Page 9 of Ruined

“I figured you’d answer her call and not mine,” Joey drawled on the other end of the line. I cursed softly, the smirk dropping from my lips. He sighed softly, sounding extremely tired and worn out. A frown tugged at my lips as worry wound around my heart for the man. “You actually think you can run from me, pretty girl?” he asked, using his old nickname for me.

“Not really running, Joey,” I grumbled, being honest. I mean, I was in a way, but I was running from whoever was after Tristan—or me. I was still trying to figure that one out. If I relied on that text message though, my money was on me.

He snorted. “Right,” he sarcastically retorted. I swallowed thickly. “I’ll pretend that you didn’t just try to fucking lie to me.” I grimaced. If Joey hated anything, he fucking hated a liar. “Tell you what, pretty girl,” he said, calling me by that old, familiar nickname again. I swallowed thickly. God, I missed him. “You come back to me by tomorrow night, and I’ll fix all of this bad shit between us. We’re good as hell together, pretty girl, and you’re too deep in this shit to try to run away now.”

I frowned down at the floor, all of those old feelings rising in me. Joey had drawn me out of the funk that I had fallen into after Tristan and I had broken up. He was my rebound in a way, and after a few months, he became a lot more than that to me.Although we were toxic as fuck together, I couldn’t deny that I still deeply cared about Joey. I always would. He was my rock.

“Joey, you know that I would never rat on you. I went through hell and back to protect you and your secrets.” And he knew what kind of hell I’d gone through. How many times had I finally come back home to him, beaten to within an inch of my life, just to protect him? It was certainly more times than I could count on one hand.

He sighed. “You leaving right now was a really bad choice, Adelaide. You need to come back home, pretty girl.”

“Why, Joey?” I angrily demanded. He knew how much I hated being given the run-around.

“Pretty girl, I’ve got a lot of explaining to do, alright? Just… fuck, I always seem to fuck up with you,” he confessed, making my heart twist in my chest. “Pretty girl, I know what Jessie said to you.Inever put a hitman on you. I tried to set up a meeting to get one off of your back, but it didn’t fucking work.”Shit. “There’s a man that’s supposed to be bringing you back to me, but he’s not going to hurt you. He’s supposed to protect you until he can get you back here to me.”

“But Tristan’s house—” I started.

“Vin is after you,” Joey interrupted me.

My hand tightened around the phone, and I swallowed down vomit. Now wasn’t the time to be throwing up. “V-Vin?” I stuttered, my face paling. Even his name left a nasty, bitter taste on my tongue.

I could picture Joey running his hand down his face in my mind. “Yes, pretty girl. I had no idea what the fuck Vin was doing toyou. I had no idea he fucking raped you.” I flinched and squeezed my eyes shut, resisting the urge to whimper as his malicious face popped into my mind. “I know it doesn’t make up for shit, Adelaide, but I’msofucking sorry that I didn’t protect you better,” he apologized. I resisted the urge to cry. God, I hated it when Joey felt guilty about shit that happened to me, especially shit that wasn’t his fault. “He told me he was using you for some fights. That was it.”

I shook my head even though he couldn’t see me. “I was the only one to escape him, Joey,” I whispered.

“I know, pretty girl. I need you to come back home, alright? Fucking hell, at this point, I wouldn’t give a fucking shit if you brought Tristan with you. You need protection until this Vin situation can be dealt with. The more protection you have, the fucking better. I won’t lose you, Adelaide, especially not to fucking death.”

The bathroom door suddenly opened, and Tristan stood there, his expression murderous. I glared back at him, defiance gleaming in my gaze. “Why thefuckare you talking to Joey, Addy?” Tristan snarled at me.

“Let me talk to him, pretty girl,” Joey told me gently. “Don’t fight him, Adelaide. Just let me talk to him.”

With a sigh, I slowly held my hand out to Tristan, offering him the phone. He glared down at it, not reaching out to take it. He instead looked back up at me. “Tristan, please,” I whispered.

I just wanted to go back home where I knew I was okay, back to the man that I knew what to expect with. The man that I knew would never, truly let me down. Not when it truly counted.

Tristan’s expression softened when he actually paid attention to how terrible I looked. Wordlessly, he took the phone from my hand. Stepping between my legs, he wrapped his free arm around my waist, tugging me up close to his hard, muscular frame as he put my phone to his ear.

I hated myself for it, knew I shouldn’t want it, but I leaned into him anyway, allowing Tristan to silently comfort me. I closed my eyes, allowing myself this one small moment of peace between us.

“What?” Tristan grumbled into the phone.

I could hear Joey explaining everything to Tristan as best as he could. Tristan’s body tensed against mine, and his eyes flickered down to me more than once, fury burning in their depths as he held me tighter against him when Joey told him about Vin.

“We’ll be on our way back in the morning,” Tristan informed him. “I’ll have my crew meet us at your place. The more protection on her, the better.”

“I agree,” Joey told him.

“Just let me ask this,” Tristan started, his fingers absentmindedly running up and down my spine. I sighed softly, my eyes beginning to slide closed. He remembered one of the ways to calm me down, and my heart hurt. Tristan used to do this all the time when we were younger, and honestly, I missed his soft, soothing touch. “Why are you all of a sudden being protective over Addy?” he demanded to know.

“I’ve always been protective of her in my own way, Tristan,” Joey told him. And he had. “Adelaide and I have a silent agreement of sorts. She hates being doted over, and she wants to be free to make her own decisions. I protect her from the background, andI only step forward when something drastic is happening, like now. She’s not the same girl whose heart you broke three years ago, Tristan. She’s changed, and she’s grown into one hell of a woman.”

I couldn’t stop the smile that crossed my lips at Joey’s words.

“Whatever,” Tristan grumbled, obviously not pleased by that bit of information. “I’ll text you and let you know when we’re on the road,” Tristan informed him, hanging up the phone right after.

After a few silent moments, Tristan finally looked down at me. “What kind of history do you and Joey have?” Tristan asked me, his voice gruff.

I tilted my chin up as I leaned back from him, every one of my guards going back up against Tristan, and they went uphard. He was digging too deep into something that wasn’t his fucking business. “I don’t think that fucking concerns you.”

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