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I honestly don’t understand why everyone has such a problem with Ruin. My sister, even Eden who has been one of them all her life.
“Not like that,” Veronica says and sits down on the armrest of the small pink love seat by the window. “Ruin keeps a tally of all the men he’s killed by tattooing notches into his arm. He’s proud of what he does. Of killing.”
She shudders.
“Oh, is that what those are?” I say. “I was wondering… “
Not really though. That might be what he is. But it’s not who he is. I don’t think I can explain that to her either. She doesn’t want to hear me. She just wants to make sure I’m safe. Smothered by it, if need be. They all want that.
“Where did he take you?” she asks. “What if something happened to you there? “
She shudders again.
I take my jacket off and toss it next to her on the love seat, sending dirt and needles flying.
“You just said he’s a psycho killer,” I say. “What could possibly happen to me with a guy like that?”
Her head snaps up, eyes wide in shocked surprise.
“Look, I like him, OK?” I say. “I don’t know where it’s going or when it happened, but he makes me feel safe and understood and I haven’t had that in a very long time.”
“I just want the best for you,” she says, her eyes turning sad.
I didn’t mean to hurt her. I’m just no good at keeping my mouth in check now that I’ve let out my biggest demons.
I sit next to her, atop my jacket and lay my hand on her arm. “Look, Nic, I need this right now. I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, and I don’t blame you for anything and I never have. But please stop trying to stand in my way with Ruin. I’ll blame you for that.”
I have no idea where that came from and clearly neither does she, because she looks even more shocked than she did before. But I know she was thinking of ways to keep us apart. She’s been doing it for a while, if I correctly read the stuff between the lines of what Ruin said to me by the fire. And I think I did. She’s tried to keep him away from me and she failed. Thank God.
She places her hand over mine on her arm and smiles at me. “You’re really serious about this, aren’t you?”
I nod.
“OK, I’ll stop butting in,” she says. “But you have to promise me you’ll stay safe.”
I laugh. “No one wants to stay safe as much as I do. At least from getting trafficked again. As for everything else… I want to live, Nic. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life hiding from the world in my parents’ guest house and worrying about how much everyone worries about me.”
She laughs too. “I guess we have been keeping a very close watch on you.”
“That’s an understatement, but yeah.”
She takes her hand off mine and wraps her arm around my shoulders. “All right, it’s a deal. I’ll back off.”
“Good,” I say, give her a quick hug then stand up.
“Now I really need a shower and a nap,” I say. “But maybe we could hit the town tonight, catch up and have some fun.”
Ruin said he’d try to see me at some point before dawn tonight, but he didn’t sound too sure he’d be able to. I hope he’s wrong. But in the meantime, it’s time my sister and me became just sisters again, and not victim and protector like we’ve been for the past couple of years. I have a new protector now. The last one I’ll ever need.
25
Ruin
Cross and the rest of the brothers returned from the job in Texas late last night and I was summoned to a morning meeting to discuss mine and Edge’s progress with Joker and the three supposed snitches. I hope I’m gonna find out that the entire job was just a decoy sort of thing and not important. Because the way I left things with Joker last night makes me wary of going back there. He has at least ten guys watching his back at the inn and who knows how many more behind him. And I disrespected him bad last night.
Edge said it was pretty quiet at the bar after I left, and Joker cleared out soon after midnight. He hasn’t been back yet.
After I dropped Ariel off at her car then followed her home to make sure she made it all right, I had just enough time to stop by the clubhouse to shower and change. I didn’t want to wash her scent off me, but with the way things played out last night, I’ll get plenty more chances to have it all over me, I’m sure.
