Page 77 of Reclaim (Deadly Hearts 3)

ChapterThirty-Eight

David

It feels like my heart has been ripped out. Seeing Ruby so defeated affects me on a level that scares me. If she doesn’t come back from this, I’m scared what it will do to her. To us. I take a step forward, needing to console her, but Rex maneuvers himself in between me and his daughter with a fierce glare that I want to shy away from, but don’t. She needs me.

I step around him, with a fierce glare of my own, which probably pales in comparison, and take her in my arms. She turns into me, clinging to me, but she’s not crying. She’s not raging, she’s not…anything.

“We’ll get it back,” I murmur.

“It’s too late,” she says. “It’s gone. It doesn’t matter.”

“It does matter.”

“Ruby,” Rex says, taking her arm.

I feel her loss when she pulls away from me to go to him. He wraps his arms around her and practically crushes her, giving her a fatherly embrace that probably feels amazing. I’ve never experienced anything like that and it kind of makes me wish Rex was my dad for a moment. But then that would make me and Ruby, brother and sister and eww. Just eww.

I bite my lip to stop from laughing because it’s not the time, but I can’t help the way my brain works sometimes. Thinking about it, Ruby would probably laugh with me if she knew. She is about as inappropriate as they come. It’s one of the things that first attracted me to her. Along with her beauty, inside and out and her sheer determination to succeed in anything she does.

She sighs and pulls away from Rex.

He grips her arms tightly. “I don’t know what just happened here, but whatever it is, your…” He pauses to give me a scathing glare with murder-ish undertones. “…men, have got your back. Don’t succumb to the darkness, Ruby. Don’t. It’s no place for a beautiful, wonderful girl like you. Trust me. I know.”

She nods, clenching her jaw. Her lips trembling, she forces a smile on her face and my heart breaks for her. She is so brave. She doesn’t need to be, but I can see that she doesn’t want to upset her father anymore.

“I’m good. Just pissed,” she says.

Rex lets her go and turns to me.

I shift my stance slightly, prepared for the worst. He seems to be picking on me right now, probably because I circumvented his parental wall of protection to go to Ruby.

“Ruby has something you might be able to deal with for her.”

I nod. “Anything.”

“Ruby, give David that envelope.”

She reaches into her bag and pulls out a big brown envelope and hands it to me. “Trace this. It was sent to Rex. We want to know where it came from.”

“On it,” I say, lightly, taking it and peering inside to see a phone.

“Don’t look at the video,” she adds under her breath.

I swallow. “Okay,” I croak. I can only imagine what it is. But I’ve seen her kill before. Not that long ago, she shot a man in the head and not long before that she slit a man’s throat and blew him up. To be honest, she could chop a man up into tiny pieces in front of me and it wouldn’t change the way I see her or feel about her. She is mine and nothing will ever change that.

I close the envelope and fold it over, stuffing into my jacket pocket.

Ruby smiles at me. Stronger, more assured this time. “Rex and I are just going over to speak to St. Clare. Give us a minute and then we’ll leave. I’m guessing the house is a tip. It’ll need straightening.”

“Are you sure you’re free to leave?” I ask carefully.

She shrugs. “Apparently.”

Ruby takes Rex’s arm and leads him over to the large man by the fireplace. They engage in a brief, but intense conversation, but my attention is drawn to Declan when he touches my shoulder.

“You okay, Sunshine? This day has been…”

“I’m fine,” I interrupt.

---