Page 76 of Cursed by Death

“You do know that most people would kill for an opportunity to sit down and have dinner with Maredo and other important people in the community that you’re now a part of.” Vern said in an attempt to scold me.

Vern hadn’t met me before so he didn’t know what kind of bomb he was about to set off if he wasn’t careful and kept talking to me like that.

“Most people are stupid and have no idea what he’s capable of.” I told him in a surprisingly calm and controlled voice. I had a better handle on my temper than I would have thought. It had a lot to do with the man sitting beside me with his hand on my thigh. I wasn’t facing this alone here, I had Rally at my back. And that felt fucking amazing and it wasn’t something I was used to. “Unfortunately, I do and I’m not interested. I don’t want anything to do with the man. And, for the majority of my life, he wanted the same from me in return. I’d really like to go back to that.”

Please, and thank you very much.

My life wasn’t that simple though. Not where my family had ever been concerned and I’d never once gotten what I’d wanted or asked for from them.

Rym sighed dramatically like he was tired of me and stood up. Jaylen and Vern stood up after him, like good little baby birds following their mother.

“I’m just the messenger, Ruby Jane. And I’ve delivered the message, but I feel I can’t leave until I give you some advice. Go to this meeting of your own free will, because if you don’t you’ll still end up attending it anyway. You have no idea the lengths Johnathon will go to in order to get what he wants.”

“I would have thought you were smart enough to have learned a thing or two when that dead demon you were searching for was found,” Jaylen said in a sensual voice that did things to me that I would never admit out loud. “It would be agreat disappointment to find out that you aren’t everything that people are saying you are.”

“And what exactly is it that people are saying about me?”

He shook his head and walked out of the room without answering me. Vern glared and Rally and then scurried after him.

Okay, so maybe he didn’t scurry and I was being a bit dramatic but I didn’t particularly care for him. He hadn’t made a good first impression here with me. Too bad for him you only got that chance once and if it were up to me he wouldn’t ever be around me again to be able to give me a second impression.

“You won’t like the measures he resorts to in order to get what he wants,” Rym warned me.

And then the asshole just left.

“What kind of measures do you think he meant?” I asked curiously.

“Probably the kidnapping you kind,” Rally murmured quietly. “If we’re lucky.”

Huh.

That didn’t sound enjoyable to me at all. And if we’re lucky? That didn’t sound good either.

“Fuck,” Fox grumbled, speaking for the first time.

It was definitely a thought worthy of the F word, that’s for sure.

Chapter 39

The cafe I was meeting Detective Rowans at actually wasn’t that far from the shifters garage. Still, it was in a better neighborhood, and on a street with a few other businesses.

I parked in a spot right across the street and headed towards the cafe. There were little two seater round tables with umbrellas covering them that were out on the sidewalk in front of the cafe.

Detective Rowans was sitting at one of those tables. There were already menus and glasses of water on the table.

I sat down in the seat across from him. “Have you been here long?” I asked as I took my sunglasses off and tossed them down onto the table.

I didn’t think I was late but it had taken some serious convincing on my part to get Rally and Fox to let me go on my own. I required some much needed time to myself. They had finally agreed to let me go on my own after threatening the both of them with severe bodily harm.

Now it didn’t seem worth it to not have a shadow if it meant I was late and had made Detective Rowans wait here for me. That would be incredibly rude considering he was probably in themiddle of a work day and had taken a break to come here so he could have lunch with me.

“Nope,” he said and I instantly relaxed back into my chair. “I just got here a couple of minutes ago myself. Have you been here before?”

I shook my head as I picked up the laminated menu on the table in front of me. “What about you, have you eaten here before? It’s not far from your apartment building. I don’t go out to eat very often. I’ll order food from places and either pick it up or have it delivered but I don’t eat at places. Eating out alone isn’t something that I’ve ever seemed to be comfortable with, no matter how comfortable I am with doing things on my own. I always feel like people are staring at me and it makes me too uncomfortable to actually eat.”

I realized too late that I was rambling and he didn’t actually need to know any of that. It was absolutely not a habit I had or anything I thought I had ever done before. It wasn’t something I had picked up during my childhood, that’s for damn sure. I had been too afraid of my father to ramble, I barely spoke in front of him at all. And I had learned very quickly in foster care that it was best for me to keep my mouth shut.

And, here I was, an adult now and rambling on for the first time ever, like a damn fool.

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