Page 9 of Dirty Ruck (Ruck Boys #5)

Chapter Nine

Chelsea

"She was what?" Storm demanded, glaring at Dallas. He whipped around and stared at me. "You were what?"

"It wasn't that long," I argued.

I wasn't intimidated by him, and his anger was more than a bit of a turn on, but I didn't want him to be furious with me. With everything that was going on, we needed to be united. Not barking at each other.

Besides, my brother's suggestion he might lock me up wasn't an idle threat. If Ice knew, he'd lose his mind.

Between all of them, they'd take overprotectiveness to a whole new level.

"You. Were. Alone?" He placed his hands on his hips and let his jaw jut out.

I kept my hands behind my back to keep from mimicking his posture. He was in enough of a mood without thinking I was mocking him.

"It was for a handful of minutes and I was at work. Nothing happened. I was perfectly safe."

"You were going to throw a laptop at Dallas," he stated.

Frost snorted. When Storm rounded on him, he raised his hands. "What? You have to admit the idea of throwing a computer at someone is badass. It would have hurt, and given her time to run. I think it's fucking brilliant." He nodded to me.

I nodded back. "Thanks, I thought so too. Not to mention the infirmary is equipped with other kinds of weapons. I could have hit him with an IV pole."

"No thanks," Dallas said, from where he stood in the corner, leaning against the wall. "And thank you for not throwing a scalpel at my head. That could have hurt. "

"It wouldn't have hurt for long," Jay said.

When we all turned to look at him, he mimed getting a knife in the forehead.

He fell back against the couch cushions, legs spread, one arm flung out to the side.

For added drama, he stuck out his tongue to the side, lolling, as if people actually died like that.

"That's what I was worried about," Dallas said. "I have a feeling Chelsea knows how to throw a sharp implement."

"I did learn how," I admitted. "But I've never thrown one at a person before."

"First of all, that's hot," Frost said. "Second, there's a first time for everything."

"Yeah, but not my head." Dallas placed his hand over his forehead as if to protect himself from the imminent danger of flying objects.

"I think you're all missing the point." Storm glared at them.

"So to speak," Frost interjected. He grinned when Storm raised his eyebrows at him to stop joking around.

"The point is," Storm continued, "Chelsea was alone and she's not supposed to be alone." He turned back to me. "You should have waited downstairs for one of us. We could have stayed with you. We would have taken turns showering."

"She could have shared my shower," Frost said.

"Or mine,” Storm said. “The point is, you put yourself at risk and something could have happened to you. It didn't, but what about the next time? Or the time after that?" He lowered his hands to his sides, but his body was still rigid.

"It's not like I went off alone," I said.

"I was at work, in a busy place. You know there's usually other people there.

What was I supposed to do? It would have looked strange if I went back downstairs again.

Doctor Stuart and Skinner had things under control.

I couldn't insist on helping when they didn't need it.

I had a job to do and I did it." I wasn't going to apologise for it.

Not when behaving differently might have cast suspicion on me.

"I don't care if you have to hide out in the locker room, or shower with one of us," Storm said. "You are not to be alone. Understood?" He glared at me.

I wanted to argue with him, to remind him I was an independent, mature adult.

Instead, I sighed. "I didn't want to be there by myself.

It used to be a comfortable space. After what happened to Sadie, it gives me the creeps.

If I wasn't alone, I might have been with Otis Skinner, and that could have been worse. Or Dominic King. We still can’t be sure they weren't behind whoever came after me. "

They might be waiting for an opportunity to deal with me personally. That idea didn't reassure me. A laptop wouldn't be much use against a gun.

"No, we can't." Atlas leaned against the kitchen island, holding a bottle of water he hadn't opened since he pulled it out of the fridge half an hour ago.

"I know the plan is to make them believe we're working with them, so we can bring them down from the inside.

But I don't like Chelsea being anywhere near either of them.

It might be better if you stop working for the team.

" He gave me an apologetic look, but the set of his jaw was determined.

As unmoving as the expression on Storm's face.

"I second that," Frost said softly.

I frowned at him, but he shrugged. "I love you and I don't want anything to happen to you. If that means you take a break for a while, then…"

"I vote we leave it to Chelsea," Dallas said.

"Thank you," I told him. We all knew why he wanted me close, but it was nice to have a vote of confidence. Someone who recognised I was capable. Not just as a doctor, but my ability to keep an eye on Skinner and King.

"I vote she doesn't work there anymore," Storm said.

Jay looked from me to Atlas and back again, clearly torn between supporting me and supporting him.

"Your votes don't matter," Ramsey said quietly, his skin slick with sweat, having come from the gym. Clearly he'd heard enough. "We need her there. You don't like it, take it up with Daze. Or Reuben Brantley. This goes above my head. Above all of yours, too. Including Chelsea."

I pressed my lips together and looked down at the floor for a few moments.

If anything had the potential to make me want to walk away from the team, it was being told I was there as a pawn in the Brantley game.

I knew I was, but being reminded was a nudge to my stubborn side to come out and play.

Which, in this case, would do me no good whatsoever.

I looked back up. "That's settled then. I'll keep working for the team and do what I have to. Maybe I can help put an end to this sooner. We can get King and Skinner out, and away from the team, and get on with our lives."

Storm crossed his big arms over his chest, like he might have something to say that would stop me, regardless of Ramsey. "I don't fucking like it."

"Me either," Ramsey said. "We're in it now. Can't stop it. Like Chelsea said, we can put an end to this sooner."

"Why don't we then?" Frost asked. "Can't we just kill King, Skinner and Coach Davis?"

"Not unless you want to deal with Carlos Jones and his cartel," Ramsey said. "We need to confirm it's him behind all of this. When we've done that, we can give the information to Brantley. Let him deal with Jones."

"We're just supposed to sit back and wait?" Storm grumbled. "Haven't we waited long enough?"

"No," Ramsey said simply. "It'll take what it takes. We don't want to provoke them."

"I want to provoke them," Storm said. "I want to provoke them so hard they can't walk for the rest of their lives. Which wouldn't be long after that anyway."

"Me too," Frost agreed. "What can I do to make this go faster? I'll pretend to be Dominic King's best friend if that helps."

"You're not going near him unless you have to," Storm told him. "Frost is right, though, what do we have to do?"

"I wish I knew." Ramsey wiped sweat off his forehead with a towel before draping it over his shoulder. "We still need to figure out who Nile Fox is."

"I have a feeling once we know, it'll answer a lot more other questions," Atlas said. He cracked open the lid of his water bottle and took a gulp. "How do we find that out?"

"I shouldn't have killed India," Dallas said quietly. "She might have had the answer."

"You did what you had to," I reminded him. "But that gives me an idea. India wasn't working alone. There must have been someone else. Someone at Flirts, or someone she lived with maybe?"

"You're not going back to work there," Storm growled.

"No, but I can go back socially," I said. "Or you can. Better if it's me, they think I’m harmless." Storm was many things, but harmless wasn't one of them.

"Not alone," Dallas said. "I'll go with you."

"Me too," Frost said.

"I'm in," Jay added.

"Any more than that and it will look suspicious," Ramsey said. "The rest of us will stay close."

Storm and Atlas both looked unimpressed, but for once, didn't argue. They knew Ramsey was right. If all of us turned up there, it wouldn't go unnoticed. Four of us would raise enough eyebrows as it was.

Should I try to insist a couple of them stay back? Probably, but they wouldn't listen to me. Besides, I'd be safer with them around. I hoped.

"Tomorrow night," I said. "It'll be quieter on a Monday. I’ll try to talk to Divina and see what she knows."

"Are we sure she's not in on it?" Frost asked. "She hired India. And Ivy, come to think of it."

"And Chelsea," Dallas pointed out. "If you're trying to suggest she hires shady people…"

"Some people would suggest I'm shady," I said.

Dallas moved over to wrap his arms around me. "You're not shady. If you were, you would have thrown that laptop without stopping to see who you were throwing it at. You wouldn't have cared as long as you were all right."

"I guess so," I said. "A doctor throwing computers around indiscriminately wouldn't be a good look, though. For the record, I'm glad I didn't throw anything at you."

"Me too." He kissed my forehead. "But, for the record, I would have caught it. I wouldn't be much of a footballer if I hadn't."

"Of course you would," I told him.

Frost chuckled. "I would have paid money to see that."

"How much?" Atlas asked. "For enough money, we could re-enact that here."

"No throwing computers in the house," Storm said. "If you're going to do it, do it outside where it won't make a mess. But really, don't do it," he added as Frost took a step towards the back door. "I don't want to be responsible for anyone getting a concussion from the corner of a PC."

Frost pointed a finger at him. "Right, that'd suck."

"Yep." Storm said. "Stick to throwing balls. Footballs," he added quickly, before anyone could take his words the wrong way.

"Thanks for clarifying," Atlas said. He tried to hold back a smile, but failed.

Storm flipped him off.

"You're right about this feeling like a houseful of brothers," I said to Dallas. "Who else would have conversations about throwing computers around like this?"

"I don't know," Dallas said. He scratched his forehead thoughtfully. "There might be other people out there as weird as us."

"If there is, I want to meet them," Frost said cheerfully. "They'd be awesome."

"No one is as weird as us," Jay said. "But we do it well."

"We do, don't we?" Frost offered him a fist bump.

Jay bumped his fist and offered him a slight smile.

Frost smiled back. They stayed locked there for a few moments before he leaned forward and kissed Jay's mouth.

"Weird, but pretty perfect," Frost whispered.

"Yeah, we are," Jay whispered back. "You wanna?"

"Yeah." Frost placed a hand on the back of Jay's head and leaned in to kiss him again.