If my life continued to be this crazy, I doubted free time was anywhere in my near future. While I was thrilled to be the romantic lead in an amazing off-Broadway production just weeks after moving here from DC, I couldn't deny that everything was happening so fast that it was making my head spin.
And that wasn't even taking the whole Dax thing into account.
“We're here, Miss Bryne,” the driver said as the car came to a stop. “Would you like me to stay nearby to take you to rehearsal?”
Shit. Rehearsal. I'd completely forgotten about it. Fortunately, today was all about costume fitting, so I wasn't missing anything this morning.
“I can come back at eleven-thirty if you'd like.”
“Thank you,” I said. “That would be great.”
I gave him a smile before I climbed out of the car, but my heart wasn't really in it. Now that I was here, the reality of the situation was setting in. I wasn't even sure how much I was supposed to be worrying. It wasn't like he was my boyfriend. If I'd had a regular rehearsal today, I doubted I would've been able to call off or even arrive late.
That didn't, however, mean that I would've been able to concentrate, so I was extra glad that I wasn’t expected to do anything today that required any sort of concentration. I was also pretty sure that I had the least complicated costume, which meant I shouldn't have to be there too long. My limited experience with the theaters in DC had been enough to know that this wasn't how practice schedules usually went, but I wasn't going to complain. It made things a bit easier.
Well, as easy as this could be.
Since Carrie's law practice consisted of only her, the office was fairly small but nice. When I walked inside, a petite, dark-haired woman was at the coffee maker. She turned and gave me a wide smile.
“You must be Bryne.” She held out a hand. “I'm Zoe Masters, Carrie's assistant.” After we shook, she added, “Carrie's waiting for you in her office.” She gestured toward the door directly behind her.
“Thank you.” I gave a light rap on the door, and it opened a moment later.
Carrie looked tired as she stepped aside to let me in, and I didn't think it was the pregnancy. My guess was, the worried-looking woman sitting a couple feet away was the reason for my aunt's exhaustion. Even without the obvious connection, I didn't need Carrie to tell me that I was looking at Annabeth Prevot. Dax had the same dark hair and similar enough features for the relation to be obvious.
“Annabeth, this is my niece, Bryne.”
As she raised her head, I saw a pair of eyes that were a little bluer than Dax's, but close enough to make my heart give a painful twist. She managed a weak smile.
“So you're the girl who's been spending so much time with my Dax.”
“I am.” I wondered how much he'd told her about me, but this wasn't the time to ask. “You still haven't heard from him?”
Annabeth shook her head. “It's not like him.” She gave me a hard look. “I'm not naive. I know that Dax isn't an angel. But he's always been protective of me, especially since my accident.”
“Accident?” I asked, then remembered Carrie telling me about Dax's mom getting hurt at work, then her company firing her.
“It's a long story,” Annabeth continued. “But anyway, Dax has been great, taking care of me. That's why it doesn't make sense that he isn't answering my calls or texts.”
I had to admit, she was right. It didn't make sense when she put it all together like that. I'd seen how protective he was with me, and I knew his mother was way more important to him.
“So when you woke up this morning, Dax was gone?” Carrie asked.
The blood rushed to my face, and that earned a soft chuckle from both women.
“It's okay, sweetie,” Annabeth said with a better smile than she'd given me before. “I might be a mom, but I'm still a woman. I know how girls look at him, and I'm not foolish enough to think he doesn't look back.”
“We were at a hotel last night, and he left before I woke up,” I said, not wanting to think about all of the women he'd looked back at. According to something Carrie had said once, he was five years older than me, and I was pretty sure he'd started having sex younger than nineteen, so there were definitely more women than I cared to count.
Annabeth's expression said that she didn't approve, but before I could worry that she was directing it at me, she said, “I taught him better than that.”
I wasn't about to tell her that it wasn't the first time he'd done it. I steered the subject in a different direction by bringing up what I hadn't wanted to say over the phone. “Is it possible he's with Cleo?”
Annabeth's eyebrows shot up. “That girl who went to jail for assault?”
I tried not to let her see how much it hurt that she knew who Cleo was. Dax said they hadn't been serious. Judging by the look Annabeth gave me, I wasn't fooling anyone.
“The incident took place near the shop,” she explained. “I saw an article about it in the paper, and when I asked him, he told me he knew the girl. I thought she was in jail.”
“She got out a few weeks ago,” I said. “I actually met her very briefly. They went to see a mutual friend the other night. Could that be where Dax is?”
Annabeth let out a string of soft curses, and I saw the same intensity in her eyes that I'd seen in Dax's, increasing the likeness between the two of them.
“Do you know something, Annabeth?” Carrie asked.
“No,” she said. “But if that girl is involved, it can't be good.”
Well, that wasn't what I wanted to hear.
Chapter Two
Dax
I didn't like New Jersey.
Sure, there were plenty of nice people in Jersey, and I was pretty sure there were nice places too. I just never saw any of them.
Like right now, I was in a real shit-hole of a place, wishing I was back home where I belonged. Georgie, Force, Little Eddie, and the new guy whose name I still didn't know were here too. Booker North – the reason we were freezing our asses off – was back in New York.
I stomped my feet to warm them up and tried not to be the first person to say what I thought was pretty obvious. The coke supplier we were supposed to be buying from wasn't coming. Booker's cousin had set the whole thing up, saying he had a supplier who was sitting on five hundred kilos he wanted to move.
Except there was nothing here. No supplier. No coke. Nothing.
“Mother fucker!” Georgie lost it first, screaming the obscenity.
Another string of curse words followed while the rest of the guys and I tried not to look like we were sitting around with our thumbs up our asses. Georgie was a hot-head, but he was Booker's second, or whatever the hell he was called in their gang. He was the one in charge of this job, so he was calling the shots.
I wasn't in the gang, but I worked at the shop that was going to be part of the new drug dealing business Booker was adding to the stolen parts and money laundering they already did. I looked the other way for all that shit, and they let me do my own thing, but Booker decided that I needed to be a part of this. All day I was trying to figure out exactly why, especially since Georgie could be a real bastard when it came to me. Booker had even sent Cleo to threaten Bryne if I didn't go along with it. It wasn’t until the new guy started running his mouth about how he was on his second strike and if he got caught he was fucked, that I figured it out.
Once I was a part of it, moving the dope across state lines, hiding it in the car and motorcycle parts, it'd be harder for me to turn them in without getting into trouble myself. It was one thing to work at a business that had some shady shit going on. It was something else to actually be involved in said shady shit.
“What're we gonna do, Georgie?” the new guy asked.
Georgie ignored the question as he pulled out his phone. I glanced over at Force who shrugged. I could tell the other guys weren't really comfortable with me here, but they weren't about to argue with either of the bosses. That was a good way to end up dead.
/> “Booker.” Georgie paced as he talked. “We're here but there ain't nothing or nobody here.”
While Georgie's side of the conversation became silent and then random noises of agreement, I took the time to look around. The warehouse was dirty and dark, making it hard to see much, but I was pretty sure it was completely empty and had been that way for a while. The air smelled stale, like a garage that'd been locked up for a long time. The floor was covered with all sorts of shit, but I didn't see any new-looking footprints or any sign that anything had been moved recently. I was no detective, but that didn't sit right with me. Something was wrong.
“Listen up, bitches.” Georgie came back over. “Booker's gonna call his cousin, see if we can find out where this motherfucker might be keeping his shit.”
“Then we go get it, right?” The new guy again.
Somehow, I didn't think that was all there was to it.
“By any means necessary,” Georgie said.
Shit. He'd heard that once on TV and used it whenever he planned on doing something stupid. Stupid plus coke equaled shit hitting the fan, and that was all it took to get me to talk.
“Booker really wants us stealing from a coke supplier?”
Georgie glared at me, but his phone rang before he got a chance to say another word. “Yeah.” After a minute of listening, he glared at me and said, “Dax doesn't think that's a good idea.”
Fucking traitor.
Georgie held out his phone, and I took it. “Dax here.”
“You questioning me?” Booker's voice was cold.
“Do you want us to steal coke from your cousin's supplier?” I figured I'd better know exactly what I was disagreeing with before I did it. Georgie was no stranger to exaggeration.
“And if I do?”
I chose my words carefully. Most people believed Booker was responsible for the mysterious disappearance of the guy who used to own the shop and his two sons. I wasn't going to argue otherwise.
“I'm looking around here, and it doesn't look like anyone or anything's been here in a while.” I took Booker's silence to mean I should keep going. “I'm thinking the supplier was trying to set your cousin up or something. Might be a good idea to take some time to plan rather than going in guns blazing.”
I didn't have to tell him that would be Georgie's style. Everyone knew it.
“Put Georgie back on the line.”
Booker's tone didn't tell me shit about what he was thinking, but I didn't ask. I'd either made my point, or I hadn't. Either way, Booker would make the call, and Georgie would follow it. He wasn't dumb enough to get one order and give another.
When Georgie hung up, he was pissed. “Booker wants us back so we can come up with a plan to go after the dope.”
“So we're not doin' it tonight?” Force asked.
“No.” He glared at me, and I heard what he wasn't saying. He'd wanted to go, but Booker had vetoed it because of my input.
I refused to apologize for it. If Georgie led us into something blind, someone would get hurt, probably even dead. I might've kept a little distance from the guys, but I didn't want them killed. Not even Georgie. This way, we'd all get back in one piece, and if Booker still wanted to pull some stupid shit, it'd at least be with a plan.
That didn't mean I would go along with it. Waiting to plan meant I'd have more time to figure out how to get out. For now though, I just stuck my hands in my pockets and headed out to the car. It'd been a long day, and we wouldn't be back in the city until late. I just wanted to sleep on the ride home and not have to think about the mess I left.
I'd seen all of the voicemails, missed calls, and text messages. Mom, Carrie, and Bryne. And I'd ignored all of them. While the guys had heard me talk about my mom before, they didn't know I lived with her, and they definitely didn't know that I was still seeing Bryne.
I doubted that would be the case when I got back though. She might not have been mad at me for leaving her last night, but if Mom and Carrie had told her that I wasn't answering any calls or texts, then she knew something was up. I'd fucked up enough that I wouldn't blame her for saying I'd used up my last chance. And even if she wasn't as pissed as she should've been, there was no way Carrie would want me anywhere near her niece now.
I couldn't deny wondering if Mom had met Bryne. And what they'd thought of each other. I was sure Bryne would love my mom. Pretty much everyone did. Mom hadn't met any of the girls I'd been with before, so I had no way of knowing what her thoughts would be about Bryne. If she'd see the same amazing woman I did.
Well, not exactly the same since there was no way she'd know anything about of the sex part of it. She knew I wasn't a virgin, but there were some things a guy didn't talk about with his mom.
S&M was definitely one of them.
I'd never let myself think about taking anyone home to meet her before. I wasn't one of those guys who said I'd never have a girlfriend or anything like that, but I hadn't let myself think that far ahead, especially after Mom's accident. I'd never met anyone who made me want to think that far ahead.
Until Bryne.
As much as I'd insisted she wasn't anything but a good lay, and as many times as I told myself that I needed to stay away from her, she was the only thing I thought about the entire way back to the city. I cursed, knowing I’d have to deal with this sooner rather than later.
I just didn't know how.
Chapter Three
Bryne
My costume fitting went well, and I loved how easy it made it to slip into character, but I wasn't able to truly enjoy any of it. And it was all Dax's fault. After my fitting yesterday, I'd taken lunch back to Carrie and Annabeth, then went back home to work on my lines. At least, that was the plan. It was almost impossible to concentrate on memorizing anything. I kept thinking about Dax and where he was and what he was doing. Every so often, I'd grab my phone, thinking that I'd missed something. Of course, there was nothing there, and I'd start worrying all over again.
When Carrie came home, I took one look at her face, and she hadn't even needed to shake her head. I'd barely eaten dinner and then spent the rest of the night staring at my ceiling, trying to tell myself that the universe was sending me a sign, telling me to stay away from Dax, that he'd only hurt me.
At one point in time, I may or may not have told the universe to go fuck itself.
Out loud.
I didn't sleep much at all, and the few times I managed to, I had strange, chaotic dreams that left me disoriented when I woke. Then it took forever for me to get back to sleep, only to have the process repeat itself. By the time my alarm was ready to go off, I knew I'd be depending on lots of caffeine to keep me awake.
Even after two cups of Cuban espresso, I was having a hard time concentrating. It wasn't so bad that anyone really noticed since we were trying to go through things without scripts for the first time, but I could feel that I was a bit off. When we broke for lunch, Todd followed me to where I'd left my purse and coat.
“What's going on?”
Okay, so someone had noticed.
“Weird weekend,” I said as I pulled on my coat.
“Do you have lunch plans?”
I shook my head.
He held out his arm. “Then you and I are going to go somewhere quiet so you can tell me all about this weird weekend, and what has your pretty little head all messed up.”
I hooked my arm through his, too tired to argue. And if I was being completely honest, I didn't really want to. I was tired, emotionally as well as physically. After having met Dax's mother yesterday, I felt guilty even thinking about going to Carrie with any of this. She didn't need to be reassuring me when I wasn't even sure I deserved to be feeling much of anything at all. Todd was different. He wasn't just a friend. He didn't have any personal stake in this, which meant he could help me figure out whatever the hell it was I needed to figure out.
There was a quiet little bakery around the corner from the theater, a short enough walk that we barely had enough time t
o get cold despite the brutal wind. Rich smells greeted us when we stepped inside. Cinnamon, fresh bread, various cheeses. Garlic, basil. Other spices I couldn't name. All sorts of different ones that shouldn't have smelled so great together. Then there were the soups. French onion. Tomato. And according to the posted menu, wedding soup was the special today. A wonderful cacophony of aromas.
My stomach growled, and I remembered how long it had been since I'd eaten anything substantial. The two of us were the only ones there, so we went straight to the front. My mouth started to water as I followed Todd to a table near the window less than ten minutes later. I'd probably gotten too much food, but it all looked so good.
I was halfway through an amazingly gooey cinnamon roll before I finally slowed down and let myself start to relax a bit. I hadn't realized how much I needed to eat. I'd never been the sort of girl who starved herself so she could fit into some unrealistic mold. I was the kind who responded to stress by not eating...except when food was this amazing.
“All right, Bryne, time to start talking.” Todd dipped a chunk of seven-grain bread into his soup. “What's going on? You're all over the place.”
I sighed. “Dax and I went out to eat Tuesday after rehearsal. Then to a movie.” I glanced up, then back down to my plate. “And then we went to a hotel.”
“Did he force you?”
Todd's voice was tight, his expression tense as my head jerked up to look at him.
“No, of course not. He wouldn't do that.” I might not know Dax well, but he was consistent when it came to making sure I was okay with whatever we were doing.