Dangerous Benefits (The Ruby Danger Series Book 2)
Page 28
“This reminds me of another time I watched you pack a suitcase. Back in our academy days, when your parents made you go back to Mumbai to get married. Remember?”
“They didn’t make me. I went voluntarily.”
“Of course.” She studied his face, memorizing every detail. What would she do without him? “Do you remember what you asked me?”
He turned and placed the suitcase in the hall without replying.
“You asked me,” Ruby said, “if there was any reason you should stay. And I said—”
“Nothing of consequence, as I recall.”
“What if I had said something different?”
The question hung between them. She held her breath as he looked at her, his eyes wistful.
“That was a lifetime ago, Ruby.”
Hari picked up the suitcase and she followed him down the hall to the front door.
“Let me help you with those bags.”
“The service will be here in a moment and they’ll take them.” He glanced around, then walked to the coffee table, picked up a white orchid plant and held it out to her. “You might as well have this. Or leave it for the sublet. I don’t care.”
Ruby took the plant and prodded the soil with her finger. It hadn’t been watered for quite a while. They looked at each other.
“These your bags, sir?”
A man wearing a peaked cap with the badge of a Manhattan car service stood in the doorway. The driver picked up the two largest cases and they followed him to the elevator.
At the curb, the driver put the suitcases in the trunk and opened the back passenger door. Hari turned to face Ruby and for a moment they stood, motionless. Then she threw her arms around him.
He hugged her and she leaned against him, warm and safe, as if this was exactly where she should be. Then he let go and climbed into the back seat, and the driver slammed the door. Hari smiled at her through the window as the car pulled away.
Ruby looked down at the white orchid plant in her hands. Some of its leaves were ragged, and several blossoms drooped. It needed care, but it was salvageable. It just needed time.
She turned toward home.
THE END
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Acknowledgments
My sincere thanks to editor Alex McGilvery for his insightful suggestions on structure and style; copy editor extraordinaire Martha Hayes, whose attention to detail is remarkable; and Paul Solyn and Lin White for their valuable input.
And, as always, I’d like to thank Grace-ann McIntyre, whose unflagging support and indispensable critiques made this all possible.
About the Author
Rickie Blair dangled her first participle at the age of six. For over two decades she's been a financial journalist, writing and editing for major financial newspapers and magazines. She lives in southern Ontario with several cranky pets and an overactive Netflix account.
Dangerous Benefits is the second book in the Ruby Danger series. Sign up for my newsletter at www.rickieblair.com to get the first book in the series, Dangerous Allies, for free.
Other Books by Rickie Blair
DANGEROUS ALLIES
Second honeymoons can be dangerous…
Tabloid target Ruby Delaney is determined to put the parties, booze, and notorious paparazzi photos behind her. A cruise with her husband is the fresh start she needs. But their luxury liner has barely left port when she stumbles across evidence her spouse is involved in a massive stock fraud linked to the ruthless Russian mob. She’s stunned to discover he plans to disappear with millions and frame her for the crime.
Ruby stages a disappearing act of her own, but her impulsive action backfires when the mob becomes convinced she’s vanished with their share of the take. In a frantic race to uncover the truth and escape with her life, Ruby leaves a trail of collateral damage. She doesn’t know who to trust, where to find answers, and above all—how to get off a cruise ship, undetected, in the middle of the Caribbean.
Dangerous Allies is the first book in the Ruby Danger series.
DANGEROUS COMFORTS
She wanted fun in Sin City. Not death beneath the streets.
After the tragic consequences of Bhatt & Delaney’s last case, fraud investigators Ruby Delaney and Hari Bhatt have parted. Ruby is filming a movie in Los Angeles, and Hari is holed up in London. Neither is interested in uncovering any more financial shenanigans.
Then Ruby takes a weekend trip to Las Vegas and stumbles upon a mortgage scam that’s torn an elderly woman from her home. And Hari finds himself on a private jet headed to an undercover assignment at a Las Vegas casino-hotel.
Their cases converge when a body is discovered in the home of a missing casino employee. The troubled partners must put aside their tangled emotions and join forces to save his terrified killer. But they’re racing against their deadliest adversary yet, who’s hunting for the same man.
Dangerous Comforts is the third book in the Ruby Danger series.