Page 74 of Destroy (Deadly Hearts 2)

ChapterThirty-Two

Ramsey

Ruby is glaring at us as we enter the cottage, both Layton and I ducking our heads to get through the small doorway. She knows we’ve been up to something, and she is pissed. She’s about to get even more angry when she hears what we have to say.

“Well?” she hisses. “What have you been plotting behind my back?”

“Not so much behind your back,” I start, having been given the perilous task of confronting her with this, on the assumption that she won’t blow up as much at me than anyone else. I argued that David was more likely to be well-received, but he point blank refused, so here we are.

“Oh?” she snarls.

If I was concerned about her having a fragile state of mind, I am no longer. She is blazing with the fires of hell right now. I almost chicken out.

“We have come to an agreement about what to do about this Connor situation,” I say, after clearing my throat. “As a group. We will still vote, but ours counts as one on this because we are completely in agreement about what should be done and why.”

“Are you now?” she drawls, fury simmering in the green depths of her eyes. “And do, pray tell, what you are in agreement about.”

I gulp. She went all schoolmarm on me, and it sent me right back to being called into the Headmistresses office in high school.

“We have agreed that Connor needs taking out,” I state, folding my arms defensively, as if that is going to stop the blasting I’m about to get.

Weirdly, it doesn’t happen.

She falls back a step, and her face goes blank. “I see,” she says. “And your vote outweighs mine, is that it?”

“No,” I say, going to her. “That’s not what we’re doing here. We are scared to death about losing you, and we think…” I look back over my shoulder nervously. At Declan’s encouraging nod, I turn back to her. “We think that you are going to decide not to go through with it,” I rush out.

“What makes you think that?” she asks slowly.

Luckily, David answers that. “A few weeks ago, you would have ordered the hit and we’d be on our way to get it done. You hesitated, which means the game has changed. It’s okay to be scared, Rubes. You’ve been through a lot and getting back on the horse will take time. We are just trying to help you make the right decision.”

“Think you know me so well?” she asks quietly.

It’s like a kick in the nuts.

“My hesitation has nothing to do with being scared of making the decision. My hesitation, my need to think this through is because if we do this, we are declaring war. A war that I’m not sure I’m strong enough to fight just yet when my turf is currently not exactly in my hands. This has nothing to do with being scared,” she reiterates harshly. “I’m being cautious, trying to make sure that we can do this and survive. They will come at us from all sides and if you think we are prepared for that, then by all means, whack him right now.”

She gives us all a filthy look and then marches off into the cottage, where none of us dare to follow her.

“I knew this was a bad fucking idea!” I spit out.

“No, it was the right idea,” David says. “If we hadn’t gone at her from that angle, we’d still be in the dark about what she's thinking. It was devious, but now we know. We have to get back home where she feels stronger. We need to leave here tomorrow at the latest.”

“And what about the police?” I ask. “They aren’t just going to stop looking for her overnight.”

“I know,’ David says. “But I may have a way around that if I call in a bunch of favors. I just need to make a few phone calls.”

“This is bad, so bad,” I mutter and then abandon the men to go after Ruby.

I find her in a small room off the short hallway. “Sorry,” I murmur, getting that out there before anything else.

“It's fine,” she huffs. “I get it. I do. You all think that I’m still the broken little doll that I was when I stumbled out of that room a few weeks ago. But I’m not. Okay, yes, I’m being more cautious than usual, but that is because of all of you. If I ordered this to be done and lost one or more of you…I couldn’t bear it. Do you understand that?”

“Yes,” I say and take her in my arms.

She turns in my embrace and sighs when she wraps her arms around me. “How come you drew the short straw?” she asks wearily.

I snicker. “They seemed to think you wouldn’t kill me as quickly as the others.”

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