Ramsey Security (Ramsey Security #1-3)(43)

"Sounds fair," Minka says, running faster on the treadmill.

"Have you ever been in love?"

"No. I keep waiting for a guy to sweep me off my feet, but it hasn't happened."

"You're beautiful," I say softly. "Confident too."

"You don't like looking in the mirror. Is that a new thing or have you always been that way?"

"New."

Minka jumps off the treadmill and stands next to me. Her nimble fingers swipe my hair from my shoulders before turning me towards the mirror.

"Don't let a sick man make you fear your own image."

Unable to look into the mirror for more than a few seconds, I turn away.

"He put me on display at his little parties. I thought I could handle it since I'd done modeling with people staring at me. I was wrong. He made me feel like an object. Even now, when people look at me, I feel like a piece of trash."

"You need to try aversion therapy. It's how I got over my fear of heights."

"Force myself to look at myself?"

"No, force yourself to let others look at you. That's the real problem, isn't it?"

When I say nothing and set down the weight, Minka steps closer.

"Want me to teach you to punch before I return to the treadmill?"

Grudgingly, I nod. She makes sure I know how to make a proper fist and then tells me to take a shot. With her palms out, she waits for me to punch one of her hands. I throw a lame punch, but she only smiles and says to try again. I aim for her left hand and punch again. This one makes a little smacking noise, and I frown.

"Too hard?"

Minka stares at me with her dark eyes, and I suspect she wants to laugh. Grumpy about her being so attractive and already knowing a million things about Troy that I'll never know, I throw another punch and then another. Minka bounces around to make the targets harder to hit. I keep up at first but get tired easily.

"I take a lot of meds," I say as an excuse for being exhausted.

"I know a guy who was tortured with electricity. He can't remember what he ate for dinner the night before and suffers from occasional seizures. Really f*cked him up, so no worries. It's not your job to beat up people."

Nodding, I feel uneasy about my fatigue especially next to a powerful, healthy woman like Minka.

"Did you know Saskia was in love when she was young? She said he died."

"That sounds like a lie."

"She told me he was a student in Germany."

"I once asked Saskia if she loved her mother. Her mom is an evil bitch, so I was curious if they did normal mom and daughter things. Anyway, Saskia told me the only person she'd ever loved in the entire world was the hot redhead in the mirror."

"So she lied to you or me?"

"Likely you."

Frowning, I wrap my hair behind my ears. Minka laughs at my expression.

"You should take it as a compliment. Did she tell you the story to make you feel better?"

"I think I was supposed to give Troy a chance and not wait for things to settle down."

"Aww, that's sweet. Saskia is never sweet to me. In fact, she steals random things from my desk at the office. No reason except to mess with me. Huh, I guess she likes you and not so much me."

"Sorry," I say, smiling behind my hand. "Likely she just pities me."

"For Saskia, that's still a compliment. She was raised to kill and torture people. Empathy isn't something she's known for."

I do take Saskia's lie as a compliment. I've never been great at making friends, mainly because I had Shelley.

Minka runs on the treadmill for another twenty minutes until a jerk bangs on the door. She doesn't even flinch at the sound.

"He's a tenant," she says casually while turning off the treadmill. "I studied all of them so that I could spot threats."

"Open the f*cking door!" he yells, tugging at the doorknob.

Minka gestures for me to follow her. She slides the chair out of the way before opening the door and blocking the man from entering.

"You yell at me again, and we'll have a problem."

The guy glares at Minka, ready to put her in her place. I don't know what he sees in her eyes, but he keeps his mouth shut. As we're walking out, I hear him muttering about it being a public gym. Minka glares back at him through the window until he notices and ducks out of sight.

"Men," Minka says, grinning.

I share her smile, but the guy's temper scared me. Minka though shrugs off his anger as if he was no more than a tantruming child. I can't imagine walking through life with such confidence. Yet when we enter the apartment and find a sleepy Troy frantically searching for us, I imagine one day finding my place in life.





32


~~~

Troy

Blood Debt

Darla works on her puzzle while I go to the spare room. Shutting the door, I search a database of numbers I have hidden online on a blog I created about cherry blossoms.

A year earlier while Minka was on vacation, I took a job for a guy in the Cayman Islands. Jeff wasn't much to look at, but he'd managed to crawl into the bed of a sexy Latina with a drug dealer husband bent on killing the interloper. He hired me to fix his problem, and I did it easily.