Page 208 of Play Dirty (Brooklyn Dawn 1)

“Alex.” His tone was biting. “No one calls him Alex. No one is allowed. Just you. You get to do everything.”

I winced. So many landmines. “Tell me more about Ireland. About you.”

I was trying to bide my time. I didn’t know what time it was, or if anyone knew I was gone. I didn’t even really remember what happened after the end of the show.

“It doesn’t matter. We were the best of mates. We did everything together. Found women, bedded women, even worked together in the summers on his da’s boat sometimes.”

I ignored the idea that Nash shared women with him.

I didn’t believe it simply because Alex didn’t know how to share. But then again, I couldn’t quite tell what was fantasy and what was real for Kyle. Maybe he didn’t really know either at this point.

He crouched in front of me, flipping the knife between his fingers. “His da actually gave me this knife, you know. Taught me how to keep it super sharp to cut the lines and the nets sometimes. Snick.” He laughed and sliced off the buckle of my boot. “Sharp, see?”

“That’s enough.”

My head swiveled at the sweetest sound I’ve ever heard.

Kyle stood, hauling me up with him. My legs wouldn’t hold me and I stumbled into him. He curled his arm around me, the knife catching on my costume. “Careful, there. It’s not time for that yet, duchess.”

I scratched at his arm, but he held me tighter, letting me feel the knife at my ribs.

Alex crossed the tile to the pergola we were under, murder in his eyes.

“Careful, mate.”

Alex stopped.

“It took you long enough. I didn’t think you’d ever arrive. Though you’ve never been all that smart. I thought I was going to have to send you another video with an arrow to your house, man.”

Nash’s gaze tracked to me, the raw terror shining in the blue for a second before they went flat and dead. Like the Nash I remembered so long ago. The one with his emotions in a box.

The one who just might get us both out of this.

Please God.

Forty-One

Sweet bleedin’ Mary.

Lindsey was so pale. The toes of her boots were dragging as Kyle hauled her up straight again. He wrapped her tight enough that I could see her wincing at his hold. I’d been listening to him rant at her, trying to figure out when was a good time to climb the winding stairs to the rooftop.

My sanctuary.

The place I’d finally shared with someone.

This woman who I didn’t deserve in the best of circumstances. But now it was me who brought this to her. It was my twisted past with Kyle that had been hurting her all along.

Put it aside.

Lock it out.

I couldn’t think about him as my boyhood friend. Not right now. Not with a fucking knife to her side.

I loosened my shoulders and held my hands out. “No one needs to get hurt. You wanted me here, you got me here. Just let Lindsey go.”

“Why would I do that?”

“Why would you hurt her?”

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