Chapter 21 #2
“Isn’t that what friends do, though?” she asks. “Kylie and Jordan were all over me before I finally introduced them to you. Suggesting I was dating a naked trombone player or an Irish jigger…”
“A naked trombone player?”
Ruby laughs. “You had to be there.”
“Okay…” I’m not sure where naked trombone players and Irish jiggers fit in, but what do I know?
“Don’t worry,” she says with a smile. “Now that they’ve met you, they think you’re completely normal.”
“That’s good,” I say with a chuckle. We met up with Jordan and Kylie last weekend, and it was great seeing Ruby with her friends, finally able to enjoy normal life again. Although I’m not sure how I’ll feel when she wants to go somewhere without me.
“It still freaks me out,” Rogue admitted when I brought the topic up. “The first few months after Sofia was attacked, I was like a damn stalker. I followed her everywhere. But I’ve been trying to be better about it.”
I should feel better about Ruby going places alone now that Henry’s no longer a threat. He’s in jail awaiting trial, and with the evidence we found, plus the confession I recorded, he won’t be a free man for decades, at least.
Or ever, I think darkly. Because I know a guy with connections in the prison system.
A guy who used to be a bounty hunter before he joined a security company out on the West Coast. Rafe understands what it’s like, needing to protect the woman you love from a predator.
And if I tell him I want to make absolutely sure Henry can never hurt Ruby again, I know he’ll pull some strings to make it happen.
I’m still thinking about it. Maybe I’ll be satisfied with a long prison sentence. Or maybe I’ll decide it’s too much of a risk, and make a call to my old friend.
“Oh.” Ruby sets the last of the plates in the box and folds the flaps down. “I almost forgot. While you and Houdini were moving my bed out to the moving van, I saw Greg.”
“Oh?” Guilt pokes at me. I still feel bad about scaring the guy, even though I don’t regret doing it.
“Yeah.” She tapes the flaps down before continuing, “He said he’s moving to Florida next month. He’s just ecstatic about his sudden windfall.”
“Good.” Glancing at the open door, I lower my voice before adding, “I hope it makes up for everything.”
“Micah.” She smiles. “I think so. You arranged for him to win”—she uses her fingers to make air quotes—“five million dollars. Plus a new house on the beach with living expenses included. I think it’ll help.”
Greg Haverford doesn’t know it came from me, of course. And he never will. As far he knows, he’s the winner of some obscure contest that he doesn’t even remember entering. It can’t erase the fear we caused by interrogating him. But I hope, in time, he’ll be able to move past it.
Ruby puts an empty box on top of the packed one, then comes back over to me. Wrapping her arms carefully around me, she goes up on her tiptoes to kiss my cheek. “It was a very nice thing to do, Micah. And I know Greg’s going to be very happy there.”
“I hope so,” I reply. “I told my attorney to keep an eye—”
Midway through my sentence, I’m cut off by the high-pitched shriek of an alarm.
Ruby stiffens. All the color drains from her face.
Instinctively, I clutch her to me. Adrenaline surges. My pulse triples in speed.
She trembles in my arms. “Micah.”
Pushing her behind me, I raise my voice to be heard over the ear-splitting sound. “Stay behind me. Hold on to my waistband.”
As soon as I feel the tug of her hand on my pants, I jog into the kitchen to grab my gun from the cabinet beneath the sink.
I’ve been carrying it whenever I have Ruby with me—I have a concealed carry permit, of course—but I worry about it being a trigger for her, so I try to keep it out of view as much as possible.
Once my Sig is in hand, I feel slightly better. Not good, not even close to it. Not when the damn fire alarm is going off in the hallway, and my friends are still outside with the moving van, and shit, what if Henry has an accomplice we don’t know about?
Rogue checked. He did a deep dive into Henry’s background.
There was nothing even remotely suspicious.
Henry’s parents are gone. His sister lives in Tokyo, and she hasn’t travelled back to the States in years.
She’s married with a successful husband and three young kids.
And when she was questioned about her brother, she didn’t try to cover for him.
Instead, she told the police about the hundreds of drawings he kept stashed in his bedroom as a kid—drawings of the girls from school he had crushes on.
“I found them once, and he got so mad,” she recalled.
“There were so many of them. There had to be hundreds. And they were all of the same couple of girls. Popular girls he would never have had the courage to ask out. I told our parents about it. But they just brushed it off. He’s creative, they said. Just leave him alone.”
No one thinks the sister is a threat. But what if she is?
Or what if he wasn’t working on his own? Just because he admitted to acting alone doesn’t mean he couldn’t be covering for someone. Maybe he had help hacking into the security camera and Haverford’s computer. Crazier things have happened.
And now we’re right back where we were two weeks ago.
Shit. Did I fail Ruby again?
Ripping off my sling, I toss it aside. Reaching behind me, I grasp Ruby’s hand. “Stay with me,” I order, almost shouting so she can hear me. “Keep close. Don’t let go.”
Out in the hallway, the fire alarm keeps blaring. Flashing blue lights blink on and off. As I tow Ruby through the living room, a hint of smoke hits my nose.
Just as we’re about to reach the front door, Houdini and Jester come racing in.
“Shit,” Jester shouts. Relief washes over his face when he spots me and Ruby. “Are you guys okay?”
Houdini’s expression is thunderous. “What the fuck’s going on?” he barks. “What are the fucking odds?”
“I don’t know!” I yell. The alarm seems to be getting louder. “We need to get Ruby out of here!”
Ruby presses against my back. “Be careful!”
I turn my head to give her a hard and fast kiss. “Stay with me. It’s going to be okay!”
I hope.
Shit, I hope.
In unspoken agreement, Houdini moves in front of me, while Jester takes Ruby’s six. Four of us in a row, we begin hurrying down the hallway towards the stairs. With every step, my body tenses, anticipating the burn of a bullet or the breath-stealing blow of an explosion.
All around us, residents are pouring into the hall. My head is on a swivel, gauging each one as a potential threat. Could Henry have been working with the skinny blonde with the bright red glasses? Or the heavyset man wearing a T-shirt with a pot leaf on the front?
I shouldn’t have brought her here. I should have put it off. I should have paid for some damn movers, despite Ruby’s insistence on packing herself. I should have—shit. I should have done something instead of screwing up all over again.
“Wait! Wait!” A reedy voice to my left catches my attention. “Wait!”
My fingers tighten around my Sig, hidden beneath my shirt. My gaze cuts in the direction of the voice, unsure of what to expect. A woman in trouble? A woman with a weapon, intent on hurting Ruby?
“Wait!” The woman catches my arm. She’s white-haired, about seventy or so, and looks oddly familiar. “Can you help? Please?”
But I don’t want to help her. I want to get Ruby out of here.
Except the decision is taken out of my hands. Ruby drops my waistband and turns to the woman. “Mrs. Davis?” Ruby yells. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?” Ruby pokes me in the side. “Micah. She needs help!”
Shit.
Shoving Ruby behind me again, I face the older woman. “Do you need us to carry you out of here?” I jerk my head at Houdini. He can carry her out no problem. And that’ll still leave Jester to have Ruby’s back.