**My Brother’s Best Friend**

Chapter 39

COLE'S POV

I wasn’t supposed to be there.

A client had dragged me out for drinks after a late meeting. One bar turned into two. Two turned into him insisting we hit Velvet because he knew a girl there. I almost said no. Something about the place felt off—too loud, too dark, too full of men who looked like they were trying to forget their real lives. But I followed him in anyway, ordered a whiskey I didn’t want, and checked my phone like I had somewhere better to be.

Then the lights shifted and she walked onto the main stage.

For a second...