His Risk to Take

“It’s been ready for you since Saturday morning.

It’s going to take me hours of f**king that tight little body of yours to satisfy it. I hope you know what you’re in for.”

She looked up at him, bold and determined. “I’m here, aren’t I?”

He growled, equally exhilarated and annoyed by the way she insisted on pushing him back. “I’m going to put you on your knees, Ruby. You’re going to hate how much you love it.”

The doors of the elevator opened, and he led her out. When they entered his apartment, he pulled her toward the bedroom, determined to have her in his bed where he’d lain awake, mentally pleasuring her for countless hours over the weekend. She followed behind him just as quickly. Then suddenly her hand tore from his, and she came to a dead stop. Confused, he turned to find her staring down at an open work file on his kitchen table, a glossy eight-by-ten photograph lying on top of several paper documents. He’d been reading through it before he left to go find her at school and forgotten to put it away. Something in her expression as she stared down at the photo sent a shot of dread through him. “What is it?”

When she answered, her voice sounded strangled.

“Why do you have this man’s picture here?”

He moved forward and gathered up the file. “It’s a case I’m working on.”

“Is that why I’m here?” She laughed without a trace of humor. “Oh my God, you’re using me.”

Her words sent alarm bells ringing in his head.

“Ruby, what the hell are you talking about?”

“Now I know why you worked so hard to find me. I must have been like a present falling into your lap when I walked into O’Hanlon’s.” Her voice shook as she turned toward the door. “God, is there one person in this city who doesn’t need me to do their dirty work?”

Troy caught up with her before her fingers even touched the knob. He brought his hands up to circle her upper arms, holding her against his chest. She seemed too stunned over her false realization to struggle. A pit formed in his stomach. He didn’t know what her words meant, but he needed to get to the bottom of them immediately. Take that look of betrayal off her face.

“Listen to me,” he said against the top of her head. “I brought you here because I badly need to be with you, no other reason. Tell me what you’re talking about.”

“I don’t believe you. I can’t believe I fell for this.

Do you know what kind of shitstorm you just landed me in?”

His anxiety spiked. “Fell for what, dammit? Explain.”

She spun around and pointed at the file. “That man. Lenny Driscol. Don’t tell me you don’t know about his connection to me. Were you going to send me in with a wire or something? I’ll never do it.”

Troy fell back a step as her words landed on him like a ton of bricks. Nowhere in the database or in any of the casework he’d done had he uncovered a connection to Ruby. Lenny Driscol had his hand in the underground gambling world, but his customers were ex-convicts, local mafia. He’d never once thought Ruby’s penchant for pool hustling placed her anywhere in his vicinity.

“Jesus. I didn’t know.” Hands on his hips, he paced away, then came right back. She still looked about two seconds from making a break for it, and he didn’t want to give her room to escape. “Do you have any idea how dangerous that man is? You think I would risk sending you anywhere near him with a wire? Ruby, I don’t even like the fact that he knows your name.”

Something else she’d said echoed through his brain.

“What do you mean I’ve landed you in a shitstorm?”

“As if you don’t know,” she scoffed. “I have to hand it to you, detective. You were extremely convincing, even if sleeping with a possible informant might be considered unethical by police standards. You give a new meaning to the phrase ‘dirty cop.’”

He’d had enough. Resting his arms on either side of her on the door, he leaned in close. “What shitstorm? I’m not going to ask again.”

She got right in his face. “The boy I was with when you picked me up from school, Bowen, is that man’s son. Bowen Driscol. Our fathers grew up together, and so did we. Lenny used to arrange cash games for me and my father. I used to work for him.”

Anxiety, powerful and swift, settled over Troy.

With a curse, he pushed off the door, away from her.

She narrowed her eyes as if his reaction surprised her, but Troy barely processed it. The repercussions of what he’d done drilled into his skull. She didn’t know it yet, but she was in far worse danger than she realized. And he’d unknowingly put her there. Without warning, scenes from the night Grant died played through his mind, reminding him of another time he’d put someone important to him in danger. He’d sworn it would never happen again, yet here he sat months later with the safety of another person on his head. His lieutenant had tasked him with putting Driscol behind bars, and today, in front of the man’s son, he’d associated himself with Ruby.

“He had a hat on. That must be why I didn’t recognize the son from Driscol’s file.” He sat heavily on a dining room chair, feeling blinded, his ears hearing only gun shots. “I need you to stay somewhere safe until this blows over.”

“You’re out of your mind.” She laughed. “No one tells me where to go.”

Troy shook his head. “You don’t understand. Over the weekend, I canvased his neighborhood, questioning his associates about his location. They all know what I look like. Now his son has seen me with you. They’ll put two and two together and think you’re working with me.” He looked up at her. Her eyes clouded over as she absorbed that piece of information. “You are in danger, and I’m going to protect you whether you like it or not.”

After a moment, in which she assessed him so closely that he felt stripped bare, she said, “You really had no idea.”

“God, no.” He stood, hating himself, the situation, and what he was about to say. “And if you’re not already convinced, I’m about to get you as far away from me as possible.”

…

Ruby watched as Troy scrolled through the contacts on his phone, presumably searching for someone who would come and stash her away for her own safety. She would never in a million years let him make a call that would threaten her freedom, but she took a moment to study him before she put an end to it. His face had gone pale, and he held the cell phone in a white-knuckled death grip. If he was acting, look out DeNiro, because they had a new Oscar-winner among them.

Was it possible that his involvement with her was a coincidence? She’d never believed in them before, but his reaction negated her logic.

Damn but she really wanted to believe him. For one, just to reassure herself she hadn’t lost her edge, letting a cop pull a fast one on her. Two, because the overwhelming attraction she felt for him hadn’t dimmed for even a second when she’d thought he was using her. She considered those feelings twice as dangerous as anything Lenny would do to her. For a few minutes there, before she’d watched his face transform with dread, she’d been hurt. A deep, twisty, achy kind of hurt that she didn’t recognize. And it sucked.