Page 10 of Ruthless Salvation

“Ready tolose,” she goaded me.

“Fuck you, Shae,” I wheezed back at her, pissed that I sounded so damn pathetic. Never would have happened if thoughts of Storm and that damn Russian hadn’t distracted me.

Once I got back to my feet, we started another round, and this time, Shae got as good as she gave. I forced myself through a punishing workout to drive out thoughts of Stormy. No matter how hard I tried to focus on family business and questions surrounding the Russian, my thoughts always drifted back to guileless brown eyes and a charming Southern twang.

Something about her had sprouted an insidious infection in my brain—a diseased addiction that I couldn’t shake. I hated feeling out of control. And where Storm was concerned, I was in the passenger seat with my fixation behind the wheel. I had to find a way to get out of that damn car because its trajectory ended in a fiery ball of flames.

Present

A familiar knockon my door brought a huge grin to my face. I used to spend my days off alone, but since moving to New York, my life had grown remarkably fuller.

I opened the door to find Micky chatting with Luke, our mutual friend who lived across the hall from me. “Hey, you two! Y’all grab coffee without me?” I looked at the steaming cup in Luke’s hand, my brows arched high in mock offense.

“My budget’s too tight this week for coffee,” Micky grumbled. “We just happened to have good timing.”

I eyed them playfully. “I suppose I’ll let you off the hook … this time.”

“Off the hook! We didn’t do anything,” Micky teased back.

“Besides,” Luke added, “looks like you two are the ones leaving a guy out. You have something fun planned today?”

“Hardly,” Micky grumbled. “My roommate has afriendover, and I need to study.”

“She’s going to hang here while I hit the laundromat,” I explained.

Luke’s smile morphed to a cartoonish grimace. “Yikes, that sounds like more fun than I can handle.”

“Oh, hey!” another familiar voice called out, this one far less welcome. “I’m glad I caught you.”

The three of us looked over to where Ralph, the building superintendent, exited the stairwell onto our floor. He looked genuinely excited to see us, which was disconcerting. Ralph usually did his best to avoid all contact with residents. Jerk.

At a hair over five feet, he was several inches shorter than me, which gave me a perfect view of the black spray paint he used to cover the bald patch on the top of his head. It was that, or he had a gangrenous skin condition—either way, it was bad news.

“I wanted to check and make sure you guys saw the new panel downstairs. It was installed yesterday.”

“Yeah, actually, I did. It worked like a charm, thanks.” I tried to sound genuine because I did appreciate being able to get into the building, but his odd behavior was throwing me.

“Good, good. Sorry it took so long …” His eyes darted from one of us to the other. “You know, always a lot to juggle in these places.”

“Yeahhh, um. Thanks.” Okay, this was getting seriously weird.

Luke cut in, joining the circle of awkward. “We definitely appreciate it, Ralph. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we were just headed inside.” He placed a hand at my lower back.

Grateful for the rescue, I shot a hurried wave at Ralph, then jumped back into my apartment, my two friends close on my heel.

“You three have a great day,” Ralph called in his comically heavy Brooklyn accent.

The second the door clicked shut, we burst into a fit of silent giggles, each doubled over with our hands plastered over our mouths.

“What the hell was that?” Luke asked when we regained our composure. “Last time I asked him to get the hallway light bulb replaced, he griped at me for ten minutes about the entitlement of today’s youth—or yute as he calls them.”

“Maybe he found Jesus?” Micky suggested, leading to another round of snickers.

“I don’t care if he started worshipping the seven circles of hell if it means he’ll actually start doing stuff around here,” Luke grumbled.

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” I said, shaking my head. “A leopard doesn’t change his spots.”

Micky shot me a look of incredulity. “Girl, you are the most cynical optimist I’ve ever met.”

---