Page 106 of Swerve (Boosted Hearts 1)

“Ruby . . .” Jude stared.

“No.” I turned to Van. “You know I can do this. Call Harry, he trusts me . . .”

Van’s hand came down on my shoulder and he squeezed, shutting me up. “I know you’re capable. I also knew you’d make a fucking good agent, but you’re too close to this.”

“So are you,” I fired back. “All of you are.”

“We know how to lock it down.” Jude said. “I’m not trying to be a dick, but you storming in after Neco could do more harm than good.”

I gritted my teeth and shook my head. He had a point, I knew he did, or he believed he did, but they had no idea, no idea what I’d been through or what I was capable of.

“I know how to lock it down.” My eyes slid to the men in front of me, men that I considered friends, and words tripped over my tongue before I knew they were coming. “I learned how to lock it down when I was four years old. That was the first time I remember her telling me she hated me. I locked it down all the times she told me I was fat and ugly and she wished I was dead. I locked it down when her boyfriends tried to come into my room and she blamed me for it, when she got drunk and had sex with those same men right in front of me, when they laughed at me and called me names, when they threw empty beer cans at me for their own fucked-up entertainment. I’ve been locking it down my whole life.” I hardened my features. “I can sure as hell lock it down to save Neco.”

Van cursed, and both men had similar looks on their faces, expressions that told me they wanted to blow Valery’s brains out as badly as I did.

“Besides, she wants me, you heard her. She sees one of you, she’ll kill him. And I don’t doubt it for a minute.”

“If you think you can do this, I trust you,” Van finally said. “But we need to play this very carefully. She not working alone. We don’t know what you’ll be walking in to.”

I nodded. “My mother is like any other bully—deep down, she’s a coward. No way would she try something like this without backup.”

Jude’s meaty hand landed on my shoulder again and he tugged me in, giving me a quick squeeze. “Right, let’s get you kitted up and we can go over how this is gonna go down.”

A lot of different emotions were battling for dominance inside me at that moment, but I refused to let anything but determination win out.

Neco’s life depended on it.

* * *

A youngish-looking guy in a blue truck pulled up beside me in the Walmart parking lot. I knew he was there for me instantly. When Valery texted with the location, we guessed it wasn’t where the exchange would take place. Too exposed, too out in the open.

The truck door opened and slammed shut.

Show time.

Van and Hunter, who had arrived back at the agency not long after Valery called, were in a people mover across the lot, and Jude was on his bike somewhere as well, both ready and waiting to follow. I wasn’t wired because they were pretty sure I’d be searched before moving to the next location. The GPS tracking was activated on my phone as backup, if for some reason they lost me. This was highly unlikely. These guys knew what they were doing. I trusted them.

I stayed where I was, watching the guy round the hood of my car. He was blond, young, like Scott had been, Valery’s type. He looked like he spent a lot of time at them gym, and I’d take a wild guess and say he partook in the consumption of steroids to maintain those ridiculous muscles. He looked like someone had overinflated him and there was risk of him popping at any moment.

He stopped by my door, looking at me with a sneer on his face.

I shoved my door open, forcing him back a step, and concentrated on ignoring the nerves going crazy in my belly. I could do this.

I had no choice but to go in weaponless. Still, I had a blade shoved down the side of my boot, but I assumed this could be confiscated if steroid boy did his job properly.

“Ruby?” he said as he looked down at me.

The guy looked tweaked. After living with Scott, I was an expert at spotting the signs. Fucking awesome.

I stared back. “So what does she have over you?” I asked casually. “We both know she’s a raging bitch. You can’t be her errand boy because of her winning personality. She supply your drugs? You need cash? What is it?”

He looked surprised by my questions, his tough guy front dropping for a split second, then he shook his head and scowled. “How about you shut the fuck up.” Then wrapped his fingers around my bicep and towed me toward his truck.

I shrugged, trying to loosen his hold at the same time. “You can’t blame me for asking. You’re a good-looking guy. She’s a nasty skank. I assume you have the same kind of relationship with Valery as she did with Scott?”

He shoved me against the truck. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“You didn’t know?” I faked a sympathetic look. “That she was fucking Scott? Which is seriously gross, since she was old enough to be his mother.”