Page 138 of Play Dirty (Brooklyn Dawn 1)

“Alex…” I tried to step back.

He held me tight. “What happened?”

“I overreacted.”

“You’re not the type.”

I pressed my lips together. He had me there. “No. And it wasn’t that big of a deal—”

“I beg to differ.” His icy eyes flashed dangerously.

I lifted my hand to his neck, stroking my thumb along his stubbled jaw. “Evidently, my team agrees with you. It was ugly, but it wasn’t like he came at me.”

His jaw flexed, and I could practically feel his molars grinding from

here.

“It was just a ruined poster. But it was more that he got backstage that upset my security people. Add in the itchy trigger finger Ripper Records has with any security breaches and it escalated quickly. And…” I didn’t want to add any more fuel to the fire, but I wasn’t sure if the phone calls were part of it or not.

Most likely not. I hoped.

His eyes narrowed. “And?”

“Some weird phone calls.”

“What kind of calls?”

“Weird.”

His hand slid down to my ass to drag me closer. “Care to extrapolate a fucking bit?”

I shrugged. His Irish was deepening with his anger. I wasn’t sure if I should say anything more, but I didn’t want to lie. “I don’t know how to explain it. Something obviously recorded. Voices in the background. I can’t make them out, but I’d swear it was us.”

He stilled. “Us?”

I nodded. “I can’t explain why. Just a feeling.”

“How many?”

I tilted my head. “What, are you a security expert now?”

“No. But are we talking daily calls?”

“No. It’s only been a couple.”

“How about a straight answer?”

“Two for sure. Others were hangups.”

“And you didn’t change your number?”

“Yes. That was what I did first. Remember, I sent you the new number last week? There haven’t been any new calls since then.”

“Right. I never get to keep a number for very long. I didn’t think anything of it. Between people selling my number and losing my damn phone, I’ve had to replace mine a dozen times this year.”

“Yeah, well, I have one private number, and I’d had it for a damn long time. Pissed me off to change it.”

“I’m sorry, duchess.”

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