Ant
“I need to go after him,” he slurred as she helped buckle him into the passenger seat.
Ruby pulled her cell from her purse and called someone.
“This is Dr. Monroe. I need a team waiting for me at Bay C. I’ll be there in eight minutes.
” She was quiet for a few seconds and then growled in frustration.
“Just have a team there waiting. I’ll fill everyone in once I get there.
” She ended the call and tossed her phone onto the dashboard.
“I’m fine,” he slurred. He didn’t sound fine, even to his own ears, but he hated seeing her worry this way.
“I’ll kill you,” he growled — or tried to. But nothing came out of his mouth as the words barely made it past his teeth. Banshee and Bolt tore past him like missiles, running into the tree line after Ruby’s stalker.
“MOVE!” Banshee barked at Bolt as she ran past him and Ruby.
Bolt didn’t slow down, already sprinting into the woods. “We’ll get him!” Bolt said. Ant wondered if he was trying to convince himself or the rest of them.
The stalker smirked, actually smirked, before vanishing into the trees. Ant tried again to stand, and pain shot through his leg. Bolt doubled back to him, grabbing him around the middle, and hoisting him up from the ground. His voice thundered as he barked orders. “Ruby, get him to the hospital!”
“No—” Ant rasped. He wanted to tell him that he could help catch the guy, and that he wanted to keep Ruby safe, but he knew that wasn’t going to be possible with his throbbing leg.
He needed to go after him. Ant wanted to finish this. But he knew that if he tried to, Bolt wouldn’t be able to do his job because he’d be helping him. Letting Bolt do his job while he got his leg looked at would be their best chance to finally catch Ruby’s stalker, and then she’d be safe.
Before he could fight it, Ruby was there by his side, wrapping her arms around him as Bolt took off for the woods again. Her hands held him up as they made their way back to his truck, and her voice steadied his nerves.
“Ant, stay with me,” she shouted at him from the driver’s seat. He was in and out, trying to remember everything that had happened. “You keep falling asleep, and I need you to stay awake,” she ordered. “We are almost to the hospital, and I have a team waiting to take care of you.”
He blinked up at her. She was covered in dust, her eyes blazing with fear and fury, her curls falling loose from her ponytail.
She was beautiful and terrified for him.
He hated that he was putting her through this on top of everything that she had to deal with.
That realization hit harder than the explosion.
The next thing he knew, he was being pulled from the truck and placed on a gurney. Ruby was right beside him the whole time, shouting orders at the doctors and nurses who were taking care of him. He wanted to protest and tell her that he needed to help Bolt.
“I need to go after him,” he slurred as Ruby took his hand into her own.
“Bolt needs my help.” Ruby effectively ignored him as they rolled him into a small room and pulled the curtain shut.
Ruby took charge, and he was thankful that she did.
He didn’t want anyone else to take care of him but her.
Ruby’s hands moved fast but steady, fingers sure despite the tremor he could feel beneath them.
“You’re in no condition to go after anyone, Ant,” she insisted. She smiled at him as she shouted orders at the other doctors and nurses in the room. They all seemed to follow her orders, sticking him with needles and cutting off his jeans so that she could get a better look at his leg.
And even through the haze of meds that were flooding his system, Ant felt something twist deep in his chest. He tried to smile back at her, but judging by the way she shook her head at him, he failed.
Ant could feel his eyes roll back in his head as the meds gave him a warm, fuzzy feeling all over.
Everything hurt, but he was sure that was about to change.
Ruby’s voice cut through the fog, sharp and commanding. She was his controlled chaos, and he wasn’t sure what he’d do without her there by his side. “I’m tired,” he grumbled.
Ruby’s jaw tightened. “That means that the pain meds are doing their job. You can rest now, and when you wake up, you’ll be as good as new.”
“I can’t sleep,” he slurred, “need to protect you.”
She gently cupped his face, and he tried to lean into her touch.
“I can take care of myself,” she promised.
“I’ll be right here when you wake up, Ant.
” He wanted to relax, but for some reason, he couldn’t.
She was safe at the hospital. They had security, but something inside of him was screaming to stay awake to protect Ruby.
“No, I don’t have time for intake questions,” she snapped at the nurse who was trying to ask her questions. “Just have someone else fill them out. I’m not going to stop taking care of him to fill out your paperwork,” she spat.
Ant squinted at her through blurred vision. Even now — with her adrenaline surging, and her stalker on the loose, she was in full doctor mode. And God help him; it made him want her even more.
“I’m fine,” he slurred. Ruby shot him a look that could’ve cut steel.
“Tell your leg that, babe,” she said. “Stop fighting the medication and just rest,” she ordered.
He smirked weakly. “You always this bossy?”
Her fingers tightened on his arm. “Only when someone I care about is acting like an idiot.” The words sliced clean through his brain fog.
Did she mean to call him someone she cared about?
Ant’s chest tightened painfully as he turned his head toward her, studying the fierce line of her jaw, the fear she was trying so damn hard to hide.
“You shouldn’t have run back in there,” he murmured.
“The building was falling down, and it wasn’t safe.
” He remembered the explosion and waking up on the concrete floor.
When he saw Ruby running into the building towards him, he wanted to stand up and tell her to get the fuck out of there, but he couldn’t.
He remembered feeling completely terrified that she was going to end up getting herself killed, and that just pissed him off.
Ruby’s voice softened — just a fraction.
“You shouldn’t have been under a collapsing building.
” Touché. Ant’s thoughts drifted as his mind went to a much darker place.
The explosion that had been planned by Ruby’s stalker, and the precision that it took to coordinate it all.
This wasn’t a random escalation anymore.
This was war, and he’d just put Ruby directly in the crosshairs.
Guilt churned in his gut. But when Ruby reached for his hand and laced her fingers tightly through his—not as his doctor, or his caretaker, but as his Ruby, Ant realized something terrifying.
He wasn’t just afraid of losing her stalker.
He was afraid of losing her, and that fear was far more dangerous to his heart than any damage the explosion had done to his body.
Ant hated hospitals. He hated the antiseptic smell and the feeling of being helpless as he lay in the hospital bed.
Everyone had been so nice to him, and he was sure that had everything to do with the hot-headed doctor who stood watch like a centaur over him.
Being in the hospital made him feel as though he had lost control over his entire life, and that was true—he had.
He had no control over Ruby’s case anymore, and relying on Bolt for details was getting on his last nerve.
He knew that the guy was holding back with him, and that just pissed him off.
He had been laid up, with a cast on his damn leg, for almost a week now, and he hated that he was out of the loop.
Bolt had moved Ruby in with him and Rebel and promised not to let her out of his sight.
He wanted Bolt to take Ruby and get her out of town to a safe house, but she refused to go.
She said that she needed to be with him and that she couldn’t take off work.
She was being a stubborn mule, and she hated that she wouldn’t just follow his orders.
Now that he was her patient, she was the one giving the orders, and that had him feeling out of his element.
Bolt and Banshee weren’t able to catch up with the guy, and Ant worried that meant he was still out there watching Ruby.
She didn’t seem fazed by that thought at all, but it terrified him.
The only time he could get any shut-eye was when Ruby agreed to spend the night with him in his hospital room.
He hated that she wasn’t getting much sleep before going back to work the next day, but having her next to him gave him peace of mind to rest.
“There’s my favorite patient,” Ruby teased as she walked into the room. He wanted to protest and tell her that he was more than a patient to her, but she looked dog-tired, and he decided against it.
“When do I get out of here?” he asked.
“Well, that’s why I’m here,” she admitted. “You get to go home today. Once the orthopedic doctor comes down to check you out, we can head home. But you are on bed rest for the next two weeks, and if you fight me on that, I’ll drive you back down here myself.”
“Are you trying to piss me off or kill me, honey?” he asked.
“Neither,” Ruby admitted. “I’m trying to keep you alive and help you heal. So, can you follow the doctor’s orders?” she asked.
“You meant to ask if I can follow your orders, Ruby,” he mumbled under his breath.
She giggled and nodded. “As your doctor, yes. Can you follow my orders, Ant?” she asked.
“If it means getting out of here and being able to sleep in my own bed, then yes,” he admitted. “I can behave and follow the doctor’s orders.”