Ruby (14 page)

He pulled the sheets off the bed and
tossed them in the corner. Then before he could think about what he
was doing, he picked them up and put them in the hamper, something
he’d never done before. After getting the bed made the best he
could, Rufus decided to run her a bath. She wouldn’t be sore, of
course, but he wanted to hold her while she had herself a good
soaking. He felt Sloan touch his mind as he was just turning on the
taps.

You turned her.
Rufus wasn’t going to tell him he was sorry,
because he wasn’t, but he did tell him that he’d done it.
Is she all right?

All right? Damn near
drained me when she had to feed. Christ good heavens, she’s a
pistol. Had me acting like some teenager just discovering what his
dick is useful for.
Sloan laughed, and
Rufus flushed.
I shouldn’t aught ta told
you that. She’d be pissy with me if I told her.

She might. I haven’t had
the pleasure of getting to know your mate. Perhaps you two could
come out of the bedroom long enough for me to see what she looks
like without all the bandages on her.
Rufus told Sloan he wasn’t ready to share her just
yet.
Then soon. I have to welcome her to
my nest, and you know that the council will have questions
too.

I never asked her.
Sloan said it mattered little if she was happy
with the results.
She seems that way. I
done told her that I’d get us a house. How about you looking around
a little for me while you sit on your ass?

I’ll have you know that
I’m not sitting but standing on the deck watching my mate play in
the yard as her wolf. Nothing sexier than a beautiful she-wolf that
you love.

I don’t know nothing about
love. Might not be something I’m capable of.
Sloan laughed.
Well, it might not
be.

You’re currently running a
bath for her, not because she’s hurting, but because you want to
hold her. You stripped the bed down and remade it, something I’ve
never seen you do before, for her. I’m pretty sure if you don’t
love her now, as soon as you see her again, you’ll be there.
Rufus told him to fuck off.
Oh, I plan too. Several times. I will talk to you later, my
friend.

Rufus went into the bedroom to get Bri
and stopped moving when he looked at her. Mother fuck, he was in
love with her, and there was shit he could do about it. Not, now
that he thought about it, that he wanted to.

Chapter 9

Dwight dropped the thick envelope in
the post office box before going into the office. He was to meet
with Manson at two, and it was just going on nine. Teri was still
in bed and he’d needed some alone time and had come in here. As the
door locked behind him, Dwight felt the need to sob. He’d fucked up
so badly.

His cell phone ringing nearly made him
cry out, but he didn’t bother answering it. He’d eliminated
customized ringtones from the numbers he didn’t want to answer,
leaving them with only the grating standard ring, so he knew right
away he didn’t want to speak to the caller.

He was sitting at his desk when he
heard someone come into the part of the building where he was. He
knew that he’d locked the door, but apparently these people didn’t
respect his privacy and had either picked it or had a key. The man,
a large man he didn’t know, moved through the office door as if he
knew where he was going. As he sat down in the chair across from
him, Dwight started to ask him who the hell he was when he held up
his hand. Two more men, these dressed in blue suits, started moving
around the room like they knew just where to look.

The first bug that was placed before
him nearly had him standing up and leaving. But the man, this time
with a smile on his face, only pointed to the seat again. Dwight
sat there and watched as five more were put in front of them; one
of them had been removed from his seat.

The two men continued to move around
the room. If there were more bugs in the office, they didn’t get
any more of them. They were out and the door shut behind them
before the man finally spoke.

“
Josh said to tell you not
to fuck this up.” Dwight sagged with relief. “I’m going to be in
and out of your life so much over the next few days that you’re
going to think we’re attached at the hip. So I’m warning you, don’t
fuck this up for either of you.”

“
Is Josh all right?” The
man shrugged. “I see. He tell you to tell me that? I suppose he’s
pissed.”

“
I haven’t spoken to Mr.
Ewing. I was sent here by the Feds.” Dwight wanted to ask for
identification but was handed a thick file instead. “You know this
man as Manson Cartwright. He’s a big time dealer from New York. Not
that he’s been around there much, but that’s where he came
from.”

“
And what is it you need
from me? I already told Josh that I’d do whatever you wanted me
to.” The man nodded. “Can I at least know your name?”

“
You can call me David
Lucas. I need you to read over the information that you’ll need to
know about me and what will be required of you when we get things
rolling. I’m going to be working here and at your home under the
guise of being someone Josh got from the university to help out
until you get your feet under you. He’s done this before, right?”
Dwight nodded. That would work. He and Josh would use some interns
from the local college to give them something to put on their
résumés. Dwight had never worked with them directly, but Josh had
enjoyed it. Dwight never had it brought home so many times what a
lazy fuck he’d been while he’d been Josh’s partner.

“
Did you mention any of
your conversation with Miss Summer?” Dwight shook his head. He had
been surprised at how easy it was to not talk about it. All she
wanted to talk about was the money, her hair, and how much they
were going to get into trouble if they didn’t find Josh and make
him give up the money. Or her new thing, how they were going to
make him give him enough to pay off Manson.

“
She’s pissed at me as
well. I never realized before how little we have in common.” David
nodded. “You’ve done research on her, I take it.”

“
Yes. Extensively. And I’m
to tell you that you were not her first choice in business
partners. She was primarily after Josh and all he had to offer, but
he wasn’t as big a sap as she’d hoped he was.” Dwight thought that
he was perfect for her then. Because it there was a bigger idiot
out there, he didn’t want to meet them. “She had a plan to use this
company all along for her business ventures. When the three of you
were caught in that unfortunate position, she took matters into her
own hands and it didn’t turn out as well as she’d
hoped.”

“
She knew about the plane
and his business. I’m pretty sure that’s why she set her sights on
me. Josh wasn’t playing. I had the means and she used me for what
she wanted. At least until things went sour. And Christ, did they
ever go sour.” David nodded, and Dwight leaned back in his chair,
feeling like a bigger fool than before. “I guess I’m going to
prison when this is all done.”

“
You will.” Dwight had
thought he would, but to hear it confirmed had him wanting to cry
again. He’d been doing that a lot lately, crying like a small boy.
At times, a few times even today, he’d thought about taking out his
gun and ending it all, but then no one would win. And he wanted to
have Manson and Teri pay for his ruined friendship. His phone rang
again, and he ignored it.

“
You’ll have to start
answering those calls. We have a clone on your phone and we can’t
trace unless you pick it up.” Before Dwight could get it out of his
pocket to answer, the call ended. A phone, much like the one he
held now, was put on the desk with the file. “You’ll use that one
to call me. Mine is the one with the prison yellow colors on it.
That should be easy for you to remember.”

Instead of rising to the nasty remark,
Dwight nodded. “What am I supposed to do now? Manson will be here
at two, so I can’t tell him that the money is elsewhere. I have no
idea what to tell him and had I had my way, I’d have never set this
up. But Teri did it behind my back.”

“
She, we think, wants you
dead. And if not dead, then the fall guy for all this. The boxes
that your former friend took had just under twenty million in them.
We were led to believe there should have been a great deal more.”
Dwight nodded, wondering again why Josh was doing stealing from him
when David continued. “We believe that Miss Summer took her cut and
a bit more before this all went down. And she might have been
planning to take more when Mr. Ewing accidently loaded them in his
moving van.”

“
There should have been
ninety-seven million five hundred thousand dollars in those boxes.
When Josh told me before how much he had, I thought…well, it
matters little what I thought, but I didn’t believe him to be a
thief. He’s a good man, not a loser like me.” Dwight got up to
pace. “You’re saying that Teri has been stealing from me and
Manson.”

“
I’m telling you that
you’re not the first man to have been caught by Manson in this
scam. And Teri has used men like you before to help him.” Dwight
turned slowly to look at David. “Do you understand what I’m telling
you? You’re not the first and won’t be the last if she gets away
this time.”

“
And the money? Where is
it? Is she giving it to Manson?” David shook his head. “So she’s
scamming the scammer this time? And she’s planning to blame it all
on me?”

“
And Mr. Ewing.” Josh. As
much as he’d fucked his friend over, this was not going to happen
to him as well. “You’re going to help us, Dwight. If you don’t,
then you will join the others who she and Manson worked over. Two
of the men have never been found. One was found but of no use to us
as his family was…let’s just say that his family suffered greatly
for his mistakes. Only this time we believe she won’t be around to
collect on the reward from Manson. She’s planning to
fly.”

“
I don’t understand.”
David asked him what he needed to know. “She’s been using other
men, rich men, to sell her drugs for Manson or use their planes,
whatever she needed to move the drugs and the money. I get that
part. But how did this work with them? I mean, why not just take
the drug money after killing off the guy like me? Why do this whole
thing with the lesser money?”

“
Her claim to him the last
time, we’re assuming, is that the mark took the money and she had
no idea where it might have gone. She’s been stealing from him for
years. A little here and there. Not like this time, mind you, but
enough for her to stash it away for herself when the time was
right.” He asked why this time was so different. “Mr. Ewing found
the money before she could leave.”

“
And she couldn’t blame it
on me because I’d have to talk to Josh to get the money back. If
they killed me now, Josh wouldn’t help at all. He’d turn it in and
she’d be fucked.” He nodded. “Why doesn’t she just leave now? I
mean, she has millions already, right?”

“
She’s a greedy bitch and
wants the rest of it. And Josh dead.” Dwight sagged down into the
closest chair. “The break-up between them wasn’t in her plans
either. She had hoped to be his wife before this all went sour.
She’d told a person we have working with her that she really wished
she’d married him. And hinted that he’d set her up for a long time
with just the interest on his money. Then there would be the
insurance she’d collect when he met with an untimely accident. I’m
assuming she thought she’d be the benefactor in her little scheme.
Then you got caught with her, and Josh left. She was stuck then and
her money, the last of what she wanted, was taken then
too.”

“
I was never a factor in
any of this, was I?” David said nothing, and Dwight was grateful
for his silence. Dwight looked out the view from his office and
tried to think how this whole thing with he and Teri had started.
“She was crying when I found her at Josh’s office when this
started. He was away. I’m not sure where he’d gone, but it was
business. She told me that he’d been taking her to dinner and had
simply left without telling her. I knew then that it was wrong of
me, but I wanted to cheer her up. I took her out and we had a good
time. Then it became a habit. He’d go out of town and I’d take her
out. About the third time we ended up in bed.”

“
We need to get you
prepared for your meeting.” Dwight looked at David, wondering what
the fuck he was supposed to say to a man that was surely going to
kill him. “He needs you too much to kill you right now. And even if
he didn’t, there is much too much riding on this. Like the Feds.
He’s…I’m sure he’s worried that someone has alerted the agents as
to what might happen here.”

Dwight started laughing. David knew
that Manson was going to kill him, but would, like Teri had, use
him to the fullest extent first. He was nothing more than a pawn in
all this and everyone, now him included, knew it. Dwight was going
to die and no one really gave a shit. But he would make this work.
He had to.

“
What do I need to tell
him?” David eyed him carefully, and Dwight felt his mirth burble
up. “I’m going to be all right. I assure you. I just had an
epiphany and I feel better for it now.”