Game Of Risk (Risqué #3)

by Scarlett Finn

  At the end of her rope, she implored for some time to reflect. ‘Let’s sit silently for a while and revel in the joy of our new friendship.’

  Friendship was a loose term, she was stuck with this guy. When she calmed down and processed this development which Drew had caused in her life, she might be more receptive to getting to know Ruger. For now, she had to come to terms with the fact that the new life she’d started in Miami was over already.

  Chapter Three

  After her evening drink with Potter, Layla had been supposed to return to the office to email Mandy a full report. The time for that had come and gone Mandy would be seething. No doubt Potter had taken his business elsewhere by now and had probably called Mandy to regale her with tales of how the meeting ended.

  With darkness now upon them, Layla didn’t object when Ruger took them to a drive-through for food then pulled the truck into a motel parking lot. She remained in the truck listening to the radio while he went inside to pay for a room.

  Layla’s thoughts turned to her possessions, to what she’d need to prepare for bed and get ready for a new day. Her purse was still in her apartment. She hadn’t needed it because her now previous employer had a credit account at the bar, and she had stashed a key for her place outside her apartment. What that meant for her was, she had no bank card, no ID, and not a cent to her name.

  Ruger returned to the truck and opened her door. ‘Are you coming?’

  Holding on to the food bag, Layla climbed out of the vehicle and waited while Ruger retrieved two cases from the back of the truck. Ruger carried the luggage into a motel room on the ground floor of the two-storey structure, while she followed him inside and closed the door.

  ‘Left or right?’ he asked, nodding at the twin beds.

  ‘I don’t care,’ she replied and he tossed one case onto the bed furthest from the door.

  ‘That’s you.’ Putting the other case on the end of the other bed, he unzipped it and began to retrieve items. ‘Dig in and eat, don’t wait for me.’

  On the table by the front window, she began to take out the food and divide hers from his. Dropping onto a hard chair beside the table, she nibbled her burger. ‘What did you bring me?’ she asked, eyeing the case he’d put on the bed indicated as hers.

  ‘Check it out and see.’

  From his own luggage, he’d taken out a towel and a change of underwear, which he tossed aside with a razor and a couple of bottles. After another bite of her burger, she brushed her hands together and crossed to unzip her own suitcase. It was packed with clothes and there were toiletries too. He’d done a good job overall, except the only footwear she could see were her ratty old running sneakers. She couldn’t find nightwear either, but her disappointment was short-lived when she caught sight of her purse, stuffed in the corner.

  Screeching out, she threw everything else aside and pulled it out. ‘Ah! You brought my purse!’

  ‘I have female relatives, including a mother, and I’ve had girlfriends,’ he said, planting himself in a chair at the table. ‘Guys know how a woman values her purse… he just doesn’t understand why.’

  Hugging her purse to her chest, she refrained from hugging him too. ‘If you expect me to bounce from motel to motel, I need my purse.’

  ‘We won’t be bouncing from motel to motel,’ he said. ‘Getting off the road is the best way to make sure we’re not found. I’m going to shower after we eat. Do you need anything?’

  Layla wasn’t sure what he meant about getting off the road, but she joined him at the table to finish off her food. ‘Where are we going then?’ she asked.

  ‘Somewhere they’ll never find you,’ he said, scooping up ketchup with his fries.

  ‘You’re trying to be mysterious again. If you won’t be honest, I can just call Drew and he’ll tell me.’

  ‘I didn’t tell him where I’m taking you.’

  Drew didn’t know where she was going to be with this man who was a virtual stranger. But it wasn’t her safety that she was concerned for. Having had time to absorb what Drew and Ruger had told her, she found herself preoccupied with where her brother was and who might be after him.

  ‘I don’t like the idea of lying low while Drew is out there in trouble,’ she said, munching a fry. ‘We should be up there helping him.’

  ‘Helping him, how?’ he asked with his mouth almost full. ‘He knows what he’s doing. He has the support of friends who are far more lethal than I am, if the need arises. Once Serendipity finds a publisher and releases the story—‘

  ‘Who cares about the story? Someone should call the cops.’

  ‘The cops don’t care about a crooked politician who signs their boss’ paychecks. Do you think they’ll do anything to protect your brother? Half of them are probably on the take. Your brother burned a lot of bridges before he left the force.’

  ‘You two watch too much television,’ she said, still eating. ‘He should go directly to the DA.’

  With a snort, he gave her a shrewd look. ‘Now who watches too much TV?’ he asked, taking a bite of his burger. ‘You can’t just stroll up to the DA and ask him to arrest someone. Anyway, the DA and Governor Ashcroft went to law school together. You’re not going to see a traditional prosecution… at least not without public pressure.’

  ‘So you want a prosecution from the court of public opinion?’ she asked, pushing the rest of her burger aside and slipping off her shoes. ‘Do you think that Drew will be any safer after he reveals this guy’s connections? Who is he connected to?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘Are you going to finish that?’ She shook her head, prompting him to reach over his drink to pick up the remainder of her burger, which he gobbled up. ‘I haven’t read his or Serendipity’s notes.’

  ‘We need more information,’ she said. ‘Do you have a computer?’

  ‘Not on me.’

  ‘Maybe Drew can email the details to us and if we can get to a café with Internet—‘

  ‘You think he’s nuts for investigating this story, and yet, you want to investigate too?’

  ‘If you can get me to Drew then you can go back to your life.’

  ‘Jansen told me not to bring you to him,’ he said, finishing off all the food that was left on the table, including her fries. ‘It’s not safe to take you into the belly of the beast, and your brother wants to finish his work without distractions.’

  ‘You two spoke about that, but you didn’t bother to ask him about the criminality of the governor you voted for?’

  ‘I didn’t vote for him, I told you that I don’t live in Jersey,’ Ruger said. ‘Jansen is protective of this one.’

  ‘So the plan is to keep me out of it? My brother is your friend and you’re happy with that? You’re happy that he’s up there and in danger?’

  ‘They don’t want to kill him, not until after they know what he knows and where he’s stashed the evidence.’

  ‘I’m reassured,’ she said, going back to her suitcase and sorting through the clothes again. ‘You didn’t bring me anything to sleep in.’

  ‘I wasn’t going to rifle through your underwear,’ he said, sucking grease from his fingers then crossing to retrieve a tee-shirt from his suitcase. ‘Wear that.’ He tossed the tee-shirt onto the pile of clothes in her case.

  Maybe protecting her modesty had been his reason for not going through her underwear. But the truth was that she didn’t have jammies, so he would have struggled to find anything that could pass as nightwear. So she didn’t object to the tee-shirt.

  ‘I want to take a shower first,’ she said.

  ‘Ok.’ He bunched up the trash and tossed it in the can by the door.

  ‘What are you going to wear to bed?’

  Glancing down at himself, he looked up at her. ‘Do you have a preference?’

  ‘I don’t want you getting any ideas,’ she said, pointing a finger. ‘You stay on your side of the room… and keep your jeans on.’

  ‘You want me to sleep in my jeans?’
>
  ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I don’t want you stripping down and trying the old, “Oops, sorry, I slipped and fell” routine.’

  His lips quirked. ‘Happened to you a lot?’

  ‘Once,’ she said.

  ‘You must date some classy guys. What happened to Mr. Clumsy?’

  ‘He was a colleague, not a boyfriend. We were at a company conference, and he got my fist in the side of his face.’

  ‘I’m pretty steady on my feet, Layla. You’ve got nothing to worry about.’

  ‘Good,’ she said, snatching a motel towel from the end of her bed. ‘And don’t think about making an excuse to come into the bathroom while I’m in the shower either.’

  ‘I’ve got no interest in seeing you naked,’ he said, sitting on the bed to unlace and toe off his boots. ‘There’s probably pay-per-view on the TV if I need relief with a view.’ Lying back on the bed, he stretched to reach for the remote on the nightstand.

  ‘You are not going to watch porn,’ she said, marching over to snatch the remote control away from him. ‘I’m not sharing a room with a pervert.’

  ‘You think that watching porn makes a guy a pervert?’

  ‘A guy who watches porn while there’s an unfamiliar woman naked in the next room taking a shower? Yes. A guy who gets himself aroused and plays with himself while there’s a poor unsuspecting female trying to sleep in the bed beside his? Yes.’

  ‘Have you ever watched porn?’

  She didn’t really want to answer that and his mischievous smile told her he knew it. ‘Who asks a person that? We just met and you’re asking me about porn? How would you feel if a man asked your sisters-in-law that question?’

  ‘My brothers aren’t actually married, but their girlfriends would have no trouble answering that question. Lyssa makes a living asking questions like that and Bri’s sexual history is synonymous with Blaser’s, they learned everything together, I’d guess they tried porn together too. Anyway, this is about you, and you don’t look like the shy type. You look like the type who’s had a few rolls in the hay.’

  ‘Oh my god,’ she said, throwing the remote onto her bed and slamming her fists to her hips. ‘You are so insulting. Are you saying that I look like a slut?’

  ‘You know what you’re doing with men. You know how to play them.’

  ‘I do not!’ she asserted. ‘What would make you say something like that?’

  ‘You knew what you were doing when you put on that dress tonight. Your client could barely keep his tongue in his head.’

  Examining her dress, she pointed to the hem. ‘It almost reaches my knee.’

  ‘You have great legs, those speak for themselves. But they were going to be under the table all night, so you used your other assets.’ He spoke to her breasts. ‘I’m more of an ass man myself, but those babies even caught my eye, so well done.’

  ‘Don’t look at my chest,’ she said, bringing her fists back to her hips. ‘That’s a perverted thing to do when you’re alone in a motel room with your friend’s baby sister.’

  ‘I’m a red blooded male, you don’t think I looked? Doesn’t mean I’m interested in touching.’ Rolling over, he reached for the remote on the edge of her bed and flicked on the TV. ‘I’m not paying for pay-per-view anyway. I’m tired. I’ll stick to a game show or something, I promise.’

  Dropping onto the corner of her bed, she sighed. ‘Forget it.’

  ‘I thought you were going for a shower,’ he said, when she didn’t make a move for the bathroom.

  ‘I’m uncomfortable now.’

  His laugh took her off-guard, but he slid up the bed to sit on his pillows. ‘I’m really not interested in you and there’s a lock on the bathroom door. Go for your shower. I promise I won’t budge from this spot.’

  ‘You really don’t try to put a woman at ease, do you?’

  ‘I’m actually impressed that you’re being vigilant. But I jerked off this morning, so I can live without tonight.’

  Her mouth dropped open, but no breath entered her lungs. ‘You’re gross,’ she said, getting up and moving for the bathroom. ‘I hope your brothers know how gross you are and that they don’t act this way with their women.’

  ‘I don’t tend to talk to my brothers about that kind of thing, but given that they’re both having sex with their women, they probably know about each other’s masturbatory habits.’

  ‘I can’t believe that you’d speak to me this way.’

  ‘I’m an open book,’ he said.

  ‘Too open,’ she said with a scowl.

  ‘You should talk to Lyssa about your sexual neuroses when you meet her. She’ll really help you relax about it.’

  ‘I am relaxed about sex,’ she asserted and his remote-control occupied hand fell to the bed. Now she had his attention, but she didn’t want it in the way that his lowered eyes and heightened brows suggested. ‘Relaxed doesn’t mean that I’m easy.’

  ‘Never said you were,’ he said, going back to his channel surfing.

  ‘When I’m with a guy, I love sex. Lots of it. All the time,’ she said and his lips edged up, except he kept on perusing the TV channels. ‘You know exactly what I mean, you’re just trying to rile me up.’

  ‘I’m sitting here not saying a thing, Legs. Take your tantrum into the shower and let a man rest up, huh?’

  Drew had said this guy had a great sense of responsibility and while she didn’t feel threatened, she did feel a bit peeved. Regardless, she retreated into the bathroom to wash off the day. She’d need a good night’s sleep because tomorrow she was going to get answers from Ruger and more importantly, from her brother, Drew, too.

  Ruger was asleep by the time Layla got out of the shower. So much for him being there to protect her. Anyone would have walked in and delivered her to her very own Psycho shower scene because her protector was snoring as loud as a tractor—giving her prospective murderer all the audio cover he needed to commit his crime.

  Instead of waking him up and pointing all of this out to him, Layla changed into his tee-shirt, turned off the TV, and curled up in her own bed. Ruger might not be a Doberman when it came to ensuring her safety, but at least she knew he was there. As irritating as his snoring was at first, when she relaxed, she found the reminder that she wasn’t alone in this predicament to be soothing, which helped her manage to drift off to sleep.

  Ruger was out of bed, washed, and ready to leave, long before she was out of bed that morning. But he’d shaken her awake, almost literally tossed her into the shower, and then got them on the road by ten AM. They hadn’t had breakfast, and she liked to have three meals a day, so she was relieved when he said they were stopping for lunch.

  As soon as she finished her last bite, Ruger was on his feet, paying the check and rushing her out of the door again.

  ‘That lunch place was really great,’ Layla said, rooting around in her purse for a napkin. ‘How did you know about that diner?’

  ‘A sign on the highway told me about it,’ he said, concentrating on the road.

  So he hadn’t known about it before, he’d just come across it by accident. But it was a nice place. Their drive so far today had been pretty quiet, but she wasn’t a morning person and she liked to wake up in her own time. Apparently Ruger was happy to greet the day because he’d been chipper all day—annoyingly so. Only now, in early afternoon, was she beginning to feel her own buoyancy emerge.

  ‘I want to pick the next motel,’ she said, wiping her fingers. ‘How long will it take to get to Jersey anyway?’

  ‘We’re not going to Jersey,’ he said. ‘Or to another motel.’

  Layla began to click through radio stations. ‘We’re travelling north.’

  ‘There are places in a northerly direction other than New Jersey.’

  ‘Ok, where are we going then, Mr. Smarty Pants? Oh,’ she squealed, pausing on a Maria McKee song.

  Objection to the song lingered on his lips, but he rolled his eyes instead of protesting. ‘We’re going somewhere safe to
stay with people I trust.’

  ‘People? What people? Who are we going to stay with? One of your skanky exes?’

  ‘My mom,’ he said.

  Having been about to hit a high note, she gasped in and choked on her own breath, which Ruger seemed to enjoy.

  ‘Your mom? You’re taking me home to your mother?’

  ‘No one will look for you there. She lives in a small suburb in North Carolina. You and I have no history, no connection, so Ashcroft’s men will never find you in my safe place. We’ll be off the road and away from investigating eyes… we can stay there as long as I need to.’

  ‘You want us to move in with your mother? What if she thinks we’re a thing? Do you take many women home?’

  ‘My family knows some of my exes,’ he said. ‘But I have female friends too. I don’t have intimate relationships with every woman I know.’

  ‘Haven’t you heard the adage that men and women can’t be friends?’ she asked, searching in her purse again.

  ‘I’ve heard it, I don’t believe it. I’ve been friends with loads of women.’

  ‘Long-term, close friendships?’

  ‘Some women I’ve known since I was a kid,’ he said. ‘We’re not particularly close, I guess. I’m friends with the women at my brother’s club.’

  ‘And you’ve never slept with, or wanted to sleep with them?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Same age bracket?’

  ‘Some.’

  ‘I bet they wanted to sleep with you,’ she said, acquiring a brush from her bag to run it through her hair before she tied it back with the band that was around her wrist.

  ‘You think I’m so hot that women just can’t resist me? Guess it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve let a woman down gently. You’re cute as a… no, wait, you’re not cute…’

  ‘Oh thanks, Mr. Picnic.’

  ‘No, I mean cute isn’t the right word.’ He scratched his head like he was really considering what word did describe her. ‘You’ve got those legs and that sway in your hips when you walk… you’re seductive—no!’ Bolting up in his chair, he beamed at her. ‘Tantalising, that’s the word!’