“You’ve been to Stilettos?” Jax asked, a strange smile on his face as he looked down at Lexi. Her pale cheeks burst into color.

“I took her,” Rubi said, clearing her throat when her voice emerged raspy. “A tease, really. She’d promised me a thank-you drink for recovering one of her crashed programs, and I took her to Stilettos. She didn’t know what kind of club it was. ” Rubi took another sip of her drink and raised one shoulder. “That was the same night you broke out of your comfort zone and met Jax. Remember? Not all bad, I guess. ”

“But you don’t stay in the front at Stilettos,” Wes said, his voice filled with accusation. “Do you?”

“Dude,” Jax said, voice a low undertone. “Not the place. ”

“Lighten up,” Rachel added. “You’re one to talk, Mr. Speed Demon. Like you don’t do anything crazy on a daily basis. ”

Wes ignored them, his expectant gaze locked on Rubi’s face.

A combination of frustration, regret, and anger swirled in her gut. She paused before answering, just an extra second to get her emotions under control. The more she showed, the more he’d think she cared. And that would not help the situation.

She twirled the liquid in her glass, took a breath, and forced her gaze to meet his. His eyes were as dark as she’d expected, the color of an impending storm ready to break. “Why don’t you just ask me what you really want to know, Wes?” When his jaw tightened without answering, she asked what he wouldn’t. “Do I have sex with strangers at the club?”

His eyes darkened beneath a hooded brow of anger.

She smiled, trying to act like his judgment didn’t hurt, but she was pretty sure she’d only managed a smirk. “Not that it’s your business, but, no, Wes. I don’t have sex at Stilettos. ”

His expression remained a cross between anger and disbelief. Rubi tipped her drink back and finished it off.

Wes’s cell rang. He scrambled to pull it from his pocket and glanced down at the display. “Sorry, it’s my mom. ” And pushed back from the table, answering with a soft, “Hey, Mama. ”

His tone, so filled with concern and love, squeezed a strange pleasure-filled pain into Rubi’s chest, but she set it aside as she watched him wander to the edge of the patio. “Is he moody today, or is that my imagination?”

“He’s tense,” Jax said. “His brother just had surgery. ”

Rubi’s gaze darted back to Jax, but she didn’t really see him. Too many thoughts were jumping around her brain. Why hadn’t he told her? Was that the basis of this strange behavior? Her mind darted to the contraption they’d been messing with in the trailer, one she’d thought was a harness.

Before she could ask any questions, Wes returned.

“How is he?” Jax asked.

“She says the surgery went well. ” He looked relieved, sounded calm. Seemed the edge was off his mood. “The surgeon said they got most of the scar tissue and that in a few weeks his mobility should improve a lot. ”

Jax grinned and reached across the table to meet Wes’s fist in a bump. “Great news, man. ”

“What kind of surgery?” Rubi asked. She couldn’t deny she was hurt that Jax, Lexi, and Rachel knew all about it, but she didn’t. She spent almost as much time with him as they did.

“Spine,” was all he said before Roméo came with their lunches. Once they’d all been served, Wes took the side of ranch dressing from his plate and set it next to Rubi’s salad. Then put a few fries on the rim of her salad bowl.

He grabbed another fry, popped it in his mouth, and chewed before saying, “He’s a Marine. He was on his third tour in Afghanistan when an IED exploded inside a building where his unit was doing recon and lodged a shitload of shrapnel in his spine. Today was his second surgery. ”

“Oh no,” she said softly, absently picking the candied pecans from the top of her salad and collecting them in her palm. “I’m sorry. ”

Wes acknowledged the utterly inadequate reply with a nod and took another pull on his beer, but hell, what did you say to news like that? Stress of that kind could completely explain Wes’s rash behavior. He’d mentioned his parents in passing, but never siblings. Granted, given their table had a three-out-of-five family-failure rate, it wasn’t a big topic of conversation when they were together.

“Younger or older brother?” she asked as she set the nuts on a corner of Wes’s plate, then picked up a fry, dipped it in the ranch, and bit it in half.

“Older,” he said, ignoring his burger and using one fry to move around the others, but not really eating. “By four years. He’s married with two little girls. ”

Nieces. The thought made Rubi smile. Her view of Wes settled into place. He had a family that loved each other, worried about each other. He called his mother Mama and talked to her in a voice filled with warmth.

Yes, this was Wes. She might lust after the golden Adonis in her fantasies, but this was the Wes she’d come to truly adore over the last two months.

“So that thing you were working on this morning was for him?”

“Yeah. ” He tossed a pecan into his mouth. “But I’m not sure it’s going to support him. He’s my height, but he’s a big guy, maybe thirty more pounds than me. And he’s not going to have any strength for a while. He’ll be like dead weight until he heals and rebuilds muscle. ”

Tags: Skye Jordan Renegades Romance
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