Page 58 of Karma

Dare nodded, his stomach rumbling. “Tell Tony I’m starving and to add extra fries.”

The redhead grinned. “Will do. Be back in a few minutes with your drinks.” She walked off, pausing to check on other tables before disappearing in the back.

“So?” Nash asked.

“How the hell could I fall for the one woman in this town whose baggage is tied up with mine?” Dare asked, giving in and talking to his sibling.

He and Nash had always been close, even when circumstances dictated they shouldn’t be. Even when Nash found out why Dare hadn’t gone to live with the Rossmans—thereby allowing the brothers to be split up—he’d eventually come around. Because from the beginning, they were a team.

Nash burst out laughing. “I’m the one who married our half sister’s sister. And you’re asking me about shared baggage?”

Dare shook his head and laughed. “I guess you’ve got a point. Which means you’d know the answer?”

With a groan, Nash leaned back in his seat, his arm across the back of the booth. “The hell if I know. You learn to accept what you can’t change, I guess. If it’s not just sex and she means enough to you…time will tell.”

“Who the hell knows if I’ve got time. I manage to piss her off as much as I…Never mind,” he said with a shake of his head.

He’d been about to say turn her on but thought better of it and shook his head. Was it just sex with Liza?

“Hey, the wives are having a meeting at Ethan’s pool on Saturday to talk about the fundraiser,” Nash said, preventing Dare from answering his own silent question. “Want to join your brothers while we hang out and ogle them in their bikinis?”

Fundraiser business, which Dare took to mean would include Liza. In a bikini. He broke into a sweat. “Yeah. I’ll be there.”

Nash grinned. “I thought so.”

Dare’s cell phone rang, and a glance told him it was Sam. “What’s up?” he asked, answering on the second ring.

“Someone cut the brake line on Liza’s car. She didn’t lose control by accident,” Sam said.

Gina chose that moment to show up with their meals. “I’m sorry, but I’ll take mine to go,” he said to the server. “I’ll be right there,” he told Sam.

“Meet me at Mason’s.”

Dare disconnected the call. “Sorry.”

Nash waved him away, unconcerned as he dug into his food.

By the time Dare arrived at Mason’s, Liza was already there with Sam. She’d changed out of her business suit and now wore a pair of frayed cut-off shorts, a tank top, and flip-flops on her feet. She looked sexy as ever, but she had a fragility to her that Dare had never noticed before he’d slept with her.

Gotten close to her.

Come to understand how many different things in her life pulled at her. How many people in her life let her down. And now he’d become one more person who’d done the same.

Dare curled his fingers into tight fists, fighting the urge to walk over and pull her into his arms. He was the last person she wanted right now. He also held back in deference to Sam, who was the cop in charge of the case.

So while Sam spoke to the mechanic and caught Liza up on the situation, Dare hovered nearby, listening.

“What do you mean I had a leak in my brake line? The car was just serviced last week,” Liza said to Sam.

Sam glanced at her. “I’ll need the name of the place that handled it.”

“A BMW service center in Manhattan. I was visiting friends and dropped the car off since I knew I wouldn’t need it in the city.” She gave Sam the name and address before turning back to Mason.

“The line was cut,” the mechanic explained.

“What kind of cut? Slice? Pinprick?” Sam asked.

Mason rubbed his grease-stained hands on his working coveralls. “Small nick. The fluid leaked out over time, so you wouldn’t have noticed it right away.”

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