Lyssa was Suzette’s best friend, so it was no leap that she knew about this mysterious man in Suzette’s life. Lyssa and Bri were going to be family and Ivy was Bri’s best friend, so word must have gotten around the female network.
‘Bri knows?’ Blaser asked.
Surprised that Bri hadn’t confessed all to Blaser, Ruger continued the questioning. ‘Who is he?’
‘If you’re jealous then—‘
Ruger caught the back of her chair and held it so that she couldn’t sneak away again. Leaning over her, he was intent on getting answers now. ‘Oh no, you’re not going to use that play. Every man who knows Suzette knows how… high maintenance she can be.’ Suzette was a good-looking woman, but Ruger preferred his women to be a little less needy.
‘Obviously some men are into that,’ Ivy said.
‘Where did she meet him?’ Blaser asked.
‘How long has it been going on?’ Ruger asked, wondering why Suzette hadn’t asked this new boyfriend for kindness instead of relying on his. Then a thought struck him. ‘Have they been doing it in my place?’ In his bed was more what perturbed him, but he didn’t want to go there.
‘I’ll say,’ Ivy said. ‘Sometimes I think she’s trying to out-do Dax and me. But I don’t think the guy likes that idea. They do it at his a lot too.’
‘How would you know how often they have sex at her boyfriend’s place?’
‘I think that if you want to know about Suzette’s love life, you should ask her,’ Ivy said.
‘You can’t stand each other,’ Blaser said. ‘Don’t pretend to protect her now, Ive, come on, tell us. You told Bri so—‘
‘Bri figured it out for herself,’ Ivy said. ‘She shares a wall with Suzette too.’
Bri was in the first apartment on the upper floor of the apartment building, Suzette was next door, and Ivy shared the third apartment along with her husband, Dax. If Ivy and Bri found out by overhearing what Suzette was up to in her apartment, Ruger’s connect the dots of the flow of knowledge through the women hadn’t been too accurate.
‘She did?’ Blaser asked.
‘Yeah, she figured it out while Dax and I were away in California. She’s probably known about it the longest. Though I guess Suzette probably told Lyssa before the rest of us knew.’
‘I don’t have time for this,’ Ruger said and flipped around to look at Blaser. ‘I have to get on the road. Just look after Layla, ok? Talk to Bri and if she will give you up then I’d appreciate it if you’d stay over at Mom’s just while I’m away.’
‘If something goes down over there, I can’t look after Mom and Layla alone.’
‘Dad is still capable,’ Ruger said. ‘Once I get the story from Drew I’ll be in touch and if I think there’s any real chance of danger coming your way, I’ll clue you in.’
Psyching himself up to head out on the road without Layla, Ruger spun around, but Ivy caught his arm. ‘Dax and I will watch Blaser’s back. We’ll keep her safe.’
‘Thanks,’ Ruger said and left the garage to get on with his to-do list.
He didn’t know much about Ivy, and he already knew she could be a vixen, but he knew Dax was capable because he’d saved Blaser’s life at least once. Telling himself that Layla would be safe, he started to dial Lyssa because she was next on his list. Ruger couldn’t shake the discomfort he felt at not being by Layla’s side when she could need him, but taking her with him was just too risky.
Chapter Eleven
Layla had been drinking tea on the back patio with Prudence and Lyssa when Lyssa’s phone rang. She hadn’t seen Ruger since he dropped her off here this morning and she was uneasy about the phone call that he’d received from Drew.
Under Ruger’s advisement, she didn’t use any of the phones in the Warner house to try and call Drew, but she really wanted to see Ruger soon to get the full story. Trusting that he would come to her as soon as she could, she was surprised to learn that he was the one who had called Lyssa.
Lyssa left the table and walked to the back of the yard to talk to him, and once again, Layla felt left out. She didn’t want to be in the dark about any danger that could be encroaching and she was worried that Ruger and Drew were keeping things from her. They might think that they were protecting her, but she didn’t feel protected, she just felt excluded and that encouraged feelings of vulnerability.
‘Ruger is always going at a thousand miles a minute,’ Pru said, topping off each of the glasses. ‘He’s very dedicated.’
Layla wouldn’t ask Pru any questions about what she thought that Ruger did, because she was afraid the search for answers would only lead to more questions. ‘He is,’ Layla said.
‘Did you enjoy your night away?’ Pru asked.
‘Yes,’ Layla said, sitting forward to sip from her glass.
‘He does go away a lot. Too much. But I think he’s ready to settle down.’
Pru made no secret of the smile that was asking Layla if she was ready to settle down too. But after only one night together, she couldn’t reach any conclusions about where her relationship with Ruger was going to go.
‘He mentioned a change in his career path,’ Layla said, hoping that she wasn’t revealing any secrets.
‘Ruger isn’t afraid of change. He never has been. He adapts to whatever the situation calls for. You said that you were between jobs at the moment?’
Mandy had left a voicemail telling her that her employment was terminated, but Layla couldn’t argue with that decision. She had flounced off in the middle of a meeting with a handsome man who stole her away. Layla couldn’t blame Mandy for thinking she was flaky.
‘I move around a lot,’ Layla said. She had already told Pru that she had travelled the country after her mother died. Pru was easy to talk to, but had a clear agenda which Layla was hesitant to encourage. ‘I think that I’ll spend some time with my brother soon.’
If he would have her, then she would go to see Drew and Serendipity once this Ashcroft case was over. Talking to Ruger about her past and about how her mother’s death affected her, she was ready to discuss it with Drew and find out just how it had affected him. If they could both be honest, Layla hoped that they would be brought closer by the truths, as difficult as they may be to tell.
‘He’s in Atlantic City, is that right?’
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘For now anyway.’
‘Family’s important. I think you can see that we value it here.’
‘Yes.’
‘Sorry to interrupt,’ Lyssa said, coming back to the table with a more solemn expression than she’d left with, clutching her cell phone to her chest. ‘Can I borrow Layla for a moment?’
‘I’ll leave you two alone to talk,’ Pru said, rising with her glass in hand and retrieving the jug of iced-tea. ‘Come into the house when you’re ready.’
‘Ruger is coming over,’ Lyssa said as Pru retreated toward the house. ‘But he won’t be staying long.’
‘Ok,’ Pru said and disappeared into the building.
Lyssa came to Layla’s side and sat down to take her hand. ‘You need to go upstairs and pack a bag. Do you have many things here?’
‘Pack a bag, why?’
‘You have to come and stay with Colt and me for a few days.’
‘Why?’ Layla asked, snatching her hand back. ‘What’s going on?’
‘I don’t know the details, but you don’t have to worry, we have plenty of space for you. Blaser will be staying as well.’
Layla didn’t trust the doctor’s expression of calm because she could see the quake of concern beneath. ‘Why would Blaser come and stay with you? What about Bri?’
‘She and Blaser don’t live together. She will probably visit him. But don’t worry, it will just be for a couple of days.’
And then what? Layla didn’t like all of this mysterious behaviour. She would be the first to admit that she didn’t know everyone in the Warner family very well because she hadn’t been around them for long. But she could tell when someone wasn�
�t giving her the full story.
‘You all know, don’t you?’ Layla asked.
Ruger hadn’t told his mother the truth and so Layla had assumed that his brothers and their partners didn’t know it all either. It turned out that she had been working on a false assumption.
‘Know?’ Lyssa asked.
‘About Drew, about what he’s into?’
‘No,’ Lyssa said, putting her cell phone onto the metal table and dragging her chair closer. ‘All I know is that Ruger has to go out of town for a couple of days and that he’s concerned for your safety.’
‘Why should I believe you?’
‘Because what I do requires trust and I know that trust is rooted in honesty,’ Lyssa said. ‘I do know that what he’s doing is connected to what happened to Bri last year. I have been helping Bri work through some of her trauma. I can’t break her confidentiality with the details I know about that. Colt hasn’t told me everything about your connection. He’s been working another case and we haven’t seen much of each other this week. I will say that the brothers have had a bit of an… awakening recently. It’s meant that honesty has become more crucial in their relationship. So the chances are that Colt and Blaser know all of the details.’
That came across as honest. Lyssa didn’t have to offer any more information beyond her initial statement, yet she had. ‘There’s no reason for you to be endangered because of my problems.’
‘Don’t worry about that,’ Lyssa said, wearing an encouraging smile. ‘Colt won’t let anything happen to you. He won’t let anything happen to me. Ruger went to Blaser for help because he knows that this debt they owe is shouldered by both of them.’
Layla had been so caught up in her flirtation with Ruger that she had lost track of this frequently referred to debt. For a time she had almost forgotten about the trouble Drew was in too. Until now it had seemed so far away, but it seemed to be creeping closer and whatever Ruger was going to do, Layla wanted to be a part of it. She didn’t want to run and hide, to leave all of the danger to Drew and to Ruger.
‘You said that Ruger’s coming here?’
‘Yes.’
‘I’ll go and pack.’
Letting the doctor believe that it was her intention to pack and do as Ruger had ordered, Layla went up the stairs and began to pack up all of the possessions she had here. With her new possessions, it was quite a tight squeeze, but she got everything in and as she was finishing up, she heard the sound of a vehicle in the driveway.
Peeking out of her bedroom window, she saw Ruger exit his truck and head down the path toward the back door with purpose in his stride. If he wanted to get on the road to get on with whatever he had to do, then she doubted he would linger long with his mother.
So Layla sat on the bed beside her suitcase, which was packed and standing on the floor, ready to go. Sure enough, she heard his approaching gait less than a minute later and then her bedroom door opened.
‘Are you ready to leave?’ he asked, not coming further into the room.
‘Where are we going?’
‘Lyssa said that she told you,’ he said, leaving the door to take another step toward her. ‘You have to go and stay with her and Colt this week.’
‘This week? I thought it was only going to take a couple of days.’
‘I don’t know how long it will take. I hope it will only be two days, three at the most.’
‘What is going on?’ she asked, getting to her feet. ‘I’m not a pinball you can just bounce from one relative to another whenever it suits you.’
‘Hey, I said to Blaser that he should come and look after you here. It was Lyssa who suggested her place. I’m just trying to make sure that you are comfortable and safe.’
‘Great, then take me with you.’
‘No.’ There wasn’t any indication of wiggle room in that response. He didn’t smile, he didn’t err, and his expression came over all stony when he got closer. ‘I am not taking any risks. I told Jansen I would keep you alive and that is what I intend to do. His first condition was that I not bring you anywhere near him.’
‘You’re going to see Drew?’ The anger she had been compacting in preparation to release it in a torrent, instead bled away in the blaze of hope that fired at the notion of seeing her brother. ‘Please let me come with you. I want to see him.’
‘No,’ he said again.
Rushing into his arms, she tried to will him to change his mind. ‘How would you feel if one of your brothers was in trouble, wouldn’t you want to help?’
‘You can’t help,’ Ruger said. ‘And I’m only going to see him for long enough to get some information. I’m not hanging around there. I’ve got somewhere to be.’
‘Tell me what’s going on, Ruger. I’m not going to let you walk away from me without any idea if you’ll come back.’
‘What I’m going to do isn’t dangerous,’ he said, but his exhale betrayed that she’d wheedled her way into his psyche a little. ‘I’m going to do what I do. I’m going to collect goods and take them to a buyer, that’s it.’
‘I thought your days as a fence were over,’ she said. ‘You told me that—‘
‘This isn’t work… it’s personal, ok?’
‘What’s the big secret? What is this debt that you owe Drew? I deserve to know.’
‘The debt doesn’t matter.’
‘It does. It’s what motivates you, and Lyssa seems to think that Blaser is as invested in this as you are.’
‘He is,’ Ruger said then faltered. ‘He was.’
‘Was? What changed?’
‘I started to fall for you, that’s what,’ he said, pulling her near. ‘I told Drew I would look after you because I wanted to repay what he did for someone I care about.’
‘Care about… like a woman?’
‘Yes, she’s a woman, but not my woman. She’s Blaser’s woman.’
‘Bri?’ He nodded. ‘What happened to her?’
‘It’s a long story, but Jansen pulled her out of a sticky spot. We owe her life to your brother.’
‘So now you want to repay that by saving mine?’
‘I’m not going to have to save yours, ok? No one is going to get near enough to jeopardise you. I want you to stay with Colt and Blaser because they’re smart guys who know what it’s like to care for a woman. They’ll protect you with their lives.’
‘I thought I wasn’t going to have to be saved,’ she said, resigning herself to the truth that this man was going to hold onto his secrets. ‘Will you tell Drew that I love him?’
‘I will,’ Ruger said. Pressing a hand to the back of her head, he forced her to rest her head on his chest. ‘I’m sorry that I don’t have time to tell you everything, and I promise I’ll stop shuttling you around as soon as I get back.’
‘You can’t promise that. Not until you have your own place.’
‘We’ll figure something out. Last night won’t be the only night we have.’
The idea that he might not come back, that something could happen to him before they had the chance to find out what was between them made her squeeze her eyes closed. ‘You better come back to me, Ruge. If you’re not back in three days I’m going to come and find you, and if you’re dead—‘
‘I won’t be dead,’ he said, laughing and sweeping her hair aside when she leaned back. ‘I’m just going to drop off some things to our friends. They’re friends who have been there for all of us before, I won’t leave them high and dry.’
‘You owe a lot of people favours, Ruger,’ she said. ‘Will you be repaying debts for the rest of your life?’
‘No, this is it,’ he said, kissing her. ‘I promise that once this whole mess with your brother is fixed up, you’ll have me all to yourself.’
‘All to myself… maybe by then I’ll have been plucked off the street by another handsome stranger, one who would take me to a karaoke bar.’
‘If karaoke is what it takes to be with you then I guess I’ll have to find it in my heart.’
&
nbsp; ‘You want to be with me?’ she asked.
Rushing him on the language score this morning had seemed hasty in light of her own indecision. Now she feared that they didn’t have the time to mess around and if this did end up being the last time she saw him, she didn’t want to always wonder how he felt.
‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘Last night was just the beginning.’
Chapter Twelve
He had never been one for long goodbyes. Ruger was used to being on the road and when it came time to leave his family behind he liked to slip out quietly. But kissing Layla goodbye had felt different. Walking away from a woman he’d spent the night with had never felt so wrong.
The promises he’d made about this being the beginning were all true and he knew in his heart that Layla wasn’t like other women he’d been with. But getting involved with the woman he was supposed to be protecting for a man he respected, that should be wrong.
Jansen hadn’t been the one to meet him when he arrived in Atlantic City last night. Serendipity had answered his phone and had agreed to meet Ruger in a diner. The brief meeting was enough to let Ruger know that Jansen was safe for now, but close to something that Ashcroft didn’t want him to know. Serendipity hadn’t elaborated. She hadn’t had the time because she was going to meet Jansen.
The couple were running out of friends and the attractive woman who sat opposite him had dull brown hair that didn’t appear to be natural but was as non-descript as her clothes and make-up free face. This was a person trying to blend into the background and with her beauty that was quite a difficult feat.
After passing on Layla’s message to Serendipity, Ruger had escorted her to her car and then went back to his own. Choosing to drive for an hour before stopping, he found a motel and slept the night away with thoughts of Layla chasing him.
His first thought when he woke up in the motel was Layla. She remained in his thoughts through breakfast and the drive he embarked on after leaving the motel. It didn’t seem to matter that it was just yesterday when he’d last seen her.
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