Page 17 of Ruthless Desires: Vol. One

It’s foolish, how much I’ve thought about Wren over the past two weeks. What I almost just did proves it. I’ve always been a little impulsive. I act and then think things through later. Ell and Rhett have always loved me for it, but this isn’t the first time they’ve had to reel me in.

“I know I’m being ridiculous,” I say when I notice the worried glint in Rhett’s eyes. There’s nothing worse than that look—the one that he gets when he’s afraid I’m going to do something stupid.

Deep down, I know I can’t just swoop in and fix all of Wren’s problems. She’s a stranger, and ultimately, being in closer proximity to me and the guys would only give hermoreproblems. Our lives have taken us on a different path than most people’s—one that means we have to keep sweet, pretty baristas like Wren at arm’s length.

I give her one last glance before turning my back so she’s not in my view.

At least not for now.

Chapter seven

Elliot

November

I’ve always looked forward to Friday mornings with Rhett and Ol, but as time passes, I find myself even more excited to walk into our regular coffee shop. My conversations with Wren usually aren’t long, but they’re one of the highlights of my week.

Maybe that’s a little pathetic. I’m twenty-eight years old, and one of the best parts of my week is talking to a barista I barely even know. But… well, this is the life Rhett, Oliver, and I chose. Our jobs require a lot from us—as do our side plans.

It’ll be worth it, though. Ever since tragedy struck when we were all seniors in high school, we’ve been working our way toward the one thing that will help the sting of our loss fade: revenge.

Today, the coffee shop is busier than normal. Ava and Wren are rushing to keep up, so we aren’t able to have our normal leisurely conversation. I swear I see a glimmer of disappointment in Wren’s eyes, but it vanishes quickly enough that I’m not sure if I imagined it.

Once we’re seated, I lean back in my chair and sip my coffee. Wren has introduced me to a lot of different beans as the shop has cycled through a variety of specialty coffees. Normally, I like routines. Stability.Reliability.But I’ve been having fun trying out different drinks here.

Once we all have our drinks, we settle in at our usual table. I keep my coffee in my hands, the warmth from the mug seeping into me and replacing the November chill.

A couple teens pass by on the sidewalk outside, and I can’t help my smile. It didn’t happen often, but every once in a while, Oliver and Rhett would convince me to skip school, and we’d fuck around in town, just blowing off steam.

We never went far—Rhett had to be back to pick his little sister up from school—but those days were some of my better memories of my childhood. Rhett and Ol had a way of knowing when I was reaching my limit with my responsibilities. They took it on as their personal mission to find ways to let me forget about it all on occasion.

“Remember that one day we snuck out and got ice cream at Annie’s?” Oliver asks, his eyes tracking the teens.

I shudder. “To this day, I don’t think I’ve ever seen your mom look so furious.”

It’d been early on in the school year—mid-September at the latest—and Oliver had begged us for ice cream. So we went to a local shop, only to run into Meredith and Oliver’s little sister, Maria. Maria had been having a bad mental health day, so Meredith had let her skip school and decided to get her a nice treat. But whenweshowed up…

Well, let’s just say that when Oliver pointed out that if Maria could have the day off then so could he, I saw murder in his mother’s eyes.

“I still think she should’ve let me skip,” Oliver says.

Rhett cuts him a hard look.“Youweren’t being bullied by your classmates.”

Oliver’s eyes soften, and he holds Rhett’s gaze for an extra second. “Not then, no.”

Rhett looks away, studying the pedestrians and cars as they pass by outside. His body is rigid beneath his black suit, his jaw tight.

Some memories are better left untouched.

Oliver adjusts his tie. “I wonder if Maria remembers the ice cream shop incident. We’ll have to ask her at lunch.”

After coffee, we meet Meredith and Maria for lunch. It’s our way of making sure we get to see them—and a way to check in with them. They think we allwork in finance together, and it needs to stay that way. But we have to watch our backs, and that means making sure they’re safe. They both put up a fuss about the security systems we had installed in their homes, but I also know they were secretly relieved. It’s the only way Oliver can sleep at night, too.

“Oh, there’s no way she forgot.” I grin. “She gave you shit about it all the way up until graduation.”

“Ugh, remember when she tried to do the same thing whenshewas in high school?”

Rhett smirks. “And you caught her halfway to the shop?”