Ricochet (Renegades #3)(43)
Author: Skye Jordan

Ryker extended his hand. “Toss me a set. I’ll bring one up.”

They were chatting about the sequence action plan as they left the trailer and totted down the stairs, their voices fading along with their footsteps as they headed down the hill. And Rachel was left with a shitload of work to get done before she left and absolutely no ability to concentrate.

She pulled up the human resources program on her computer and opened payroll. Then glanced at the clock in the corner of her screen and thought about everything she needed to take care of before she left, and her shoulders tightened.

She opened the ledger where she kept track of everyone’s hours, and her ears perked at the sound of an engine climbing the grade, followed by the crunch of gravel beneath tires. The storage parking lot was a mile down the hill. That couldn’t be Jax and Nathan, and since the crew was shooting a night scene later, she hadn’t anticipated seeing anyone before noon.

But footsteps on the stairs brought her head up just as the trailer door opened. Troy stepped in with a scowl.

“Hey,” she said, straightening. “What are you doing here?”

“Rach, we need to talk.”

She dropped her hands on her desk. “Oh, God, Troy. This big brother thing has really gone too far.”

He braced his hands on cocked hips and gave her the I’m-not-leaving-until-we-talk scowl.

“Fine, fine.” It wasn’t like she was getting anything done anyway. “When everyone is bitching about their paycheck, I’m sending them to you.”

She pushed back from her desk and walked to the couch, then plopped down in the corner where Ryker had been sitting earlier. She shifted sideways and bent one foot underneath her. Troy sat next to her, elbows on knees, palms flat against each other in front of his mouth.

When he didn’t say anything and his scowl remained, Rachel said, “What’s going on with you? I’ve never seen you like this.”

He pulled his hands back to speak but didn’t look at her. “That’s because I’ve never been in this situation.”

“What situation?”

“Having my best friend all hot for another best friend.”

“Troy,” she softened her voice. “Nothing’s happening between Ryker and me. Besides, you’ve seen me handle myself with men around here for six months. I can hold my own just fine. And I should bust the overwhelming myth around here that I’m a one man type of girl, because serious is not on my interest list at the moment.” But her curiosity got the best of her. “What’s got you so concerned?”

He heaved a breath and closed his eyes. “Can I be honest with you Rach?”

She reached out and curved her fingers around his muscled forearm. “Always.”

“I have a trust with Ryker I can’t break,” he said. “It wouldn’t be right. But it’s not right to sit by and watch you get hurt because I know he’s not going to come out and tell you himself, either.”

He’s married. It was the first thing that fluttered into her mind. She managed to hold herself together and calmly said. “Okay.”

“Ryker…is a good man.” Troy glanced at her then, meeting her gaze with determination. “A really good man. Honorable, loyal, dedicated, honest…”

Her stomach tightened. “But…”

“He’s…” Troy let out a breath and turned away again, but not before the anguish showed on his face, “in a bad place—emotionally, mentally. He’s seen…bad stuff. Hellacious stuff. He’s lost a lot of good friends. Eventually, that gets to a person. Changes a person. And right now, he’s struggling.”

“You can’t be saying he’s not stable, because I know you would never have recommended him for this job—“

“No, no. He’s completely capable of pulling this off. I mean, he’s in a bad place—emotionally, mentally. He’s seen bad stuff. He’s lost a lot of good friends. Eventually, that gets to a person. He’s broken—on the inside. He’s hurting in a place that can’t always be healed. He’s damaged in a way that sometimes makes him hurt other people without meaning to.”

A chill expanded in Rachel’s belly, while the sting of fear burned in her chest.

He turned his head and met her eyes. “I don’t want you pulled into that web, because here’s the truth about you, Rach. You may not be interested in serious, but you care. You care about everyone and everything. It’s in your genetic makeup. And even if you were to hookup with a guy for a night, or two, or whatever, you’d still care.”

Troy stood, shoved his hands into his pockets met her eyes. Christ, he looked ten years older than he should. Worried. Wrung out. Pained.

“I know you’re a big girl, Rach. I know you can make your own choices. But I want you to make informed choices. Know that Ry is really good at getting women right where he wants them. I’ve watched him do it our whole lives. And he hasn’t changed. He’s been doing it with a different woman every night for the last month in New Orleans.

“The Army is his life. It’s all he knows, and it’s what he loves. It’s as much the air he breathes as Renegades is mine. Without it, he would spiral into self-destruction. He’s going back to Afghanistan, Rach, and he’s not coming back. Not for at least two years. That’s his pattern. And it might not be my place to say, but I think you deserve better.”

Rachel exhaled, but that didn’t help the knot in her gut. There was something else going on with Troy, she’d known him long enough to see he was being eaten on the inside, too, and it wasn’t jealousy. There had never been any attraction between she and Troy. They’d been like brother and sister from the start. But it was pretty clear Nathan’s presence had sparked something painful for Troy.

“Thank you for telling me,” she said, then added a tentative, “I’m always here for you, too, if you need to talk or…anything. You know I love you, right?”

A smile lifted the corner of his mouth. “Yeah. I guess you’re pretty okay too.” He started toward the door. “Get back to work. I need a fucking paycheck. I ain’t got no sugar mama like Chamberlin and Lawson.”

12

“You weren’t lyin’. You are one hell of a little hiker.”

Ryker paused in the shade of another bridge pillar, the last one he and Rachel needed to inspect before they headed back down for the day. But, truthfully, he wasn’t in any hurry to leave Rachel or the gorgeous landscape.