Rebel (Renegades 2)

“She’s the product of a quick affair. Her mother died when she was young, just two or three. And she was deposited on her rich father’s doorstep. And I mean filthy rich. ”

“So she grew up with nannies, an absent father, and a ton of cash at her disposal. ”

“Yep. ”

“And she’s smart and strong. ”

“And gorgeous. Did I forget to mention that?”

“I figured. ” She shot him a look. “You do have standards, after all. So, smart, strong, gorgeous, rich, and unsupervised—in Los Angeles. Talk about a recipe for disaster. Poor thing. ”

“You wouldn’t think of her as a poor thing if you met her. ”

“Defenses. She put them in place early. And, it sounds like, she’s still holding on to them pretty hard. ”

“So, give me the secret passage into her heart, oh great psychotherapist. ”

Whitney chuckled, the sound heavy and resigned. “If I had that answer, bro, I would have had the money to send a limo to the airport to pick you up. ”

Nineteen

Rodie inched closer to Rubi on the sofa, his front paws just grazing her thighs beneath the hem of her running shorts, and whined.

“Okay, okay…” She scrolled through the last sectio

n of code she’d written looking for that damn bug that had been plaguing her for hours. Sitting back with a disgusted sigh, she whipped her hair into a ponytail with the band around her wrist. “Damn it. I’m so close. ”

So close to being done with this program. Or at least the initial version. But she wanted it off her to-do list and into NSA’s testing phase. She knew there would be tweaking and fixes, but she could at least get a break. Tightening her ponytail high on her head, she thought about Wes, Wyatt, and the rig. Earlier today, Wes had checked in for a small tweak of his own. Ruby also added three more programs with different settings according to the physical therapist’s suggestions, sort of like a treadmill’s preprogramming.

Wes’s low “Are you still mad at me?” continued to roll through her head, confusing her. Then his “Do you miss me yet?” making her yearn. She missed him far too much to be normal. Or healthy. Or reasonable, given the short span of their intimacy. But the physical was the least of what left this hole at the center of her body.

The loneliness was sharper now that she had nothing to fill the void. Lexi and Jax were together in every spare moment, Wes was gone, and Rubi couldn’t find any interest in hanging at Stilettos only to get hit on by men she didn’t want. The empty, two-dimensional quality of her life glared.

Rodie’s head popped up, and a feral growl rolled from his throat. Followed almost immediately by a round of vicious barks so loud Rubi jumped, winced, and covered her ears. Her heart squeezed and thudded so hard her ribs vibrated. Or maybe that was the sensation of Rodie’s bark rippling through her.

By the time she muttered a curse and uncovered her ears, the front door bell rang. Rodie already stood at the front door, snarling and barking against the sidelight, paws scraping at the window.

Rubi’s patience split. “Goddammit. Hasn’t anyone ever heard of a telephone?”

She grabbed Rodie’s collar and flung the door wide. The three people standing outside, two men and a woman, jumped and scrambled back away from the entry. Rubi recognized the Realtor in a crisp suit, the buyers in Friday designer casual.

“There is this thing called common courtesy,” she said slowly, deliberately. “Maybe you’ve heard of it. Looks a lot like a phone. You know, one of those things where you punch a few buttons and then talk into it. They’re used for things like…appointments. Sharing information. Leaving messages. Just a helpful piece of advice; next time, you might want to use one. Unless, of course, you’d like his freshly cleaned choppers in your leg. ”

“I…I…” the Realtor stammered, his gaze darting between a still-snarling, lunging Rodie and an irate, sick-of-this-shit Rubi. “I’m sorry, ma’am. We… I… The listing didn’t mention the need to contact the resident prior to—”

“And I guess you missed the three signs I posted on your walk to the door. ”

The man glanced nervously over his shoulder with a bewildered “Oh…”

“Wait five minutes,” Rubi said. “We’re going for a run. That will give you forty-five minutes inside. If you’re here when we get back, no guarantees. ”

She shut the door in his stunned face and released Rodie. Rubi grabbed his leash, glanced at the clock, and tightened the laces on her running shoes. “We’re going to be late meeting Desiree,” she told Rodie as she slipped on her sunglasses. “Rodie, come. ”

He trotted away from the front door toward the sliders, and Rubi closed them behind Rodie.

He whined and pranced beside her as she trudged through the dry sand to the water line. “All right, go on. ”

She gestured, and Rodie took off, sprinting after a flock of black-tailed plovers. The birds scattered, some into the air, some into the sea, and Rodie lost interest, sniffing along the shore as Rubi found her stride and caught up.