by Abby Blake
“Your name?” he asked through gritted teeth. He was trying to be polite—if she was Ruby’s family, it wasn’t an ideal introduction—but he wasn’t willing to put the woman he loved in danger.
“Persephone Rickardson,” she said with an annoyed huff. “Now tell me where my cousin is!”
“I’m here, Seph,” Ruby said as she stepped into the foyer, Zeek on one side, Levi on the other. Persephone gave Nickolas a mean look, pushed past him, and wrapped her arms around her cousin.
“What did they do to you?”
“Relax, Seph, these are my…um…” She glanced at Nickolas before finishing with “bodyguards.”
He gave her a small nod. Explaining their relationship might be a bit much for Persephone to understand at the moment. It seemed she was ready to take on any threat, real or imagined, to protect her cousin.
“These are the retired police officers who found you? Are you sure?”
Ruby laughed and bit her lip for a moment. “Of course I’m sure, Seph. They’ve been with me ever since the kidnappers dumped me in the middle of nowhere.”
“Oh,” Persephone said with a small smile. “Your dad didn’t say anything about them working shirtless.”
“Well, you did just get us out of bed.” Ruby blushed at her apt choice of words, but Persephone appeared not to notice.
“Of course,” she said in what Nickolas would label as a “designed to be offensive” tone. Persephone then held up the bottle of wine, apparently having dismissed the “help,” and, holding it by the neck, wiggled it from side to side. “Got some glasses?”
* * * *
Ruby really didn’t want a drink. There was a part of her that realized she drank too much, too often, and that it had maybe even contributed to her kidnapping. If she’d stayed sober that night, would the kidnappers have been able to spirit her away without anyone noticing? It was probably something she’d never know for sure, but in the last few days she’d realized drinking had been her way of coping with situations that made her uncomfortable. How ironic was it that she’d gotten the reputation for being a party girl from her drinking when she actually drank to cover the fact she hated partying?
“Thanks, but not tonight,” Ruby said, trying to soften the blow with a smile. “It’s late and I’d rather get some sleep.” Predictably Persephone looked at her as if she’d lost her mind.
“Late? It’s not even midnight. Hell, cuz, what the fuck did those kidnappers do to you?”
“Nothing,” she said quickly, trying hard to convince her cousin that she was all right. “Well, nothing that I actually remember.” Ruby took a deep breath and expelled it slowly. “Look, Seph, I just don’t feel like a drink right now.”
“Oh,” Persephone said, looking uncomfortable. “I just thought…you know…get back on the horse and all that, but…” She shrugged instead of finishing the sentence. She looked so disappointed that Ruby felt kind of sorry for her. Persephone had forever been the “enthusiastic puppy” type, but Ruby had always felt her cousin’s heart was in the right place.
“Come on, I’ll make a pot of coffee and we can catch up.”
Persephone wrinkled her nose but nodded and indicated for Ruby to lead the way to the kitchen. Ruby had no doubt that it was the fact that Ruby was going to make the coffee herself, rather than have a servant do it, that upset Persephone the most. Despite the fact that her father wasn’t quite as rich as Ruby’s, Persephone had always been very comfortable ordering servants around.
Ruby glanced at each of her men, glad to notice that they didn’t follow them into the kitchen. It galled her that Persephone was treating them as servants, but short of explaining her unusual relationship, Ruby didn’t really see any way around it at the moment.
As soon as the door bounced closed, Persephone grabbed her arm and whispered urgently into her ear. “You’re still in danger. Those men aren’t who they say they are. I had my private investigator check, and the police officers Nickolas, Levi, and Zeek Brockman are retired. All three of them are in their sixties.”
Ruby shook her head, smiling with relief, but really had no clue how to explain to someone who didn’t even know shifters existed that it was quite possible for those men to be in their sixties—although, it would have been nice if they’d told her their actual ages themselves. “It’s okay. I trust them,” she said instead. “They won’t hurt me.”
“Ruby, you’re not listening,” Persephone said urgently. “I saw all three of them at Sanity’s Edge the night you disappeared.”
Ruby shook her head. That couldn’t be right. Persephone was clearly mistaken.
“Listen to me!” Persephone hissed in her ear. “I saw them. I. Saw. Them. They were at the club.”
“But…” Ruby couldn’t quite explain her cousin’s confidence that she was correct.
“Look, the police found traces of a drug in the wine you drank in the limo that night. It would have made you highly suggestible. It probably explains the ransom tape. You would have just repeated exactly whatever they told you to.”
“But…” Ruby’s brain was racing. What if Persephone was right? But, no, she couldn’t be, because Ruby had seen them turn into black bears right in front of her. Yet, drugs could make people think all sorts of things. What if she’d been drugged all this time? Fuck, she’d given her virginity to these men. She’d trusted them.
Could she be so wrong about them?
Persephone must have seen the doubt on Ruby’s face because she leaned in and whispered urgently, “We need to get you out of here.”
Ruby shook her head, trying to deny what was right in front of her. She didn’t want to believe any of it, but it made sense. There was no such thing as bear-shifters, no such thing as magical healing, and no such thing as mates or true, forever-after love. How much of a fool was she? They’d spun her a fairy tale and she’d swallowed it hook, line, and sinker.
“We need to go,” Persephone whispered once more as she dragged on Ruby’s arm. “Panic room, and then out the fire escape.” Ruby nodded, her heart racing as she realized how much danger her cousin had just put herself in. Hell, they both needed to get out of here now. Right now!
She slid the panel across, entered the PIN code to open the hidden wall, and then dragged her cousin in with her. Thank God she hadn’t given the code to Nickolas. He had all the others but, perhaps believing she was completely fooled by their story, hadn’t bothered to change the codes for the panic room. She just hoped that they didn’t realize the small room had access to the fire escape.
The electronic door slid closed just as the kitchen door opened. The look of confusion of Zeek’s face nearly had her leaping out of the panic room and into his arms, but she denied the impulse, calling herself all sorts of unflattering names as she tried to remember Zeek and his brothers were the bad guys.
Ruby held a finger over her lips and then pointed to the back wall of the panic room. She punched in a second PIN code and sucked in a deep breath as it opened onto a concrete stairwell. It was the only thing that sucked about living on the top floor. There were an awful lot of stairs between them and freedom.
Suddenly glad for her barefoot state, Ruby bent to help undo her cousin’s four-inch heels. Persephone quickly got the hint, dragged off her shoes, and carried them in her hands. They practically tumbled down each set of stairs, adrenaline masking the bumps and bruises they were sure to both be sporting tomorrow.
It seemed to take way too long, but eventually they reached the bottom. Ruby cracked the door open an inch, half expecting one of the Brockman brothers to be on the other side. Breathing a sigh of relief, Ruby pushed the door wide and stepped into the dark alley. “Where’s your car?” she whispered to Persephone.
“Limo,” she said, pointing at the end of the alley. Fortunately, the driver must have been aware of Persephone’s daring plan, because he started the engine and drove toward them as they ran down the alley. The door opened and Persephone practically pushed Ruby into the vehicle.
With a screech of tires, the limousine left her apartment block behind.
“Thank you,” Ruby said as she hugged her cousin close and glanced at the other occupants in the backseat. She’d never seen either of the men before, so she glanced at Persephone, expecting an explanation.
When she didn’t get one, she held her hand out and introduced herself. “I’m Ruby.” She was going to add more, like “Thank you for rescuing me,” or “Why did you let my cousin go in there alone?” but it was cut off by the man’s sly smile.
“We know,” he said with an expression that Ruby thought was way too close to being a leer for her comfort level. The vehicle came to a stop, and a moment later the door opened. Persephone climbed out of the car, and Ruby went to follow her, but a strong arm around her waist pulled her back. Confusion and a strange sense of déjà vu sent adrenaline pounding through her.
“This time,” Persephone said as she turned back and spoke to the man who held Ruby trapped, “get it right. No fucking around, no waiting for the bears to finish her, just get it done or you’ll never see the rest of your money.”
Shock kept Ruby silent as her cousin slammed the door closed and the vehicle started up once more.
* * * *
Levi ached. His chest felt like someone had punched a fist through his rib cage and ripped out his heart. All the love and trust he’d believed they’d built with their mate had dissolved with one whispered conversation with her cousin. None of them had heard exactly what had been said before the two women had ducked into the panic room. They’d wanted to give Ruby privacy and instead they’d given her a chance to run.
It didn’t seem quite possible that she would do this to them. If she’d been having doubts or worries, why hadn’t she said anything? If Zeek hadn’t seen her leave of her own volition, they would have believed Ruby had been taken against her will once again.
All three of them had bolted out the door and waited for the elevator. They’d reached the back of the building in time to see the women climb into a limousine and the vehicle take off at high speed.
“Now what?” Zeek asked, sounding mighty pissed.
“We follow them,” Nickolas said, sniffing the air. “I can still smell Ruby’s fear.”
“But if she’s afraid…” Levi left the thought unfinished. He couldn’t bear thinking that she’d run because she was frightened of them.
“If she’s afraid of us, then she’ll just have to get over it long enough to explain,” Nickolas said with a growl in his voice that Levi had never heard before. His older brother had always been the sensible, “think rationally before reacting” type, but in this situation he seemed almost human.
He took off running in the direction the limousine had taken. Levi looked at Zeek, Zeek looked at Nickolas, and then they both followed as fast as they could.
“They separated here,” Zeek said as he found the piece of material that must have ripped from Ruby’s shirt.
Levi breathed deeply and tried to sort the overwhelming scents of the city from the ones he was tracking. “Ruby stayed in the limo, but her cousin got out.” He glanced around the area, uncertain which way Persephone had gone but not really caring. The only woman he wanted to speak to was his mate. “Her fear increased when they stopped here. Her scent is far stronger.” Levi turned urgently. “Something frightened her here.”
“I sense that, too,” Nickolas said as he also turned toward the direction the car had gone. He started running, his speed faster than that of the average human, but Levi didn’t give two shits what witnesses may or may not see. Their mate was in serious danger. He could feel it in his gut.
Two streets later they came across the limousine waiting at a red light. The streets were still full of traffic even this late at night, so the vehicle didn’t have anywhere to go. They approached it cautiously, unwilling to spook the occupants in case they panicked and hurt Ruby. The light changed to green and the cars started moving.
“They’re heading for the freeway,” Zeek yelled as he shifted into his bear form and rushed at the limousine.
Levi glanced around, glad to see nobody had seemed to notice the shift from man to bear. Considering how worried Zeek had been that Ruby would expose them publically, it was a measure of his fear for their mate that he would take such a risk. Zeek had a couple of close calls, but he managed to disrupt traffic enough that the cars came to a standstill.
Levi and Nickolas rushed to the limousine. Levi grabbed the handle and wrenched the door open. One of the occupants was so startled he swung his gun straight at Levi’s chest and squeezed the damn trigger. It made a strange popping noise, louder than he would have expected for a gun with a silencer attached. Of course the soft sound didn’t lessen the blow. The impact hurt like hell, but it didn’t stop Levi from diving into the interior of the car and grabbing Ruby. He placed himself between her and the guns, violently knocking away the man who’d been holding her trapped.
Fortunately, Nickolas leaned in and grabbed the two occupants and dragged them onto the street. By the sounds coming from the front of the vehicle, Zeek had climbed onto the hood in bear form and was currently clawing away the paintwork. The driver seemed frozen in place, his fear pretty obvious from the sudden stench of urine.
That left Ruby and Levi in the backseat alone.
“I’m s–s–sorry,” Ruby said as she cuddled into his back. He managed to turn and pull his woman into his arms. She snuggled into his embrace a moment before she started crying and her body was racked with sobs.
“Shhh, darlin’, it’s okay. Everything’s going to be okay.”
“I…she…my cou–cousin…” Ruby dragged in a halting breath and finally managed to force out what she’d been trying to say. “Persephone tried to have me killed. W–Why would she do that?”
“I don’t know, darlin’,” Levi said, rocking gently as Ruby cried in his arms. “But I promise you we’ll find out.”
“The ‘bear’ is gone,” Nickolas said with a wink from the open doorway. “Are you okay, Ruby?”
Ruby looked over at him and shook even harder. “Persephone said she saw you at the club,” Ruby said as she sat up a little straighter and dragged her hand over her eyes. “But she was lying. She wanted me to believe you kidnapped me. God, I’m such a fool.”
“No, honey, you’re not,” Nickolas said as he climbed into the limousine and sat opposite Levi. Levi could see the concern for their mate etched deeply into his brother’s face. “Ruby, all you did was trust someone who should have been trustworthy. That’s not being foolish. In nearly every other scenario, trusting your cousin would have been the wisest choice.”
Ruby rolled her eyes, and Levi hugged her harder. This was the woman he’d fallen in love with. Despite her ordeal, she could see the irony of the situation. “She tried to have me killed—twice. Something tells me I missed more than one clue as to her true personality.”
“Maybe,” Nickolas said as he leaned over and touched her face with his hand. “But you chose to trust us, and that was probably your best decision ever.”
She smiled at his summation and didn’t disagree.
But a moment later, her fear spiked again and she scrambled off Levi’s lap. “You’ve been shot. We have to get you to a hospital.”
“I’m fine,” Levi said, trying to reassure her without moving too much. The bullet hadn’t penetrated the muscle. It wasn’t bleeding, but it was sure going to leave a massive bruise.
“But I saw…” Ruby cut off her words, and he felt a little guilty for making her doubt her own eyes.
“Yes, you did see me get shot,” he whispered in her ear as he saw a police officer head toward the limousine, “but do you remember what we said when we explained about density in human form?”
“You’re bulletproof?” she asked in a squeaky voice.
“For the lower-caliber bullets? Pretty much,” he answered just as the officer leaned in the doorway and asked them to step out.
“Miss Rickards
on,” the officer said with a warm smile. “I’m glad to see you’re okay. We just need to ask a few questions.”
“Of course,” she answered, seeming far more in control of her emotions now that there was an outsider present. It was probably a little silly, but Levi felt honored that he and his brothers were the only ones she let see what she was really feeling.
Levi and Nickolas stayed close as the police officer asked his never-ending list of questions, but finally the man was kind enough to give them a lift back to Ruby’s apartment. More tired than he believed possible, Levi still couldn’t stifle his laugh when they found Zeek hiding amongst the shrubbery near the front door of Ruby’s apartment building, trying to avoid an indecent exposure charge. Fortunately, they were able to get him into the elevator and up to the apartment without incident.
* * * *
Nickolas’s phone rang just as they stepped into the apartment. He smiled, spoke briefly to the police officer, and then passed on the news that the others, thanks to their bear-shifter hearing, had already heard.
Persephone had cracked under the weight of the men’s statements of her involvement in the plot against Ruby and had eventually confessed all.
“I still don’t understand why she would try to kill me,” Ruby said as she collapsed onto the sofa and snuggled into Nickolas’s arms when he sat down beside her. It was obvious she was really tired.
The urgent buzzing from the foyer was extremely annoying and most unwelcome, but it did manage to put Nickolas and both his brothers back onto full alert. Zeek answered the intercom phone, spoke briefly to the doorman, and returned to the living area.
“Ruby’s parents are on the way up,” he said as he walked through the living area and headed toward the front door. Nickolas hoped that this time Ewin Rickardson would listen before asking a police officer to shoot him.
It was probably only a few minutes, but the tension in the room seemed to increase exponentially with each passing second.