so they’d never understand why we moved so fast. But there was no undoing this now, so I pulled my shoulders back when I met my brother’s gaze. His expression lost some of its anger when he locked eyes with me.

“Sky?”

I nodded. It was going to come out eventually, that had always been the plan. But I had never imagined the look of disgust on my brother’s face.

He pulled at his hair, his eyes widening as he looked between us. “Holy shit.”

Cory turned, his hands landing on my shoulders. “Can you do me a favor?” he reached into his pocket, coming out with his hotel room key between his fingers. “Can you head up to my room? I’ll meet you there.”

As insane as this moment was, leaving in the middle of it made no sense to me. “He’s my brother. I need to deal with this.”

Cory cupped my cheeks in his big, rough, hands, giving me a smile that was sweetly reassuring. “It’s going to be okay. Let me talk to him for a minute. Then I’ll be right behind you. Room 808.” I went to argue again, but he nuzzled his nose against mine, pleading in his tone, “Trust me, babe.”

In that moment, I did. I took the card and headed for the door, looking back at Ronnie with frustration before stepping out into the hall. The din of noise around me was a blanket over the harsh echo of what he’d just said. I had never seen Ronnie be so callous. At least, not with me.

When I got to Cory’s room, I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t understand what had just happened, or what would happen next. I stood in the middle of the bland beige space staring at the black-and-white photo of Marilyn Monroe on the wall and wondering how the hell that had just gone so sideways.

We’d had such a good time at Thanksgiving, and Micah had loved playing with Cory the other day. Things finally felt so good, so right. And now Ronnie was on thin ice with OTM and he was about to tell my parents I’d gotten married.Without them. I felt sick all over again, imagining that conversation, and their disappointment. I stood there for a long time playing out all the worst-case scenarios, the world feeling like it was spinning out of control.

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