Page 19 of PortCity Killers

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“Tell me again,” he said, pulling my jacket over my shoulders as I stood in the doorway.

“I’m going to Valentina’s and asking for Don. Jaymes will stay here.” I looked to said man child of mine, making Bryce grunt. Jay rolled his eyes but didn’t comment further.

Neither man liked the idea of me walking into Valentina’s by myself; in fact, they’d both been adamantly against it, but I had done my damnedest to present the argument that it would be better for everyone involved, and I was right.

Since Bryce couldn’t dispute that, he’d relented, much to Jaymes's dismay.

“I’ll tell them what I know-”

“Which is?”

“I overheard Collin talking about the heist and how he’s double crossing Valentina. When Jaymes kept calling me, I skipped out on my shift to find that he’d been part of it too, so we ran.”

“Who were you staying with? Why did you skip town with him?”

“A friend. Because he was blackmailed into it, we were scared Collin would flip things around on us.”

“How?”

“Collin blackmailed Jaymes with our jobs.”

He nodded, looking at me hard, “No one has seen Collin since last night. They likely have already killed him, but that’s just a guess.”

“I get it—keep it vague enough not to get me killed but detailed enough to make it believable.”

Bryce nodded, adjusting the hood behind me. Since it was raining, he had wanted to drop me off, but I had talked him out of it, reminding him what could happen if we were seen together.

It had earned me a sound spank on the ass when I had argued, but once again, there was little he could say against it, so he was in hover-daddy mode, quizzing me within an inch of my life.

He walked me down the stairs, taking his time and making sure I could tell him everything to his satisfaction. I half imagined he would begin questioning me on the exits by the time we reached the bottom stairwell.

He turned to me, cupping my face in his hands, “I don’t like this.”

“I know you don’t. I don’t either, but I promise, this is it.” I grabbed at his wrists, bringing my lips to his, but he didn’t let me do more than brush against him.

“It better be, Lex, or so help me I’ll deal with Jaymes my way.”

I shuddered at the darkness lurking in his eyes and knew I wouldn’t like whatever his way entailed. Would Bryce kill Jaymes? Mutilate him like he had done so many others for what he considered a more noble cause? Who was he at the end of the day? Who did he fight for?

I thought I knew him, at least as well as anyone else did, but did you ever really know anyone? Even yourself? How did I feel about my lover threatening my brother, even if my brother was the one who seemed to have a blatant disregard for my life?

I pushed my dark thoughts away as he pressed a short kiss on my forehead, his beard tickling my cheek. His fingers slid to the back of my neck as he pulled me closer to him, making me melt against him. All I could do right now was hope it didn’t come down to that.

His lips brushed softly against mine, his seaside taste mixing with the whisky still on his breath. I moaned into his tongue as he slid it across my bottom lip, parting slightly to let him enter.

He sucked in a breath, his hands coming down to grip me anywhere he could: my neck, my shoulders, the curve of my hips. His hands slid down my ass, squeezing it roughly before he caught hold of my thighs, lifting me into his arms.

The dress I was wearing fluttered around me, hitching up my hips.

My back was thrown flush against the exit door, jarring the breath out of my lungs. His leg slid between mine as I wrapped myself around him. He caged me, one hand under my ass, the other gripping my head that lay against the door.

Heat curled into my belly, filling my chest and every part of me he touched. I gripped at his biceps, feeling the skin move over hard muscle, flexing under my fingertips.

My heart beat thunderously behind my rib cage as the vertigo that was Bryce filled my head. His rough grunt against my lips made me whimper into his, my hands gripping into the hair he’d left down.

He bit down on my lip, pulling it up and out painfully, but the small hiss of pleasure that slipped between my teeth had him hard against my nearly naked ass.

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