He thought her in danger. Was she in danger?

Memories she’d buried deep, things she’d heard floated to the surface. Bowen climbing into her window late at night to sleep on her floor after his father put a beating on him. Neighborhood acquaintances going missing following rumors that they owed Lenny money.

One memory in particular stood out among the rest. She’d been thirteen years old, sitting in the apartment she shared with her father on the night before Easter, waiting for him to come home so they could dye eggs. Hours passed until finally something possessed her to open the front door. She’d found him there unconscious, leg bent at an unnatural angle. After a brief moment of panic, she’d called an ambulance and gotten him to the hospital, but he’d never once confided in her what happened. He hadn’t needed to.

Months passed before they saw Lenny again, and even then, the relationship had been strained, centered on business. She’d known then who did that to her father.

She shook the disturbing memory, doing her best to focus on the present. Right now the only loose end was Bowen. Would Bowen betray her to his father?

No. They had been through too much together, and she knew him better than anyone. He might not be ready to accept the truth, but he’d outgrown that lifestyle, same as she had. His father might be Lenny Driscol, but Ruby believed with her whole heart that Bowen stayed with him out of fear, not loyalty. She would be safe on that score, even if she would never convince Troy of that after witnessing Bowen’s earlier behavior.

So was she in danger? No. And she’d worked too hard to distance herself from that world. She wouldn’t hide. Had nothing to hide.

Troy put the phone to his ear, but Ruby sprang forward and took it out of his hands, pressing the end button. “No. I’m not going anywhere. Forget it.”

He gritted his teeth. “Yes, you are. I f**ked up, and now I’m going to fix it.”

“You think I’ll be safer surrounded by cops? If

they actually make a connection between us, it’ll only confirm the false theory that I’m working for you. I’m safer on my own.”

“That’s naïve, Ruby. You can’t take on the world, contrary to what you might believe.” He heaved a frustrated breath. “Look, the last thing I want to do is send you away. Believe me. It hurts to be this close and not touch you. But I can’t be responsible for anyone else getting hurt. Not again.”

She frowned. “Again?” Troy didn’t respond.

She knew then where his anxiety came from. She’d suspected before that something more complex than mere sadness existed behind his grief. His words only confirmed it. “Your partner. You think you’re responsible for his death?”

“Yes!” he burst out. “I am responsible. I should have had his back. He’s dead because of me. Do you want to be next?”

His pain, the harshness of his confession, lanced through her chest. She should back off. Leave him to deal with the pain on his own. It’s what she would want someone to do for her. But she couldn’t. Didn’t want him to have to handle it alone. Perhaps she hadn’t fully believed before that they’d met purely out of coincidence, but Troy’s pain, his insistence that she sever all ties with him, convinced her.

“What happened?”

Agonized eyes met hers. After a moment’s hesitation, he spoke. “It happened during a raid. We got a tip that two rival gangs were meeting at a warehouse, probably to continue the war they’d been waging on each other for weeks. Grant and I entered on the ground floor, closer than anyone else on the team.

They were right there in front of us, on the other side of a wall. Grant, impulsive as always, wanted to separate, come at them from both sides to make arrests.” He shook his head. “He always wanted to take the risks.

I was the one that held him back. Always. Except this time. The one time that counted.”

Something squeezed in her chest. “You can’t be responsible for Grant’s actions. I learned a long time ago, you can’t be responsible for anyone but yourself.”

“That doesn’t go very far in comforting his wife and kids,” he responded sharply. “It doesn’t work that way for me, either. I can’t turn off this need to protect you.”

For years, she’d been sent by people who were supposed to care about her well-being into questionable situations and dodgy establishments to hustle men twice her age and size out of their money.

Now this man, who’d known her only a few days, this beautifully damaged man, wanted to protect her. Even at the cost of a physical relationship between them.

Ruby would be lying to herself if she said it didn’t affect her. Make her feel cherished for the first time in her life.

Mind made up, Ruby came forward until she could look up into his face. He sucked in a breath, she suspected, at her unexpected nearness. She pushed his jacket off his shoulders before she went to work the buttons of his shirt. His tortured gaze followed the progress of her hands. “You’re not getting rid of me.

I’m the only one who decides where I stay. Right now, I’m choosing here. With you.”

“No, Ruby. We can’t anymore,” he said gruffly.

“Everything is different now. Whether you’ll admit it or not, I’m responsible for you. This falls under the heading of me taking advantage.”

His shirt fell to the floor and she paused to appreciate the swell of his chest, the sculpted ridges and dips of his stomach. “Then let me take advantage of you.” Her seductive words wrung a groan from his lips, and Ruby felt an answering heat build between her legs. “What happened to the filthy-mouthed detective who wanted to get me on my knees?” Her nimble fingers removed the wallet from his front pocket and handed him the condom tucked in the front. His gaze sharpened on her face as he interpreted her meaning. She moved on to his belt buckle, feeding the leather through the metal loops. His erection pressed insistently against his fly, swelling with each breath he took. She slid her hand inside his pants and gripped his thick length, forcing him to place his hands behind him on the dining room table for support. Ruby knelt on the ground in front of him. “I don’t get on my knees for anyone, Troy. Remember that.”

“Christ. Please don’t—”

Ignoring his halfhearted protest, she took him in her mouth and tasted him, learning his texture. She swirled her tongue around the plump head, mimicking the way he’d tasted her ni**les two nights earlier. He dug one hand into her hair on a throaty groan, hips rolling forward as if magnetized by her mouth.

“Goddammit, you little tease. Stop licking at it and take it deep. Show me how much you missed me.”

The now-familiar transformation in his demeanor—from concerned boyfriend-type to dominant sex god in mere seconds—sent her stomach quaking, turning her legs to jelly. Hot and restless, anxious to experience more, she gripped him at the base of his erection and did as he asked, blocking every thought from her mind other than driving him to the same mindless state he’d driven her to in his bed.

Stretching her lips to accommodate his size, she took him as deep as she could, then sucked on her way back up, pulling him with her mouth. He only allowed her to repeat it twice before reaching down and yanking her into a standing position. She was only given a brief glimpse of his determined face before he whirled her around and bent her over the kitchen table.