I did a quick survey of the interior. I was engulfed by a sea of tan: all plastic, no frills. There was a CD player that lay dormant in the dash and a narrow backseat. There was also a very conflicted driver staring at me with a look of both relief and concern. He was assessing something, seeking something from me.
“What?” I squeaked. My voice was coming back, but it wasn’t a pretty process.
“I’m checking to be sure you’re OK. I’ve been really worried. What the fuck was that stunt you pulled back there?” he asked, trying to stare at me and watch the road simultaneously.
The decibel level was increasing with his soliloquy. He really had been freaked out by something.
“I decided that if I was going down, I would kill those who hurt me in the process. It seemed the most rational and effective plan.”
Ever the pragmatist.
I very conveniently left out the part about not being able to stand the thought of Sean betraying me, and that my death would be at his hands. That thought reminded me of something.
“How did I get out of there alive? Wait, scratch that. First, how long have I been out?” I asked, trying to wiggle myself into a more comfortable position. My body ached and I was glad the light wasn’t brighter to show me why.
“You haven’t woken up for twenty-four hours, Ruby. I was starting to worry. He said it shouldn’t take more than twelve.”
“Are you shitting me? Why? Why couldn’t I wake up? What the hell is going on here?” I tried to shout, with gravel in my voice. ”You said it only took a couple of minutes for me to come out of it when I Changed!”
I was getting concerned too.
“Sean said that you should…” Cooper started.
“Sean said? What do you mean Sean said?” I yelled, grabbing his arm to get his attention back on me.
He sighed.
“Sean said that bringing you out of it would alter your normal recovery time. He tried to factor in some healing time too. You took a few bad hits, Rubes,” he said, getting that concerned, furrowed brow again. I was normally pretty quick on the uptake, but at that moment, I was seriously lost. I was trying to keep track of all the things I needed clarification on and in what order I wanted them.
Why is there never pen and paper when you need it?
“Wait, wait…waaaait. You’re telling me that you and Sean had a little tete a tete while I was…well, whatever I was doing?” I asked with a great deal of disbelief shining through.
He sighed again.
“Let me start from the beginning, or, well, more like the end for you, at least as far as your cognition goes.”
“Fine, but I’m interrupting at will,” I informed him, letting go of his sleeve. “There’s a lot of stuff not making a whole lot of sense to me right now, and it had better start to soon,” I threatened.
“Fine,” he returned. “But don’t think you’re getting off scot free here, missy. You’ve got some ‘splainin to do,” he said with the faintest of smiles curling the corner of his mouth.
“Fine. Start,” I demanded.
He took a long dramatic pause before he started in.
“When you turned and winked at me I saw two things that frightened me: hopelessness and acceptance. There was a little crazy sprinkled in there too. I knew what you were about to do, but had no way to stop you. Sean could have, but he didn’t seem to realize what you were up to. Quite frankly, he looked downright dumbfounded when you busted out a sprint in the opposite direction.”
A smile of satisfaction slowly spread over his face as he said his last statement.
“You were half way through the pack, amassing a body count when we figured out a plan. The rest of the PC joined us from the woods and decided they were going to distribute some justice of their own to take some of the burden off of you. I was to join them. Sean was to deal with you.”
“What do you mean exactly when you say ‘deal with’?” I asked.
“I had to clarify that myself before I’d let him go. I wasn’t sure why he was there in the first place and I wasn’t just going to hand you over to him on a platter. He swore on the brotherhood that he would not harm you in efforts to get you to stop. I believed him.”
“You believed a man whose sole purpose in life is to eradicate those like me? Wow, little lack of judgment there, don’t you think? Were you running low on blood sugar?” I asked, laying on the sarcasm.
He pressed his lips together firmly, making them turn white around the edges.
“You’re alive, aren’t you? My judgment can’t possibly be that poor,” he snipped.
“About that, how did we manage that?”
“We? We didn’t do anything. Sean and I saved your ass. You may be the most lethal thing I’ve ever seen on four legs, Rubes, but I’ve got a little news flash for you…you’re not invincible. I’ve seen less damage in a ten car pile-up!” he recounted very snidely.
“I couldn’t have been that hurt. I don’t heal like you do in human form. I’d be dead!”
“Ah, again why you have Sean and me to thank. I don’t know exactly what he did, but he must’ve worked some voodoo on you after he turned you back because your flesh started reknitting as I ran you out of there in my arms.”
It was a lot to take in at once - the proverbial mind-fuck.
“Why didn’t Sean just kill me and get it over with? Why go to all the trouble of finding me only to let me go with you? Is there supposed to be some ceremony to killing the RB?”
He scoffed, which quickly became laughter. It was good to know that I could amuse him with so little effort.
“God, you’re thick. You still don’t get it, do you? You really don’t know why he was there?”
“No, Coop, my list of ideas is pretty short. Care to share what you’ve got on yours?” He just hung his head and shook it slowly back and forth in an act of pure frustration. When he raised it up, his neutral expression had returned.
“The Alpha is dead,” he told me, risking a look across the center console.
“How?” I asked, forgetting the importance of my previous question.
“Let’s just say that his justice was neither swift, nor painless.”
“Were you there?” I asked.
“Yes.”
My voice lowered and softened with every question asked.
“Did you do it?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
His brow furrowed again, and I realized that in the short time I’d known him that he seemed to do that frequently.
“Some things are better left alone, Rubes. Just know that I had my reasons,” he said.
Even I knew to take that cue. He was on terra firma as far as that was concerned. The truth was that his manner of death wasn’t really important to me, just the outcome.
A long silence stretched out slowly, seemingly with no end in sight. I craved conversation, anything human at that moment, and went for a change of subject entirely.
“Where are the PC now?” I asked conversationally.
“They’re doing what they do best, cleaning up the mess.”
“Do you mean that figuratively or literally?” I asked, knowing that the answer was likely both. He turned his head and answered with a half-smile that said “silly girl, you don’t need me to answer that for you.” Point taken.
“So what do we do now?”
“We go home,” he said matter-of-factly.
Hmm. Unless he knew something that I didn’t, he didn’t have a home because we just annihilated it and mine was about as safe to go to as a minefield.
“And where would that be?” I asked.
“If you don’t remember where you live, dear, I think this trip is about to get more complicated than I expected,” he said with a laugh. “It figures. Why do women always have to complicate things?” Cooper asked, finally regaining some much needed focus on the road ahead.
Well that was a weighted statement if I’ve ever heard one.
I smiled my saccharin-s
weet smile his way to show my vast appreciation for his last statement. He laughed harder. At least I wasn’t predictable.
“That’s my girl.”
“So how much farther do we have to go?” I asked, still not knowing where we were.
“About ten more hours, but we’re going to stop and eat first, and get you cleaned up and into some fresh clothes. I love ya girlie, but you’re really starting to funk up the car. The pine tree can only do so much,” he kidded.
Touche.
Logic like that couldn’t be argued with.
38
We made a quick stop in Erie, PA to pee, eat and procure some new threads, or in my case, any threads. I’d once again been given Coop’s shirt to cover myself up with. A sudden flash of me being carried by Cooper across the clearing wearing only my birthday suit made me turn scarlet. I was beginning to think he’d seen me naked more than dressed. Somehow, I didn’t think he minded.
He’d purchased some baby wipes in the convenience store and I scrubbed myself up as best I could before making a mad dash to the bathroom around the back. I scrubbed out my hair and put on the clothes, hoping that nobody saw my state and called the cops. I looked like in extra in a horror film.
Having not run into any problems, we continued on our way. We managed to make it all the way to Worcester, Massachusetts with only idle chat or silence, and random sing-alongs to Neil Diamond’s Greatest Hits, which neither of us would ever have admitted to if confronted. Our similarities in childhood torture were never ending.
With only two hours left in the car together, I wanted to get a few basics ironed out before we arrived.
“So where do you plan on staying?” I asked casually, as if not invested in the answer at all. That couldn’t have been further from the truth.
“With you, Roomie,” he replied in a sing-song voice. “Where else could I stay? Besides, I’m under strict orders.” His carefree demeanor sobered with his last statement. Judging by the immediate grimace on his face, he wasn’t supposed to let that last part slip. It sounded like he was ordered to hold me under some kind of house arrest. I assumed that applied only until Sean showed up. There wouldn’t be any need for it after that.
“Excellent! A chaperone in my own home. Christmas really can come twice in one year,” I said with sarcasm dripping from every word. “I must have been extra good.” My witty comeback was met with a faint shaking of his head, his face dressed with a frown.
“No comment,” was his weak response.
“No, seriously. What if I don’t want you living with me?”
“It appears that you have no choice,” he replied.
Fuck that!
“I don’t have a choice? Are you shitting me right now? Do you really want to take it there, Coop? I’ve got choices coming out of unmentionable orifices at a rate that rivals the speed of sound.”
“Such as…?” he inquired condescendingly.
“Stay or leave? Surrender or fight? Live or die? You know, the really simple things in life to answer.”
“None of those are choices you have to make, Rubes. You’re choosing to make them and your reasoning is ill-advised. You still know nothing about what you speak of.”
“I’m about five seconds away from putting your head through the window if you don’t start spilling the shit you know and stop speaking in riddles, Dr. Seuss.”
“But I’m not supposed to say any…”
“SPILL IT NOW!” I screamed, punching the dash for effect.
He got my point loud and clear, and sang like a songbird. His sudden compliance wasn’t really all that surprising given that he had recently seen me take out virtually an entire pack single-handedly. I wouldn’t want that coming down on me, either.
“Do you want the full thing or just the nuts and bolts of it?” he asked, sighing heavily.
“I want the whole kit and kaboodle.”
“Sean finished up doing whatever it was he was doing to you about the same time as I was, well, wrapping things up with the Alpha,” he explained. “And before you ask, no, I don’t know what he was doing to you and no he didn’t feel it necessary to tell me after the fact.”
He was right to clarify that last point. I was about to interrupt him when he did.
“The PC had the few survivors occupied at the time, and Sean gestured me over to him. I wasn’t entirely sure if doing what he asked was a good idea since he and his brothers were in the process of taking out my whole clan, but I complied.”
“So you can follow directions. Duly noted,” I said, drily. He didn’t bother with a retort.
“Anyways, he gave me explicit orders that I was to follow to the letter as my continued respiration depended on it. I was to do three things, well, four things really: be sure you had your ring, drive you to Portsmouth without stopping for anything more than gas and food, and wait for him there when we arrived.”
“That’s only three. What was the fourth?” I asked, confused.
He swallowed audibly.
“Keep you alive.”
And there went my stomach again launching directly into my airway, which technically wasn’t anatomically feasible, yet continued to occur.
“Did he say why?”
“Oh yes, Ruby, he explained himself at length. He was extremely compliant and forthcoming. He gave me his life story while he was at it, if you’re interested in a recap of that as well.”
“Fine. Did he say anything else?” I asked.
“Yes, but it wasn’t said for or about you,” he said, gripping the wheel tighter.
“Soooo? What was it?” I prodded.
He pursed his lips so tightly that they disappeared from his profile entirely.
“You could say that he made it very clear that you were his and that he wasn’t especially fond or trusting of me.”
“Why would he say that? Do you two have history or something?” I asked, searching his face for an answer.
“Not exactly, Rubes, but he’s legendary. All weres know and fear him; his presence is never a good sign. He keeps the line between the mortal world and the not-so-mortal world intact and if he pays you a visit, it’s because you’ve done something to endanger that and will be disposed of accordingly. All the brothers do this. I’ve never heard of so many of them being in one place at the same time. It’s totally unprecedented! Talk about the shit hitting the fan.”
My chest tightened a bit, and since my stomach hadn’t returned to its place of origin, breathing was out of the question. Sean had the PC on a hunt for me, the last of the RB, the most lethal of all weres. Sometimes setting records is not such a favorable thing.
I realized then what Sean’s message had meant. He would finish cleaning up the mess in Utah, then come back with his boys to where I was effectively being held hostage by the numbnuts driving the car, and then kill me. Easy as pie.
While all these horrible images of my death swam through my mind, a random question popped in and then flew out of my mouth without time for me to filter it.
“Why did he tell you to make sure my ring was on?”
Cooper turned to look at me slowly, which I really hated because we were surrounded by Massachusetts drivers who were not known for their prowess behind the wheel. His look smacked of frustration from trying to figure that very thing out himself.
“I haven’t a clue.”
40
I spent the last hour of the trip battling my anxiety while it increased with every rotation of the odometer. I needed answers, but more than that, I needed a way out. Maybe I was way out of line about Sean and his plan to kill me, but I just couldn’t see any other explanation. As much as I liked Cooper, I was not going to sit around and play good little hostage for him while I waited for Sean and whatever fate he had in store for me. However, I liked Cooper enough not to hand his ass over to Sean on a silver platter. I needed a way to escape that would get me long gone, and Cooper off the hook for never having been able to see my escape coming. At best I figured we had maybe a
four hour lead on them, so I wasn’t working with a whole lot of wiggle room. Luckily for me, Cooper seemed oblivious to the fact that escaping was even on the menu for me. I found that extremely ironic.
Since Sean was working under the assumption that I knew nothing of his plan to return, he would be caught off guard by my break-out. In hindsight he would realize that Cooper was many things, but tight-lipped was not one of them. It would so work in my favor.
So with Cooper clueless, and Sean ignorant, all I needed to do was invent a window of opportunity or diversion to occupy Coop long enough for me to duck out and be long gone before he even noticed. I racked my brain for innocuous events that could lead to opportunity. For at least thirty minutes I came up with nothing, but then it hit me. We hadn’t eaten since Erie and we were both clearly starving; the gurgling noises coming from both of our bellies was testament to that.
I realized that pizza delivery would be my deliverance. It was so simple it was genius. I would let Cooper order so he knew it was legit, lulling him into the perfect sense of false security, then I would run down to the main door to pay. Cooper would be in a lack-of-food haze, so his judgment would be impaired enough to let me go down there unescorted. From there I could sprint to the Audi, having already stashed the key in my pocket when we first arrived at the apartment.
Like taking candy from a baby.
I smiled outwardly while going over and over the logistics of my plan until I realized I had an audience and quickly wiped it from my face.
“Inside joke? Care to share?” he asked, mocking my favorite interrogation phrase.
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