Page 63 of Play Fast (Brooklyn Dawn 2)

Noah’s mouth was grim, his eyes flat. His mood was obviously as bleak as mine.

Understandably.

We’d gotten back from the police station about an hour ago, and Oz had gone straight to his bedroom without a word. Lila had pulled some strings from a distance, getting him some fancy lawyer from the city who’d shown up in a Mercedes with an Italian briefcase and loafers and cool condescension dripping from his silvery-blond hair. In no time, Oz had been out with a ticket to appear before the judge in a few weeks. The lawyer had assured him it wouldn’t “stick”. He’d probably have to pay some restitution and that would be that.

Toss some money at a problem, watch it disappear. Must be a fine way to live your life.

“Are you okay?” Noah sat down beside me on the creaky porch swing I’d missed the night we arrived. It bobbled enough for me to grab the metal links attaching it to the ceiling in case the thing crashed to the floor. Somehow it held.

“I’m fine.”

“You’re hardly fine. You don’t belong in a police station.”

I sighed. “I know you and Oz don’t believe it, but I’m a grown woman who can handle…” I faltered. “Life.”

Like I had much choice.

“Oz is the one who put you in that situation. As he’ll keep putting you in them, because he’s a hothead who can’t control his temper.”

“Seriously? This is what you came out here to tell me? Let’s skip the lecture.” I started to stand.

“Daisy, wait.”

I sat back down, yet again rocking the swing.

“Your sister asked me to look out for you when I picked up the bag. She’s concerned.”

“She’s still a teenager. What does she know?”

Plenty, actually. My sister had more street smarts than I did, not that I would ever tell her that. But as far as Oz, she’d always

just seen his bad side. The one that was brusque and rough and made me bleed—metaphorically speaking—so very easily.

But I wasn’t falling in love with him.

I wasn’t.

She didn’t have to worry. I got who Oz was. Who I was. Which parts of us mixed well, and which ones didn’t.

“She knows he’s hurt you before. She told me about Kerry. I knew some of it, but she filled in the details.”

I rubbed my forehead. “You do realize you’re only a few years older than me, right? This whole benevolent uncle vibe you have going on is fairly creepy.”

“I’m thirty-six. I have underwear older than you.”

“Really? You’ve stayed the same size all that time? It must make it hard to get dates.”

He flicked my nose, and I laughed. Oz would be surprised to see Noah had another side. Not that he ever laughed much, or even understood the meaning of downtime, but he wasn’t nearly the hard ass every minute of the day Oz figured he was.

Just most of them.

“I care about him. You know about Kerry, so you get he went through a lot. Their mother died too not long before Kerry’s…accident.”

I still couldn’t say the word overdose out loud. Especially when it tended to lead to questions about whether or not it was intentional.

I didn’t think so. Kerry hadn’t seemed suicidal, and even if she had been, she probably wouldn’t have chosen a high school party to do it. But there were all kinds of ways to harm yourself. You didn’t always need to spell out the words for the intention to be behind them.

But I didn’t like thinking that. She’d had a rocky relationship with her boyfriend, but that weekend, they were back on. He’d even mentioned proposing. She’d been so excited about their life together, despite how young we were.

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