Page 103 of Nothing to Win

“She knows.”

“I guess if anyone can make it happen…” Tripp said with a shrug.“We’ve got business to finish upstairs.”

“We do,” she said.

Tripp offered his arm and she curled her hand around it so he could lead her out of the room.

Incredulous, he turned to Julius, who sat back, holding the rim of his coffee cup with the tips of his fingers.

“Looks like she’s happy, guess you got what you wanted.”

“This isn’t close to what I wanted,” Brogan said.“This whole thing is fucked up.”

“Yeah?And who fucked it?”Julius was right, he had no one to blame but himself.Brogan didn’t dwell on mistakes, he liked to fix them.“And I’m going to tell you this simply so you hear it from me and can absorb.”

“Tell me what?”

“She spent Tuesday night at Crimson.”

“Right, with Roxie.They got to be friends, you know that.”

“Not with Roxie,” Julius said.“She spent the night in Tripp’s suite.”He didn’t know how to… “Don’t blow up, this is Tripp.Priest.You trust him.”

“No man would trust his woman with Tripp Breckenridge.”

“No man who doesn’t know him,” Julius said.“You know Tripp, you know what he does.She needs support and he’s good at this.”

Didn’t make him feel better about any man being near Gia.Whether they shared a bed or—he couldn’t.If he went down that rabbit hole, the day would end in homicide.

“I fucking hate this,” he growled.

Julius left the table, pausing to rest a hand on his shoulder.“Got no one to blame but yourself.You got the life you wanted.”

This was far from the life he wanted.The life he wanted before Gia?Maybe.Now?This was far from any reality he wanted to live in.

THIRTY-TWO

“DID BROGAN PLAY?Football?”Roxie asked after a squeal.“God, I wish I’d been there to see that.Why did the Queen Dinner have to be this weekend?And in stupid Tokyo.”

“You were stoked about going to Tokyo.”Legs outstretched on her hotel bed, she wiggled her toes, admiring her pedicure.“As for the football, Tripp got Brogan on the field,” she said into the phone.“Don’t know how it went after that.”

“He just stood there?”

“I don’t know.I imagine he planned it that way, as to how it stuck… He’s competitive.It could’ve stuck.”She’d try to corner Julius at that night’s drinks and dancing downstairs to find out.“Tripp promised me Brogan and Bram weren’t playing at the same time.There are so many guys here, I don’t think anyone had to be out there more than ten minutes.”

“That’s something.”

“Didn’t save everyone, I did notice a few new bruises around the room at dinner earlier.”

“Now I would’ve paid to see that,” Roxie said.“You carry a cellphone, a charged cellphone, like a normal person, did you get any footage?”

“I wish.I, and all the other women, were funneled off to the hotel’s spa.”

“We miss all the fun.Stupid grooming.Brogan better appreciate it.”

Any preening wasn’t supposed to be for him.“I’m pretty sure he thinks I’m sleeping with Gault.”

“That makes a change.Most guys assume when Tripp Breckenridge’s in the room, he’s the one sleeping with all the women.”