Looking at Ryer I waited for him to take back his underhanded comment about how I wasn’t cut out for his line of work if I couldn’t handle the smell and the bodies. He dried off his hair still not taking the comment back.

“Take that back Ryer.”

“It’s the truth, maybe you shouldn’t take Maddox up on his offer.”

The more he spoke, the mad I got about it. Until finally I had it.

“You know what, I don’t care for or about your opinion, I’ll do it just out of spite now!”

“Sasha! Wait, I—”

I stomped out of the door and down the hall. Fuck Ryer and his bullshit, I could do whatever I wanted, and that was that. It was still well within the time that Maddox would be in his office. Knocking on the door, He opened it, his phone against his ear and he pointed to a seat without even speaking to me. I sat down, This had been the first time I had actually sat down in his office. I had seen it briefly when he come out to meet me with Alexi and Creed.

Once he was off the phone, he checked something on it before he smirked and set the phone down on the top of his desk as he sat back down.

“Sasha, Ryer said I should expect you.”

“Of course he did.”

“Did you come here because you’re mad at Ryer or are you here because you actually want the job?”

“I want the job.”

“So this has nothing to do with having something to prove to him then?”

“I have nothing to prove to Ryer. At least not anything related to this.”

“This is not just a nine-to-five Sasha, it’s more than that in many ways, it’s late nights, dangerous situations, two a.m wake-ups. Are you sure this is what you want?”

“Yes, I’m pretty used to twenty-four-hour workdays, I thrive that way.”

Maddox stuck his hand out and I shook it, it was the oddest transaction I had with him yet, but no words needed to be spoken. I knew what it meant, and he did too. It was a gentlemen’s agreement, sighed and sealed with a handshake.

“Don’t worry about having to jump into work, You still have all the time you need to heal and recondition your body. I might need to have your help with a few things in the next week or so, but nothing too large or overwhelming. And Sasha, I will require a few things from you, I’ll have Alexi deal with that though.”

“Alright.”

“Go back to Ryers, Relax, and I’ll be in touch.”

I nodded before leaving his office. A weird feeling of coolness swept through my body, almost like I had don’t something bad and was going to be found out. But I really had done nothing bad, not that I could think of other than accepting Maddox’s offer.

Ryer was cooking dinner when I got back from Maddox’s office and at first, he said nothing to me, not a word. But after a few minutes of me sitting at the table watching him, he spoke.

“Do you feel better now?”

His tone wasn’t snarky or cold, it wasn’t rude either; it was just his normal tone. I didn’t answer him, not because I wanted to ignore him, but rather I wasn’t sure what to say to him. There was a lot to that question.

“No.” I hissed out finally.

“Why not?” Ryer said rolling his sleeves up to his elbows and crossing his arms as he looked at me.

“I don’t know, it just didn’t.”

“But you did exactly what you wanted to, you proved me wrong didn’t you?”

I clicked my tongue in anger but didn’t say a damn word. He was calm and here I was losing my shit about it. Inhaling a large breath, I let it out before speaking again.

“I did it because I wanted to, not because I wanted to prove you wrong.”

“Is that right?”

“Do you just enjoy pissing me off, Ryer! Does it do something to your cock and ego!”

“Wouldn't you like to know?” He commented before going back to the stove.

I glared at his back, watching as he pulled his hand through his short hair and sighed. The longer I glared at him, the harder it became to actually focus on being mad at him and not be ambushed with my attraction for him. Subtle things he was doing was enough to make all the anger seep away.

He was clearly ignoring my presence, and I wanted him to look at me. But, I wasn’t about to call out to him, for nothing. I was not that desperate for his attention. Instead, I took the laundry basket from the bathroom, which was pretty empty and went off the laundry room. His clothing from earlier was thrown out, so it didn’t add to the current amount of laundry, my own had already made it into the basket.

I made sure to switch the load to small and shoved the clothing in, adding soap and closing the lid. I leaned against the machine taking a deep breath and just relaxing there. The thought of Ryer and I making something out of the mess of feelings I had felt like such a waste of his time. I didn’t know the first thing about loving someone or what you did when you were in love.

Heading back towards the kitchen, Ryer was pulling something out of the oven and again, not paying attention to me. I slipped into his room and sat in his bed. Shoving the blanket down I tucked my feet under the blanket, pulling it up to my hips. My phone vibrated before letting out a few dings to let me know it was a phone call and not a text.

Lev’s name flashed over the screen and I didn’t hesitate to answer the phone.

“Sasha speaking.”

“Hey, Sasha how’s it going, How’s the back healing now?”

“It’s taking its sweet time, but it seems to be coming along, how’s your wound?”

“Fine, fine, I’m pretty good. Still tender some days but ninety per cent back to normal.”

“I’m glad to hear that, I’m just waiting for the day I’ll be ninety per cent back to normal.”

Ryer stood in the doorway,

“Hey Lev, Hold on, Ryer needs something.”

I pulled the phone away from my ear and muted my end.

“Sorry, What did you need?”

“Come get dinner before it gets cold.” He said flatly before walking away.

It pissed Ryer off I was talking to Lev; I knew that much. I unmuted my end of the call and told Lev I would call him back later and hung up. Ryer was at the table already eating.

“Plates are in the cupboard and food is on the tray.” He told me as I got to the table.

Getting some food I sat back at the table, and we ate in uncomfortable silence. Ryer was pissed about Lev, still. I didn’t fully understand why he was so pissed about it, Lev wasn’t interested in me and I wasn’t interested in him. The only thing that ever happened that night was that we drank, I got wasted, and he helped me back to the complex, after the run-in with Ryer of course.

Lev was nothing more than someone I viewed as a friend.

Ryer left the table the minute he was done eating, and I swallowed the bite in my mouth.

“Can we talk about this? I know you're not fond of Lev—-”

“I have to get ready for work, don’t wait up for me.”

He went to the bedroom and closed the door. I finished what was on my plate before I took it to the sink and washed my dishes. I wanted to go in the bedroom and fight more with Ryer, but I settled on just going to see Alexi and Creed. Save the argument.

I didn’t even knock on the office door, I just tossed it open. Creed and Alexi were talking about some of the paperwork they had, But it was discarded when I entered the room.

“Your not mad at us for alerting Ryer about your workout?”

“No. Ryer, oh man, don’t get me started on that fucking mess.”

“Did something happen after he came and got you?”

“No, but something happened now. First, he is all, Sasha don’t push it, kiss kiss, now he is all don’t wait up for me, I have work. Fuck right off.”

Alexi just blinked and Creed sipped his coffee before he spoke.

“So you kissed Ryer?”

“Is that all you go out of that?” I groaned.

“How about you explain what happened to us, well I text the good doctor and see if he has an opening to help fix this,” Alexi said as he pointed to all of me.

“I don’t need to speak to the—— you know what, fuck it, I’ll take all the sessions if it means I understand what the fuck is going on with me. I want to punch the shit out of Ryer but at the same time, I’m down because he’s pissed at me about Lev calling me and all kinds of other shit going on.”

“Uh-huh, so Lev called and Ryer is pissed about it?” Creed asked.

“No, it’s more than just that.”

“Care to explain?”

“Ryer said I couldn’t handle Maddox’s offer, so I stomped off to accept it and prove to him I could. When I got back from accepting Maddox’s offer he all but shoved it in my face and asked if it made me feel better to prove him wrong. Which it didn’t because I felt fucking shitty about it. I got pissed and lost it, so I went and did our laundry, which really was none. I wanted to just relax in Ryer’s bed because it’s perfect, but no. Lev called and Ryer walked into Lev and I speaking and that’s when he really started to give me the cold shoulder and now I’m here.”

“So Ryer has an unsung jealousy for Lev.”

“I wouldn’t call it unsung, He punched Lev,” Creed said smirking.

“How the fuck did I get myself into this shit.” I groaned again. Laying on the couch and looking at the ceiling. Ryer had made my already messy life worse.

“It could be worse,” Alexi said.

“I don’t know what to do.”

“You are welcome to stay with us here, Alexi had some paperwork and stuff for you. Underboss shit.” Creed said wiggling his eyebrows in a playful manner.

Ah yes, my new responsibilities. Underboss shit.