Ivan 2 (Her Russian Protector #9) - Roxie Rivera Page 0,53
for the gym is preventing staph. That shit is dangerous There are fighters who have died because of staph infections that started in a cut or scrap and spread. Cleanliness is the first and best defense.”
“Right,” she said, nodding and taking it seriously. “There was a staph outbreak in one of the cell blocks when I first went inside. One of the girls over there ended up with it on her face.” She shuddered. “She almost lost her eye.”
He wasn’t at all surprised to hear that. He had seen even worse things in prison, but he wasn’t about to share those stories with her. Instead, he asked, “Any questions?”
“Nyet, comrade,” she said with a mocking salute.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” he grumbled and walked away from her. “I’m already regretting hiring you.”
“Hey, can I get an advance on my first check?” she called out as he unlocked the office he shared with Erin. “And what’s the retirement plan here?”
Throughout the rest of the morning, he kept an eye on her. Erin wasn’t coming in until after lunch because she had meetings at the bank, with their accountant and Mueller. That meant Ruby was the only woman in the Warehouse, and he worried that there might be friction. The few times he caught some of his fighters trying to catch Ruby’s attention, he made sure they didn’t look at her a second time.
“Why don’t you just issue them blindfolds?” Ruby asked when she wandered into the kitchen a little while later. “The amount of sweat dripping on the floor from the laps you’re making them run is making more work for me.”
“More work means you have job stability,” he replied, grabbing a dozen eggs from the well-stocked refrigerator. “Do you want one?”
She shook her head. “I made some oatmeal while you were stretching your neck in that torture machine.”
“It’s for neck strengthening.”
“Whatever you say.” She flopped down in a chair and watched him crack eggs into a bowl for his usual scramble. “Do you know how many times I’ve heard the words ‘bitch tits’ this morning?”
He frowned. “I’ll talk to them about the language.”
“You should have Erin make a sign,” she joked. “Can you imagine? She’d need, like, twenty sheets of poster board to list all the forbidden words.”
“In English,” he remarked, still cracking eggs. “She would need even more for all the Spanish and Russian that gets thrown around in here.”
“How many eggs is that?” Ruby asked in a scandalized tone. “Is this when you break out into song and tell me how you eat five dozen eggs so you can stay the size of a barge?”
His brow furrowed, and he turned to face her. “What the hell does that mean?”
She seemed taken aback. “Gaston? Belle? Le Fou?”
He shook his head.
“Seriously?” She reacted with disbelief. “I’m supposed to believe that my sister married you, but she’s never made you sit through Beauty and the Beast so many times the lyrics and music are imprinted in your brain for all eternity?”
“Is it a movie?”
“It’s her favorite movie. The Disney cartoon version,” she clarified. “She watched it every single day after school from kindergarten until, like, fifth grade. She watched it at least once a week after that. Burned through dozens of copies of the tape and the DVD.” Her expression turned wistful. “We went to Disney World when we were kids, and I thought she was going to faint when she saw Belle. We were supposed to go back after they added all the restaurants and show to Magic Kingdom, but Mom and Dad...” She let the thought fade. “Well. Anyway.” She stood up and checked her watch. “I need to switch out the laundry.”
After she left, he finished cooking his breakfast and then used his phone to look up the movie. He added it to his watchlist and then texted Erin to see how her morning meetings were going. She had taken Kir with her, but he was still anxious that something would happen. She replied back with a selfie from the bank waiting area and assured him all was well.
Back out on the gym floor, he noticed the way Ruby carried herself as she moved around the space. She kept her back to the wall. Her eyes were continually scanning the room, seeking out potential threats and exits. He understood that fearful behavior and defensiveness. He had been the same way once. It was hard to slide back into civilian life after all that time on high alert.
He waited until