Page 6 of Possessed By Knox
“She’s trying to take Abby away,” Ransom says, breaking the silence. “I just got her. I can’t lose her now.”
“Ruth is just worried about her sister,” I assure the man.
“What if she’s like the rest of her family? Egotistical, Controlling, manipulative—”
“She’s not,” I growl, just as surprised as they are by the steeliness of my voice. “Ruth is none of those things.”
“You just met her. You don’t know that,” Ransom challenges, and while he might be right on that front, I like to think myself a great judge of character. To me, Ruth comes off as a person concerned about her sister. There’s no discounting the fact that she knew next to nothing about her sister’s life these past couple of months, but I know all too well about dysfunctional family dynamics and how they operate. How they can fuck someone over until they’re on the verge of a mental breakdown. Until all you want to do is run away.
“She’s worried about her sister,” I say again. “I could be wrong, but I recall you storming into this very clubhouse when you thought we had kidnappedyoursister. What’s changed?”
His nostrils flare up. “Youhadkidnapped my sister. This is different!”
“Is it?” I ask, my voice low, dangerously so. My jaw clenches, and the easy smile I often wear drops. My hands itch, as they often do when my temper is close to the surface.
Saint must see this, must understand what it would mean for me to snap, as he steps between us with a sigh. “What are you? Children?” He glares at us. “We don’t know this woman well enough to judge her character, and if Abby decides she wants to leave with her, we can’t stop her.”
Ransom’s eyes fire up at the words. “Prez—”
“It’s too early to make any sort of judgment. We’ll wait until the sisters are done talking and then move from there,” Saint says, turning to look at me. “We need to show Ruth Chester that we’re not the band of criminals she thinks we are. Even with her sister’s confirmation, I’m afraid she won’t believe it until she sees it with her own eyes. I’ll leave that to you.”
“Oh, it’ll be a pleasure,” I say with an easy smile as my anger sinks back down. The prospect of spending more time around Miss Prim and Proper with her smart mouth appeals to me greatly.
“No funny business, Knox,” Saint warns. “We don’t need another woman threatening to burn down the building because you decided to end things before she was done with you.”
“That was twelve fucking years ago, and I was twenty-three for Christ’s sake. When are you going to let that shit go?”
“Never.” He shakes his head as he starts to walk away. “I’ll hold it over your head for all eternity.”
“Fuck, date a crazy chick one time and no one lets you forget it.”
“I can’t wait to hear that story,” Ransom says, pulling my attention back to him, and I realize my irritation has faded. Can’t fault the man for wanting to protect a woman he’s madly in love with, not after everything said woman has been through. “You’ll keep her occupied, right? The sister? Show her that Abby is safe with me.”
“I could be convinced,” I say casually, sliding my hands into my pockets and leaning back against the wall. “Axel posted a record-breaking score on a racing game we’ve been playing, and he beat my high score but I smell something fishy. If a certain someone with incredible hacking skills could investigate whether the score is legit, then maybe I could be convinced to do them this favor.”
His eyes dance with amusement. “You want me to hack into the system, bypass the game’s security, and access private account data to see if Axel is cheating on a video game?”[KB10]
“Did I say that?” I muse, looking around to make sure the club’s mechanic and my eternal gaming rival isn’t listening in on the conversation. I’ll be damned if I let that sneaky bastard win the fifty bucks we bet on this game. It’s suspicious that he wassuddenly able to beat a score I’ve held for weeks. “Maybe there was a glitch in the system or something.”
“Fine,” he sighs. “Take care of Abby’s sister and I’ll take care of this for you.”
“Deal.”
Chapter Three
Ruth
She hates me.
Perhaps hate is too strong of a word to use for someone like Abby, but it’s close enough. I know it’s selfish, and incredibly greedy of me to expect things to go back to the way they were before I left, but I did. A part of me thought she would understand why I had to leave.
Why I couldn’t come back.
“Ruth,” she whispers, and I watch her take a steadying breath. “I’m sorry. I…I know why you had to leave. You did your best to try and stay in touch, but I’m the one who pulled away. Locked you out.”
“Why did you?”
“At first, I was angry at you for leaving. I know that Mom and Dad were harder on you than they were on me, but I was still sad and felt a little betrayed when you moved away. In my defense, I was only sixteen at the time, and I’d just lost my best friend.” She steps in and takes my hand, then guides us to the couch, waiting until we’re seated to continue. “It took me a while, but I understood. I had just started to want to rebuild our relationship, to be close to you again, and I think Mom and Dad knew that—that’s why they pushed Jack on me.”[KB11]
