Page 6 of A Lethal Game of Trust

Wow, he really didn’t want to see me. I would have returned to my room if I weren’t so stubborn or curious to learn what he needed to rant about.

“It was too loud, and I’m trying to save to branch out. Without asking Dad for more money.”

“I would buy you drinks.”

“I would get other men to buy me some if you would back off a bit.” She wasn’t wrong; I’d seen how he prowled over Mia and Issy on the odd occasion he would come to pick Mia up.

“Other men ain’t shit.”

The way those words fell out of his mouth, the anger coating them, made my back straighten as Issy passed him the vodka coke and gave me an awkward look, her hazel eyes the same as her brother’s.

“I didn’t say I wanted a mixer,” he snapped, taking the drink and holding out his other hand. She sighed and scuttled off to put the bottle of vodka in his hand. He rested the glass on the coffee table and filled it to the brim with the spirit.

I sipped at my wine, watching them.

We’d all been best friends growing up, but as we got older, Dom had distanced himself, taking girls and his training more seriously. Drop kicks and sex were the priority. And becoming the most handsome man to grace the planet.

He was all muscle, broad shoulders, darkness enhanced only by the stubble that was always pristine, never too long, never too short. He’d been one of those teenagers that didn’t even have the awful patchy stage.

He didn’t know it, but he’d been my first love. Then he broke all of my trust.

3

Predictable, Typical

Leonie

“Please excuse my brother,” Issy groaned, sitting beside me and nursing her own glass of coke and rum. “He’s…”

She froze when he gave her a death stare, jaw tight, eyes dark.

“She’s going to find out eventually.”

“I’ll find out what?” I asked softly. I’d seen anger in his features before; often, I was at the brunt of it, but there was a glint of something else. He was imploring her to be quiet.

“They broke up,” Issy said simply. “And Mia is a bitch.”

Mia wasn’t really myfriend. She was Issy’s, which made her my friend by association. She was a little too bitchy, a little too loud for me.

She reminded me of the friends at school Issy still met up with.

When it came to her relationship with Dom, though… I’d known the breakup was coming. I’d pretended I didn’t. But I did.

Something gnawed at me whenever Issy had invited Mia out with us over the last few weeks. She hadn’t been her usual self. She kept her phone screen down and almost winced whenever Dom was mentioned.

“And…uh, why is Mia a bitch?”

Dom was breathing heavily through his nose, staring into his vodka.

“She, er,” Issy started, looking cautiously over at her brother still perched on the arm of the chair, “she slept with someone else.”

He glared at her. He had never looked at her like that.

“Don’t downplay it, sister. Tell her how it really was. If you’re going to air my dirty laundry, at least get it bone fucking dry.”

Is went to comfort him, reaching out, but he waved a dismissive hand and downed his drink.

“She… was sleepingwith someone else.”