All Chapters of Risky Moments With My Dad's Bestfriend: Chapter 11 - Chapter 19

Desmond’s POVI woke drenched in sweat.The sheets clung damp against my back, my chest heaving like I’d been running for miles. The silence of the guest room pressed down on me, heavy and unnatural, but in my ears there was no silence. Gunshots cracked again and again inside my head, louder than thunder. And always, always, her scream followed.Brielle.In the dream, she collapsed into my arms, that damned necklace clenched so tight in her fist that her knuckles bled. No blood poured from me, no smoke from the gun, only her lifeless weight against my chest as I shouted into the void.The nightmare hadn’t let me go since the night of her birthday dinner. I could relive every second of that evening in daylight if I let myself, but in the dark, my mind twisted it, replayed it differently. And in the dream, she always died.I shoved the blanket off, dragging in air like a drowning man. My hands pressed to my knees as I hunched forward, shaking the tension out of my shoulders. But it wasn

Brielle’s POVThe soft click of my bedroom door closing behind me sounded louder than it should have. I leaned against it, pressing my back into the wood as if I could keep everything on the other side from seeping in.My hands shook. Not from fear. Not even from anger anymore. Just… exhaustion. Bone-deep exhaustion that weighed heavier than anything else.I dragged in a breath that rattled on its way out. Desmond’s voice still echoed in my head, his excuses, the way his hand hovered between us as if he wanted to touch me but didn’t dare, the guilt in his eyes.That hand… God. I had pulled away like it would burn me. And yet deep down, part of me had wanted him to hold on.I stumbled to the bed, still clutching my mug like it was an anchor. The tea had gone cold. My knuckles had turned white around the handle. Slowly, I set it on the nightstand and wrapped my arms around myself instead, holding in the ache that kept spreading through my chest.Desmond said he was trying to keep me ali

Brielle’s POV“You’re really sure about this?” I asked Mirren for maybe the tenth time that day. My voicewas low, but the tension threading through it was obvious. We’d spent all afternoonwhispering, sketching out ways to slip past Desmond’s fortress of a mansion.Mirren had been calm the whole time, like this was some prank instead of a dangerousescape. She was convinced that letting Desmond overhear Jaxon’s name was part of theplan, her way of distracting him into thinking he’d caught on when really, he had no ideawhat we were building under his nose.She smirked now as we padded down the long hallway toward Desmond’s study. “Relax,Brie. It’s going to work. Just stick to the story.”The mahogany door loomed large in front of us. I lifted my hand and knocked softly.“Come in,” his voice rumbled from the other side.I pushed the door open, my nerves coiled tight. Desmond was behind the heavy desk, headbent over files. When he looked up, his eyes narrowed, sharp and

Brielle’s POVMy forehead pressed against the cool glass of the car window as the city blurred past us. Streetlights smeared into streaks of yellow and white, buildings flashing by in quick succession. Jaxon’s steady hands stayed tight on the wheel, and I could feel the hum of the engine under my feet.Desmond had probably realized we were gone by now. I could almost picture his reaction, the sharp clench of his jaw, the way his eyes would darken when anger and calculation collided. He’d be pacing, planning, maybe already calling his people to track us.The thought should have terrified me. Instead, it made my chest twist in ways I couldn’t explain.Part of me felt guilty. This was a man I had spent too long secretly craving, a man I used to imagine late at night when I should have been asleep. I’d thought of his mouth on mine so many times it had become routine, a quiet addiction. And now here I was—running from him.Running from the walls he’d locked me inside, from the silence he a

Brielle POV The instant I stepped into the club, it felt like I’d been dropped into another world.Colors flashed across the walls, neon streaks bouncing off mirrors and sweating bodies. The bass thumped so hard it rattled through my ribs, each beat pushing out the thoughts I’d been choking on for days. People were everywhere—dancing, grinding, laughing like the night belonged only to them. For the first time in a long time, it felt like the air was alive.Mirren’s hand tugged me through the crowd, her grin wide and wicked under the flickering strobe lights. She leaned close to my ear, her voice cutting through the storm of noise.“You need this,” she shouted. “One night. Just one night where you stop thinking.”And maybe she was right. Maybe forgetting Desmond, forgetting the walls, the lies, the watchful silence, was exactly what I needed.We reached the bar, squeezing into a sliver of space between strangers. Mirren leaned across the counter with a playful smile, catching the bart