Ruby (22 page)

Silver. What did you mean
by—?

He cut her off.
How long…Christ, baby, I hurt. I’m that far from
the hospital.
Ruby started running,
calming her wolf as she did.
Come for me.
Warehouse. It’s a big empty building.
Then
the connection was abruptly cut off.

He has Josh. Mother fuck,
he has Josh.
Sapphire told her to stay
there and that they were coming for them.
I have to find him. He’s hurt and twenty-seven minutes from
the hospital in a warehouse.

Ruby went to her car and threw her
things in the back. She was tearing her jacket off when Rufus and
Sloan were suddenly there, and they’d brought Blair. Saying nothing
to them other than what Josh had said, Sloan nodded once and
disappeared. Rufus did as well once he told her what was going
on.

“
We’re gonna pop in and
out of buildings. See if we can smell him.” When he disappeared,
she looked at Blair.

“
I can’t lose him.” Blair
just grinned at her. “This is not funny. I’m in love with the jerk
and I don’t want to spend the rest of my life living with you and
Sapphire making your lives a living hell.”

“
You would, too. But we’ll
find him. They had to take him out of here somehow. We just have to
figure out which way. Oh, and your buddy Teri is going to help us.”
Ruby asked him how. “She’s going to be the bait after
all.”

“
About fucking time.” She
let her wolf take her and stood still while Blair, still fully
clothed, shifted as well. It was dangerous to be their wolf where
humans could see them, but right now, she didn’t give a fuck. They
took off running toward the downtown area.

It was almost an hour before they were
able to enter the first building. Sloan had gone to help Blair, and
Rufus stayed with her. He would go in just ahead of her and then
come back out if he didn’t see anyone right at the door. It was
working better than them going into each building and sniffing
around alone. There were just too many floors with doors. As they
entered another building without finding him, Josh spoke to her
again.

Basement. I’m…dark…cold
and damp
. She asked him if he was still
hurting as badly.
I’m not sure. I hurt too
much
.

We’re coming for you.
Blair and Sloan are looking in one part of town, and Rufus and I
the other. We’ll find you
. She waited for
him to answer, and her wolf snarled at her to hurry. Ruby looked up
at Rufus and told him what Josh had said.

“
Not many of them around
here.” He closed his eyes, and she wondered what he was doing. He’d
already told her that he was going to have to leave her soon, that
the sun was making him weak. “Four. I done sent the places to Sloan
to look. You and me, we’ll hit the other ones.”

Sapphire and the rest of her family,
not including Grandmother, who was watching Carter, were on
standby. Ruby entered the first building and could smell
him.

“
He’s here.” Rufus nodded
and told her to wait. “I can’t. He’s here and hurting. I need to go
and find him.” Rufus was still yelling in her mind when she found
the flight of stairs leading down. There was no scent there, but
there was going to the elevator. She opted for the stairs because
they would be quieter.

The scent got stronger as she moved
down the stairs. She had a thought that if she had to shift she’d
be naked, but didn’t care at that point. The only person she really
was concerned about was Josh, and he’d seen her body. She heard the
voices just as she stepped off the stairs.

“
What do you mean? There
must be some trace of her somewhere. She cannot have simply fallen
off the earth.” Someone mumbled, and she couldn’t make it out, but
the man had apparently. “I don’t care how badly you are hurting.
Did I not tell you to be careful? What did you expect him to do,
come along nicely because you asked him to?”

“
I had a gun.” The voice,
the second one, sounded whiney, and she wanted to smack him. But
she was glad that Josh had gotten in a few licks. “He was supposed
to be scared of it.”

“
I’m not afraid of a gun,
especially when I know you didn’t have the sense to load it. What
sort of moron goes to kidnap someone and doesn’t load the gun?”
Another mumble. “Speak up. And look at me when you speak to
me.”

“
I said that I don’t want
to go to prison with gun stuff on my record. If’n you don’t load up
the gun, you can’t kill nobody with it.” This time the first man
didn’t speak, but he did growl. Ruby had to laugh. Christ, they
were idiots.

“
I want you to get some
ammunition and…what did you say?” Another mumble, and then the
sound of something hitting the floor. “It’s bullets for the gun.
How on earth do you function? Do you have a list beside your bed
that tells you that you must dress, bath, and brush your
teeth?”

“
No.” Ruby was about to
move forward when Sloan appeared in front of her. He dropped a bag
and then disappeared. When he returned seconds later, he had Teri
with him. She was unconscious.

Go there to change. We
have much work to do before the police arrive.
She nodded, picked up the bag with her teeth, and moved to
shift and change. He continued before she could ask him what they
were going to do.
Blair and the others are
above us. You are very lucky that you didn’t run into the traps
that are set. Rufus is making his way around them. They are small
and mostly harmless, but they will alert the idiots behind us that
we are here.

They are idiots. And Josh
has silver on him. I can either assume that they are aware of what
is going on or it was a lucky guess.
Sloan
thought it was simply lucky.
The gun that
one of the men has is empty. He was afraid to have it loaded in
fear of the gun going off and him accidently killing
someone.

Guns will do them no good
when this goes down.
She came out, dressed
and ready. In the bottom of the bag was a gun. She handed it out to
him.
You might need it. And it is
loaded.

I can’t use it. I might
have to kill them, all of them, but I won’t use a gun. I
can’t.
He stared at her for several
seconds, then nodded. Ruby put the gun in his pocket.
What are we going to do?

I’m going to wake the
woman, and we will go with the flow.
She
cocked a brow at him.
Opal says I need to
work on that more. Going with the flow. I don’t care for it, but I
will try. For her.

Ruby laughed quietly and nodded. Sloan
put Teri on the floor, then they both stepped back. She opened her
eyes, and all hell broke loose when she started screaming. Mother
fuck, it was loud bouncing off the walls of the empty
basement.

Oh, I have one more thing
to tell you.
The men came around the
corner toward them as he explained.

~~~

Josh woke to the sound of screaming.
He tried to sit up, knowing for some reason that Ruby was involved,
but the chains held him back. The two men that had brought him here
were moving out the door when the fat guy, Cartwright, he assumed,
simply watched over him.

“
They come for you, I
guess.” Josh said nothing. “They will try to take you from me, but
without my money, it won’t happen.”

“
You sure about that?” The
man nodded. “And what of Teri, what about her? You going to take
her as well? Then what? Kill us both?”

“
I shall dispose of Teri
when the time is right. You? I believe I will have fun with you
first. I have…do you know of a man that calls himself Dick?” Josh
shook his head and moaned. He’d forgotten about his head being
hurt. “He is on his way. Once he arrives, you’ll see what happens
to your family.”

The two men brought Teri and Ruby in.
Teri was screaming at the top of her lungs about ghosts and such,
but Ruby was looking at him. He reached out for her when she nodded
to him.

You came for
me
. She told him she had to.
Please tell me that you’re not alone. I don’t
think I’m in any shape to help you should you need
me
.

I always need you. But the
family is all here. They’re waiting on Sloan to tell them it’s
clear
. She looked around the room, and
then back at him.
I have something to tell
you. It’s important. You have to
—

“
Well, well, well.” Josh
turned to the door when the woman spoke. He had no idea what she
was doing there and nearly told her to get to cover when Lila spoke
again. “Hello, Josh. And look, here’s the mate. I’m so glad the
gang is all here.”

“
Lila, these men mean to
kill us all. What are you doing here?” He realized what was going
on the moment she smiled at him. “You’re in with them. All
along.”

“
Well, of course I am.”
She pulled a gun seemingly from nowhere and shot Cartwright in the
head. “He is no longer any use to me. I have been watching him fuck
this up for weeks now, and knew that when the moment came and I
could end him, I’d take it.”

She shoved Cartwright out of the chair
he’d been in and sat. Josh sat up a little, then lay back. Teri was
released, and she moved behind Lila. That’s when something else
occurred to him.

“
Your daughter.” Lila
laughed and nodded. “I have no idea why I never saw it before, but
she looks like you. All the way down to the madness.”

“
We were careful not to be
caught together. It nearly got us caught before, the two of us in
one room. We’d worked it out so that neither you nor Dwight would
be able to figure it out. Not that I thought Dwight was bright
enough, but there you have it. By the way, he’s dead. I took care
of him and that bitch he was with this morning.”

Josh had no idea why, but he didn’t
believe her. He didn’t look at Ruby for fear of giving something
away. But when she spoke, he did look and realized that she had
been about to tell him that Lila was in on it when she
arrived.

“
You told me that you
brought Josh home to catch Teri and Dwight together. I’m assuming
that you told them about the silver too.” Lila laughed, then
nodded. “You do know that you’re not going to get away with this.
There are laws binding you. Even as a super, you will be
caught.”

“
I’ve done so well so far
without anyone catching on that it’s me.” She looked down at
Cartwright and thought the man very lucky he was dead already and
not before she could tear him a new ass. Lila continued as if this
happened everyday with her. “When I finish here, I plan on hunting
the rest of your family down and killing them as well. As for
Cartwright here, he was going to disappear after this anyway. It
was our plan to have Dwight go down for the murder, but this is so
much better. Two birds with one stone. Oh, and Josh here will be
married to my little girl, not the dog.”

“
I’m not marrying her.”
Lila laughed and stood up. Ruby was in her arms with a gun to her
head before anyone could move. Josh felt his wolf snarl at him and
then claw at him to be released. “You hurt her and I will kill
you.”

“
You can’t move. The
silver is, as we speak, making its way through your body and
poisoning it.” Josh looked down at his shackles and noticed
something very strange. The one on his left leg was no longer
locked. “And in a few hours, after we’re all gone, the poison will
have made its way to your heart and you’ll be dead. Teri here will
inherit everything you have, and the she-bitch will be rotting away
in some shallow grave. All alone.”

Josh watched his right shackle, and
when it opened, he nearly laughed. Someone was helping them, and no
one but him knew it. Before he could move, a small touch to his
forehead had him moan, and then he could see her.

I am Ursula. Friend to
Opal and Sloan. Do not move, or all will be for naught.
Josh watched as she touched her finger to his
arms and those shackles opened as well.
You will let your wolf take her, yes? It will be just, and
the people on the council will be most pleased.

I’ve no control over the
wolf inside me.
She smiled at him and
nodded.
I see. You want me
wild.

We all do.
He watched her fade away, then reappear behind
Lila, who was talking to Ruby.
She will
need to be taken as a human. Her cat is much stronger than your
wolf, and she has more experience than you in killing.

Tear her throat out, you
mean?
She nodded again.
I’ve never killed anyone before. I’m not sure
that…I don’t know if I can.

If you do not, she will
kill your mate. Ruby and one other will die by her hand if you do
not act, and soon. Let him go. Free him when I say and you will be
rid of her forever.
She moved to him again
and knelt in front of him
. I will give you
a gift. I have given it to your mate and her family, but you are
different than them. A wild wolf lies within you that resides in
Ruby as well. May I give it to you?