Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
“D ifferent” was an understatement. In the past twenty-four hours, Ruby had witnessed a brawl between wolves, woken up to a naked man in her garage, discovered werewolves were real, and was having a very strong physical reaction to the one sitting in her living room.
Although, that wasn’t new. She always felt like this around Rafe. Like her skin was buzzing.
He stared at her like he was waiting for her to run, but she didn’t have time to ask more questions before her phone rang. She jumped, startled by the obnoxious music. No one called her unless it was bad news. No one called anyone unless it was bad news. Wasn’t that some kind of rule?
“Shit.” She patted the cushions next to her but had no idea where her phone had ended up last night.
Ruby stood up, frantically yanking pillows off the couch.
It must have slipped between the cushions.
Rafe jumped up too, sliding his hands in between the cracks in the couch.
Ruby winced, just imagining the years of dust and crumbs he must be brushing up against right now.
But he yanked the phone up, a triumphant smile on his face.
That smile. Ugh. Damn it. She did not need to see that right now, so instead she grabbed the phone and answered it with a breathy hello.
“Ruby? This is Gert.”
“Uh, hi?” Why the hell was Gert, owner of the diner, calling her? “Your sister is here at the diner. She’s?… not feeling well,” Gert went on and Ruby’s stomach dropped.
Shit, shit, shit.
“She’s with me now, so there’s no need to worry. I’m going to bring her home personally.”
“Thank you so much, Gert.”
“No need to thank me. We’ll be there in less than five.”
Ruby blew out a long slow breath and hit end. She never should have let Lena go out alone, but she was too damn distracted by…
She looked up and found Rafe staring at her. Like a predator watches its prey. He cocked his head just slightly, asking her without words what was wrong. Okay, so not like a predator, more like a guard dog. She would have smiled at her own joke if she wasn’t so keyed up about Lena.
“You have to go.” The words left her mouth before she really considered them, but she needed him out of here. It was bad enough that Gert and whoever was at the diner had witnessed Lena’s latest episode, she didn’t need Rafe seeing it too.
“Why?” His voice was rough every time he spoke, and his words were curt and brief like he wasn’t used to speaking to people. She’d had the thought before, when Rafe had come into the bar, that his life was a lonely one. Something sharp stabbed at Ruby’s heart at that thought. Sharp and sad.
She shook her head. No time to feel sorry for the wolf-man. She had Lena to worry about and that was plenty.
“My sister’s not feeling well. You need to leave.” She glanced down at his feet. Could she kick out a man with no shoes? Didn’t matter, she was going to anyway. She put her hands on his chest and pushed, jolting him out of his frozen stare.
Oh, big mistake.
He was solid and warm and real. It was as though even after this whole insane conversation she still hadn’t thought of him as a real thing until she laid her hands on him.
And now that she had, she wasn’t sure she could take them off.
It was like she was being electrocuted, and the only way to break the current would be for someone to come by and kick her away from him.
His muscles twitched beneath her palms like he was holding himself still but it was becoming harder and harder to do so. His breath hitched, pupils blown wide, turning his silver gaze black.
Ruby believed in a lot of things: ghosts, astrology, bad luck, the way the right shade of toenail polish could improve one’s mood. But she had never believed in having an instant physical connection to someone until right now.
Rafe backed away and cleared his throat. “I can’t leave. It’s not safe.”
Ruby didn’t have time to argue with her wolfy protector before Gert and Lena were coming in the back door.
“Are you alright?” She went to Lena’s side, ignoring a scowling Rafe at her back.
“I’m fine. Really.” Lena waved her concerns away with a hand.
Ruby scanned her for damage. She was wearing one of her favorite light-pink sweatsuits and her dark hair was pulled away from her face in a low bun.
The gold studs she always wore in her ears glinted in the early morning sun and her fingernails were perfectly manicured.
She’d taken to doing them herself at home to avoid any embarrassing moments, and she’d gotten pretty damn good at it.
She avoided so many places now, but she’d gone out to grab donuts for breakfast to give Ruby and Rafe some privacy, and look at what had happened.
The hand she tried to wave Ruby’s concerns away with was trembling and her face was ashen. Ruby never should have let her out of the house alone.
“Thanks, Gert. For bringing her home.”
The older woman took her hand in hers. “I’ve told you a million times, whatever you girls need, I’m here.”
Ruby swallowed the emotions burning in her throat. Gert had t old her that before, especially since Aunt Millie’s death, but somehow she’d never quite believed it. Never let herself believe it, but now here Gert was showing up for her, helping her when she needed it.
“Thanks.”
Gert squeezed her hands before letting go to give Lena a hug.
“Now you get some rest,” she said, cupping Lena’s face in her hands. Lena nodded the best she could while being held. “And maybe something to eat. Must have been your blood sugar.” She kissed Lena on the forehead and then turned back to Ruby. “You call me if you need anything. Understand?”
Ruby nodded, feeling like she was being both scolded and comforted at the same time. It made her miss her aunt even more.
“I understand. Thanks, again.”
Ruby nearly had Gert back out the door when Gert’s gaze finally caught sight of the man lurking in their kitchen. Her eyebrows rose in question.
“That’s Rafe,” Ruby said as though that explained everything.
Gert frowned. “I’ve heard about him.”
“He’s?… uh?… a friend.”
“Mmhmm…” Gert glared at Rafe and he glared back. Ruby nearly laughed at the woman’s fierceness. “ Anything at all ,” Gert repeated. “Call me,” she said, not taking her eyes off of Rafe.
“Got it,” Ruby said.
Gert gave Rafe one more scowl before heading out.
“Who was that?” Rafe growled.
Ruby put her hand on her hip. “Gert. She owns the diner. Have you not been in yet?”
“I have. Never met her though.”
“Well, she looked like she wanted to kick your ass. Any idea why?”
“No,” he rumbled.
Lena raised her eyebrows, her gaze jumping back and forth between them. “I’m going to let you two talk…” she said with one more meaningful glance at Ruby. “But you’re not off the hook,” she whispered as she walked by. “I want to know what’s going on.”
“I told you, he’s a friend. He?… uh?… got into a bit of a fight at the bar last night. So, I let him crash here.” There. That was a perfectly reasonable explanation. Ruby was about to congratulate herself on a lie well done when Lena asked,
“And why did he wake up naked? What happened to his clothes?”
Ruby coughed. “He?… uh?… lost them in a particularly ruthless game of strip poker. Now off you go.”
Lena looked at her like she didn’t believe a damn word she said, but mercifully she left without asking any more questions.
Leaving Ruby alone with her wolf.
“What’s wrong with your sister?” Despite his best efforts, every word out of Rafe’s mouth was a growled demand.
Ruby narrowed her eyes. He’d pissed her off again. But he would be damned if he was going to leave her alone in this house before he figured out what that wolf wanted with her and who else was involved.
“Nothing’s wrong with her,” she snapped. She moved to the counter and poured herself another cup of coffee. “She just… She…” Ruby sighed and sank into one of the chairs at the kitchen table. Rafe lowered himself into the one across from her. It groaned beneath his weight.
Ruby rested her forehead on the table, exposing the nape of her neck and a few dark curls nestled there.
“She has these episodes sometimes and no one can really explain them.” She spoke down at her lap, and it was the first time since he’d met her that she sounded defeated. He fucking hated it. If there was something he could kill to make this go away for her, he would.
“What kind of episodes?”
Ruby sighed. “It doesn’t matter.”
“It does,” he insisted.
“Why? You’re here to protect me from some other wolf, right? Not my sister.”
Rafe let out an impatient growl. “It might matter. I don’t know what we are dealing with. And she’s your twin. Anything that affects her affects you.”
Her eyes flickered with concern, her teeth digging into her bottom lip, reminding him of all the shit she’d been through in the past day. About how this whole world was foreign to her. About how damn brave she was to still be sitting across from him.
Ruby sighed heavily. “When it happens, it’s like she can’t see me anymore. She goes somewhere else and I can’t get to her.” She slumped in her chair. “And she never says anything coherent. It’s gibberish.”
Well, that was ominous.
“When did it start?”
“A few months ago.”
“Does she see anything? Like a vision or something?” He leaned forward, his arms on the table. Even now his body was drawn to hers, like he couldn’t get close enough.
“A vision?” Ruby scrunched up her face. “She’s not some kind of fortune teller.”
“Then what is she?” He tried to keep his voice gentle, but it came out gruff anyway.
The glare Ruby sent his way may as well have been a punch to the throat. “She’s my sister. That’s what she is. And you need to leave.” She pushed back from the table and stood as though she were ready to escort him out, but there was no way he was leaving.
“Something’s not right, Ruby. About any of this. That wolf. Your sister’s?… episodes.” He stood too, and even towering over her he felt like she could knock him over with a touch. “I can’t just leave you alone.”
Ruby crossed her arms over her chest, her dark eyes narrowed. If she had had her boots on, she’d have probably kicked him in the shins.
“I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself.”
“You are reckless and naive.”
Her eyes widened and her red lips popped open. “How dare you? You don’t even know me.” She tried to storm past him into the living room, but he grabbed her and held her arms. A slight tremor ran through them both.
“I know that, if I hadn’t been there last night, you wouldn’t be here right now.”
She wanted to argue with that. He felt it in the tension of her body and in the fury of her stare.
But she couldn’t argue with the facts. As much as she hated to admit it, she needed him right now.
She deflated a little in his arms, and it took all his strength not to pull her to him, to press her body against his. He was a sick man.
“At the very least, let me drive you to and from work.”
“Don’t you think you’re overreacting? We still don’t even know what he wanted. Maybe he was after you. ”
Rafe sighed. “It was the guy from the bar. The guy that?… grabbed you.”
“Blaine?!”
“You know his name?”
Ruby shook her head. “No, of course not. I’m just guessing. Do you know his name?”
“No.” He’d been trying to figure it out since he first saw him. But his pack didn’t exactly socialize with Highlanders.
“Okay, well, he looked like a Blaine. And I knew he was the evil villain sort.”
“Ruby, he knows where you work. He knows where you live. He was following you!”
“I could say the same about you.”
He realized he was still gripping her biceps. He let go and took a step back. She was right, but every instinct he had was screaming at him to protect her, to be near her, to never let her go.
But he was also trying very hard not to scare the crap out of her.
“There’s one difference between the two of you, though,” Ruby said with a little smirk. “You’ve never grabbed my ass.”
Rafe scoffed and shook his head. This woman .
“I don’t know what you want me to say, Ruby, but I know something’s not right about any of this.”
He must have looked miserable because she took pity on him. “Fine,” she relented. “You can drive me if it means that much to you.”
“It does.”
“Okay, great. Your dreams of becoming an unpaid Uber driver are about to come true.”
“I’m thrilled,” he deadpanned and Ruby grinned.
“What are you going to tell your sister?”
“I told her you’re a friend.”
“A friend?”
Ruby laughed. “Sure, what else do you call a guy who crashes overnight in your garage, is desperate to protect you from bad dudes, and doesn’t grab your ass against your will?”
“Ruby—”
“Look,” she said, cutting him off, turning serious. “Lena doesn’t need to know about this, about what you are or about what happened last night. I don’t want to stress her out any more than she already is.”
Rafe had a feeling Lena was a bigger piece of this puzzle than Ruby wanted to believe, but he wasn’t going to push her on it. Not yet anyway. If she didn’t want her sister to know the truth about him, he wouldn’t tell her.
“Fine.” He nodded.
“Okay, deal.” Ruby let out a long breath, blowing the wisps of hair out of her face. “Now pour yourself another cup of coffee because I have a lot more werewolf questions.”