Page 131 of Play Fast (Brooklyn Dawn 2)

So, I guessed we were good there.

Lila walked into the meeting room of Ripper Records’ New York corporate offices. And she wasn’t alone.

Donovan Lewis strolled in, dressed all in black as he tended to be. The meaningless chatter came to a sudden halt as the door closed behind them.

I could’ve sworn I heard locks bolting shut around us.

“Good morning, Brooklyn Dawn.” Lila’s voice was clear and crisp, as it always was. But her face was unnaturally pale and her eyes were stark.

I sat up straighter and exchanged a look with Cooper. He shrugged. He was as much in the dark as I was.

Fuck, it was back. I might’ve been in a love-drunk haze for the past two weeks, but whatever the thing was that surrounded us, it hadn’t gone away.

Judging from Lila’s expression and the presence of Donovan, it had only gotten worse.

“I know this meeting was unplanned during your break, but circumstances have arisen making it unavoidable.” Lila sat at the head of the table. Only then did I realize she didn’t have her iPad with her for the first time in forever.

Donovan didn’t sit. “Lila received a letter this weekend. It was sent to her house.”

We all glanced at each other.

“A letter?” Lindsey asked. “Saying what?”

“The gist was that the things that have occurred weren’t accidents or random events, as we suspected.” Donovan shifted his gaze to me. “Including what happened at your cabin. Are you still staying there?”

“No.”

Fuck, Daisy. She was alone at my apartment after she’d made me call off Sean. I knew I shouldn’t have listened to her. Bigger forces were at play than we realized.

Even with all our suspicions, we hadn’t realized.

I leaped to my feet. “I’ve got to get home. Daisy’s at my apartment.”

“Sean’s on her guard. She’s fine.”

“What? My Sean?”

“Your Sean has recently joined Roth’s security team. We need everyone we can trust right now. He’s been throughly vetted,” Lila said to everyone else, as if any of them cared about Sean’s credentials.

I was the one flipping out.

“Sit down, Osmond.” Lila gave me a small smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “She’s fine. I promise you.”

I sat.

“The letter came to my home,” she said again as if we hadn’t gotten the gravity of that. I hadn’t in my worry for Daisy, that was for sure. “The layers of protection I have should have made that impossible. Not just that my location is so vital to hide, but Nick lives there too. With what happened before, we took every precaution.” Her fingers shook before she clamped them together. “This should’ve never reached there.”

Nick. Fuck. I couldn’t imagine what he was going through right now. They had kids. They were trying to have another…

“You’re okay,” I said quickly.

Our eyes connected and she smiled again. “I’m fine. Thank you for asking. We’re going to get through this.” She shifted to look at everyone else in turn. “We’re going to be all right.”

“I asked Lila to step away.” Donovan’s voice was low and level. “She has other concerns than Ripper Records. She should be with them right now.”

The band looked at each other. For the second time today, real fear flooded me, the kind I didn’t know what to do with.

“I said no,” Lila said. “It’s not happening. I’ve been a part of Ripper Records since virtually the beginning. No one is chasing me away. Especially some anonymous person with an axe to grind.”

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