Page 106 of Ruthless Desires: Vol. Two

When she pulls away so I can see her, she’s frowning. “I promise that books aren’t my only personality trait.”

I smile. “I know.”

“I wanted to have a book and coffee shop. I always imagined it’d have big windows and cozy reading nooks. And we’d have author signings and maybe sell bookish candles—locally made if possible. I planned on having an apartment above the shop, too, so I wouldn’t have to worry about getting to and from work.”

There’s no way.

I laugh before I can stop myself. “You’re joking, right?”

Immediately, she goes tense in my arms. “I… is it really that laughable?”

“Oh, fuck. No, not at all. It’s just that Elliot wanted something similar when we were in high school.”

“He did?”

“Yeah.” I grin. “You should ask him about it. Sometimes, I think he never truly gave up on the idea. His degree is in business, after all.”

Her eyes fog over in the way they do when she’s thinking really hard. “That’s…”

I wait, but she never finishes her sentence. My hope is that she’s opening herself up to the possibilities that are available to her, but I’m not sure. Either way, we’re different from Adam in a lot of ways. We’ll support her no matter what she decides to do.

“For what it’s worth,” I say gently, “I don’t think you’ll lose yourself.”

She frowns, and her nose crinkles in the most adorable way. “How can you be so sure?”

With an amused exhale, I kiss her forehead. “Because you’ve been fighting to make sure that doesn’t happen from day one, princess. You’ve got this. You just have to figure out what you want out of life. And you’re allowed to take your time with that.”

Finally, she relaxes, and I lean in to kiss her. Talking about the future always leaves me feeling hopeful, so I have no desire to break our happy little bubble. But then someone knocks on my door.

“Yeah?” I call out.

Elliot pops his head in. “I’m making breakfast, and then Rhett has something he needs to show us.”

Just like that, my good mood deflates. Whatever Rhett’s found, there’s no way it’s something good. “We’ll be down in a couple minutes.”

Elliot leaves, and I heave in a long, steadying breath.

“Ready to return to reality?”

Wren threads her fingers through mine. “With you, always.”

Chapter two

Elliot

Being overwhelmed is something I’m familiar with. In fact, it’s how I managed to get through high school without exploding. Extra credit here, student government there. Free time? Fill that with another class. Another club. Another project. Another tutoring job.

If I had too much on my plate, there was no room in my head to process my parents’ self-inflicted misery. Rhett and Ol became a much-needed distraction and support system in my teens. But when I was without them, I buried myself in as manyanythingsas I could.

And then Sammy died, and the three of us threw ourselves into finding her killer. We barely let ourselves come up for air. Hell, years later, we still struggle with letting ourselves rest.

Which, I suppose, is why Rhett looks like absolute shit. We got home from Florida late last night and all immediately went to bed—even him. But he got up at some point in the early morning, and it’s no surprise that this is what he went straight to.

My heart is in my throat as we all gather around the desk in the library. Rhett’s seated, and his leg is bouncing as he stares at his open laptop. There are so many things on my mind, so many things to do, and the look on his face only means he’s about to add something else.

“Just tell us,” Oliver says nervously.

“They brought Andrew to the condo after those two guys tried to get to Aubrey,” Rhett says. His eyes are unfocused, and his voice is hoarse and weighed down with worry for his brother. “The bug we planted caught their conversation, and it’s…”