Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
T he hairs rose on the back of Rafe’s neck. Ruby’s eyes widened in fear.
A quiet murmuring filled his senses.
“Lena,” Ruby gasped.
Ruby’s sister slumped against him, unintelligible words tumbling from her lips.
For the first time since he met her, Ruby looked truly terrified.
Rafe’s guts twisted inside him. Every instinct in his body roared at him to make it stop, to make Ruby stop hurting.
It was worse than seeing that asshole grope her, although that had nearly sent him into a murderous rage.
This feeling was helpless. No amount of violence was going to cure Ruby’s sister.
“It’s going to be okay,” he said to Ruby, forcing her to look at him. “I promise.”
Ruby whimpered, her gaze flicking around the room. Callie put an arm around her shoulders. Rafe knew it was important to Ruby to keep Lena’s issues private. He tilted his body, shielding Lena the best he could from the rest of the room.
Her eyes were open but unseeing.
“Is this how it usually goes?” Rafe asked, his voice also a whisper as though he didn’t want to wake the woman.
Ruby nodded, her dark eyes rimmed with tears. “It doesn’t usually last very long.”
“Okay,” he said, putting a hand on Lena’s shoulder. Her body was light and fragile compared to Ruby’s lush curves. “We’ll just have to wait it out.”
Callie held Ruby tighter.
“Lena, can you hear us?” He gave her shoulder a small shake and Lena’s head rolled to the side. She stared at him without seeing, and a chill crawled up Rafe’s spine.
“Lena,” he said again. “What do you see?”
She paused her litany and her eyebrows knitted together as though she could hear him and was considering how to answer.
“A wolf,” she said.
Ruby’s gaze snapped to his, her eyes wide. “She’s never said anything like that before.”
Lena reached out a hand, and Rafe took it in his, wrapping his fingers around her chilled ones. Lena’s eyes widened for a moment, and she blew out a long sigh.
“I see blood,” she told him. “So much blood.”
Rafe’s body had gone cold. What wolves? Whose blood? He needed to know more, but Lena’s eyes had shut, her breathing gone slow and steady like she had fallen asleep. He wanted to shake her. He wanted to yell. He wanted to grab Ruby and run until she was safe.
But he couldn’t do any of those things.
So instead, he held Lena steady until she came to.
“Shit,” Lena said with a groan, rubbing her eyes like she’d just woken from the world’s worst nap. “It happened again, didn’t it.”
“It sure did. You okay?” Callie asked, leaning across the table to take Lena’s hand in hers.
Lena sighed but then spotted the fries Ruby had laid in front of her. “Oh, fries. Thanks, Ruby.”
Ruby and Callie exchanged a look.
“How do you feel, Lena?” Callie asked again.
“Like I got hit by a truck,” Lena said with a shrug, taking a bite of a ketchup-covered fry. “But I’ll be okay in a few minutes.”
Ruby’s brow furrowed in concern. “Do you remember anything this time?” she asked. “Did you see anything?”
Lena sighed as if she was tired of the questions, and she probably was. Rafe was sure she was fed up with answering doctors’ questions and therapists’ questions and Ruby’s questions.
“I never do. You know that.”
“But you?—”
“How about we let your sister eat,” Rafe cut in and Lena nodded at him in thanks. Ruby opened her mouth to protest.
“We can talk more about it later,” he said, and Ruby held her tongue.
“There’s nothing to talk about,” Lena insisted. “But you can feel free to analyze me all you want.”
“We’re not trying to analyze you. We just want to help. You really scared us?—”
“I could use another beer. Sawyer, Callie?” Rafe cut Ruby off again, and she looked like she might kick him in the nuts for it.
“Sure, I’ll take one,” Sawyer said, and Callie shot him a look. “What? I need a drink after that,” he said, his gaze flicking nervously back to Lena.
“Actually, so do I,” Callie admitted.
“What about me?” Lena asked, the pout back on her face. “I came out to have some fun.”
And Rafe could see the frustration in Ruby’s expression, like she wanted to scream. He took hold of her arm.
“Great. Ruby, come help me with the drinks?”
She glared at him but got up and followed him to the bar.
“What the hell?” she hissed. “She was talking about wolves, Rafe! That’s never happened before. We need to?—”
“Need to what? Asking more questions obviously isn’t helping.”
“Rafe.” Her voice was a plea. She was starting to shake; all the color had drained from her face.
“Come with me.” He wrapped an arm around her and hurried to Macy’s office in the back of the bar. It was empty and he rushed them inside. “Sit,” he commanded, and Ruby dropped into Macy’s desk chair. Rafe sank to his knees in front of her. “Breathe.”
She took a deep breath in and blew it out her nose but not before tears started to stream down her face.
“I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what this is or how to stop it and it’s just me and Lena…”
“It’s not.”
Ruby frowned. “It’s not what?” She sniffled and he grabbed a tissue from Macy’s desk and handed it to her.
“It’s not just you and Lena. You have Callie. And Sawyer seems decent. He didn’t run away.”
Ruby blew her nose with a cute little honk. Rafe bit down on a smile. Now was not the time.
“He’s a good guy. We all grew up together.”
“Good.” Rafe said, letting his hand rest on Ruby’s knee. He covered the small hole in her tights with his palm. “And you have Gert. And Macy and Sal and at least half of that bar would kick the ass of anyone who tried to hurt either of you.”
“I guess.”
“And you have me.” He shouldn’t have said it. He shouldn’t have meant it, but he did. At least for now. At least until he figured out what was going on with Wyatt and company. He didn’t know what the hell to do about her sister, but he could at least protect her from other wolves.
“Do I?” she asked, and he knew he’d been sending far too many mixed signals Ruby’s way.
“I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“Why?” she asked.
“Ruby,” he grumbled. How could he possibly answer that question?
“I’m serious, Rafe. Why do you care about what happens to me? What am I to you that you would fight so hard for me?”
He shook his head, not wanting to consider what she was to him.
She put a hand on his cheek and made him look at her. And that was it. Her palm against his face and his thumb tracing circles on her knee. Two tiny points of contact and he was helpless.
There was nothing he could do but tell her the truth.
“I don’t know. I don’t know what it is about you.
I haven’t given a shit about any human in years.
I’ve avoided them at all costs.” He leaned forward just a breath, just enough, and Ruby leaned too.
Her other hand came to his other cheek, so she was cupping his face as he spoke.
“I don’t know why I can’t stay away from you, why you haunted me even before I knew you.
I don’t know why I’m here and why I can’t leave.
But I know I can’t. I?know that, even if I went home now, I’d be tormented by thoughts of you, of your scent and the taste of your lips and the feel of your skin, but mostly by the sheer terror of thinking you weren’t safe, and I know I would run right back to you. ”
Ruby sucked in a deep breath.
“I don’t know anything except that I would kill for you.”
Her eyes widened but she didn’t pull away. She searched his face and saw that he meant it, that he would.
“Do you think,” she whispered, “that will be?… necessary?”
He swallowed hard. Her thumbs swept across his cheek bones.
“There was another woman,” he managed to choke out. Ruby held him steady. “A human. Scarlet.”
She waited while he gathered his thoughts, while he tried to form the right words to explain his fear to her.
“I should have stayed away from her.” Rafe squeezed his eyes shut until he felt the press of Ruby’s forehead against his.
“It’s okay,” she whispered. “You can tell me.”
“But I didn’t stay away. I was weak and she was killed because of me.”
“Oh, Rafe.”
Her hands slipped into his hair and her gaze was so soft, so gentle.
He didn’t deserve it.
He pulled away. Ruby’s hands dropped to her lap.
“If those wolves come back, I will personally tear their throats out to keep them away from you and Lena.”
She watched him as he stood, pacing the small office.
“And why do you think they want my sister?” she asked, sensing he had a theory. She saw too much about him.
He stopped. She deserved the truth.
“I think your sister is a seer.”