Chapter 8
CHAPTER 8
When Tower forced Ruth into his apartment, Leo couldn’t flee fast enough. He had to run before he did something he’d regret.
And, no, he wasn’t talking about having a shot of something that burned the belly.
He feared giving in to temptation of the carnal kind. The more Buttercup antagonized him, the more he found himself fighting an urge to kiss her. He’d not wanted to do that with anyone since Kylie. To add to his odd attraction, Ruth was nothing like her.
Kylie had been petite and dainty and outgoing. She constantly flirted, fluttering her lashes at Leo, moving provocatively, dropping things on the floor in front of him for an excuse to bend over. She was hyper-feminine in dress and mannerisms, and quick to pout if she didn’t get her way. She also very timid. If he raised his voice, even slightly, she’d tremble and tears would well. It led to him being soft-spoken and coddling.
In the beginning.
The coquette he’d fallen for changed after they got married. As if a switch flipped, Kylie turned into a completely different woman, one cold and indifferent, prone to bouts of temper—and the insults! It was a wonder his dick didn’t shrivel and die with some of the things she’d said. She’d gone from super loving to hateful, and he never did figure out why. To make the situation worse, she went through bouts where she’d return to being the seductress he’d fallen for. She’d apologize for her behavior, they’d fuck, and Leo would think things were good until a coffee cup came flying at his head for daring to breathe. His quick marriage to Kylie made him regret ever listening to his dick.
Back to his attraction to Ruth. It made no sense. She didn’t flirt, didn’t tease. Ruth didn’t shy away from calling him out, nor did she tiptoe around his feelings. She spoke her mind. Even argued. Strangely, he enjoyed it.
He couldn’t recall the last time he’d had so much fun bantering. And her face when he’d shot down all her suggestions for a hobby? She’d been so mad—and cute—he’d just wanted to kiss her. After all, sex could be a hobby, right?
He doubted she’d agree, not to mention would most likely slap him if he so much as tried to seduce her.
Which he wouldn’t. He’d sworn off women, remember?
Just in case he proved weak—and stupid—he left on the pretext of bringing the journal to Aquarius. He trotted down the stairs to the seventh level, where most of the administration of the Zodiacs happened, and found Aquarius at his desk.
Leo dropped the book on the surface with a thump. “Need you to scan this.”
The other warrior spun his chair and leaned back with an arched brow. “Well hello to you too, brother.” Not actually related, but when you worked this closely with people, they became family.
“For fuck’s sake. Hello. How are you doing? I’m fucking just peachy. Now scan this.”
Aquarius smirked. “Someone’s in a mood. Eager to get back to the woman you brought home?”
“It’s not like that,” Leo huffed. “Ruth is my shrink.”
“Wait, you’re finally seeing someone? Good for you, bro. I hope she can help you.”
Did everyone think he had a problem? Probably, and with good reason. It still stung.
“She’s not here to dissect my feelings but because someone tried to rob her and, when that failed, sent some mercs to kill her. I had no choice but to bring her here.”
“To your room.”
“Not my choice. Tower’s being a dick,” he grumbled. “I think it took Sage a little too literally.”
“What did Sage say?”
“That we have to work together to find the door in that picture you scanned yesterday. And now fucking Tower is making her stay with me, which is bullshit. We have tons of room.”
“Do we? Could be all of the other rooms are occupied.”
“We’d have seen some sign.”
“Don’t be so sure. There could be hundreds of people living all around us. You know Tower is good at hiding stuff,” Aquarius reminded as he leaned over to grab the book. “What do we have here?”
“Some kind of journal written by Ruth’s father. Same dude who drew the picture.”
“Let me guess, we’re looking for clues about the door’s location.”
“Bingo. I’d give you a treat for guessing right, but my presence is gift enough.”
Aquarius stiffened before turning to him. “Been a while since I’ve heard you joking. Glad to see this therapist is helping.”
“Has nothing to do with her,” he muttered.
“If you say so. Now let’s see what we have.”
Aquarius flipped through the pages manually, his brow creasing. “Sloppy handwriting. It will make it hard to transcribe.”
“But it can be done.”
“Yeah. It will be time-consuming. I’ve got to manually take a picture of each page.”
“There’s no better way?”
“Unless Tower suddenly figures out how to scan and upload image code, then no.” Aquarius grimaced. “I’ll get it done, but I probably won’t have anything for you until tomorrow.”
“I can help,” Leo quickly offered, not ready to leave.
“Appreciate it, brother. While you start, let me show you what I’ve found so far on that picture you brought in last night.”
Aquarius handed over his phone—because Leo didn’t own one—and Leo began taking pictures, page by page while Aquarius yapped.
“So, first thing I did was compare the image to the archives. First to see if it popped up as a known site, and second to confirm whether or not anyone else had documented it.”
“And?” Leo asked, pausing before clicking the next pic.
“Nada. The drawing appears to be unique. So next thing I did was run an internet search using several descriptors. Door in wall with vine. Zodiac symbols. But that pulled up a ton of garbage. Turns out people’s obsession with constellations makes them a common decorative theme.”
“Did you find anything at all, or are you simply going to dazzle me with useless results?” Leo drawled.
“Just informing you of what I’ve tried thus far. Next, I compared the visible building elements to known ruins. Since there was no scale to the image, I couldn’t predict measurements, though. Nor could identify the type of stone, which would have been helpful—some rock can only be found in certain parts of the world. I also closely examined the doorway for chisel marks and clues to the technique used to shape the arch and carve the sigils.” Aquarius pointed to an enlarged version of the image on his screen. “Different societies used different methods and tools to work with rock. Some had a distinctive style. However, in this case, I couldn’t pinpoint how it was made because the artist didn’t include those finer details, but I highly doubt lasers were used as my analysis program suggested.”
“Don’t be so sure,” Leo muttered.
“If the artist was accurate with his rendition, then it’s possible the doorway was created via magic. Kind of like how Tower provides.”
Magic. There was a time when Leo scoffed at the word. Like Ruth, he’d refused to believe until he couldn’t deny what he saw with his own two eyes.
“I thought you implied you’d found something. So far all I’m hearing is a whole bunch of dead ends.”
“I wasn’t done. Since the doorway itself proved to be a bust, I focused next on the foliage. And that’s where I finally hit pay dirt.” A second screen lit up with a flowering plant. “Say hello to the passion fruit vine, a plant native to South America.”
“Isn’t it grown elsewhere too?”
“Yes, but given its need for a warm climate, that eliminates many countries. Canada, most of the U.S., Russia, parts of Europe. But here’s the thing, those who grow it outside of South America do so in a garden. I doubt this door is hanging around someone’s backyard.”
“South America is a big place.”
“It is, and my next clue only narrows it down slightly.” Aquarius zoomed in on a section that displayed a flower different from that sprouting on the vine. “If I’m correct, this bloom is a Blue Chilean Crocus, native to Chile, and quite rare to find in the wild.”
“So the door’s in Chile.”
“If the drawing is accurate, then that would be my guess, yes.”
Leo paused in his picture-taking to remark, “Lots of jungles in Chile.”
“There are.”
“Any way of pinpointing which one I should be searching?”
“No, but if your lady friend’s father sent this to her, then she might know where he was situated. Unfortunately, I’ve run into a dead end trying to find out his last known location.”
“How hard can it be? Check the newspapers. Ruth says he went missing, so surely there was mention of it.”
“Not that I’ve found. You’re talking about something that happened like twenty years ago. Could be there was mention at the time, but as media companies go bust or restructure, articles and archives do get lost.”
“Or scrubbed,” Leo suggested.
“Also a possibility. Given the sudden interest in the image and journal, could be someone actively removed all mention of Dr. Octavius Warmstone.”
Leo glanced at the looping handwriting in the journal and grimaced. “Meaning we’d better hope this book tells us where he went. Can you have your program flag pages that mention Chile or a door so we can focus on those?”
“I can, but you could also ask your lady friend. She might recall the name of the location her father was last seen alive.”
“I doubt it. She was just a kid at the time.”
“Can’t hurt to ask.”
Aquarius had obviously never met the stubborn Ruth.
“I’ll see if she remembers anything.” But not right that minute.
While Aquarius took over the manual scanning of the journal, Leo hit the gym. Five hundred squats, three hundred chest presses, and a whole lot of running on a treadmill later, he felt exhausted enough to deal with Ruth.
Until he walked into his apartment and some yummy scents hit his nose. Freshly baked bread. Something hinting of meat and spice that made his taste buds water. But what really recharged his spent body? Seeing her with her flour-smudged face, flushed cheeks, and welcoming smile. He went instantly hard and, to cover his shock, blurted out, “What smells so fucking good?”