by Calinda B
“Who are you?”
She took a deep breath. “I’m afraid history will repeat itself. Whoever the original kidnappers were, were never caught. I believe they’ve struck again. And what happened to my father will happen to my client.”
“What…Wait!”
She stared at him as she’d done that day her father had been formally charged with tears in her eyes, hoping this time he did not turn her away. She merely nodded at him. “Emma could open doors with a thought, Lucian. Can you still do that?”
5
Can I still do that? What the fuck is happening?
Lucian stood abruptly, kicking the chair out from behind him. The woman that called herself Ruby Crane startled, but she didn’t flee. She rounded her shoulders, seemingly with purpose, and looked him directly in the eye.
Ruby! Could it be?
He scanned her face again, seeing an echo from his past. It was the eyes. Those golden eyes that always cut right through him. Ruby? Of course, it was!
She looked away as he began to pace the floor. Lucian had suppressed the painful memories of his mother’s brutal death years ago. For what? So that Ruby Stevenson could come back and drag him and his family back to hell?
Lucian turned to the woman. It was her, the childhood friend he’d done everything in his power to forget. Even though he mourned the loss of their friendship, their relationship had been too wrapped up in the loss of his mother. Out of habit, he ran his fingers through his thick, messy hair and turned to the woman.
“Ruby?” he asked with narrowed eyes. “Ruby Stevenson?”
He could hear the fear and trepidation in his own voice as he spoke. He closed his eyes tight and cleared his voice before speaking again.
“Are you Ruby Stevenson?” he asked in a steadier tone.
Was she married? Did he care?
When Lucian opened his eyes, Ruby was on her feet facing him. She was looking at him with sorrowful eyes.
“Yes,” she admitted softly.
Lucian looked down at her and clamped down his expression. Even in her heels it still registered that he stood quite a few inches taller than she was.
He folded his arms across his chest. It still hurt what her father had done. What it had done to them. “So, this is your bullshit way of clearing your father’s name?”
“Lucian, my father is dead. As far as the court is concerned, his guilt or innocence is of no consequence at this point. But, my client’s is. And you might be in danger too. There is someone still out there killing people like you. Emma, your mother, and who knows how many others. I mean to find out who that is… and stop them.” Her voice was soft but encased in steel.
A strange feeling washed over Lucian when Ruby stepped closer to him. The sincerity in her voice told him she believed what she was saying. But with her being so close, he couldn’t focus on anything except for her plump, luscious ruby-colored lips, her warm brown eyes, and her sweet, enticing fragrance.
He scanned her again, unable to stop himself. Ruby had changed so much. No longer was she the pudgy girl with cornrows in her hair that followed him around. The Ruby he remembered was sweet, intelligent, and very tenacious. The look of determination in her beautiful eyes told him at least that much hadn’t changed about her. As he stood there, staring deep into her eyes, Lucian felt the bite of guilt for the way he’d treated her after his mother was killed. Even though he knew she wasn’t the person that had killed his mother, he had turned his back on her anyway. He’d been so shocked and angry at the time to learn it had been her father.
He had thought of her often over the years, but he’d shoved memories of their friendship into the same dark hole he shoved the horrible pain of losing his mother. And here she was, trying to make him relive the nightmare. Beautiful or not, Ruby Stevenson… Crane, or whatever she was calling herself these days, was not about to reopen the wound and pour salt into it.
“Your mother’s death doesn’t have to be for nothing.”
That pissed him off. He stepped back and waved his hand, opening the door.
“Yes, I can still do that,” he hissed. “Get out!”
Ruby took a step closer, her arm raising as if to touch him. He took a step back. His traitorous body reacted to her nearness. His skin heated, his breathing changed, and his fucking cock began a shoving match with his zipper.
“Lucian, don’t you want to know the truth? We can find out together,” Ruby implored.
Together?
“I already know the truth. Your father murdered my mother. And, for that… he got exactly what he deserved. Now, leave.”
Ruby dropped her head and exhaled. When she raised her chin and looked up at him, he could see the moisture pooling in her eyes. For some reason, hurting her made him feel like shit.
“Okay, Lucian. I’ll leave.”
He could hear the defeat in her voice, but he offered no comfort. Why should he? A better question was, why did he want to? When she turned and walked toward the door, a part of Lucian wanted to reach out to her. To shut the door. To stop her from walking out of his life.
He didn’t.
Instead, he stood as if his feet were cemented to the floor and stared at her back as she left.
“Ruby Stevenson,” he whispered to himself.
He remained in the exact spot Ruby left him in when Sheila entered his office.
“Lucian, are you okay?”
She studied him with concern in her expression, but he was still thinking about his visit from a ghost of his past.
“Lucian?”
“Yeah… yes. I’m good.”
He forced his feet to take him to his desk. He took a seat and reached for his cellular. He could feel Sheila’s eyes on his as he scrolled through his contacts.
“I’m fine, Sheila. Do me a favor and close the door on your way out,” Lucian said without looking up.
“Excuse me? I came in here for a reason.” Her tone was dripping with attitude.
Lucian looked up and grinned at his assistant. She had a frown on her face and a hand on her hip. Even with an attitude, Sheila was beautiful. She had lustrous blonde hair and pretty blue eyes. And for a woman pushing fifty, she had a killer body.
“I’m sorry, Sheila,” he chuckled. “What’s up?”
“The young lady left this for you,” she told him, handing him a manila envelope.
“Thank you, ma’am.”
Sheila nodded and tuned to leave.
“Sheila?” he called out, stopping her in her tracks.
She turned with a raised brow.
“Take the rest of the night off. Go spend some time with your husband.”
Sheila chuckled. “Now you know damn well that I come to work to get away from his ass.”
Knowing that Sheila was joking, Lucian laughed and went back to scrolling through his contacts. She bid him goodnight and left the office.
He found the number he was looking for and hit the call button. While he waited for an answer, he opened the envelope. Inside were copies of court documents, newspaper clippings, and what looked like Ruby’s personal notes on each case.
“Yo,” a voiced boomed on the other end.
“Darrell, it’s Lucian Reid. I need to put you to work.”
“What’s up, Lucian? Whatcha got?”
“Ruby Crane, aka Ruby Stevenson. I need everything you can get on her… everything.”
“I might be a minute,” Lucian told his driver.
Larry nodded with a grunt and fiddled with the radio. Lucian climbed out of the backseat and looked up at the Brooklyn Brownstone. The red brick, Greek inspired townhouse was an indication that Ruby was doing well for herself financially.
He walked slowly toward the townhouse, wondering if his unannounced visit was a good idea. He wasn’t exactly sure what he was planning to say. He’d been so rude, practically tossing Ruby out of his office. He been taken by surprise and shocked to see her again, and by the things she had to say. What if she slammed the door in his f
ace? What if she wasn’t alone?
According to Darrell, she was unmarried and had no children, but there could very well be a man in her life. Darrell Davis was one of the best private investigators on the East Coast and he’d given Lucian a thorough report on Ruby on such short notice. If there was a man in her life, he’d surely have included that in his report. However, what he did include in his report was his opinion that Ruby was definitely on to something substantial. Lucian had sent him the report Ruby had left him. The similarities between Emma Taylor’s death and the death of his mother were too much to ignore. In Darrell’s opinion, there was definitely something going on.
Lucian jogged up the few steps that led to Ruby’s front door. He took a deep breath and rang the bell. A few seconds later, the front door opened and an angry Ruby stepped into the doorway. Lucian exhaled the breath he didn’t realize he was still holding.
It wasn’t the angry expression on Ruby’s pretty face that had Lucian stuck. Or, the fact that she had freed her honey blonde hair from the pony-tail, allowing cascading waves to drape over her shoulders. Ultimately, it was the tight t-shirt, outlining noticeably erect nipples, and the super-short shorts, exposing her long shapely legs, that rendered him speechless.
Ruby must have felt the heat from his lustful gaze. She narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest, covering her mouth-watering tits.
“Why are you here, Lucian?”
Hell, the sight of her nearly made him forget why he was there. She could conceal her full, beautiful breasts, but he still had a full, unobstructed view of her thick thighs and round hips. Ruby had grown into heart-stopping curves.
“Lucian! Why are you here?”
She was clearly running out of patience.
“We need to talk,” he finally responded.
“I tried that… didn’t go so well.”
“Yes. I know,” he replied as he stepped across the threshold and brushed past her without waiting for an invitation to enter.
She grimaced and slammed the door. He entered the foyer and scanned the dimly lit room for a light switch. When his eyes landed on a switch, a wave of his hand illuminated the room. He turned to Ruby. Her arms were still crossed over her chest. She shifted her weight from one leg to the other.
“You are so special, using magic to turn on a light from three feet away,” she scoffed.
“Don’t be mean, Miss Lady. Lead me to a drink so we can talk,” he responded with a grin.
She frowned at him and without replying, sashayed past him. He followed close behind. But not too close.
Lucian was very appreciative of the sway of her hips and the slight bounce of her perfectly round ass. He’d shown up at her home unannounced at almost midnight because they needed to have a dreaded, but important, discussion about the past, but the only thing that he could concentrate on was his future between Ruby’s honey-colored thighs.
6
Ruby should’ve tossed his fine privileged ass out onto the sidewalk. How dare he show up at this hour? But she’d been wide awake, going over one of her cases again, preparing for the hearing next week. She wanted to do it sooner, but the judge was being a bitch.
She hadn’t really been surprised when Lucian had practically tossed her out of his office earlier. He’d always been volatile. Act first, consequences later. Quick to anger but he’d always forgive when it came to her. Which was why it had hurt so much all those years ago when he’d turned his back on her and never reached out to her again. In truth, it still hurt, but she’d pull up her big girl panties and deal. However, she felt pleasantly surprised he bothered to track her down and show up on her doorstep so quickly.
She headed for her study, conscious of the shorts she wore and his eyes on her ass. Couldn’t be helped. She went straight for the small liquor cabinet in the room mostly stocked with wine, but she did have a bottle of the Whiskey her last boyfriend liked. She’d booted him out of her life a year ago but kept the bottle.
“Wine or Whiskey?” she asked him as she opened the cabinet.
“Whiskey’s fine.”
“Have a seat.” She gestured to the sofa, then grabbed a highball glass for him from the top of the cabinet and a wine glass for herself. She preferred wine and poured a glass of Merlot. At first, she handed him his glass and had been about to move back to her desk where she’d been working and to put some distance between them. She needed to regain the control she’d lost with him back in his office. Give herself time to calm her accelerated heart rate at his presence in her space. Instead, she sat at the other end of the couch and took a sip of her wine.
Lucian raised his glass toward her in salute. “Thank you. You look great by the way.”
“Thanks. So do you.”
“Thanks for letting me in.” He watched her over the rim of his glass. “It’s been awhile.”
“Whose fault is that?” She couldn’t resist the bite in her voice.
He glanced down at his drink then back at her. “Mine. You have my attention. Now, tell me what else you know about Emma and how this relates to my mother.”
“Now. Now you’re willing to listen?”
“Yes. I should have the first time you just shocked the shit out of me.”
She nodded. “By all accounts she was a bright, talented and well-liked teenager and devoted to dance. She also didn’t have a lot of friends in school. Most of her friends were other ballet students. She spent fifteen hours a week in dance classes and at rehearsals. But according to Todd, Emma had a secret. She could move objects with her mind. The only reason he knows is because he saw her do it when the ability first manifested itself when she was about five. She wanted a doll that was out of her reach, but she raised her hand and the doll fell right into them. He never said anything to anyone.” She took another sip of her wine.
“Have you?” Lucian asked.
She knew he wanted to know if she’d ever spoken about his own abilities. “No.”
“Why not?”
“It’s not my secret to tell. Nor do I plan on revealing it to anyone now, about you or Emma. But you are the only one I can talk to about this, who would understand. I tried reaching out to your father, but I couldn’t get past his lawyers. You’re the only one I think can help me get at the truth.”
“And what truth is that?”
“That Todd Croaker did not kidnap and murder Emma.”
“And if he didn’t, then what? Your father didn’t have anything to do with my mother’s kidnapping and murder?”
“He didn’t, Lucian. He adored your mom. We all did. But your mother was like Emma. You inherited your ability from her. I think your mother was being trained in her abilities or maybe even taught others at that yoga studio she went to and my father knew it, just as Emma trained at the same place and Todd knew.”
He finished his drink and placed the glass on the side table.
“A woman showed up at Emma’s house shortly after the first time and had a meeting with both Emma and her father. Her mother died in childbirth. Todd wasn’t present at that meeting nor does he know who the woman was. The next week, Emma started ballet classes but Emma’s father instructed Todd to take her there a full forty-five minutes before her first class began and meet with Mr. or Mrs. Becker, the owners, on the third floor. He did that every time she had scheduled classes.
“At first, when she was younger, Todd would sit in a waiting area on the third floor, where the yoga studio was. One of the owners would come and get Emma and take her through another door in the yoga studio. Yoga classes were never held at those times. Then Emma would come out and they’d go downstairs to the main ballet studios where there was open glass where the parents could observe the kids. Emma told Todd she was learning to dance but also learning about a secret. She never told him what the secret was, but he did witness more examples of her abilities over the years.”
“Have you spoken to the owners of the ballet studio about this?” he asked.
“Not exactly. My investi
gator questioned them about why Emma was being dropped off early before her scheduled classes. They claimed to get some extra training. Yet no one else my investigator spoke to at the studio seems to get such extra training nor were they aware of anything like that being done. And I don’t know what questions were asked in your mother’s case if any. The yoga studio your mother used to go to is still there and has the same owners. I don’t know if the Beckers trained Emma or your mom, or if someone else did, or even if perhaps your mom taught there. Can you tell me?”
Lucian shook his head. “I’ve never been trained. So I have no idea.”
“Why not?” But she thought she could guess. After his mother died, surely he would have rejected it. Rejected any and everything in his grief and anger, even her.
“My…ability didn’t manifest itself until I was bit older than Emma, maybe about ten. And I hid it from everyone but you.” He smiled briefly at her.
That smile flashed a memory of him as a teen. She’d had such a crush on him. He’d been a handsome boy and now, as a man, he still made her breath hitch. “Wait, I thought your mom always knew since she could do it too. You’re the one who told me you might have inherited your ability from your mother.”
“She didn’t always know. Not until a few months before she died. I’d gotten mad one day and slammed a door without touching it. I hadn’t even realized she was in my room when I’d done it. She sat me down on the bed then sat next to me and waved her hand, opening the door. Then she slammed it shut again.” Lucian chuckled. “Imagine my shock. She tried to explain to me that we were Maji, part of an ancient sect whose ancestors were able to access certain recesses of our brains that most other people can’t. This allows us to manipulate objects, matter, even energy. She said some people saw it as magic or sorcery.
“My mom wanted me to be trained. She said there were more of us. Most were women, but there were men too. She told me she was still learning how to access her full potential. This would be our secret and since my dad wasn’t one, he didn’t know, and I had to be careful. He could never know; his life would be at risk. I wanted nothing to do with it. I didn’t want to be weird. So, she tried to train me herself, but I wasn’t a very good student. Then after…after she died, there was no one to teach me and I couldn’t say anything to my father.”