I thought about Lucy. She seemed so sweet and innocent, but the more I thought about it, the more the whole situation seemed strange. I wasn’t her type. I had seen her at the barbecue, amongst her friends. They were all like her: kind, sensitive and driven in life. I had been the outsider there.
Plus, she had admitted that she realized I was her brother’s main competition in the tournament. We were evenly matched. He would never want to lose on home turf, though.
What if he had come up with a plan to win? He could lure me in with his sister, give himself a credible reason to have me offed, and then have the deed done?
I felt sick just thinking about it.
The thing was, I didn’t want to think of Lucy that way. I didn’t want to think that the whole reason she was after me was because she was part of some plan masterminded by her brother. At the same time, though, I didn’t know her well enough to know what the truth was. It was obvious that she was close to her brother. Just how close?
I wasn’t sure that I wanted to find out anymore.
James held up both hands. “Look, I’m not saying that’s what’s going to happen,” he said. “But I would steer clear of her if I were you. That whole family is bad news.”
I nodded absently at him. “Thanks for the heads up,” I replied, still mulling things over in my mind.
The thing I wanted to do now was to text Lucy and ask her to tell me the truth. Surely, she wouldn’t be able to go through with something that cold-hearted. I had seen the way she reacted to me in bed, and I believed she was genuine. But maybe that was why she had conveniently “lost” my number after the barbecue: she had had second thoughts about her mission, and she’d tried to let me go the easy way.
Except that I had screwed up all of her plans by showing up at the arena and giving her no choice but to see me again.
I knew that contacting her now wouldn’t do me any good. If this was some scheme concocted by the two siblings, then things were too far gone now. The best I could do was stay far enough away from her for my own good.
And if it wasn’t some scheme? There was still a niggling doubt at the back of my brain telling me that Lucy, sweet Lucy, would never have agreed to be part of something like that. But the fact still remained that her brother was involved in some dark shit, and if I had learned one thing during my Navy days, it was that it didn’t take much to get tangled up with the wrong people.
I didn’t want to go down that road. Even if Lucy and I ended up just having a little fun while I was here, I could easily find myself irreversibly tangled up with the Purcell family, and the rest of the good-for-nothing thugs that Bobby was involved with, for the rest of my life.
No thanks. I would rather walk away.
As much as I hated the idea of never seeing Lucy again or exploring her body, I couldn’t help but be grateful for James in keeping me out of that mess. I definitely owed him one.
TEN
LUCY
The arena was particularly loud tonight, with the fans cheering and chanting names. It was obvious that we were getting to the end of the tournament. Of course, I knew exactly how many matches were left. I could probably have listed half of them in my sleep. After all, I was keeping tabs on my brother... and now I was also keeping tabs on Dylan.
I knew I was being foolish. Dylan had my number now, but he had only texted me a couple times since our last time together, each following message more polite and cold than the previous one until it was obvious that he had no intention of seeing me ever again.
I wondered why that was. Why was he suddenly so cold when he had seemed so interested in me?
There was no use wondering about it, though. A man’s mind was always going to be a mystery to me. I still couldn’t help but to track his fights, hoping to see him around the arena. I didn’t want him to win though, I was still rooting for my brother at the end of the day. There was just a part of me that wanted Dylan to do well. I was sure he deserved it.
I didn’t know why I was so certain of it. Maybe it was just wishful thinking, an attempt to make my own actions seem more reasonable because Dylan was a good guy.
It was the only reason, I told myself, why I was here to cheer him on during what would probably prove to be one of his hardest matchups.
Of course, I wasn’t the only person in the audience here to support him. The place was practically packed to the rafters, and more than half the fans were sporting Dylan’s colors. To be honest, that made me feel a little silly. I clearly wasn’t the only person that he’d had an effect on during his time in Boston.
Was that why he’d quit messaging me? Had he moved on to someone else already?
I was under no illusions; I knew what we were. He and I weren’t some forever thing. We weren’t going to live together for the rest of our lives and have kids. Shit didn’t work out like that
