Page 122 of Nothing to Win

This one didn’t stop.They finally got to just feel each other.They could pretend this was forever.Never leave that room, that wall, that—the buzzing interrupted them again.

“Goddamn,” Brogan snapped, retreating a step to snatch out the phone again.This time he did answer it.“I’m with Irish, leave me the fuck alone.”

His expression changed from anger to surprise and he put his back to her.“What do you mean?”he asked.“Are you sure?They have him or they’ve located him… yeah?Get everyone together.Call Shanna and…”

Jarrod.The call had to be about him.

Everyone else was acting, taking control, and she was tied to concrete sinking into the ocean.Brogan kept on talking, issuing commands.Gia sidestepped, opening the door and slipping out.She’d just closed it when Jenna poked her head around the edge of the corridor.

“Gia,” she whispered.“Are you okay?Your brother is looking for you.”

“You saw him?Did you speak to him?”

“No, I’ve been keeping lookout, I just watched from the door.He’s talking to people, looking around.He wouldn’t know me from a hole in the wall.”

Bram had been around Jenna before, but the woman wasn’t wrong.

“I better go speak to him.”

“Where’s Brogan?What’s next?”

She took the phone from her pocket and gave it to Jenna.

“It’s too risky for me to have that,” she said and passed by.“Tell Brogan thank you.”

The party.Her brother.She needed to pull it together.Leaving a confused Jenna with that thought, she went back out into the party to seek her brother.

Didn’t take him long to find her.

“Where the hell have you been?”he demanded, storming up to her full of thunder.“I told you to stay put!”

“I don’t feel well,” she said.“I want to go home.”

“We just got here.What about Dicktree?”

“I want to go home.”

Following their example, Gia didn’t give him a choice and headed for the door.He could stay or follow, either way, she had to get out there and decide what the future would be.

THIRTY-NINE

BROGAN STEPPED FROM the elevator into his apartment.The first thing he saw was Julius and Tripp standing at the rail of the upper floor, panting dogs.As the alpha panting dog, he got it, he fucking got it.

Going upstairs, Jenna not far behind, he waited to see which of them would ask.

“Where is she?”Tripp Breckenridge for the win.“You were supposed to bring her back.What went wrong?”

“Change of plan,” he said, crossing the living room.

“Were you with her?”Julius asked.“Does she have a plan?What do we need to do?”

“No plan,” he admitted, taking off his jacket and tossing it on the couch.

“Why not?”Julius asked, overcome with judgment when his attention dropped.

What got—ah, Gia’s panties hung out of his jacket pocket.

“I guess we know why not,” Tripp said, slapping him between the shoulder blades.