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“Letting it matter. If the disappointment, a lie, some offense mattered too much, it would grind me down until I was nothing. Been there. Disappearing in my grief and my guilt. I can’t be nothing ever again.”
She took his breath away.
Brian fought to think. To respond.
“I was a victim for most of my life. People pitying me. Making choices for me. Decisions. Pushing the buttons. Manipulating me. All for my own good,” she said with such disdain and anger, he could only focus on the underlying pain.
“Is that what you think I’m doing?”
“Isn’t that what’s happening? How you twisted things,” she said, “to make me feel bad about keeping secrets. Unreal.”
He was right behind her. “I know how this looks. Give me five minutes to explain.”
“Five minutes to reel me back in. I don’t think so.” She headed for the front door. “There’s nothing you could possibly say to change this.”
Desperate and at a loss, he said the one thing he could. “Rocco knew.”
She stopped.
Glancing over her shoulder, she narrowed her eyes at him, giving him a look that could peel paint from the wall. “Knew what?”
“That I was friendly acquaintances with Seth. About us playing football together. Having drinks on occasion. Sometimes dinner with all the guys. When he called to ask me to help you, I told him.Full disclosure. He asked me to keep it from you. Didn’t think you’d react well.”
In hindsight, Brian should’ve told her. Not when he first went to her house and was working on gaining her trust, but he should’ve found the right time. Rather than letting this blindside her.
Dropping her gaze, she pulled something from her pocket and threw it at him.
He caught it.
The key to his house.
“Thanks,” she said. “Now I get to be angry at you and my cousin.” She opened the door and stormed outside. “How dare the two of you decide what I should and shouldn’t know? All in my best interest, right?”
“Where are you going?”
“None of your business!” She threw her backpack into the SUV and slammed the door.
Brian clenched his teeth until his jaw hurt. He tried not to explode. Or to go over and stop her, which would’ve required physical restraint. She would see it as hostile and then things would really spiral out of control.
“Do us both a favor and stay away from me!” She slid inside the vehicle and took off, tearing out of the driveway.
With Charlie’s fixation on Haley, her destination most likely involved Seth and it was only going to lead to pain. For her. Never had he met a woman more prone to hazardous situations. Like danger was drawn to her. Or maybe she went looking for trouble.
Whichever the case, getting close to her meant an endless number of headaches—such as this, when he knew she was putting herself at risk—were in store for him. No amount of reason or persuasion was going to make her veer from a path once she’d started down it.
He ran back into the house and grabbed a shirt, his boots and his gun. If he had any common sense, he should be the one running away fromher.
But he couldn’t do it. Because the problem was, he was into her. Helplessly in too deep to turn back now.
Like hell he was going to stand by and watch her get hurt. The devil himself couldn’t stop him from going after her.
SECURITYATTHEDOOR—she remembered his name was Hammer—did a cursory check of Charlie’s purse. She’d expected it and had left her SIG in the vehicle. Hammer looked her up and down, and then waved her inside.
“No cover charge for ladies,” said the attendant at the register. “Have a good time.”
Charlie eased inside the dimly lit gentlemen’s club. The place was as she had imagined.
Well-stocked bar. Men seated at tables around the stage that had a couple of mostly naked girls dancing on the poles. Waitresses walked around in outfits that left little to the imagination, taking orders, carrying drinks and food. Other dancers circulating. Some were giving lap dances.
