Page 5 of Crush (Deadly Hearts 1)

ChapterThree

Ruby

Iglare at David standing in the doorway of my office with a big grin on his face. Layton is standing behind him looking bored as fuck. He is something else to look at though. He is roughly the same size as Ramsey but with pitch black hair and blue eyes that are practically luminous. Contacts? Nah. He doesn’t appear to be the vain type. I can see most of him around David’s slim frame and he is dressed in jeans and a long sleeve t-shirt with some kind of emblem blazoned onto the front, along with a black leather jacket. If he told me now he drives a motorbike, I wouldn’t be surprised.

“You were expecting him, apparently,” David explains unnecessarily.

“Not exactly,” I growl, but gesture for him to come in anyway. I’ve already interviewed two of my guys and had already decided on one unless the third one was out of this world spectacular. This is just a waste of my time.

Layton saunters in, arrogant without a care in the world and plonks himself down opposite me. David backs out, laughing silently at me with some untold joke that he and his new buddy, Ramsey have probably got going. He shuts the door and I turn to Layton with a grimace.

He thrusts a piece of paper at me, and I give it a cursory glance before I do a double take and look closer.

“You used to work for Scott?” I ask, wondering why he isn’t on the shared information sheet.

“Yep.”

I wait for more, but nothing comes. “Why did you leave?” I ask tightly.

“I smashed a guy’s face in, and he didn’t approve.” Blue eyes find mine with a challenging stare which I don’t back down from.

“Care to share why you did that?” I question.

“He was a little prick who thought he could cop a feel of some woman’s tits without her permission. I disagreed.”

Oh, did you now?Okay, so I’ll admit that my heart starts to beat a little bit faster. There is nothing sexier than a man who will stand up for a woman when they are being assaulted by little pricks. Or big ones, I think furiously about Jake the snake.

“Is that a deal breaker? You look like the type of woman who would break my nuts over it.” His smile is sinister and my heart thumps louder.

“You clearly have no idea who I am,” I say darkly.

“Oh, I know who you are,” he says, leaning forward. “Black Widow. Your rep is legendary. I’m just messing with you.”

I narrow my eyes. “About the reason you stopped working for Scott or about me breaking your nuts?”

“Breaking my nuts. I know you’ll approve. I heard…” He stops and gives me a curious look. “You’re smaller than I thought.”

“Excuse me?” I choke out.

“You took down Eddie Santo with your bare hands. I don’t see it with you sitting there in that fancy dress.”

“Eddie,” I growl. “He also had a problem with hands going where they shouldn’t.”

“And so you crushed them. I approve.”

“Gee, thanks,” I drawl. “Because I was soooo seeking your validation.”

He snorts. “Ramsey wasn’t lying when he said you had bite. I like you. I’ll come and work here.”

“Oh, will you?” I exclaim. “I didn’t offer you the job.”

“Look, love. There is no one better for this job than me. We are aligned with how we like to deal with…situations, so I know you won’t tell me how to do my job.”

“Hmm,” I murmur and pick up my now charged phone. I quickly fire off a text message to Scott asking for a reference, outside of the incident with which they parted ways.

We stare at each other while I wait for Scott to reply. The little dots are flashing so I know he’s replying but it seems to be taking a while.

“How do you know Ramsey?” I ask eventually.

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