Riskier Business (Crossing the Line 0.5)(25)

Ruby wasn’t fooled by her mother’s seeming nonchalance. She recognized the blasé attitude Mya was using to camouflage her true feelings. Underneath all of it lay vulnerability. A fear of rejection. If she hadn’t been concerned about Ruby’s reaction to her sudden reappearance, she would have simply approached her, without any of the false pretense. As if reading her thoughts, Mya looked away.

“Why now?”

Mya looked up at the ceiling as if searching for an answer. “I left because I wanted to see the world outside of Brooklyn. At some point, it stopped being about discovering myself and more about avoiding. I cut the bullshit and came back.” Her throat worked. “I thought about you all the time. Figured I’d come see what you were up to.”

“You should have told me who you were. I don’t like being played, Mya.”

“Pamela.” Her mother held up a hand. “And you’re right. I’d be angry, too.” She glanced around at the apartment. “It’s just…look how well you’re doing for yourself. Running your own business. Living on the Upper East Side with your hot boyfriend—”

“Seriously.”

Pamela lifted an eyebrow. “Just stating the obvious.”

“State less of it.” Ruby elbowed Troy again when laughter rumbled in his chest.

“Fine,” she relented with a small smile. “Anyway, it didn’t feel right to disrupt your happy life.”

“It’s happy now.” Ruby swallowed hard, surprised to feel tears gathering in her eyes for the second time that night. “It hasn’t always been this way. Far from it.”

Finally, Pamela’s careful control slipped, a flash of anguish crossing her face. “I know. I’m sorry.”

Ruby nodded, suddenly wanting to flee the living room and the entire emotionally draining scene. She appeased herself by changing the subject. Someday they would get into those childhood years she’d spent living in dingy motel rooms or ducking down in the backseat of Jim’s car in case of gunfire. Not tonight, though. It was too soon. Something else weighed on her mind just then. “So should I assume the money you invested in my business was stolen from my father?”

Pamela fell back against her chair with a shaky sigh. “Only a portion. Most of it was mine, though. You’d be surprised what you save on rent when you work as a roadie nine months out of the year.”

A roadie. Of course she’d been a roadie. “If given the choice, I never would have touched a dime of Jim’s money.”

Her mother studied her closely. “I still have most of the money. Maybe deep down, I didn’t want to touch it, either.”

Ruby didn’t respond to that. She hadn’t had enough time to process what she wanted to do about her business being built, even partially, on a foundation of illegal cash. “Whatever you saw must have been pretty bad if he wants to kill you for simply showing your face back here. What—”

Troy stiffened behind her, and Pamela shook her head adamantly. “It’s safer if you don’t know.”

Her boyfriend’s body deflated and once again she felt staggered by his protectiveness. “You know, if it wasn’t for Troy, there’s a strong possibility Jim might have already gotten to you.”

Pamela bit her lip and nodded at Troy. “I realize that. Thank you, Troy.”

Troy acknowledged her gratitude with a nod that bumped his chin into Ruby’s shoulder. A sudden wave of love for him almost toppled her. She knew he felt it, too, when he squeezed her hand and brought it up to his mouth.

“I also know you did it for my daughter. No other reason.”

“It’s the only one I’ll ever need,” he answered steadily.

Pamela laughed to herself. “Good Lord, I wish I’d had your taste in men when it was young enough to matter.”

Her mother’s comment brought the memory of her father’s words back to her then. Besides sleeping with my best friend at the time and taking off with one hundred thousand dollars of my hard-earned money? Obviously she’d only gotten half the story, but tomorrow would be soon enough to find out the rest. She’d learned more than enough tonight already, and frankly, she wasn’t quite ready to open a discussion about her mother two-timing her father. Right now, she wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed with Troy and let him soothe away her father’s betrayal, her mother’s lying to her about her identity for months…all of it.

“I know how lucky I am.” Ruby stood and pulled Troy to his feet, stifling a shiver when his full height caused him to look down at her from a good six inches above. With difficulty, she looked back at her mother. “Can we talk more in the morning?”

Pamela gave a half smile. “It’s not as if I can go anywhere.”

Ruby nodded stiffly, not remotely ready to let her mother off the hook by sharing the joke, then led Troy from the room. At the end of the hallway, she pulled him into their bedroom and locked the door. When he looked at her through concerned blue eyes, every thought fled her mind but him. She’d rejected his help this week, pushed him away, yet here he was, standing strong enough for them both. He’d kept the promise he’d made all those months ago. I’m not going anywhere. I’ll never get more than a block away.

Their nights apart suddenly felt like an unforgivable sin. How had she survived even one night without his arms wrapped around her, his breath even and sure against her neck? His hard body moving over her in the mornings, hot and demanding. Rough hands shoving her legs apart. Mouth growling filthy words against her ear as he pumped his hips faster and faster.