Drawn To You: A Psychological thriller

by Ren Montgomery

  He didn’t answer, which she took as a good sign.

  She pulled into the left-hand turning lane and put on her blinker at the red light. “You’ll see,” she babbled. “Everything will soon be back to normal and…” His door opened.

  Sean climbed out of her car, and she leaned over and grabbed his jacket. “Baby, wait! Let’s talk this out!”

  He shook her off. “I can’t believe I trusted you. I actually—” His voice broke. “I actually thought I loved you. And all this time I was being manipulated. …Don’t contact me again.”

  The car behind her started honking and she looked up and the light had turned green. She turned back to wave them on, but there was a cop car two cars back. Sean slammed the door and hurried across the cross walk to the right, and Ruby was forced to turn left away from him. She ended up on Highway 101 North, heading back towards Kamata.

  By the time she managed to circle back, Sean was gone. She looked at all the motels and restaurants he could have gone into to wait for his ride and started to weep. She’d never felt such utter despair in all her life.

  What was she going to do?

  CHAPTER 42

  When Ruby got home, she found herself surrounded by boxes. Sean’s overnight bag sat on the floor, and she collapsed on her couch, overwhelmed. Eyes swollen from all the crying, she wiped her face with a soggy tissue.

  It couldn’t be over.

  She dialed Hilary’s cell and prayed she’d be in. Hilary was her only hope.

  “Hil’s phone,” Tom said in his gruff voice. “She’ll be along in a minute.”

  She cleared her throat. “Tom—”

  “Well, well, well, Ruby. As I live and breathe. We were beginning to think you’d forgotten all ‘bout us.”

  “No, I’ve just been busy. Is Hilary there?”

  Tom chuckled. “She told me ‘bout your new beau, so I guess I shouldn’t be too insulted.”

  She pictured Tom with his dirty fingernails, ruddy face, and good-ol-boy attitude. How in the world had Hilary, who could have done so much better, ended up with him? “Yeah. So, is she there?”

  “Yes, but while I got ya on the line, I wanted to talk ‘bout that man you had to shoot. That was a terrible thing, and when Hil told me, I ‘bout died. How you doin’?”

  She rolled her eyes. She really needed to speak to Hilary! “Fine. I’m fine—”

  “Good. That was a big story, huh? We been followin’ it on the news the last couple weeks and Hil’s left messages, but you probably didn’t get ‘em.” She ground her teeth. “You must be glad the story’s died down, huh? You’re finally getting away from the constant press. How’s that goin’ by the way? You been charged with anything?”

  “No, and I don’t expect to be. The police believe it was self-defense. Can I talk to Hilary now? Please?”

  He finally seemed to sense her distress. “Hold on. Babe!” he yelled. “It’s Ruby!”

  A moment later Hilary said, “So nice of you to finally call. I thought you’d dropped off the face of the earth.” She sounded more hurt than angry.

  “Something bad happened,” Ruby said, before bursting into tears again.

  “Oh God…you didn’t shoot anybody else, did you?”

  “No! That’s not funny!”

  “Then what? Did someone die? …Did Sean die?”

  Just the thought of that was enough to make Ruby weak in the knees. “No! But he…he broke up with me tonight.” She blew her nose with shaking hands.

  “Oh Honey, I’m sorry. I know how much he meant to you.”

  Ruby began to wail.

  “I’ll be right over.”

  ▬▬▬

  Ruby opened the door for Hilary and ushered her around the boxes on the floor. “What’s going on?” Hilary asked as she surveyed Ruby’s living room. “Are you moving? Without telling me?”

  Ruby threw herself down on the couch and wrapped herself back up in a blanket. “Sean and I rented a house together, about a mile down the road.” she said dully. “I hate it here. All I see is Jeremy’s bloody body in the corner.” She gestured at the entry where Hilary stood. Hilary shivered and stepped further into the room. “And Sean wanted to move away from his parents. Our new lease starts tomorrow.”

  Her voice cracked and she closed her eyes. How was she ever going to live without him in her life?

  “Thanks a lot Ruby. You’re my best friend, and you couldn’t even tell me you were moving?”

  Ruby stared at the ground. “I was gonna call you tomorrow. Really. It’s just that Sean and I haven’t been able to get enough of each other. You remember what it was like between you and Tom in the beginning.”

  “Uh, no. We started going together the summer before ninth grade.”

  Ruby covered her face with her hands. “I just can’t believe it’s over.”

  Hilary sat down beside her and patted her knee. “What happened? I thought you guys were happy. You must have been if you were moving in together so soon.”

  “He told me he loved me for the first time today,” she said softly, staring into space and smiling as she remembered.

  “Ru, what happened?”

  Ruby closed her eyes. “I messed up Hil, and I need your help to get him back.”

  Hilary sat back, away from Ruby. “How can I help you? I barely know him.”

  Hilary had been there when Ruby bought the walkie talkies. She decided to tell Hilary the truth. Some of it, anyway.

  “Once, on our second date, which was weeks ago, mind you, I sort of…bugged his house.” She hunched her shoulders waiting for the explosion.

  “You what? I don’t believe this. What the hell were you thinking?”

  “I wasn’t. Remember those walkie talkies I bought? …I planted one under his couch, then sat outside in my car, so I could hear what he said about me to his brother.”

  She risked a glance at Hilary, who looked horrified. She had her hand on her heart. “Ruby, that’s…unconscionable. How could you?”

  Ruby flailed the blanket off and stood up. “Look, I know it was stupid, all right? I know! I don’t know why I did it. I was just feeling insecure, and I wanted to hear what he said. I wish I could take it back.”

  “Ooh boy.”

  “He told his brother—”

  Hilary held up a hand to stop her. “Nope. None of my business.”

  Ruby pressed on anyway, needing to garner some of Hilary’s sympathy for herself. “He said, and I quote, ‘Ruby could suck the chrome off a trailer hitch.’”

  Hilary sucked in her breath. “And you want him back? He sounds awful.”

  “Oh, no! He’s wonderful. Kind and gentle and funny. He’s perfect, and you’ve no idea how great we are together. I won’t give him up again.”

  She got back to the subject at hand. “Anyway, when I heard what he said, I figured it served me right for eavesdropping, and I never listened again.” She’d actually listened five or six times total, but she hadn’t heard anything exciting after that first time.

  “Yeah right.” Hilary snorted unattractively. “I know you.”

  Ruby’s anger flared. “You don’t know me. The batteries in those things only last a few hours

  when you tape the button down, and when they ran out, I just never replaced them. And it’s not like I can just sit here and listen in, which I admit, would’ve been impossible to resist. No, I’m out of range here. I have to drive over and sit outside his house to hear anything, so I just never did. In fact, I completely forgot about that stupid radio. These last few weeks have been bliss.”

  “I take it he found the radio under his couch?”

  “Apparently, they found it last week, but he didn’t tell me.” She tried to think of a…benign way to tell Hilary the rest. “So…” she said carefully. “Sean was being stalked when we first hooked up, and I think he just figured the radio was related to that.”

  “Sean was being stalked too? What a coincidence.” Ruby shrugged, and Hilary continued, “I hate to ask you
this—”

  “No! I wasn’t the one doing it! Damn!” Ruby’s eyes filled with tears of rage. Why was everyone so suspicious of her?

  Hilary came up behind her but didn’t touch her. “I’m sorry.”

  “Then, tonight we were on our way to see the Halloween double feature in Calua when I got stopped for speeding. I got a ticket, and once the cop left, I asked Sean to put my registration back in my glove box and…”

  She turned and saw by Hilary’s expression that she’d already guessed the next part. “He found your radio sitting in there.”

  “Yes.” Ruby covered her face with her hands and wept. “And he leapt to the same conclusion you did. He thought I’d been stalking him. He called me crazy! He told me it was over and he won’t be moving in with me tomorrow! And then he jumped out of the car in Calua. That’s why I need your help.” Her knees buckled, and she sat down.

  “I’m so sorry.” Hilary rested her hand on Ruby’s hair. “But again, what can I do? Do you need us to help you move tomorrow?”

  “I don’t even know if I’m still moving Jeremy owned this house, but Harold managed it, and I know he hasn’t rented it yet. He’d let me stay, and I can probably lie my way out of the new lease. No. I told Sean I didn’t plant the radio under his couch.”

  “That wasn’t a good idea.”

  Ruby popped to her feet, dislodging Hilary’s hand, and started pacing. “It’s not like I had a better choice. If I’d told him the truth, he’d never forgive me.”

  “Maybe not,” Hilary conceded, “but you’re in the same boat now. He thinks you lied. He thinks you’re a stalker! Probably, the truth would have been better.”

  “A little late for that now!”

  Hilary crossed her arms. “Don’t snap at me, it’s not my fault—”

  “Sorry,” Ruby said. “Anyway, to make a long story short, I told him my other radio wasn’t mine. It was yours.”

  “What?”

  Ruby began speed talking. “I told him that you and I bought the radios together in September when we drove in separate cars down to San Francisco to visit Sarah, er, Samantha, to visit Samantha, and that it was Tom’s idea. For safety reasons.” She took a ragged breath. “Because you didn’t have a good cell phone then,” she remembered to add.

  “I always have the best cell phones. Tom’s an early adapter—”

  “But Sean doesn’t know that. Sean wanted to call you to verify my story, but I wasn’t sure that you’d go along with it automatically, so I told him you and Tom were in Hawaii for three days, but he could talk to you when you got home. He didn’t believe me though, but if you call him, supposedly from Hawaii, and say you called me out of the blue on your vacation, and I was hysterical, so you decided to call him…if you do that, and confirm my story, then—” Where had she been going with this? “…Then he’d have to believe me, and we could get back together.”

  “So, you want me to lie for you.”

  “Exactly. Please, Hilary. This isn’t some stupid little misunderstanding that’ll just blow over. He thinks I’m a stalker! Please. You have to do this for me.”

  “I really don’t feel comfortable with this,” Hilary said. She backed away. “I’m not a good liar. I think you should tell him the truth.”

  “I can’t!” Ruby wailed. “Don’t you see? This is the only way! He’s my life. I want his babies. I want to grow old with him. This is the man I’m going to spend the rest of my life with, and he thinks he can flush my dreams—our dreams—down the toilet because of a fucking radio? Please!” She got down on her knees and shuffled towards Hilary, clasping her hands to her chest beseechingly. “I’m begging you.”

  Hilary pursed her lips, grabbed Ruby’s arm, and tried to pull her to her feet, but Ruby resisted. “Ru, get up.”

  “Tell me you’ll call and tell him you have the pair to the radio he found. Please!”

  “Ruby—-What if…I don’t even remember what it looks like! What if he asks to see it?”

  Ruby closed her eyes and sat back on her heels. Hilary was going to help her. Thank God. “It’s yellow and black and I’ll buy you one tomorrow. Call him!”

  “It’s awfully late.” Hilary saw Ruby’s scowl and sighed. “Oh, all right.” She put her hands on Ruby’s shoulders and leaned in. “But promise me you’ll talk to someone. A therapist maybe. No man should be this important to you. No man should be your reason for living.”

  Yeah, yeah, yeah…Ruby rose to her feet. “Sure. Whatever. Call.”

  She picked up Hilary’s cell phone, dialed Sean’s number, and put it on speaker phone so she could hear their conversation. She could hear it ringing as she handed it to Hilary.

  The phone went straight to voicemail. Shit. He was screening his calls.

  “Should I leave a message?” Hilary whispered over the outgoing message.

  “Yes!” Ruby hissed, as the phone beeped.

  “Hi, Sean. Um, my name is Hilary? I met you briefly at your surprise party at Ruby’s house? Anyway, I’m on vacation,” Hilary swallowed and forced down a nervous giggle, “In Hawaii, and—” This time she did giggle, and Ruby wanted to drop kick her. “Anyway, I just happened to call Ruby today, just out of the blue—”

  Ruby felt hot tears spring to her eyes. Hilary was ruining everything. This wasn’t some joke. She sounded like she was lying, and Sean would pick up on it.

  She could kill Hilary!

  “…told me what happened between you two tonight and—” Hilary looked at Ruby, saw her face and sobered up. “Ruby told you the truth. We did buy those radios together and use them on a trip to San Francisco. I have mine if you want to see it. Uh, at my house in Kamata, I mean. Not here. I’d have no reason to bring it to Hawaii with me. Right? Heh, heh. Anyhoo—”

  Suddenly the phone cut her off.

  “Call him back quickly, and finish,” Ruby snarled. “And keep it together. This is serious!”

  Hilary was dialing his number again when Ruby’s cell phone rang with Sean’s ringtone. “It’s him!” Ruby said, shoving the phone at Hilary without thinking. “Sell it!”

  “Hel-lo?” Hilary put it on speaker.

  “Ru…who is this?” Sean said. “…Hilary?”

  “Hi, yes. It’s me, Hilary. Speaking from Hawaii. Home of the rainbows…” Ruby shot her a withering glance. “I just wanted you to know that Ruby’s not a stalker. She loves you! You’ve misjudged her. You guys need to talk.”

  Yes! Yes. Keep talking! This was the stuff that would change his mind.

  “I’ll be home from Hawaii in—” Hilary looked at Ruby who held up three fingers. “Three days and if you want to talk more when I get back, my number is five five—”

  “So, you’re in Hawaii?” Sean said.

  Ruby’s eyes went wide with panic. Hilary held the phone out and pointed at her, which Ruby took to mean that she should take over. She shook her head violently, pointed at Hilary, and opened and closed her hand to imitate a mouth moving. Hilary rolled her eyes. “Yes, we’re in Hawaii right now. Having the time of our lives, but as soon as I talked to Ruby, I knew I had to speak with you. She doesn’t even know I’m calling.”

  “You know, technology’s a wonderful thing,” Sean said.

  They exchanged glances and Ruby shrugged.

  “Er…yeah,” Hilary said. “I guess.”

  “You’re in Hawaii, talking on Ruby’s cell phone?”

  They both looked at the phone in Hilary’s hand with horror. “Which she had on her tonight? Cut the crap.”

  They were busted! Ruby had no idea how to handle this. Then Hilary took a deep breath, straightened up and said in a no-nonsense voice, “Okay, she lied about me being in Hawaii because she wasn’t sure I’d back up her story about the radios and she wanted to brief me first.”

  Ruby shut her mouth with a click and lunged at her friend. Hilary scrambled behind the couch, and they faced off. Ruby shook her head violently and mouthed the words, “What the fuck are you doing?”

  Hilary held
up one finger in a placating way and mouthed back, “Trust me,” and then she turned her back on Ruby and continued. “I don’t really have a radio either. Both of them belong to Ruby and she did plant one under your couch a few weeks ago.”

  Ruby raised her fist at Hilary’s back and shook it, as a blinding rage overtook her. She searched for something to bash Hilary’s brains in with, but everything was boxed up. She picked up a stool, took aim at Hilary’s head, and was about to swing for the fences when her reason took over. Sean would hear. She tossed the stool aside and attempted to wrestle the phone out of Hilary’s hands. “Ru—oooff, stop! Get off—” She shoved Ruby one-handed. Hard. Hilary was rail thin, but she was much taller than Ruby, and a lot stronger than she looked.

  “I knew it!” Sean said. “And you were willing to lie for that bitch.”

  “She’s not a bitch…but I did try to convince her to tell you the truth,” Hilary admitted.

  Ruby collapsed into a chair and listened with mounting horror. It was too late. The damage was done. Her life was ruined.

  Hilary was going to pay for this if it took Ruby the rest of her life. How should she do it? Drown her? Shoot her? Torture? A freak accident, perhaps? She’d bided her time and waited over two years to move on Curtis, and her patience had paid off. His death had been ruled a tragic accident.

  She tuned back in and heard Hilary saying, “…had a really hard childhood, and she has a hard time trusting men. She planted the radio weeks ago, and she only listened once. Then she realized how wrong it was, and she started to love you—”

  “Yeah right,” Sean interjected. “Once. Sure.”

  “Really!” Hilary said. “She heard you say something disgusting about her, and it hurt her feelings, and she figured it was payback for listening in, so she stopped.”

  “Another lie. I’ve never said anything disgusting about Ruby. I had way too much respect for her.”

  Hilary looked unsure, but Ruby was pissed. He did say it and she wanted Hilary to call him on it. Hilary saw her expression, shrugged, and said, “Let me refresh your memory. You were talking to your brother, I believe? And I think your exact quote was, ‘Ruby could suck the chrome off a trailer hitch.’ Sound familiar?”