Page 13 of Swerve (Boosted Hearts 1)

I shoved the door open and went for the guy my mom was leading to her bedroom, one of her regulars. Grabbing him by the back of the shirt, I swung him back, shoved him against the wall, and plowed my fist into his gut.

He gasped then dry heaved.

“Don’t ever come back here,” I snarled in his face.

My mom rushed over. “What are you doing? Let him go.”

I ignored her and dragged the guy from our house, throwing him on his ass, out on the lawn. “If I see you here again, I’ll put a bullet in your skull.” Then I slammed the door shut and turned to my mother.

She stood there, small frame shaking. “Why did you do that? . . . Oh God, we needed the money, Neco . . .” She hugged herself. “We needed that money . . .”

I pulled a wad of cash from my pocket and placed it in her hand. “No more, Mom.” I said, shaking my head. “You don’t need to do it anymore.”

She grabbed my hands, gasping at the sight of my busted to fuck knuckles. “What did you do?”

I kissed her cheek and pulled her in for a hug. “It’s going to be all right now, Mom. I promise. I promise I’ll take care of you.”

I’d done my first job for Tomas that day, a local thug who’d started his criminal empire on our shitty streets. I’d been fifteen years old.

I’d do it again, for her, for anyone I loved, in a heartbeat.

We ate and talked, like always. I kept it light. She liked to hear about Hunter and his woman Lulu. Their son Josh. Hunter had spent a lot of time here when we were kids and she liked to know how the guys I’d grown up with were doing. It made her happy to know they were doing good. “What about you?” she said, head tilted to the side, her green eyes looking suddenly alert and clear.

“Hmm?” I shoved another mouthful of egg in my mouth.

A grin tugged the corner of her mouth. “You got yourself a girl?”

I shook my head. “I’ve got no time for a woman.”

“You need to make time. You’ve grown into such a handsome man. And you’re such a sweetheart. I bet there are lots of girls that would love you to ask them out.”

I chuckled. “I’m not really a dating kind of guy.”

She smirked and I loved it. Loved to see her happy like this, joking around. “Nothing’s changed I see.” She patted me on the cheek. “I mean look at that face. You’re so damn cute. Too cute to be a heart breaker.”

“Come on, Ma, cut it out.”

She smiled and shook her head. “You need to find a girl, like Hunter did. A nice girl, with a lot of backbone, one that can keep you in line and will give me lots of grand-babies.”

Ruby instantly entered my head and I mentally shook myself. “Don’t think there’s a woman out there capable of keeping me in line.”

She laughed. “Of course there is.”

I knew one that could have me on my fucking knees if that’s where she wanted me. Shit, if she asked me to get her the moon, I’d boost a goddamn space shuttle to get it, just to see her smile.

Jesus Christ.

I put down my knife and fork and started cleaning up.

My mom’s chair scraped. “I can do that.”

“You stay there. I’ve got it.”

She started humming again, her eyes glazing over once more, the moment of clarity gone.

Shit. I kissed her cheek and got to work.

I still hadn’t allowed myself to think about the other night in great detail. If I did, I might go to Ruby and claim that perfect fucking mouth one more time. Seeing her rush into that house . . . shit. Anything could have happened. That fucker I’d gone after was up on attempted rape charges. He’d already served time for the same crime a few years back. The guy needed a bullet through the head, not release on bail. Just having Ruby in the same room as him had been enough to send me over the edge. It was either force myself to remain calm or lose my shit completely. But in the end, the urge to stake some kind of claim over her, to prove she was mine and if anyone touched her—fuck, looked at her—I would end their miserable lives, had been almost more than I could resist.