Page 10 of Destroy (Deadly Hearts 2)

ChapterFive

Layton

It’s late. I prowl around the house for the umpteenth time, submerged in darkness. I’m not leaving anything to chance.

When Michelle arrives back around midnight, I let her in and silently follow her to Ruby’s room.

Declan is awake, but still in the same position on the floor next to her. The other two men are asleep. Declan jumps up when he sees the doctor and moves out of the way.

“Ruby,” she says quietly. “I’m going to have to give you an injection.”

“No,” she mumbles. “No injections.”

I frown, curious why she won’t take the morphine the doctor is offering her.

“Ruby,”’ Michelle says.

“No. Injections,” Ruby grits out. “Just give me tablets. I’m fine.”

I see Michelle grimace and root around in her bag. She takes out a small bottle of pills and hands two to Ruby with a glass of water. “Go back to sleep. I’ll be back in the morning.”

Ruby nods and settles back down.

Michelle indicates with her head that I should follow her out, which I was going to do anyway.

She pulls a small black zip up pouch out of her bag. “Morphine. Give it to her when you can talk sense into her.”

I nod and take it. There has to be a reason why she doesn’t want the injections, but I’ll try anyway. She must be in a hell of a lot of pain.

I let the doctor out and lock up behind her.

Then I do another sweep of the house, making sure all the windows and doors are locked up tight.

Reassured that Ruby is safe for now, I head to the kitchen and root around for some hot chocolate, which I find stuffed in the back of the cupboard, a month out of date. I snicker, but put the kettle on to boil anyway.

As soon as I have my hot chocolate in a big steaming mug, I sit at the counter on one of the fancy leather stools and contemplate my next move. Our next move. I am satisfied that Linda is safe from harm, even though I see now it was my own paranoia that thought she was in danger. I am also satisfied that Boomer is dead. Declan hasn’t said much about it, but I figure Ruby really went to town on him. It just proves once again how strong she is. Both mentally and physically. Not many would’ve been able to do what she did after losing so much blood. D.I. Smith, on the other hand, is something I need to know more about. Did he suffer? Was he screaming in pain when Declan killed him? I fucking hope so.

“Hey,” Ramsey says, striding into the kitchen with a yawn. “Can’t believe I’ve slept so long.”

“You’ve had a rough couple of days,” I point out.

“So have you,” he replies. “Have you had any sleep?”

I shake my head. “I’m good. Need to know Ruby is okay before I can even think about that.”

He nods. “Yeah.”

“I didn’t mean that you shouldn’t rest, just that I can’t.”

“I get you,” he says, not offended.

I watch as he silently opens the fridge and starts to pull a load of vegetables and chicken out. He reaches over for a kitchen knife out of the block and gets to work on chopping veg.

“What you making?” I ask.

“Soup,” he says. “Ruby will need something nutritious when she gets hungry.”

I nod. “You know what you’re doing?” I ask with a smirk.

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