Riskier Business (Crossing the Line 0.5)(23)

Before she’d fully straightened from the table, Ruby felt Troy move in behind her, one hand coming to rest on her hip. Under the pretense of kissing her neck, he whispered in her ear. “No matter what happens, stay calm.”

Maintaining her practiced poker face, she nodded absently and began to unscrew her stick.

“She beat you fair and square, Robert.” Jim cocked a hip against the pool table. “Give me what I came for.”

Ruby narrowed her gaze. “Don’t you mean, what we came for?”

A shadow crossed Jim’s face as he shrugged. “Sure.”

She’d known it all along, that her father had an ulterior motive, but having it confirmed felt like a slap in the face. Quickly, she ducked her head to hide the embarrassing tears that sprang to her eyes, grateful for Troy’s comforting presence at her back.

Robert hadn’t yet responded to Jim, so he prompted him again. “So, tell me. Where can I find my infamous ex-girlfriend, Pamela Bell?”

A manila file folder slapped down in the center of the pool table, presumably with her mother’s whereabouts inside. Ruby’s eyes shot wide when some of the documents spilled out, including an old, grainy photograph. Jim snatched up the papers immediately, but not before she’d seen the smiling picture of her mother staring back at her. Denial hit her quickly. What she’d seen had to have been a mistake. But on the heels of her denial came the resounding reminder that nothing, nothing is a coincidence.

Mya Hicks. Her coworker, investor, friend…was her mother?

Momentarily, her deafening heartbeat drowned out the loud conversation taking place around her, but Troy’s steady hand squeezing her hip brought her back to earth. Needing him to steady her, Ruby leaned back against his hard chest for balance. Sliding a possessive arm around her midsection, he gave her some much-needed support. No matter what happens, stay calm, he’d said. Ruby took a deep breath and slid her cue into its leather carrying case.

“So, Jim. Are you going to share my mother’s information with me or am I wasting my breath?”

Across the table, Robert laughed incredulously, apparently recovered from his loss. “Is that what he told you? That he’d share?” He shook his head. “No, Jim has a score to settle with my crazy-ass sister. If you think he’ll let anything get in the way of that, you don’t know your father very well.”

Upon hearing Mya was in trouble, Ruby struggled to keep her features schooled. They needed to get out of there and warn her right away. She could sort through her feelings and figure out the rest later. First step? Don’t be obvious. “No, I’d say I know him better than anyone,” she said quietly, slinging her pool cue over her shoulder. “What did she do to you?”

Jim tapped the file against his thigh, considering her through an unreadable mask. “Besides sleeping with my best friend at the time and taking off with one hundred thousand dollars of my hard-earned money?” He shrugged his broad shoulders. “Without going into details, she saw something she wasn’t meant to see. You can use your imagination. Being the agreeable man that I am, I told her to get out of town and never show her face here again or we’d have a problem. Funny, I never mentioned cleaning out my bank account as a bon voyage gift.”

Ruby absorbed that as calmly as possible, but her mind caught on one confusing detail. She frowned. “But, your best friend—”

“Let’s get her out of here,” Bowen said abruptly, coming up beside her and Troy.

Troy took her hand. “My thoughts exactly.”





Chapter Eight


Keeping Ruby sandwiched between them, Troy and Bowen led her from Mancuso’s. Troy kept a steady eye on Robert’s group of friends as they passed, baring his teeth when one of them looked at Ruby’s ass and groaned theatrically. The entire time she’d been playing the match, hell, since the moment they’d arrived, he’d wanted nothing more than to wipe the lecherous expressions from their faces. The telltale bulge of their concealed weapons had forced him to keep a level head, not easy where Ruby and ogling men were concerned, but the thought of her anywhere near gunfire had forced him to remain calm.

Until he’d received the text message from Daniel, and he’d been forced to use their obscene behavior as a way to get Ruby out of the bar. Not that it had worked.

As soon as they cleared the exit, putting the three of them alone in the alley, Ruby tried to pull away from him, obviously intending to run for his car. “We have to hurry. She’s…it’s Mya. I know where she is. I know—”

Troy grabbed her wrist and stopped her. “So do I. She’s at our apartment.”

“What?” She and Bowen asked simultaneously.

He divided a glance between them. “As always, your faith in my police work is humbling.” Hesitant relief transformed Ruby’s worried look, tension ebbing from her body as he spoke. “We’ve been working on locating her for days. Right before you took those last three shots, Daniel texted me that they’d found her. He explained everything to her and she’s been taken to our place. She’s out of Jim’s reach. For now. We’ll need to—”

Ruby threw herself into his arms. “Thank you,” she whispered into his ear.

He squeezed her tight. “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you, Ruby. You know that.”