FRACTURED (16 page)

Ronnie's sly smile lit up her face.

“Like no one I've ever met.”

*

I stuck around and chatted with Ronnie and Malcolm, or
Reed,
as she referred to him in a more casual atmosphere, then excused myself, sensing that they still had some unfinished storeroom business to finish.

It still floored me that Ronnie, or
Veronica
, as he called her, was acting like a carefree teenager, but it made me oddly happy for her―envious too. What I would have given to have had a midday sexual encounter in the back of my shop. Instead, I usually filled that time with one crisis or another. Carefree was an approach to life that I couldn't afford to indulge.

With that in mind, I made my way back to the shop to open for at least part of the day. Peyta had asked for the day off and would have been disappointed to know that I shucked all my responsibility at the first sign of her not being around. There were only a few hours left in the business day, so I decided to work on some pieces out in the showroom so I could do double duty. I hoped my tired eyes would allow me to accomplish that.

I found that customers always enjoyed seeing me fiddle with the jewelry. They seemed to love knowing how something came to be―the steps taken to create a particular outcome—as if seeing and understanding how a piece was molded and shaped gave it greater appeal.

Maybe it did.

Perhaps that same concept applied to people as well. Did we love them more when we knew their full story? How they came to be who and what they were? Or was the mystery what kept us coming back for more, slowly enticing us, knowing that once the truth was out, the appeal would be lost?

I wasn't sure I wanted answers to those questions.

15

After close, I stuck around for a little longer, knowing that Coop and the boys weren't back yet. Not wanting to give the illusion that I was open, I dimmed the front lights and locked the front door, flipping the sign to closed. I then made my way to the back to finish the earring I had nearly completed.

Focusing hard on twisting the tiny wires of the intricate piece together, I didn't expect to hear the jingle of the door bells, and almost didn't hear them at all. Almost. My heart surged as I shot up from my chair; I knew I had locked the door that time. Panicked and unarmed, I bolted into the showroom, unsure of what fate awaited me. Fearing the worst, I never imagined who I would find waiting for me.

Sean donning a Cheshire cat smile was pretty low on my list of possibilities.

“Did I startle you?” he asked, knowing damn well he'd scared the shit out of me. “I was hoping to find you alone. Looks like I accomplished that for once.”

“You almost found me
dead
,” I retorted, breathing hard. “You won't be smiling when you give me a damn heart attack.”

I should have known it would be him. He had a key for everything.

“How are your refugees?” he asked with a certain cheeriness to his voice. I didn't buy it for a second.

“They're great. They're making Cooper insane, so that should make you happy.”

His smile widened, taking on a genuine quality.

“It does. Very much so.”

I shot him my angry parent face.

“You promised, Sean. You swore you would try to get along with him!”

“Old habits,” he replied, trailing off as he shrugged ambivalently.

“...are going to be the death of me,” I murmured in response, leaning against the counter while my heart rate tried to normalize.

“Nothing is going to be the death of you, Ruby.
Nothing
.” I looked up to see all the humor wiped from his face. Forest green eyes met mine, telling me that playtime was over. There was no mocking in his statement.

“You said you were trying to get me alone,” I prompted, hoping to easily transition to what it was he had come for. When my heart started to race a little with his approach, I realized that my body was hoping it was
me
.

“Was I?” He fluidly made his way toward me, closing the distance between us. Only the front counter separated our bodies, and he swallowed up that space quickly, leaning forward over it to prop himself up on his elbows. It put him at eye level, pinning his once again emerald irises on me. “I did want to see you alone, Ruby. I wish it was for a more
entertaining
reason.” While his eyes raked me over, his energy surged through me, and my body reacted as it always did. “Jay is over in London, looking into the pack. It seems that the boys' story checks out thus far.

Their previous alpha is gone and the new one is dirty, that's for sure, but he's smart. Whatever he's up to, he's keeping it well under wraps. Nobody is talking, especially not his pack.”

“Somehow I find it hard to believe that your brothers weren't able to coerce answers out of them.”

Another noncommittal shrug.

“They know how to interrogate effectively, if that's what you're getting at. So I'm left with two potential implications. Either these pack members truly don't know anything, or they fear Tobias more than they fear us,” he said, his expression hardening slightly. “And
that
would be a fatal error in judgment on their part.”

No shit.

“How is Jay doing?” I asked casually, hoping to gain a little insight into that situation.

“He's well,” he replied curiously, eyebrow in full force. “How's Peyta?”

“Just dandy,” I quipped, still trying to play it cool. As we stared at each other, I couldn't help but wonder if there was more to the disappearance of Jay from Peyta's life, and, if there was, if Sean knew more than he was letting on. Before I could let my imagination run away with me, I changed the subject. “So how's the stuff with McGurney coming? Anything new to go off of?”

He smiled a cunning smile, knowing that I'd just changed the subject intentionally.

“Professional hits are not easy to trace, Ruby. Someone very powerful, with a vested interest in keeping things quiet, called in that hit on McGurney. I've got as many PC brothers as I can spare on the case, but nothing has turned up as of yet. Whatever McGurney had intended to show me that night must have exposed someone enough for them to go to great lengths to shut him up for good. Unfortunately for me, I got there too late. His house was wiped clean. Everything was gone.”

“There has to be some way to get into Keith's file without CIA clearance or somebody on the inside.”

“Maybe, but it doesn't matter now. Keith James no longer exists in their database. He's a ghost―a specter. Whoever knew we were onto them wiped out his entire existence as if he never once set foot in Langley.”

“Holy shit...”

“Indeed.”

“So you just walk away from it?” I asked disbelievingly.

“Not a chance,” he growled, eyes narrowing. “Now we pour on the heat like there's no tomorrow, because for someone there won't be. I want to know exactly who's behind this. If the government has somehow stumbled upon the werewolf population, I need to flesh out exactly who knows what and how deeply that knowledge permeates.”

He stopped himself before continuing. I had a pretty good idea what he'd do to those in on it. He didn't want to confirm my suspicions.

“So until then?”

“Until then, we dig, interrogate, and dig some more.”

“Alan isn't going to give up on McGurney, Sean. He's certainly not going to let you off the hook for it either.”

The third shrug of the evening.

“Alan doesn't concern me.”

“He's my friend, Sean. And currently he thinks you had something to do with it. That concerns me.”

“Absurd. Why would I kill my own contact?”

“I don't know, but he doesn't trust you at all, and I can't blame him for that. Everything that he knows about you revolves around lies, cover-ups, and murders. He thinks you're a criminal―a high-end one. The kind that doesn't get caught,” I informed him, my voice taking a stern tone.

“He knows you had something to do with Matty's body dump and the corpse posed as the Portsmouth killer in a car in Mass somewhere. He has you pegged, Sean. He's not going to let up on you. He's going to dig and dig until he finds something, or, in your case, doesn't find
anything,
which will only incriminate you further in his eyes.”

“Why are you so concerned about this? He can't do anything to me.”

“I know that, but he's my friend. I'm close to his family, and I can feel that slipping away because he doesn't trust me now. He thinks you're blackmailing me, or using me―I don't know exactly what he thinks is going on, but it's not good. He thought that maybe I killed Matty and that's why you covered it up, for fuck's sake! He wants answers, Sean.

Badly.”

“
And he'll have them when I find out who killed McGurney. The ones he needs to hear, anyway.
”

I didn't want argue. I had other issues that needed attention, and I knew that starting a fight over Alan was not going to be the best way to segue into them.

“Fine,” I whispered, pushing away from the counter.

“Ruby,” he said with caution in his tone. “I don't wish for this to be difficult on you, but I must do my job. If I find out that the government knows about your kind, I can't begin to tell you the shitstorm that will follow.” He came around the counter to join me in the tight area behind it. His presence always seemed to take up more space than it needed, like the intensity of his energy demanded it. I eased against the wall to make room for it. “I've told you more than I should have already,” he said, reaching for my face. My eyes closed instinctively, awaiting the contact.

“Sean,” I said softly, the words catching in my throat when his hand grazed my cheek. “I need to tell you something.”

I opened my eyes to find him staring at me from only inches away, his expression holding a hint of amusement.

“Offering up information to me?” he mocked, leaning his body against mine ever so slightly. “Who are you and what have you done with my Ruby?”

My Ruby...

“
I'm being serious,” I grouched, though it came out as more of a breathless protestation than anything else. That was Sean's effect on me.

“I can see that,” he purred as my hands drifted up into his hair of their own volition.
Traitors.

His lips were on mine, soft and coaxing as if they were trying to con me out of my attempts at a serious conversation. They were painfully close to succeeding. I was falling into his scheme beautifully when I felt a strange buzzing against my hip. Once. Twice. The third brought a growl from deep within Sean's chest.

“I have to take this,” he said, abruptly pulling away from me to head for the door. “I'll be right back.”

Suddenly, I felt like I needed a cold shower.
What had I been just
about to tell him? Oh...Matty!
I knew that it was going to open up a can of worms, but I'd learned from my past, and keeping secrets from Sean never panned out well. I was taking a new approach.

I watched him through the front window, standing stoically, his back toward me. Whatever his conversation was about, it wasn't good.

The more still Sean was, the deeper the crisis.

Minutes later, he returned, looking reserved. Things were worse than I thought.

“I have to leave tonight, Ruby,” he said like it was an admission of guilt. “I had wanted to take you somewhere. I had it all planned, but―”

“It's okay, Sean. I understand.”

He smiled weakly.

“I know you do. It's one of the best things about you. You understand me.”

Within seconds he was back behind the counter, pressing me against the wall that I'd only moments earlier managed to peel myself off of. His arms caged me in as his body hovered just far enough away to not be touching me. The distance seemed painful.

His breath tickled my ear, his mouth playing dangerously close to it.

“You wanted to tell me something. Can it wait until I return, or should you tell me now? You decide.”

My brain was scrambling in a severe case of sensory overload. Too many things to process at once were threatening to blow a circuit. I wanted to kiss him, tell him, then throw him out the door as quickly as possible so I could avoid the fallout. It was cowardly but honest―a step in the right direction as far as I was concerned.

“It can keep until later,” I whispered, my air coming in and out in sharp gusts.

“Very well,” he said slyly. “I'll look forward to later then.”

He slid out the front door seconds later, and I was left clutching my chest, feeling like I had the first time he'd come to my store―confused and frustrated. My frustration was of the sexual variety.

With a sigh, I headed toward the front door to lock it―
again
―when a familiar face popped up in the window. Waving a paper bag that undoubtedly contained baked goods of some sort, Ginger smiled warmly as she waited for me to let her in.

“Hi,” I said, stepping back to allow her entrance to the shop. “It's good to see you!”

“No, Ruby,” she said with sad eyes, “it's good to see
you.
I wasn't entirely sure that I would ever again, but not Gavin. He knew you'd be back. I wish I had his confidence in things sometimes.” She gave me a hug, wrapping her old and weathered arms around my waist. She was frail in appearance, but those arms held a strength that far surpassed expectation, and I started to ache slightly from the tenacity of her grip.

She really had worried for my safety, which was ironic given that her husband seemed to know so damn much. Apparently, he wasn't very forthcoming with her either.

But for all that Gavin appeared to lack, his taste in spouses was top-notch. Ginger had always been nothing but motherly, caring, and quick to rein in her husband when the situation warranted. She'd come to check up on me after my near drowning by the Rev and was once again on my doorstep to see how I was.

And she brought tasty treats to boot.

She smiled as she caught me looking at her brown paper bag of deliciousness and laughed.

“I believe you said these were your favorites last time,” she said, handing me the bag. I opened it to find her killer chocolate chip cookies.

Mysteriously, two were in my hand a second later on a mission to my mouth.