“Your sister’s not a baby anymore,” I said edgily, staring at the door and wishing I hadn’t told her to leave. Wishing I’d told Kaleb to leave instead. Wishing I’d reached out to her, made her see I was on her side, held her…done something. Anything but be an asshole.

She’d put herself between me and Kaleb because she’d realized something I hadn’t, not until just now.

The big son of a bitch had gotten to me. The things he’d said had gotten under my skin. She’d seen it before I had and had placed herself between us, like she was protecting me from him.

But when he’d been digging at her, what had I done?

Stayed on the fucking fence and told her it might be a good idea to leave.

If we’d all gone our separate ways, we could all cool down, right? Get our heads level and all that.

But instead, she’d stormed out of here alone, and hurt, and I knew there was no way in hell she was getting into a car with Kaleb. Not if I knew anything about her. And oddly enough, I had the feeling I knew more about her right now than her brother did, and he’d been around her a lot longer than I had, and more recently too.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Kaleb demanded as soon as the door shut, ignoring my statement.

Just like he’d ignored her.

Just like I had too.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, you big bastard.” Spinning around to face him, I jabbed a finger at him. “Did you see the way she looked at you? The way she looked at me? You might as well have slapped her. You’re ignoring her—again. Trying to force her into doing what you want her to do. I told you years ago that wasn’t going to lead to anything good and I was right, wasn’t I?”

“You don’t know what in the fuck you’re talking about.” He got in my face, but I didn’t back away. “I’m doing what I always do. I’m taking care of her. She’s not one of your fucktoys, Jacen.”

“For the record, I don’t collect toys,” I said tightly. “Fuck or otherwise.”

“I’ve known you since you were sixteen, and I’ve seen the way you treat women.” He shook his head. “She deserves better than to be the one who gets tossed aside when you find a new flavor, Jacen.”

His words hit home, mostly because they were true. At least, they had been true of the man I’d been once upon a time. But I’d lost interest in fucking every woman I’d met long before my career had ended. And even then, it hadn’t been about the sex, not since high school. By my early twenties, it’d been a way to distract myself from thinking beyond the next game, beyond the emptiness I’d seen as my future. It’d just gotten worse after the accident.

But Camry had been – was – more than a mindless distraction.

She just plain made me mindless, but I didn’t think her brother would appreciate hearing that.

“You know, she’s not a little girl anymore.” I cut around him, heading for the in-suite kitchenette. I wanted a drink, and while I suspected I could have one or even two and not have a problem, it would be far too easy to keep going.

I’d worked too damn hard to go back to that.

“She’s also not someone you can just toy with either,” he growled. “She deserves better than just being your latest arm candy, okay Mr. Exotic Dancer of the Year?”

There was so much venom in his voice that I felt the sting of embarrassment rise to my cheeks. I shoved it back and reminded myself where I’d gotten the job.

“Got a problem with strippers now, do you?”

“I never said I had a problem with them.” He crossed his arms over his chest and gave me a cold look. “That doesn’t mean I want you dating my sister.”

I took some satisfaction in his knuckles being bruised. I’d always heard I had a face like a rock.

“So is this me you don’t want dating her, or is it all strippers?”

“It’s everybody,” he snapped.

“Ah…so you want her to be a nun.” Too late for that.

I felt like an ass as soon as I thought it, knowing what I now knew about what she’d been through these past few years.

“Quit being such a bastard,” he said, looking away. “She’s fragile, okay? I told you that. She shouldn’t be dating anybody, but she definitely doesn’t need to be dating somebody who’s just out to screw her.”

“Who said that’s what I was doing?” I demanded.

It wasn’t until I’d said it that I realized I’d been thinking about anything beyond the physical, beyond the now. But I had been. I’d been thinking about it with her. Something about her brought it out in me, and I didn’t know how to handle it. Which is why I’d fucked it up just now, I realized.

“Oh, please.” He glared at me. “You think with your dick. You always have. When it gets bored, so does the rest of you.”

He might have been right about the man I’d been before, but that wasn’t the case with Camry. Sure, I’d been attracted to her even before I’d known who she was, but she and I had spent time together outside of bed. We’d talked.

“Did it ever occur to you that maybe we like each other?” I asked in a low voice.

“No,” he said simply, but firmly. “You two don’t fit, and even if you did, she’s not in a good place right now. Like I said, she’s fragile. So if you did really care about her, you would stay the hell away from her.”

“She’s not as fragile as you think,” I said, growling the words out. “She’s strong and she’s smart and she’s got a good heart. Why don’t you want to see that?”

He tightened his hands into fists. “Because I spent years waiting to get the call that she’d finally made one wrong decision too many, and then when I finally got it, she almost died and...” He stopped and rubbed the back of his neck.

For a split second, my heart stopped, then it slowly stuttered back into action. I didn’t let my face show anything, though. Didn’t want him realizing he’d gotten to me with what he’d said. Maybe he was overstating it. Except…that wasn’t his style.

“Remember when I told you I had to go and help her out?” He snorted, shaking his head. “She’d gotten hooked on heroin, dropped out of school. She let her dealer pimp her out to pay for the habit. Did pretty much anything he told her to do.” He paused and cocked an eyebrow. “Did you know that?”

“Well…” I turned it all over in my mind. A couple minutes passed before I finally answered, “You’re right. I didn’t know she almost died. Maybe you could go into more detail there.”

Kaleb blinked. “Did you hear anything I just said?”

“Yes,” I said stubbornly, still trying to process. “I heard that she almost ended up dead. Please elaborate.”

“And the rest?” he demanded, voice testy.

A flare of temper made me give him a tight smile. “What…that she ended up turning tricks like a lot of addicts? Heard that, yeah, but I already knew.” I shrugged. “Sorry, mate. She told me that part.”

“And did she tell you that it was her dealer-pimp who tried to kill her? Right after she’d helped him kidnap my pregnant wife?” he demanded.

That caught me up short.

I’d seen the two of them together, Piety and Camry. They’d seemed pretty close. “Seems like Piety is okay with Camry.”

“It’s…that’s…” Kaleb started to swear, turning away from me as the frustration twisted his expression. “It’s not about us being okay with her. It’s her being okay. Why don’t you get that?”

“I’ve spent a fair amount of time with her.” Shrugging again, I resisted the urge to rub my jaw. It hurt like a bitch, but I didn’t want to let him know that. “I’d say she’s doing pretty okay already. She’s worrying about her friend, but who wouldn’t?”

“She doesn’t need to worry about that kind of friend!” He turned back, his eyes flashing. “It was that kind of friend who got her messed up to begin with.”

“That doesn’t seem fair.”

I hated to even think it, but Kaleb was being a serious asshole. He’d always been inclined to give people a fair shake. Hell, he’d helped me out when I’d needed it. But with Camry, he seemed determined to make her unable to care for herself. It was borne out of a need to protect her and I got that, but he was still being a dick about it.

“Daytin was a girl who ended up in a bad place, even worse than Camry. She ran away from an abusive home, got pimped her to pedo-wannabes and you want to make her out to be the bad guy? She’s eighteen for fuck’s sake.”

That made him snap his jaw shut.

“Sometimes age is just a number,” he said stubbornly. “Some people are born users. And Camry attracts them. You don’t know about the sort of trash she was hanging with. Daytin ended up with that crowd too. She’s not going to be any different.”

“Or she could be like your sister, making bad choices after some shitty stuff happened, only unlike Camry, she didn’t have a big brother to help her, you sanctimonious bastard.” I snapped the last two words. He opened his mouth, but before he could respond, I cut him off. “Tell me something, have you spent five minutes talking to that girl? I have. And the entire time, she was trying to get me to take her to bed. It’s like she thinks the only thing of worth she has to offer the world is her body. Can you imagine how fucking miserable that is?”

“She was probably just hard-up for a fix, and she figured you for an easy mark.” He waited a beat, then asked, “Did you take her up on it?”

I took a step toward him, my hands itching to wipe that expression off his face. “Listen, you fucking bastard. If I didn’t owe you my life, you’d be on the ground bleeding. I don’t use or abuse kids. And that’s all she is.” I jerked my chin toward the door. “You should go.”

He hesitated, and I thought I saw a flicker of regret in his eyes.

“Go,” I said again. “Before I forget we’re friends.”

He gave me a hard look before he turned, striding toward the door. Before he left, I spoke again.

“You know, all the things you told me about your mum, she’d be fucking ashamed of the words that were coming out your mouth just now. And I don’t think your father would be too proud either.”

Judging by the way his shoulders stiffened, I’d say the comment hit home.

Good.

He needed to yank his head out of his ass.

Me? I had to get to work.

The owners of the show were thinking about setting up a similar venue for Flames here in Los Angeles as we had in Vegas, and this afternoon, the rest of the guys were showing up. We were having a quick rehearsal then performing as a guest headliner at a local club.

I needed to be at the club to make sure everything was on schedule...even thought it was the last thing I wanted to be doing.

* * *

It was a different set-up from what we had in Vegas, that was certain. Compared to some of the show in Vegas, especially the kind that showed skin, Flames Down Under had a classy act, but it was nothing like this.

The club’s walls were a deep, smoky blue, and all of them had lights embedded at different points. Some were so small, they were barely pinpricks. Others were the size of my hand and the color of the light changed with the pulse and vibe of the music.

Tables were small, clearly designed to hold cocktails, not entrees, and the menu catered very heavily to those who enjoyed their drinks in the designer variety. What was wrong with a decent, locally brewed-lager, I wondered.

As I made another circuit, I felt a pair of eyes on me and looked up. The second I did, the bartender jerked her head around, like she hadn’t been watching. Searching the area near her, I found it. A small, discrete television—and it was tuned to E.

Great.

There were pictures of me with Adelina, but to my surprise, most of them showed me sitting on the beach talking to Daytin.

“What the fuck,” I mumbled, shaking my head. I was tempted to go over there and ask her to turn the volume up so I could know what was being said, but I doubted my temper could handle it. Instead, I just turned back to the club, now determined to finish up.

I wanted out of here, and I wanted a shower—not necessarily in that order.