When he spoke, his voice was devoid of emotion.

“You need to stay home until we make an arrest. I asked to have a new officer assigned to you, since the other one obviously can’t do his job. He’s in the car behind me. Ruby, if you leave the house, he has orders to arrest you.” He didn’t react to her incredulous expression. “If that’s the only way to keep you from jeopardizing yourself, so be it. You interfered with an investigation this afternoon. The choice is no longer mine.”

Ruby absorbed his callously delivered words, then nodded tightly. Intent on hiding the pain curling through her system determined to buckle her, she straightened her spine and placed one hand on the door handle. “If you leave me right now, it will be the last time we’re together. Don’t ever come back. I won’t give you the time of day.” She met his stormy gaze.

“That’s a promise. And I never break a promise.”

She gave him five long, painful seconds to respond, but besides a muscle working in his jaw and the accelerated rise and fall of his chest, he showed no reaction.

Ruby got out of the car and closed the door behind her. She refused to turn around and show him the tears streaming down her cheeks. Would never give anyone the satisfaction of seeing her cry. If he’d truly wanted to hurt her, he’d succeeded with flying colors. It felt as though her heart was trying to claw its way out of her chest.

As she reached the door, keys in hand, she saw it stood slightly ajar. She hesitated for a moment with her hand on the knob, debating whether or not she should go in. Occasionally, the restaurant workers from downstairs used the stairwell to smoke, especially in winter. Today, however, she felt a little jumpy. Then she heard a faint groan of pain and recognized it right away from her memories. Bowen. Without another thought, save the fact that her friend was in pain, she pulled open the door and went inside.

Bowen lay in the far corner, writhing on the floor and holding his ribs, his face covered in blood. He looked up at her, apology in his half-swelled-shut eye.

“I’m sorry, Ruby, I tried to stop them.”

The door slammed, and two sets of hands grabbed her from behind.

Chapter Twelve

Troy sat in his idling car, watching Ruby walk toward her building. Every step she took in the opposite direction filled him with more and more panic. Don’t ever come back. His instincts were demanding that he go to her, carry her up the stairs, and hold her until the sickening fear passed. If it ever did. No amount of time would erase the dread he’d felt racing into Brooklyn, knowing once he got there his team would go in guns blazing, Ruby helpless in the crossfire. When they’d pulled up as she’d exited, he’d been staggered by relief, but the emotion had fast been replaced by fury.

Fury over Ruby putting herself in such a vulnerable position. Fury over her secretiveness.

Fury at himself for not seeing what she had planned.

It felt so incredibly familiar. He’d experienced it before, the split second of fear where he realized the person he would die for without hesitation hadn’t even given him the damn chance. Only this time, the split second had stretched into an intolerable fifteen minutes where he’d been unable to see anything but Ruby amid a sea of gunfire. His worst fear realized.

He had to believe this was the right thing to do.

The farther she stayed from him, the safer she would be. She might have managed to distance herself

from her past, but in the space of a single afternoon, she’d ingratiated herself with the same crowd. On his behalf. If she’d never met him, if he hadn’t pursued her with such single-mindedness, today wouldn’t have happened. Their relationship could have easily been responsible for her death today.

As she pulled the door open to her building and disappeared from his view, Troy felt it slam behind her like a physical blow. She hadn’t even looked back once.

Already he missed the very sight of her. Her scent lingered in the car, taunting him, reminding him of the fierce pleasure he’d derived from smelling her on his pillow. In his bed.

Jesus. This feels like a mistake.

His phone vibrated in his pocket, giving him a much-needed distraction.

“Bennett,” he answered, his voice raw.

“Hey,” Daniel’s voice rang in his ear. “Everything all right?”

“Fuck no.”

“Yeah, it doesn’t sound like it.”

Troy pinched the bridge of his nose. “Let Rhodes know to hold off on the raid. We were right. There’s a back entrance into location number two through the parking garage. Driscol is inside with eight armed men.”

Daniel laughed incredulously. “That’s why she went in there, isn’t it? To scope the place out. Jesus, you’ve got your hands full with that one. Rhodes is going to want to talk to her.”

“No shit. I’m putting it off as long as I can.” He put the car into drive. “Let him know I placed new protection on her. I’m heading back in.”

It took Troy a full minute to actually pull away from the curb, his urge to go inside after Ruby so incredibly strong that he didn’t think he could drive away. He coasted to a stop at the first red light at the end of her block, idling with his foot firmly on the break. The light turned green, and still he didn’t move.

She would be safer this way, he reminded himself.

She’d survived incredible odds without him for years.

Then he’d walked into her life and, within a week, she was taking life-threatening risks. He couldn’t let it happen again. That afternoon he brought her home from school, when she’d revealed her association to Driscol…he should have walked away then. This was his punishment. Knowing what it was like to sleep with her in his arms and having to give her up.

Still, Troy couldn’t go. He physically couldn’t bring himself to drive any farther from her.

The memory of Ruby walking into her building and slamming the door behind her played on a loop in his mind, over and over until he felt a familiar sense of trepidation creeping up his spine. Struck by a sudden thought, he glanced at the rearview mirror, back toward Ruby’s building. Something was bothering him, and he couldn’t shake it. When it finally hit him, Troy sprang into action. He quickly pressed the distress button on his police radio, flung open his door, and started running.

She hadn’t used her keys. Before she’d walked into the building, she’d reached into her pocket and took out her keys, but she hadn’t used them.

…

Ruby tried to twist around to see the men who’d grabbed her, but as they dragged her up the stairs, her knees slammed painfully into each step. Her jeans ripped, the metal scraping her knees raw. She opened her mouth to scream, but a clammy palm slapped over her mouth.

Lenny Driscol stood at the top of the stairs.

At once, she felt numb. The men dragging her were making no effort to keep her uninjured, and that told her exactly what was coming. She let her body go limp, emotional and physical pain blurring together until she couldn’t feel a thing.

All for nothing. She’d done it all for nothing. How many times in her life had she been told by her father or men she hustled that her reckless arrogance would be her downfall? That someday it would take a giant bite out of her ass? She’d laughed in their faces, but they’d been right. Today, she’d done the same thing she always did, putting herself at risk without thinking of the consequences, and now she would pay. Twice. After all, she’d lost the man, too. A man she’d fallen for. All for nothing.