Page 9

CHAPTER FIVE

What the hell had he gotten himself into?

Ryden pressed his lips together and focused on the task at hand. He closed his eyes and fastened another gleaming gold button. It had been so long….

“You don’t have to do this, you know.”

“I know,” Ryden replied, appreciating Saint’s support.

He opened his eyes and met his best friend’s gaze through the mirror on the back of the wardrobe door.

“But I need to. This is who I am, and tryin’ to hide from all the fucked-up shit that happened ain’t gonna do me any good.

” Not like he could hide from it even if he wanted to.

Ryden’s life had been such a mess. If there was something lower than rock bottom, that’s where he’d been. He wasn’t going back. Not now, not ever. He’d come way too far to screw things up now.

“Did your friend know what he was asking when he approached you?” Saint asked gently.

Ryden fastened another button and sighed. “Remember that night at the tavern? I introduced y’all.”

Breathe .

“Yeah.”

“Well, we talked, and I told him everything.” It had been one of the hardest conversations of his life.

Despite years of talking about his past, telling another Marine, one he’d served with, where he’d been before ending up with the Kings had been painful, but at least the feelings of shame he’d once had were gone.

Saint nodded. “How’d he take it?”

“First, he was shocked, then pissed.”

Saint stood and shoved his hands into his suit pants pockets. “Sounds about right. They should have taken care of you. You lost your fucking eyesight and—” He shook his head. “Sorry.”

“Your rage tells me you love me,” Ryden teased, making Saint chuckle.

“Ass.”

“Anyway, we talked. He was hurt that I hadn’t asked him for help, but he understood. Hard to ask for help when you’re too proud to admit you need it.”

Looking back, Ryden would have done things so differently. But he’d been young, proud, and all kinds of messed up. But that was the past, and he’d worked hard to put it behind him so he could focus on the present and his future. Head held high, he turned. “Thanks for comin’ with me.”

“Of course,” Saint replied with a smile. He placed his hand on Ryden’s shoulder and squeezed. “Let’s do this.” Saint headed for the office door—because, holy shit, Ryden had his own office now—and Ryden followed.

Inhaling deeply through his nose and releasing it through his mouth, he stepped outside, shaking his head at the catcalls and whistles from everyone in the office. Saint had received the first round when he’d stepped out of Lucky’s office all snazzied up in his charcoal gray suit and tie.

“Damn, Marine. Look at you,” Joker said, leaning against Jay’s desk.

Ace whistled. “Looking slick, cowboy.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Ryden waved them off just as Jay walked out of King’s office.

“What’s everyone—” He gasped, his eyes going huge when he saw Ryden.

Jay shut his mouth, and the box he’d been carrying exploded, dozens of pink highlighters soaring through the air.

They bounced and rolled on the carpet in every direction.

Something told Ryden that Ace had placed another stationery order.

Whenever bright pink office supplies showed up, it was down to Ace messing with them.

“Shit.” Jay hurried to round up the highlighters, and Ryden went to help, but Jay threw a hand up. “It’s fine. I got this. You’ll get wrinkled.”

Ryden nodded but didn’t respond. Speaking of pink.

Did Jay know how flushed his cheeks were?

Not that Ryden was about to mention it. Since that day in Red’s office, they’d been tiptoeing around each other.

Ryden hated it. He’d never admit it, but he missed his little office battles with Jay.

Hell, he’d even take Jay throwing a romance novel at his head.

Instead, there was polite…civility, and it sucked.

Saint’s phone rang, and he picked up. “Hey, Kazi. We were just— what ?”

Uh oh. That didn’t sound good. Ryden turned to Saint. The tension in his friend’s stance and how he ran his hand through his hair told Ryden something had happened at the tavern. That, and the fact Kazi was calling Saint in the middle of the day.

“Okay, um.” Saint lifted his gaze to Ryden. “Kazi’s on the way to the hospital with Val.”

Suddenly, everyone was on alert, but Saint held up a hand. “Val’s okay. One of the pipes in the bathroom burst, Val slipped, caught himself at a weird angle, and might possibly have fractured or broken his arm.”

“You need to go,” Ryden said.

Saint held his phone to his ear. “One sec, Kazi.” He stepped up to Ryden, tapping the mute button on his phone. “I can’t let you go alone, man.”

“I’ll be fine,” Ryden promised. “If it gets to be too much, I’ll leave after my duties are over. Your man needs you. Go .”

“Duties?” Jay asked, coming to stand beside them. He looked concerned. Probably worried about Val.

“My buddy’s gettin’ married. I’m in the Sword Arch. I’m also the one who gets to tap the bride on the butt with my sword, so I gotta be there.”

“Oh.” Jay nodded.

“Go,” Ryden told Saint. “I’ll be fine. Tell Val he owes me a burger and a beer.”

Saint chuckled. “You got it.” He patted Ryden’s arm and squeezed it. “You got this.” With that, he hurried off.

“Why doesn’t he want you to go alone?” Jay asked.

Lucky stepped up to Ryden, his voice quiet. “I got your back if you need me, bro.”

Despite the flan incident that Ryden would never live down and Lucky was sure to get retribution for, Lucky was still a brother to him, and Ryden appreciated his offer.

“Thanks, Lucky,” Ryden replied, shaking his head.

“But you got a big client meeting today. I can’t let ya miss that.

” Letting out a heavy sigh, Ryden turned to Jay.

“It’s a Marine wedding. The groom is one of the fellas I served with.

Saint was my plus one for, um, support.” His hand went instinctively to his sword.

“It’s been a while. There are gonna be other Marines there.

” He smiled. “It’s fine. I’m good. I better get going. ’Scuse me.” He stepped around Jay.

“I’ll go.”

Ryden stilled. Had he… No. That couldn’t be right. He turned and cocked his head to one side. “I’m sorry?”

“I said I’ll go. As your plus one. For support.”

Jay? His support ? Since when? “Why?”

Clearly, that had been the wrong answer.

Jay folded his arms over his chest and arched an eyebrow at him. “It was a genuine offer, but if you don’t want me to go, just say so.”

After months of rivalry, a kiss Jay refused to acknowledge, and an awkward truce, Jay wanted to go with him to a wedding as support. Support for him . What was happening right now? Jay opened his mouth, and Ryden quickly spoke up.

“Okay. Seein’ as how we match and all.”

“What?” Jay looked down at his blue vest and pants with the thin red plaid lines. His bow tie was also red. “Well, damn.” His head shot up. “Totally unintentional.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure you weren’t expectin’ me to bust out my dress blues today. Shall we go?”

“Hold on.” Jay removed his phone from his pocket and, with lightning-fast fingers, typed away at his screen. A heartbeat later, he put his phone away. “Sorry, had to send out a company email and turn on my out-of-office message.”

“You did all that in the two seconds you were typin’ on your phone?”

“Yep. Let’s go. I’m driving.” Jay hurried off toward the elevator, and Ryden quickly followed.

“I can drive. The venue is less than five minutes from here.”

“First of all, you seem to forget where we work.” Jay pressed the elevator button, and the doors slid open.

“Five minutes can turn into half an hour the second a tourist takes a wrong turn. Second, you’re not dressing like that and stepping out of a pickup truck.

No offense to your truck. It’s a very nice truck, but you need to show up in something a little more… snazzy.”

Snazzy. Consider his interest piqued.

Ryden frowned as he followed Jay out of the elevator and the building toward the parking lot.

“Since when is your Toyota snazzy?” Jay’s little smirk should have told him something was up.

It also drew Ryden’s attention to those full, pink lips.

Lips that had tasted so fucking good. Ryden had seen a lot of pretty guys over the years, but there was something about Jay, a delicateness that was at odds with his fierce personality. Then, a flash of red caught his eye.

“Holy shit. This is your car?”

Whatever Ryden had expected, it wasn’t the sleek red sports car Jay approached. When Jay traded his Mini Cooper for a Toyota a few months ago, Ryden had pictured a Corolla or Camry in a cute, bright model and color. Not…this.

“Okay, I knew King paid you hella good. I didn’t think he paid you Audi RS3 good.” Then again, Jay was invaluable to King. He wasn’t just the man’s Executive Assistant. Jay did so much more at Four Kings Security than most people knew.

Jay tapped his smartwatch, and the car engine started.

“You can drive this?” Ryden asked, looking the car over. He winced at Jay’s unimpressed expression. Oops.

“No. I bought a car I couldn’t drive. It’s here so someone else can chauffeur me around.”

Ask a ridiculous question and get a snarky answer.

Ryden cleared his throat. “Right. Sorry.” One of these days, he’d stop sticking his foot in it. Today was not that day. He opened the passenger side door and slipped inside. Damn, this was nice. He inhaled deeply. Still had that new car smell.

Jay climbed in behind the wheel, and Ryden forced himself to look forward.

It wasn’t the first time Jay wore a preppy matching vest and pants combo with one of his stupid little bow ties.

And it wasn’t like his clothes had never hugged his body before, as if they’d been tailored for his petite frame.

The white dress shirt had quarter-length sleeves, the cuffs stopping at his elbows.

Actually, today’s outfit was a little dressier than usual.

“How come you’re all gussied up today?”