Ruby (2 page)

“
No, as a matter of fact,
I had fast food on the way home. A lot of food. I think the nurses
might agree with you. I have lost a little weight.” She’d been
working nearly seventy days straight, sometimes fourteen hour days.
Stretching, she stood up, handing Carter to his mom and the empty
plate to her grandmother. “If Cochran calls again, tell him I’m on
a vacation. I’m too tired to mess with him tonight.”

She went up the stairs, trying her
best not to stagger. Falling flat on her face in the middle of the
bed, Ruby tried to think if she had enough energy to remove her
shoes and decided it was too much effort. She never heard another
thing.

~~~

Brianna, or Bri to her friends, tried
to get the man with the cart to listen to her, but he was too set
in his ways to do what she wanted. Not that it surprised her much
anymore, but he was stubborn to a fault. It was cold outside and
she just wanted him to go to the shelter for the night. Bart
already had a cold and she didn’t want him to get
sicker.

“
Please, for me?” He shook
his head and tried to move his cart, a grocery store cart that had
more than likely been his since before she was born, and was more
than likely the only thing left of the chain of stores long since
out of business. “If you get sick, how will I be able to find Melly
when she needs me?”

“
She’ll find you.” She
followed him and tried to think what else she could do. “You
shouldn’t oughta be out here. It’s too dark for the likes of
you.”

He didn’t mean the night but the shade
of the people around them. Bart—if he had a last name she had no
idea what it could be—was a man of color, as he liked to call
himself, and she was his Lilywhite. Not politically correct by
today’s standards, but Bart was in his late eighties, he’d told
her, and he was very set in his ways about that too. Instead of
arguing with him more, she went to her car and pulled out several
blankets.

“
You will keep one for
yourself?” He just eyed them but finally nodded. “If I come by here
and find you not wrapped up in one of them, I’m going to be very
mad at you.”

“
You’s always mad about
something or another.” She had to smile. She did fuss at him a
great deal. “You should be home with a bunch of little brats to
hang on you instead of out here with us bums and what
not.”

The pain in her heart nearly made her
snap at him. He had no way of knowing that she’d tried at love once
and lost. Nor did he know that she’d never have children. But she
only smiled at him and moved to help him load the blankets on his
cart.

“
You’ll come back here on
the morrow, won’t you? You’re going to get your skinny little butt
hurt if you keep this up. You even dress like you belong here when
we all know’d that you don’t. Nowhere near it.” He huffed at her.
“Get your bottom home before I call that brother of yours. He won’t
be happy to know you’re a bothering us again. And tell him we thank
him kindly for them covers. He’s smart enough to give and leave
us.”

Bri kissed his cheek and moved to her
car. She had it started and running when she saw him handing out
one of the blankets. The man had a heart of gold and she loved him.
When her car was warm enough, she moved into the traffic and
started toward her home. Her brother Josh was going to be really
pissed that she was working this late in this part of the
neighborhood, but he’d get over it. He loved her too much to be mad
for too long.

She pressed the button on her steering
wheel to answer her phone when it rang. “You should know that I’m
on my way home now,” she told him by way of greeting.

“
What I should know is
that you’re here and having dinner with me. We were going to order
pizza and have a beer together.” Damn, she’d forgotten about the
pizza. She was supposed to bring it. “Now I have no dinner, no
sister, and not a beer in the house.”

“
You should just hire
someone to cook and buy you some food. I told you before you moved
in you needed to set that up. You never want to listen to me when
I’m right.” Bri took the next exit, not to her home but to her
brother’s. “I can still pick up the pizza if you order
it.”

“
I ordered it before
calling you.” Josh told her where to pick it up. “And I have no
beer, in case you wanted to get that for me. How is a brother
supposed to survive in this wilderness if you don’t keep me
supplied in beer? And companionship. I need you here.”

“
I’m sure you’ll manage.”
She was so glad that he’d moved here. It had only been two weeks
since he’d moved into his new home, but she could already tell he
was less stressed. She supposed by the time he got his business
sold completely and some other project going, he might be relaxed
enough to find himself a wife. Fat chance.

After getting beer and picking up the
pizza she headed to his house. It wasn’t that far from her own, but
in an entirely different tax bracket. While hers was perfect in her
older neighborhood with older adults as her neighbors, Josh lived
on an estate and should have gardeners and housekeepers, if he ever
managed to get any. Bri thought it was hilarious that her brother,
her shy and sometimes reclusive brother, would go for something so
huge. But then, she thought he was trying to make a
point.

After scarfing down two entire pizzas
between them, they moved to the deck and looked out over the
expansive pool and yard. She was just telling him about her day
when a herd of deer came out of the woods, followed closely by a
large wolf. They both watched him as he seemed to be playing with
them.

“
Do you think we should
call someone to get him? He might hurt them.” Josh just laughed.
“Laugh it up there, boy. When you come out here some morning and
there’s a deer carcass on your deck, then see how funny you think
it is.”

“
He never bothers them
more than just herds them. I’ve seen him about every evening since
I’ve been here. The deer come out of the woods just like you saw—or
the other night there were a few other animals with them—and he
plays around for about an hour before he goes back in the woods.
Actually, the deer are more of a menace than he is. Mike said that
they’re eating all the flowers he’s planted.” He glanced at her,
then back at the wolf when she asked him who Mike might be. “The
gardener that I hired today. He’s very nice, you’ll like him. But
the wolf stays. It would be something to be so free, wouldn’t it?
No one to mess with your things, make you have to see out so you
can have some peace.”

“
Josh.” He put up his hand
and she knew better than to pursue it right now. He was still raw
from what had happened at his business and in his personal life.
His partner and longtime friend had fucked him over, as well as his
fiancée.

“
You know, he called here
this morning.” She wanted to hunt Dwight Kramer down and tear his
face off for continuing to hurt her brother. “He and Teri are
getting married next month. He wanted to let me know before it came
out in the paper.”

“
Fucking bastard.” Josh
laughed, but it was harsh and bitter. “I suppose he asked you to
the wedding too? Or did he want you to be best man?”

“
Both.” Yes, Bri thought,
she was going to hunt him down. “I declined. I actually thought
about going, but it would be…painful. And I have no desire to see
either of them unless I have to. The last time was bad enough,
thanks.”

Teri Parsons and Josh had been engaged
for nearly a year when Josh had come home early from a business
trip and caught her and Dwight in bed. It was an old story, she
supposed, but the kicker was, Dwight was not the only male in the
bed. Josh had left them there without saying a word and had come to
stay with Bri. It had taken her a week of him lying on her couch to
get him to open up. That had been five months ago.

“
I was thinking....” Josh
paused for her to say her usual line (
that’s dangerous
) before continuing.
“I would like for you to move in here. It would be safer and I’d
not miss you so much.”

“
I love you dearly, but
that’s not going to happen.” She looked out over the expansive
yard. “You’d be begging me to move out within a week. Besides, I
love my house and all my things where they are. You’re going to
find a wife someday, and she’ll be happier if I’m not
here.”

“
I’m not getting married.”
His tone was final, but she had hopes. “At least think about it for
me. I have missed you.”

She told him she would and changed the
subject. “When do you have to go back to sign off on the sale? And
the house, I’m glad you sold it. I can’t believe that Dwight bought
it too.”

“
Yeah, it was hard. But I
suppose he knew the place as well as I did. I’d invested so much
into it when I first bought it. But I had a great return. I leave
day after tomorrow and should be back on Monday. In five days,
everything will be different.” She nodded and felt her heart break
just a little for him. “But on the upside, I’m going to be nasty
rich and stress free.”

“
Nasty rich? Never mind.
And anyway, I thought you were already rich.” He nodded and
laughed. “Never hurts to have more, I suppose.”

“
I’m going to lay low for
a time.” She nodded, knowing that it wouldn’t be long if she knew
her brother at all. “I have some ideas that I want to play with. I
have a few investments that I want to mess around with too. I heard
about this advertising firm that’s local that I want to look into.
He might need a new partner.”

“
She.” He looked at her.
“A woman owns it. Her name is…let me think. Henson…Sapphire Henson.
Her husband owns Flair Marketing across from her place. From what
I’ve heard they are a hell of a duo.”

“
And how do you know this?
Are you hanging with the right crowd for a change?” She laughed
when he did. “I want to start some things up that I’ve been
thinking about. There are a couple of them that I think could
benefit from your passion.”

“
Jobs?” Josh nodded. “I
have nineteen people currently looking. But without addresses it’s
hard to get anything for these people. Oh, and I need some more
blankets if you have any. I gave Bart all I had left before coming
here.”

“
There’s a warehouse on
tenth that I purchased this morning I want to use. I have some
going to that address tomorrow. Also, I’m thinking we need a soup
kitchen. I’m glad you had me help you out the other day at the one
downtown. But this other place, the one you were telling me about,
is never open so far as I can tell. Who runs that place anyway? I
don’t think I’ve seen a more disreputable place in my
life.”

“
Believe it or not, the
hospital. And the new guy, Cochran, is a bastard. I heard that he’s
also thinking of cutting out the clinic that it runs. And I heard a
rumor that he’s dumping patients to County no matter how dangerous
it is to the patients…all, as he calls them, degenerates. Bastard.”
Josh nodded, but she knew that he’d look into that too. He didn’t
care for red tape and seldom if ever paused to read the fine print.
Josh Ewing made his own rules when he was in charge. And if he
wasn’t in charge, he soon would be.

“
I’ll take care of it for
you.” After another hour of sitting on the deck, she left. It
wasn’t a long drive but her day job was an early one and she’d been
up since four in the morning. After getting a huge hug from Josh
and turning him down about spending the night several times, Bri
made her way home.

Chapter 2

Josh tried not to think of his former
friend in the position that he’d caught him and Teri in when he’d
seen him last. Over the past four months they’d been talking
through their lawyers, mostly Josh’s. Today would be the first time
the two of them had come face to face while both of them were fully
clothed since the incident.

“
You just have to let me
do the talking.” Josh nodded at his attorney. “I have all the
papers drawn up and once he signs them, you can leave. There is no
reason for you to subject yourself with them any longer, Mr.
Ewing.”

He nodded. “I just want this over
with. And once it is, how will I know that the money is mine? I
don’t trust him as far as I can see. And her even less.”

Not that he needed the money. He
really didn’t, but it was the principle of the thing now. And the
twenty-seven million would go a long way to making his ego a little
less bruised.

“
The check will be in the
form of a cashier’s check and his lawyer will have it with him. The
check for the house too. I’m very glad that you insisted on cash
with that as well. No need to draw this out. As for the business
he’s buying you out from, there will be two of them. One to you and
one to your sister, as you have said.” Bri was going to be pissed
about that, but he’d actually forgotten that she’d been his
business partner all those years ago. “The papers you’re having him
sign are just to say that you are no longer responsible for Express
Incorporated. In addition to that, he is going to give you all
rights to any of the clients that you personally worked with or
recruited.”

This he knew. Nodding, they both
looked at the door when it opened, and he felt his heart take a
sudden pound. He’d had no idea that Teri was going to be there too.
But he supposed he should have known. They were getting married
soon. When he ignored her outstretched hand, which he’d also done
with Dwight, she finally sat down. Josh decided that this could not
get finished quickly enough.