by L. J. Wilson
“Wait,” she said, her voice confused. “You weren’t really working for Silas Brikk? Aaron—”
He held up a hand. “Just let me get this out before I change my mind. Telling you is still not my first choice. ” Aaron inched off the pillow, kissing her. “But if it keeps you here, makes you understand that we do belong together… then telling you is what I have to do.”
“Go on,” she said as his head lay back on the pillow.
“Our team.… Well, make that me. I was close, so close to blowing the whole thing wide open. Over time, Brikk came to rely on me. He trusted me with his money, his product, his underlings, his routes… The only thing I hadn’t gotten from him was a name. The DEA and me, we knew that Brikk was high up on the Nickel Springs drug chain. But he wasn’t the CEO. Brikk wasn’t calling the shots. We needed that name. We needed the person who was going to turn the operation global.” Aaron took a breath. “And just to be clear,” he said, stroking her cheek, “know that you and I were a crazy coincidence in all this, Ruby. When things started between us, I wasn’t in that deep—I certainly never imagined how it would all play out.”
“You mean the hit on my father.”
“Not entirely.” Aaron took another deep breath, Ruby staring down over him. “Word was that Brikk and Jerry—that’s how Silas always referred to him, wanted Dante Vasquez out of the picture. Until that point, they’d ignored our relationship. I had that side job working for the city, and it gave me access to patrol routes—other information I’d provided to Brikk. It was important I earn my keep. Every piece of information I gave to Brikk, and ultimately Jerry, raised my stock. It put me one step closer to whoever was running that operation.
“Eventually, it worked. Brikk said Jerry wanted a meeting. I was ecstatic—ecstatic that we’d get the son of a bitch in charge, ecstatic that it would all be over and you and I...” Aaron’s hand thudded into the mattress. “Well, the you and I part… we never got that far.”
Ruby’s hand skimmed across his chest. She leaned into Aaron, kissing him. “But Brikk and… and this, um… Jerry,” she said. “They wanted one more thing before the meeting. They wanted you to kill my father.”
Aaron’s gaze ticked from the rising moonlight onto Ruby. “Not just that. Silas and Jerry made one more thing clear. If I didn’t go through with the hit… If I didn’t deliver, they would kill you.” Aaron could feel Ruby’s shock, her hand gripping the sheet. “I remember exactly what Brikk said— ‘Some incentive, Aaron, in case the idea is making you squeamish. If you don’t take out Nurse Vasquez’s padre, we’ll be forced to take our disappointment out on her.’”
“They threatened to kill me because they thought you wouldn’t go through with it?”
“Clearly, it was the plan. Plus, what better show of loyalty? If I was willing to remove your father… Well, this was high-stakes shit, and it would have put me on the inside like never before.”
Ruby was quiet, letting go of the sheet and running her hand through her hair. She wasn’t looking at Aaron but out toward the lake and twilight. She turned back. “This Jerry… these people, they sound intense… determined. What did you do?”
“My immediate alternate plan blew up quick, right in my face. It also told me just how wrong things had gone. I went to my DEA handlers. I told them what Brikk and Jerry had demanded.”
“And?”
“And they told me they didn’t give a fuck. At first it made no sense. These guys were desperate to finger Jerry, but I couldn’t imagine the DEA wouldn’t intervene in a situation that desperate. I pressed them. I threatened to go over their heads. And…” Aaron looked at her, his concentration as focused as it had been that night. “Then I knew. I knew they were dirty… they were rogue. They weren’t looking to take Jerry down. They were looking to go into business with him—or to blackmail him for part of the profit. At that point, their motivation didn’t matter.”
“Aaron…” she said, her fingers fluttering over his cheek. “Did they admit that to you?”
“Not in a signed confession, which would have been my only out. These guys were dug in so deep on both sides, I didn’t have a prayer. They would have fed me to their DEA superiors in a heartbeat. It would have been five sanctioned officers—with I’m sure very coordinated stories—against the word of one undercover plant. I didn’t dare make the accusation, and I had zero proof.” An awkward snicker rumbled out. “Sometimes I think if I’d only been better prepared, recorded the conversation… But it all happened so fast. I didn’t have time to do anything but figure out how to protect you… save your father.”
“Because if you didn’t go through with it, somebody else would have.”
“Exactly.”
“But the drugs, Aaron, the ones they found in your trunk.”
“If you’re going to take the fall for attempted murder—if you want to keep the enemy from coming after you—you’d better be convincing to all parties involved.”
“Aaron, I can’t even imagine the burden,” Ruby said, shaking her head. “And you never said a word, you never even hinted.”
“What choice did I have? And what I did next, it was the only way I could see shutting both sides down. Do you remember that night, I mean, earlier?”
Ruby nodded. “You called me at work, asked me to leave, come here. I knew something was wrong, but you wouldn’t… or couldn’t…”
“I just needed you that one last time, before the whole fucking world came off the rails. I almost told you everything. But if I was being real, if I was being something more than a coward… I couldn’t.” He smiled his crooked smile. “I know you, Ruby. You would have gone straight to your father, or whoever you thought could fix it.” Aaron’s eyes closed, and his forehead bumped against hers.
“And that wasn’t an option?”
“No, it wasn’t,” he said firmly. “I wasn’t taking that chance, not at your expense or Dante’s. Those kinds of heroics, it only would have made the two of you bigger targets, and not just to Silas Brikk and Jerry.”
“Aaron…” Ruby inched back, her voice urgent. “I could have helped. We could have figured something out together. We wouldn’t have ended up in this—” She stopped short. Aaron’s head tilted at her anxious, strained tone. “Aaron, tell me the rest. What did you do that night?”
He’d never confessed a word of his own sinister plot, not to anyone. “I, um… I loaded a Glock 17 with a full magazine. I drove to your house, past the common and the bandstand. I stopped outside Daley’s Drug Emporium. Did you know they have the only pay phone left in all of Nickel Springs?”
She nodded her head, her face utterly somber.
“I made two phone calls.” Ruby’s hand gripped solidly onto his arm. Aaron could have sworn he felt the same touch on that January night. Ruby was with him then—and now. “I didn’t think any more about it. I just did what I had to. I called the Nickel Springs Press hotline. I told their toughest investigative reporter that a huge story was about to break. If he wanted it, he needed to get to Mayor Vasquez’s house, pronto. Then I called the Nickel Springs PD and the regional DEA headquarters, I tipped them off, I told them both that a hit was about to go down on the mayor.”
Ruby let go of his body, her hand moving over her mouth.
“Then I called your father and asked him to meet me outside. As he came out the door, I got out of the car. I fired two shots, making damn sure I missed. I could hear the sirens, the police cars screeching to the curb. The reporter was already there.”
Her hand dropped. “You… you set yourself up. You were never going to kill him.”
“It was the only way. Make Brikk and his boss believe I had every intention of going through with the hit. Let my handlers think I’d fucked up. Making it public put a spotlight on the whole scene—the one scenario neither party could afford to deal with. Brikk’s operation would be ruined. And with the hit exposed, your father would be safe. My actions drove the operation right underground, essentially destroying it. The s
hockwave was enough to send my former DEA handlers scurrying into their holes.”
“And it’s why you refused to see me afterward.”
“Better you think I’d turned on you. I couldn’t risk having you anywhere near me.”
“Aaron…” But the words broke off as his arms circled around her. He could feel how tight her hold was now, like she’d never really let go. “You did all that for me?”
“A lot of people wanted a lot of shit to happen that night. My objective was to protect you. What I did, it was the only way to keep you and your father alive.” At the core of her steady hold, Aaron felt a tremor. It grew stronger, traveling from Ruby’s stomach and overtaking her body. “Hey, come on,” he said, forcing her to look at him. Even in the faint light, her face was pale—sheet white. “The worst is over. We’re going to be okay. Look, Silas Brikk is long gone out of the Nickel Springs scene. And this thing with Stefan… Damn, Ruby, really, we have uglier memories to get past. We’ll deal with him. Right?”
Her hands moved from around his neck, splaying hard across his chest. But she couldn’t seem to get the tears to stop or any words to follow. It wasn’t like Ruby. The tears kept running down her cheeks, Aaron brushing them away. “Ruby, what’s wrong?”
“I…” Her mouth closed, her fingers running softly over his face. “Just, um… Just could you hold me?” Together they slid down onto the mattress, Ruby’s hand flat over his beating heart. “I understand now, what you sacrificed to protect me. I know what you were really doing when you asked me to come here that night. You were making a memory to live off. Aaron, tell me you believe that I’d make the same sacrifice for you.”
“Am I to assume you went out for a drive, perhaps to see Tandy? It’s quite late.”
“Why? Are you having me followed?
Stefan was seated on the suite sofa. It seemed as if Abstract Enchantment paperwork and Ruby’s life were strewn about him in equal proportions. “No. I hardly thought it necessary, considering what’s at stake.”
“Glad to hear that at the very least, I’m not your prisoner.”
“Far from it. Ruby, you should try and look at this from another perspective. Despite our odd circumstance, I’ve grown strangely fond of you.”
She felt her brow and brain knot, as if that might help her comprehend his perverse thinking.
“You could do worse than being married to me.”
“How so?”
Stefan shrugged as though a list of answers were evident. “For one, you could have ended up like Tandy. Lucky for me, I only had to rescue you from loneliness and despair.”
She laughed, uninterested in perusing topics that included Tandy. Ruby wasn’t sure how much blame to put on a desperate drug addict. She stayed on point. Being in a room with Stefan was a finite thing. “I have a question.”
Stefan removed his reading glasses, granting her his complete attention.
“If I agree to this—”
“It’s not a negotiation,” he said, his brow arching.
“There’s always suicide. It removes me, the slam-dunk component in your grand scheme. Aaron still suffers, but not at your hands.”
There was a contemplative frown. “True. But suicide isn’t part of your personality make up. While you will sacrifice yourself to save him from extenuating misery, you won’t leave Aaron Clairmont—not like that.” He tapped the reading glasses against his teeth. “Shall I assume it’s safe to discount a Romeo and Juliet scenario?”
Ruby’s arms folded, offering him a sour look.
“Well, I doubt the two of you would take it that far.”
Even so, Stefan was right. He had this from every angle. She refocused on realistic outcomes. “If I marry you, then what? What guarantee do I have you won’t continue to go after Aaron or his family?”
“For one, I’m a man of my word.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously. And you should know this. It took me years to realize the proper punishment for Aaron Clairmont. Aaron doesn’t give a damn about incarceration. It’s you, Ruby, who can’t bear to see him languish in that setting. Conversely, Aaron’s only real concern is you… and his family. Taking away his freedom was a minor discomfort. It may have satisfied the state, but it did nothing for me. However, taking away you, so permanently, so publically… Well, I dare say it’s better than waterboarding. As for the rest of the Clairmonts… I’ve nothing against them. Whether or not they become part of Aaron’s debt is completely up to you.”
“Fine,” Ruby said, fighting a reflex gag. “I’ll do it. On one condition.”
He pointed the eyeglass frame at her. “You’re in no position to bargain. But go on. I’m curious to hear how you plan on getting out of this.”
“I don’t,” Ruby said. “My request is that I don’t want to wait until Saturday. I want to marry you tomorrow.” Before Aaron has a chance to react…
It had been more than seven years since Aaron slept so well, so deeply. Only a bold ray of sunlight finally penetrated the peaceful night. With his eyes closed, he breathed deep. The scent of Ruby was everywhere, on him, on the sheets. He reached. The space was empty, the sheets cool. Aaron opened his eyes, seeing nothing but a piece of paper beside him.
He read the letter once in bed, a second time as he drove to his brother’s apartment, and a third time to Alec, who stood in his kitchen. “I don’t understand. Everything was fine last night. Everything was going to be okay.”
Alec took the paper from him. Jess was also there, first fiddling with her cell phone but eventually drawn into the conversation. “Can, um… Can I get you both some coffee?”
“You can get me a fucking bullet,” Aaron said. “It’s either going through my head or Stefan Gerard’s.”
Alec held up a hand. “Thanks, Jess. We’re okay.”
“Okay? Nothing is okay,” Aaron said, batting at the letter. “Ruby says last night was good-bye—that if I saw it as something else, she’s sorry. She says she’s going to marry that son of bitch today. That I should accept her decision and move on. Alec, this makes no sense! No sense whatsoever.”
Alec ran a hand through his thick dark hair. “I have to agree, man. Ruby wouldn’t do that—spend the night then ditch. And I’d say the Mach speed on that wedding is your biggest clue. So ask yourself why? What would push her into making a rash decision that makes zero sense based on her, um, actions last night?”
“Just a thought from the non-partisan roommate.”
Both men turned toward Jess.
“There’s plenty of ways around the circumstance, but everyone’s different. Is... Well, is there a chance Ruby’s pregnant? Would something like that force her into a choice she didn’t want to make?”
Aaron was glad he hadn’t had any coffee. As it was, the thought made him want to vomit up toothpaste. He shook his head. “Her father, Dante, was strict Catholic. Never even considered himself unmarried, even after his wife ran off. But no. I don’t think that’s it.” He squeezed a hand to his forehead. “God, I hope that’s not it.”
“Sorry. I was just reaching for plausible scenarios,” Jess said. “You know, from a girl’s perspective.”
“A girl’s perspective,” Alec said. “That’s a good point—you are one.”
Jess tilted her head, making a face at him.
“What else, from a girl’s perspective?”
“Well, it sounds to me like Ruby’s not being honest because it benefits Aaron somehow. To make a simple analogy,” she said, smirking at Alec, “remember the total fab lasagna you polished off last week?”
“And that relates to this how?”
“I, um… well, I suppose it’s worth confessing… I made it for you, Alec, purposely never mentioning the kale-cottage cheese filling.” Alec narrowed his eyes, and Jess smiled wider. “So sue me for attempting to keep your heart in working order—at least as it applies to basic physiology.”
“But what you’re really saying is you duped me because you didn’t want the a
rgument,” Alec said. “Just the end result.”
“Exactly. Maybe, on a much bigger scale, Ruby’s doing the same thing.”
Both Aaron and Alec moved toward Jess, who spoke wisely for a woman wearing fuzzy slippers and a tussled fresh-out-of-bed look. “Keep thinking, Jess—like one of your investigative pieces.”
“On the surface, I heard the same as you, somebody saying good-bye. What I perceived differently was Ruby’s why. Not to stereotype, but men do tend to take things at face value.”
The two brothers glanced at one another.
“I didn’t hear Ruby saying good-bye because she didn’t want something. I heard good-bye because it served a greater good. Sorry… that probably doesn’t make much sense—especially when you toss in the lasagna.”
Alec put the handwritten letter on the breakfast bar so Jess could reread Ruby’s explanation.
“There’s got to be more,” Aaron said.
Jess picked up the paper, her eyes moving across it. “There’s really not much else here, even in between the lines.” She looked squarely at both men. “So go outside the lines.”
“Meaning?” Alec said.
“Is there someone else who knows Ruby? Sometimes girlfriends know more than boyfriends, particularly when it comes to this kind of situation.”
“Tandy,” Aaron said. His arm swinging and making contact with Alec’s. “Ruby said Stefan had helped Tandy and Ruby reconnect. I didn’t put much emphasis on it at the time. But now… Now that’s something I want to know more about.”
“Sounds like a start,” Alec said.
Aaron took the letter and stuffed it into his back pocket. He looked at Jess. “Thanks. That was helpful. I, um… I’m glad you were here. And you’re right—somebody ought to be looking out for Alec’s eating habits, if nothing else.”
“Happy to help,” Jess said, smiling. “Oh, I’m sure out there somewhere is a girl crazy enough to put up with your hard-ass brother.”