Page 22 of Beautifully Ruined
There’s so much to say. To Violet, to Enzo…
We need to definitely fucking talk. But right now, I’m concerned she’s had enough to deal with. Not that she’s weak or fragile, it’s only I know how things so out of the ordinary happening can do things to people. And I don’t want her scarred by this.
Any more than she might already be.
“Hang on…” Enzo flashes his lights twice, then makes a right, then a left, pulling into an underground carpark on what looks like a building under construction.
There’s no one here.
I keep an eye on Violet in the back seat. “As dates go, this isn’t exactly my scene. I like dinner, candles, flowers.”
Enzo parks and gets out. One of the other cars pulling in, too.
I sigh.
“Is Enzo your boss?” Vi’s green eyes are dark and fiery.
“No.” I search for the right words, and I’m aware following protocol is kind of out the window since she was there, and she also knows who The Ghost is. “It’s complicated.”
Her mouth sets into a stubborn line as she absorbs my words. “You could try me. I’m a complicated girl.”
“You’re—”
“Be careful with your next words, Cade.” She stares at me, and despite the aches and pains and how breathing still carries some pain, my cock starts to get hard.
Maybe there’s a part of me that likes brat.
But this isn’t brat. This is survival. This is a girl who wants to make it known she’s something and not a force to be underestimated.
Yeah, that’s a definite turn on.
I know she is smart. She’s a fucking hard worker, and her filthy imagination is something to behold. But this is a complex maturity and innocence and downright stubbornness that is heady in and of itself.
Enzo worries about my dick making decisions. He should have worried about my heart. Because I really don’t know how to deal with that, how to get out from under it and find a way to both please her and protect her.
“You are young, and this isn’t your wheelhouse, it’s true,” I say softly. “But it’s complicated because it’s a tangle of grays.”
“Let me guess. A guy’s club of wannabe superheroes?”
“Something like that.” And I manage not to smile. “No one’s really a big boss.”
Though there’s got to be someone, somewhere, at the top, handing out assignments, keeping the fragmented arms of The Syndicate together. Or maybe it really is just us all working to our own common goal. It’s not something I thought about. “We’re interdependent.”
Which is probably the closest to the truth.
“We work for bad guys. but we choose which ones and then…” I sigh, because I don’t say this shit out loud. It all just is. From The Ghost to The Syndicate to the clients. There are a lot of moving parts that work, and so we don’t question things.
I make money. I keep the streets as clean as I can from the predators that cross my path.
“You have time to fuck about as The Ghost?”
I look at her sharply. “Not in the way you mean. You’re the only one, Vi. No one else. Not ever. I haven’t… I get offers as The Ghost. A lot. And not one has even made me blink. I stopped opening the emails not long after I put site up. It’s easy enough to see those who are passing along something bad. But the sex shit? No one.”
“Apart from me?”
I nod. “Apart from you.”
Enzo, who’s got impeccable timing, knocks on my window.
