Page 58 of Nash

Holy, I’m gonna kill him.

Who?

Yeah, him and Nash.

“That’s nice.” I stomp on Nash’s foot under the table. He doesn’t flinch while I feel like a ticking bomb. “I guess we’ll all meet and be one big happy family at your rehearsal dinner.”

“Yeah,” Alena adds. “We’ll rehearse, then have dinner at the club. It’s just family and the wedding party. You can meet Loch’s brothers, too. Some will be there.”

Good. Maybe Loch’s brothers can beat the shit out of Michael Cummings and take his evil ego down a peg.

“Car fifteen to base,” Alena’s radio squawks, so she says, “Gotta go. Call ya tomorrow.”

She ends our video chat, and I stare ahead, seething and wondering how I can kill Alena’s groomsmen without ruining her wedding. It’s impossible. As impossible as me not losing my shit over this.

But I don’t get a chance to rip Nash’s head off because a swarm of women burst into the store.

“We want penises!” One shouts while the others laugh.

“Let me guess.” Blair laughs, too. “A bachelorette party?”

“Yes.” Ms. Penis Lover laughs. She’s about three mimosas into her day. “It’s a pool party tonight, and we want dicks everywhere!” She turns to Jace. “Well, hey there, big, handsome fella. Aren’t you hotter than blue blazes? Can we buy you and take you home, too?”

“Ma’am.” I rise and politely protect him. “Let’s not take advantage of my staff, please.” Then I smile, gesturing upstairs, “But we have plenty of big toys you can take advantage of all night.”

If I had a dollar for every time Jace gets propositioned, or me, or Blair, we wouldn’t need this job.

“Come on, ladies.” Blair leads them upstairs. “When you say, ‘bachelorette pool party,’ I say, ‘six-foot penis float.’”

“Thanks, fox.” Jace winks at me for rescuing him. It’s cute. He always makes his flirt feel innocent, but…

Wait!The logic smacks me.

Jace is one of Nash’s Bratva brothers. So is his brother Grant, and so is Michael Cummings. And last night, Nash revealed something about the room Cummings rents upstairs.

“What we do in that room sometimes … It makes me hard. It makes us hard. We’re like animals…”

That’s what Nash confessed last night. Then he said it was…

“Something I’ll never allow to be done to you.”

Oh, my god, what is it? And does that mean Jace does it, too? And of all the taboos that implies, the only stupid thing I can worry about is …is Nash with other women?

But it’s impossible. He hasn’t really left my side in almost a month.

But will he be?

When they have their first forbidden meeting upstairs, will Nash go? Will he be with other women just to keep his bond with other men? Is that what they do? And why? Why does desire flood my core, imagining their ritual?

Questions rage through me like a storm. Waves of jealousy, lust, fear, betrayal, and love drown my vision.

“Vale?” Jace asks. “Vale, are you okay?”

He’s sitting on his stool. I’m staring right at him but my mind is swept away with no answers to anchor me.

“I… uh…”

Like my dark storm conjured the devil, the bell by the door rings, and Jace opens it. Two large looming silhouettes stand, backlit by the sun, but they don’t look angelic.

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