Page 70 of Play Dirty (Brooklyn Dawn 1)

Somewhere near the middle of the second song, the door creaked open, but I didn’t check out who’d joined us. I was too caught up. Even when my emotions were chaotic, music smoothed them out. It was my escape and my haven.

Probably why I didn’t realize what was changing around me. I was too involved. My hands pounding the keys, my head thrown back.

At the end, I came back to myself to the sound of a slow clap. I opened my eyes again and frowned at the bearded, bespectacled man standing on the other side of my piano. At the same time, I was aware of Nash stepping closer behind me. Crowding me on the bench.

I gave the newcomer a tentative smile, my shoulders hunching as I noticed the mottled skin on his forehead that stretched down one side of his face. The scars disappeared under his short beard before curving around his neck.

“Lindsey York, is it? This is an honor.” His voice was stronger than I expected. Not powerful in the same way as Nash’s. Almost threatening.

Except that didn’t make sense.

“Thank you. And you are…?”

Nash’s hands came down on my shoulders. In support or to hold on to me, I wasn’t sure. “Lindsey, meet Kyle Brady.”

Sixteen

This couldn’t be happening.

It was a bloody miracle I didn’t fall to my knees clutching my head like some cartoon super villain. Kyle, my former best friend—current, goddammit, even if it didn’t always feel that way—here in the same space as Lindsey. Smiling at her, although it was hard to tell.

His smiles weren’t the same. Just like his eyes weren’t.

My fault.

All of it was my fault.

“Pleasure to meet you.” Kyle came around the piano to shake Lindsey’s hand, and she gave me a strange look as she rose to oblige him.

I still hadn’t let her go. I was a dog with a chew toy, selfishly drawing her back against me. No reason for it except I didn’t like the way he was checking her out. He was gauging the situation, assessing her.

And I didn’t appreciate it one fucking bit.

It wasn’t as if I didn’t get it. Lindsey was a beautiful woman. How many men lusted after her on a daily basis? Far more than I cared to consider. Women too. For good reason. She was the total package—supremely talented, smart, and beautiful. She wore class like a perfume. Light, subtle, but always there. You had to earn the right to be with a woman like her. And I hadn’t.

She wasn’t for me, but she wasn’t for him either.

“Oh, I thought maybe you’d met before. Same circles and all.” Logan glanced between them before arching a brow at me.

No, I hadn’t introduced Lindsey and Kyle at some other time in some other place. Lindsey and I weren’t dating. Far from it. And Kyle was my best friend, but in name only.

It had been a decade, give or take some hours, since that had been different.

Once upon a time, Kyle and I had lived in each other’s pockets. We’d grown up together in Dún Laoghaire, running wild, causing trouble, and in the early days, making music together. For a while, we’d even had a band with some of our mates from school.

But it hadn’t taken long to see that Kyle enjoyed the perks that came with a musical career more than putting in the effort. Some said I’d been blessed in the genetic department, and when that wasn’t enough, I’d wielded charm like a weapon. But I also had a work ethic.

Born and bred from my father, though he would’ve laughed had I said so.

“My circle is small,” I said into the silence. They’d all been waiting for me to speak. “I keep to myself most of the time.”

Except when she draws you out.

I fought to relax my hold on Lindsey. Any moment now, she’d break away and shoot me a look that reminded me I was tap-dancing on a line.

Far too many of them.

Logan nodded. He’d forgotten for a second how much things had changed for me.

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