RUIN - Part Three (The RUIN Series Book 3) Read Online Free PDF

only met a few times, it makes perfect sense.
    He smiles but it's fleeting and within a blink of my eye it's vanished. "So you know why he followed you?"
    I know that Noah likes to draw people out of their shells without revealing too much of himself. Whether he's consciously aware of it or not, he's doing that to me now. I just want him to tell me what he discussed with Ben. "He wanted to see whether I was getting through to you, I guess," I say it stiffly. "He was using me to try and reconnect with you."
    "Who told you that? Ben or Parker?" His head tilts to the right. "Which one told you that?"
    "Ben said it when I heard them talking," I begin and then stop to take a drink of water. I dart my tongue over my bottom lip before I continue, "I heard Ben say that he followed me and that he could tell I was getting through to you and…" I stop again because confessing to Noah that Ben was going to hand me back to Parker on a silver platter once he and Noah were on better terms, stings too much.
    "Ben told Parker you were his again when he got me back." Noah's eyes meet mine and I see a soft understanding there. He knows so much more than I thought he did. Judging by what he's told me so far, Ben has shared almost every detail of the exchange in Parker's apartment with him. "He only said those things to keep that asshole away from you. He knew Parker was a son-of-bitch."
    I catch my breath to hold back an unexpected sob. I shouldn't be surprised that I'm this emotional. I've been holding everything in for two days. I wanted to cry when I'd checked myself into the small hotel room in Boston but as I sat in the bathtub there for more than an hour, nothing came. I was numb. I am numb. I've been that way since I heard Ben and Parker talking about me.
    Noah reaches across the table to grab my hand. "You should have called me, Kayla. I would have come there. Alexa and I would have been on the next flight to come get you."
    The words touch me so deeply that I weep aloud. "I didn't know that."
    "We are your family." His large hand cradles mine tenderly. "We will always be your family. Tell me you know that."
    I nod without raising my gaze from my lap. "I do know that, Noah."
    "We need to talk about Ben, Kayla." His tone is smooth and direct. "I need to explain what's really going on."
    I want someone to. I need someone to and if that someone is Noah Foster, I'm all ears.
     

Chapter 7
     
    "I didn't choose Sadie to be my matron-of-honor because I love her more than you." Alexa sits down on the edge of the bed in the guestroom of the apartment she shares with Noah.
    He'd brought me back here in a cab after we'd finished our dinner. It was important to him that Alexa be part of our conversation.  She'd insisted that I spend the night at their place after he called to tell her he was bringing me over.  I was grateful for the chance to sleep in this bed again. I feel safe here and a part of something that matters. I feel truly as though I'm with family.
    "Sadie and you are so different," she continues without waiting for me to respond. "She needs me in ways you don't, Kayla."
    "I know that she does, Lex." I reach for her hand. "You've known her a lot longer than you've known me."
    "That's part of it, I guess." She twirls her index finger over the fingernail of my thumb. "It's more about how strong you are. I admire that about you."
    She's never shared that with me. We've complimented each other the way close friends do when one is feeling battered by the world. I did it when she had her heart broken in Paris by Beck, an artist who had swept her off her feet and into his bed. She'd done it for me when I was passed over for an internship during my junior year of college. She was ready to march down to the office of the company I wanted a placement with to give them a speech about why they were making a mistake they'd regret.  We've always had each other's backs. It goes without saying.
    "Noah told me about what happened at your apartment