Page 201 of Ruthless Desires: Vol. One

Rubbing my face, I mutter, “Fine.”

She opens the door, and her expression goes from worried to alarmed. “You’re still in your clothes.”

I don’t have a good explanation, so I shrug.

Wren is in one of her T-shirts and a pair of shorts. It looks like she’s showered and ready for bed, but that doesn’t stop her from closing the distance between us. She doesn’t even hesitate to sit next to me under the spray of water.

On instinct, I lean away from her, so she moves a few inches away to give me space.

“Don’t,” I say tensely.

“Don’t what?”

“Move away.”

She scooches back to where she was.

I clench my fists. “But I can’t… don’t—” I let out a frustrated noise. “Jesus fuck.”

“Don’t touch you?”

I nod.

“I won’t,” she whispers.

Letting anyone other than Elliot and Oliver see me like this is deeply uncomfortable, but at the same time, I’m glad Wren is next to me. She needs to know what she’s getting herself into.

“You’re worried about Oliver,” I say. “That’s why you’re here?”

“I’m worried aboutyou.”

I don’t know why, but that makes my heart ache even more. I stare at the water swirling down the drain, unable to look her in the eye. “I get why he did it. And there’s a part of me that’s glad he did because it means you’re safe. We were all acting a little desperate to get you back home.”

“Elliot said you were ready to go after Jordan’s girlfriend.”

I nod. “And I’m glad he stopped me. That could’ve been a disaster for you.”

“And you’re angry that Oliver didn’t give you a chance to stop him?”

“No. No, I’m angry because I was terrified.”

A small noise of surprise leaves her throat. “You thought Jordan would kill him?”

“Sort of,” I say. And then I sigh. It’s time she hears this story. “When we were nineteen, maybe twenty, we were on a job together. It was pretty simple—sneak in and plant cameras in our mark’s house for one of our first clients. Everything was going according to plan until it wasn’t. We thought the guy was out of the house when we broke in, but we were wrong. He caught Oliver in his office and had a gun pointed to his head. We were unarmed. Didn’t think we’d need to be. Last time we made that mistake.

“We were supposed to meet at a certain point in the house after we finished bugging our respective rooms. But Oliver never showed. When Elliot and I realized he was in trouble, we didn’t know where he was or what to do. Oliver was trying to save our asses and pretend he was working alone. He was about to die, and all he could think of was us.

“When we realized what was going on, it felt like someone had carved my heart out of my chest and was crushing it in their fist. Like I was breathing, but I wasn’t getting in any oxygen. And then all I could think of was Sammy and how I couldn’t save her. How it was about to happen all over again. I was so scared of losing Oliver, I genuinely thought I’d die without him.”

“How did you save him?” she whispers.

“We didn’t.” My throat aches, and new tears fall from my eyes. It takes me a second to regain my ability to speak. “The guy was about to pull the trigger, Wren, and we were absolutely helpless. Just stupid kids who hadn’t thought things through enough.”

She frowns. “Then how…”

“Our mark started having a heart attack. It was freak timing, so coincidental it felt like a dream. But it was very, very real. We left him there to die and got the hell out.”

“Oh my god,” she murmurs. “If he hadn’t had that heart attack…”