Page 37 of Waiting Game

“Chuck’s the one who died,” I rasp, a drowning man begging for a life raft.

But Liam just shrugs.

“The business is going under.”

“You keep seeing her, it’ll kill Gracie if she finds out. They betrayed her, Cole. What the fuck will that treacherous bitch do to you if she can do that to a close friend?”

The desire to smack Liam for calling Mia names is real.

I think about how she promised yesterday not to sell me out on social media. Did she appear genuine or fake? It seemed genuine to me.

Her grief was too.

Everything about yesterday was raw. You can’t fake that but…

Scrubbing a hand over my face, I mutter, “I won’t see her again.”

“Cancel the lessons, Cole.”

I scowl at him. “I will, Liam. Fuck.”

“Do it now.”

“You don’t believe I will?” I challenge.

“I know what my brothers are like when there’s a hot piece of ass at stake,” he grates out. “I want to see you text her.”

“Fuck you.”

“Fuck you back. You didn’t remember who she was so Gracie’ll forgive you for touching forbidden fruit, but it’ll kill her if you keep on seeing the bitch.”

The urge to defend her resurges. As does the desire to break that pretty face of his for saying shit like that about Mia, but…

I remember how it was last year.

When Gracie started working for Liam.

How she’d been betrayed and how it hurt her.

Gracie, for all that she has the energy of a bull in a china shop, is very careful about letting people in. That someone else betrayed her to jump onto the Bukowski bandwagon for some free press led to her instantly cutting that poison from her life.

It was, in fact, how Liam took her on as his PA: because she’d quit immediately after her boss had gone to the media.

My hand feels like it’s wading through maple syrup as I snag my cell phone from my back pocket.

I don’t want to do this.

Even knowing what she did to Gracie, I don’t want to cut ties with Mia.

But Liam’s looming over me like the fucking Hulk, and Gracie… Gracie who cares so goddamn much about too much—how can I let her down when she’s never letmedown? When she’d cut off her right hand before she hurt me?

I head to our messaging thread.

Me: Mia, I’m sorry to have to do this, but I’m going to need to cancel my lessons

Before I can hit send, my cell buzzes.

Spying Colt’s name on the Caller ID, I frown and hit the connect button. “What do you want?” I snap at my eldest brother.

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