Page 43 of Crush (Deadly Hearts 1)

ChapterTwenty-Three

Ruby

Iloom over the asshole I slammed into my office chair a moment ago. He is small, looks like a weasel and definitely ready to piss his pants scared. My switchblade is pressed at this throat and I’m itching to do some damage.

Layton appears in the office doorway, but I ignore him. He leans up against the doorframe, arms folded, and his mouth shut.

“Who are you?” I ask the weasel, “and why are you snooping around my office?”

He holds his hands up, his answer surprising me. “Dalglish,” he says. “Jimmy Dalglish.”

I narrow my eyes, recognizing his name as the non-payer from this morning. “Oh?” I ask, easing up on the knife at this neck. “What do you want?”

“I came to ask if you would give me my protection back,” he stammers.

“Sure, if you pay what you owe,” I inform him.

His shoulders sag. “I can’t until the day after tomorrow. Shit is bad this week…”

“Yeah, tell me about it,” I mutter, thinking that my own week has sucked balls so far.

“Please,” he begs. “I will pay with interest if you can just get Maverick’s boys off my back. They smashed in my shop window.”

“Sadly, not my problem,” I say, not feeling guilty. “You see, the thing is…if you don’t pay me, how do I pay my team? Do you see my dilemma, Jimmy? I’m not going out of pocket for you, when I have no guarantee that you’ll pay up the day after tomorrow.”

“I will! I swear!” he says, looking over his shoulder at Layton, clearly hoping for a different answer.

It pisses me off. I’m the one in charge. Why does he assume Layton has anything to do with this?

“Don’t look at me,” Layton says with a shrug. “This is between you and her.”

I grimace, irrationally pissed off with him.

“No can do,” I snarl, pressing the knife back to his neck, “and if I catch you sneaking around here again, it won’t just be your shop window that I smash in. Are we clear?”

His eyes go round like saucers as he nods. I fall back and let him scamper out of the office. I sigh and then with a roar of frustration, spin and slam the knife into the desk. It reverberates through my arm, so I let it go, watching as it vibrates until it stops.

“Hey,” Layton says, coming up behind me. “Come and sit down.”

I like that he didn’t give me a stupid, useless platitude like ‘we’ll get him back,’ or ‘he’ll be okay’. He isn’t okay. He is hurt and it’s all my fault for letting him get as close to me as he did. Damn him.

I let Layton lead me to the small sofa in the corner of my office. He sits down, taking up most of the tiny two-seater with his bulk. I raise my eyebrow at him, but he grins and pulls me onto his lap. I giggle, despite the shit situation surrounding me. He wraps his arms around me, and I let him cuddle me.

I let him because it feels good.

It feels nice and comforting to be taken care of when I haven’t done anything to deserve it.

“Thanks,” I mutter.

“What for?”

“Being here.”

We both go silent and then the door bursts open and Declan strides in. He comes up short when he sees me on Layton’s lap, but his face doesn’t betray any emotion, so I have no idea what he thinks about this.

“Did you find him?” I ask, leaping off Layton’s lap.

“Yes,” he says. “Let’s go.”

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