And Jax isn’t wrong about Ruin visiting every day. Two weeks have passed since our dinner with the Maysons, and Ruin has stopped in the office for randomthingsevery day at the same time. I like his visits and watch the clock relentlessly for when it’s time for him to pop in again. Still, I don’t like them making bold assumptions about the meaning of the visits. Especially when I’m still not even sure if Ruin thinks of me as anything other than his friend from when he was a kid.
“I guess I’m dumb, because I don’t know what you’re trying to get at. Either way, you’re interrupting me, and I just put the decimal in the wrong spot,” I say and growl in frustration before clearing the mistake and starting over again.
“Sorry,” Jax says.
“No, it’s fine. I’m just tired. I haven’t been sleeping well lately,” I say, which is true. I keep seeing a pair of black gloves coming at my face in my dreams. Between the gloves and the voices, I can’t seem to get enough sleep. Add my confusion about Ruin, attempting to appease my worried father, and trying to learn every aspect of my new position’s responsibilities, and it’s all taken its toll on me.
Asher and Jax linger awkwardly in silence, staring at me.
“What?” I finally ask.
“You know he has it bad for you, right?” Jax asks.
“What? No. It’s not like that,” I say, punching another invoice number into my keyboard and hitting enter.
“Yes, he does. Why else would he come around with love-sick eyes for you?” Asher remarks.
I think about the exchange from the dinner party and how I had emphasizedjustfriends. I assumed that was all that Ruin wanted. He’s been pretty hard to read, and when I can get him to let his guard down, mine goes up.
“Well, he has a backward way of showing it if he does,” I mutter.
They share a glance, and I pause my work, wondering what I am out of the loop on here.
“What now?” I chide.
They look around the office, but nobody else is present but us. Then they share another look, and as if speaking through their minds, Jax nods to Asher, who nods in return.
“So, you know about Ruin’s history, right?” Jax asks.
“I mean, I was kind of a part of it. We were kids when we met, remember?” I pile the completed invoices in one stack on my desk and then start in on another stack. The guys are sitting around the front of my cubicle, and my heart notices I’m boxed in, skipping away a thousand beats a second with my nerves.I wish they would give me a little space. Just a little space, boys.
“Well, then you know about his criminal brothers and father, right?” Asher asks.
I pause, reaching for another invoice, and pull my hand back. “Criminal brothers? What are you talking about now? His father, now that man had a temper. But I don’t remember Ruin having any brothers.” I saw one too many times how far Cooper Lautner’s temper could be stretched—and it didn’t take a lot. I wonder if his father is still alive, maybe so if the Mayson boys are talking about him.
“His brothers and father were all in the news about five years ago for embezzlement, fraud, and suspected murder. Cooper Lautner died before the sentencing, but Snake and River are still serving, last I heard,” Asher adds.
Jax leans close until his green eyes are lined up with mine. “I wager his brothers are why he is always walking around like a rain cloud is stuffed up his ass.”
“Yeah, they did something to mess him up good,” Asher says with a soft frown. “Don’t get me wrong, Ruin’s cool and we love him here, but he is always a bit doom and gloom.”
Snake and River? Did Ruin have brothers and I forgot?
“What did they do to him, you think?” I ask.
Asher and Jax shake their heads and shrug. A knock at the door interrupts us, and I glance at the clock. My heart turns over, and I lick my bottom lip. I tell the Maysons to hush and shuffle over to answer the door.
“Hey,” Ruin says with a smile. His work shirt sleeves are rolled up, revealing a splatter of ink sprawled across the underside of his forearms that I haven’t noticed before. I want to know more about the different symbols and marks, but with the Mayson boys behind me, I force myself to wait for a more appropriate time. The last thing I need to feed them is more gossip fodder.
“Hey, Ruin. What’s up?”
He looks around, noticing Jax and Asher, and nods their way.
“Sup?” Asher and Jax say in unison.
“Nothin’. Just came to—” Ruin pauses and looks around “—uh, check on my…paperwork.”
I raise a brow in question. “Paperwork?”
