As Dust Dances (Play On 2)

Oh no, no, no. “Autumn, don’t say that. And don’t say anything to your brother. You’re the only person he really cares about. If he thought I was trying to turn you against him, he’d hate me.”

She raised an eyebrow. “And would you care?”

Thankfully, her cell rang before I had to answer that. It lay on the island and she had her feet tucked under her so I stood up to get it for her.

“Leave it,” she said, trying to untangle herself.

But I was already up.

DARREN

Calling

I held up the phone to her, suddenly no longer distracted from the suspicious bruising on her forearm. “The ex?”

Her expression tightened and I saw the flash of something I really did not like in her dark eyes. “Ignore it. I’ll talk to him later.”

The phone rang off in my hand anyway.

Then it rang again.

I stared at her as she stared at the phone, growing paler by the second. Eventually Darren stopped calling. But then it started ringing immediately again.

“If you two have split up, why is he calling you so persistently?”

She swallowed hard. “Oh, he left some of his stuff at my place. We need to arrange for him to collect it.”

Autumn O’Dea needed a lesson in how to lie.

Her phone buzzed and a message from Darren popped up.

If you don’t pick up . . .

Damn! I was only getting the preview. Was that a threatening message?

“Give me the phone.”

“What does his text say?”

Autumn frowned. “Nosy much?”

Okay, something was wrong. My gut told me so.

Reading my expression, she looked past me and into the kitchen. “Is that the time? Wow. I . . . uh . . . I told Killian I’d come into the office to give him an opinion on . . . on something.” She got up and put her mug on the island before scrambling to get her boots back on.

She didn’t look at me the entire time.

“Autumn . . .”

“You’ll call if you need me?” She kissed my cheek, not meeting my eyes, and was out of the apartment within seconds.

Shit.

I gazed across the room at my cell.

There was nothing on this earth that could compel me to call Killian.

Except fear for his little sister’s safety.

What if I was wrong though? I bit my lip. What if my gut was wrong that some guy she’d dumped for manhandling her didn’t know how to back off? Killian had proven he was willing to get his hands dirty to protect someone, and I was sure whatever he dealt out on Autumn’s behalf would be a hundred times worse.

If I didn’t make him aware that there was possibly something to be worried about, and then this guy did turn out to be dangerous, I’d never forgive myself.

And honestly, I knew I was right.

Autumn was acting jumpy, the bruising, the persistent calling, the possibly threatening text . . .

Screw it. I crossed the room and grabbed my cell. My hands shook a little as I pressed speed dial and held the cell up to my ear.

It rang.

He was ignoring me?

I didn’t know why that surprised or hurt me, but it freaking did. Scrolling through my contacts, I dialed his office.

“Good morning, Skyscraper Records, Mr. O’Dea’s office, how may I help?” Eve answered on the second ring.

“Eve, it’s Skylar. I need to speak to O’Dea.”

“Oh, hi, Skylar,” her voice got a little high-pitched with excitement. “It’s great to hear from you.”

“Uh, thanks, you too.”

There was an awkward silence.

“So . . . Is O’Dea there?”

“Oh. Right. Oh . . . well . . . uh . . . Mr. O’Dea is busy. I’ll let him know you called.”

I was being Yasmined? He was actually Yasmining me!

Oh hell no. I said goodbye to Eve, shoved on my boots, grabbed my coat and scarf out of the closet, and locked the apartment on my way out. Indignation that he was being so immature fueled me and I got to the label in record time. No pun intended.

The big guy with the scar stopped me at the bank of elevators. “No ID, no entry.”

Sighing in irritation, I glanced back at the main reception to the woman sitting at the front desk. “Would you call up to Justin at Skyscraper Records to get him to confirm that Mr. O’Dea is expecting me?” I bluffed. “The name is Skylar.”

Luckily, Justin must have assumed he’d missed the memo because he confirmed and the big guy let me pass.

However, as soon as I stepped off that elevator, Justin gave me a strained smile. “Miss Finch, it turns out that Mr. O’Dea—hey!” he yelled after me as I veered to the left, heading down the corridor toward Killian’s office. I hurried my steps, hoping to get there before Justin stopped me.

Eve looked up from her desk as I barreled into view. “Oh, Skylar. You’re here . . . Oh, well, he doesn’t want to be disturbed!” She squeaked as I passed her and pushed open his office door so hard, it slammed open and back into the wall.

“What the—” Killian’s wide eyes shot to me. He had his phone pressed to his ear. “I’m sorry, Xander, I’m going to have to call you back.”

I stood staring at him, arms crossed in defiance as he glared at me while hanging up.

“I’m sorry, Mr. O’Dea, she slipped right by me,” Eve said breathlessly at my back.

“It’s fine, Eve.” He waved at her impatiently. “Close the door, please.”

I stepped out of the way so she could reach in and do as asked.

Killian raised an eyebrow in that pompous way that got on my nerves. “You call this professional? Always with the drama.”

I didn’t flinch at the insinuation. I was no longer going to let him get to me. And well, to be fair, it had been kind of a dramatic entrance. “Well, I couldn’t be sure if you were ignoring me and this can’t wait.”

“I wasn’t ignoring you.” He stood and rounded the desk. He sat casually on it, crossing his ankles. “I was on a conference call. So now that you have my attention, what is so important that it couldn’t wait?”

“Autumn.”

Killian stood up off the desk at the mention of his sister’s name. “What about her?” His concern for her made me not want to hate him.

“You know she broke up with that guy.”

“Darren? Aye, she told me yesterday.”

I let out a shaky breath. “This might sound crazy, but I know it’s not. Autumn came to see me today and I noticed bruising all around her forearm. It looked like finger grips. Like someone had grabbed her. Hard.”

Her brother’s face instantly darkened.

“I’m a pessimist. I think of worst-case scenarios all the time, right? So I ask her about the guy, trying to feel her out.”

“And?”

“She tells me they’ve broken up so I tried to put the bruising to the back of my head. But she’s closed off, and shifty, and we both know that’s not Autumn. Your sister is usually an open freaking book. I know every detail of how she lost her virginity, for God’s sake.”

He winced.

“Not the point, sorry. Point is, she was acting strange and not like herself. And then that guy, Darren, starts calling her cell. She told me to ignore it. But he calls two times more right at the back. Persistent fucker. And she got paler and paler each time he called. Then there was the text. I didn’t get to see it all but what I did see had a threatening air to it. And, O’Dea, she tried to hide it but she looked afraid.”

I’d heard the phrase “stormy expression” before, but I’d never really seen it in action until that moment. Killian looked ready to strike Darren down with lightning bolts from his eyes.

He paced the room in agitation.

“There is a chance I’m wrong, right? Of course, there is. But my gut is telling me something is going on and I thought if some guy is harassing Autumn, it needs to stop.”

“Oh, I’ll take care of it.” His voice rumbled with dark retribution.

And I didn’t care that if I was right and this guy was screwing around with Autumn that Killian would make him pay. A few years ago, I would’ve condemned vengeance. But something had happened to me when I realized my mother’s murderers were probably going to escape justice. I no longer saw the world quite so black and white. There was a darkness in me now.