Ruby (16 page)

He didn’t think she was going to come
with him, but she came out of the cell just as he was going up the
stairs. Josh had to walk slowly, taking them one at a time. And
then she streaked past him, laughing.

Come on, big boy. You can
do much better than that.
Frustrated all
to hell, he took off running, and that proved to be worse than
walking. He fell four times before he made it to the kitchen. She
was standing in the yard when he came out of the house. Luckily for
him, Blair didn’t laugh too much at his inability to get the door
opened before he did it for him.

As soon as his paws
touched the earth, he felt as if he had come home. The soil beneath
his weight seemed to welcome him. Josh moved around slowly at first
because he could see a man and Annabelle in the garden hoeing or
something. He did not want to give anyone else ammunition to make
fun of him with. Josh lifted his nose to the air and followed her
scent.
Ruby
, was
all his wolf kept saying; that and,
Mine
.

Josh was glad for the mine part. She
was his and he’d kill the first person who tried to say otherwise.
As he jumped over a fallen log, Josh knew that he’d get the hang of
this, and he and Ruby would be in the woods a great deal. Josh was
counting on it.

Chapter 10

Manson was a large man. Not tall but
fat, disgustingly so. His suit had been custom made, Dwight could
see, because he was sure that his size would not be found on any
rack anywhere. The man had to weigh over four hundred and fifty
pounds. As he sat down on the couch across from him, Dwight was
glad that he’d been standing. Moving to the chairs in front of his
desk, he turned one around and faced the man. Teri did the same in
the other chair. She, of course, looked like she’d just stepped out
of a salon. Which, Dwight was pretty sure, she could afford to do
no matter what the books said.

“
You owe me a great deal
of money. I want to know how you plan to pay me back.” Teri looked
at Dwight as if she had no idea what Manson was talking about.
“You, Miss Summer. I will deal with Mr. Kramer
momentarily.”

“
Me?” Teri looked at
Manson, then back at Dwight. “What have you told him? I didn’t
leave the boxes out where just anyone could find them. I told you
to take them to the house. But you said they’d be safer here. I
should never have listened to you about any of this. This is all
your fault.”

Dwight started to speak, but the bug
in his ear, the one that David had put there so he could talk to
him during this meeting, told him to keep his mouth shut. He said
to let Teri hang herself for now.

“
I don’t really give a
good donut where you stored my money. Nor do I care who did it. It
is mine and I would like to have it returned. Now.” Manson looked
at him and smiled. “You are in well over your head, Mr. Kramer. I
would suggest when you can…
if
you can…when this is over to steer very clear of
Miss Summer. She is leading you down a path where stronger men have
been left on the wayside.”

“
What a thing to say.”
Teri stood up, then sat down again when Manson barked at her to
sit. “I’m in love with him. I left a very wealthy man to be with
Dwight. He and I are going places when this is over. And we will
pay you back. We know just where the money is. And we’re making
arrangements to return it to you now.”

“
No, you do not know where
it is. Nor, my dear, do you have any arrangements to get what is
mine returned to me.” Manson looked at him hard before speaking.
“You don’t, do you? Know where
all
my money is, I mean…do you? You think that you
do, but you are as clueless as you look.”

“
I’m sorry, but I don’t
know what you mean.” Manson nodded but said nothing else as he
looked over at Teri. “I’m going to quit all this when this is over.
I never meant…it was the biggest mistake of my life putting in with
Teri. She can think that we’re going places all she wants, but all
I see in my future, if I have one, is getting as far from her as I
can possibly get.”

Manson laughed. His entire body shook
with it, and Dwight had a fear for the couch…and the several floors
below them. It was mean, cruel even, but the man was a blob. A huge
mess of a man who wore designer suits and Italian shoes.

“
My dear boy, if you think
either of you are going to get out of this alive, then you are as
stupid as Miss Summer is.”

Teri stood up and reached her hand
behind her. Before she could pull out the gun, Dwight knocked her
back on her ass and onto the chair. It crumbled beneath her weight,
slight as it was. Both of them, Manson and Dwight, stared down at
her as she lay there. She was breathing, Dwight could see, but she
didn’t move to get up.

“
She was going to kill
you.” Dwight looked at Manson when he didn’t speak. “What the hell
was she thinking? That…fuck. I have no idea what she was thinking.
Christ, she was going to kill you.”

“
You saved my life.” It
was said with such a chilling tone that Dwight felt his ass tighten
up and his dick nearly shrivel up inside of him. He wanted to run
and hide, needed to get away, but Manson stood up and Dwight
whimpered.

“
I didn’t know she was
going to do that.” Manson nodded, and two men, men that looked like
they could bench press Hummers, seemed to have melted into the
room. These men meant business. While one of them checked Teri’s
pulse, the other whispered in Manson’s ear.

“
Is she perchance, dead?”
The man nearest Teri shook his head. “Good. Take her away, if you
please. Mr. Kramer and I have some things to discuss.”

The man near the floor picked Teri up
and tossed her over his shoulder. As he made his way out, Dwight
felt as if a giant weight had been lifted from his own shoulder. If
she was gone, even if she was with Manson, he thought he might
stand a better chance of getting out of this with his hide
intact.

Dwight waited until the door closed
with a very loud click before he looked at Manson. He’d not just
sat down but had pulled out a cigar and was lighting it. The
thought of telling the man there was no smoking in the building
occurred to him, and just as quickly, it was smashed out. If the
guy wanted to have a bon fire in the middle of his desk, he was
going to help him cut the kindling for it.

“
You really have no idea
what Teri was planning, do you?” Dwight started to tell him no, but
the man in his head told him not to lie. “Did you know that she’s
been stealing from me for years? Skimming money that was mine
before it was the thing to do?”

“
I knew. Not for years,
but I had an idea about now. And that she planned to blame it on
me.” Manson nodded. “I’m not shifting blame to her. I’m the one
that suggested that we leave the boxes here. It was my thought that
they’d be safer with the guards here. Then this thing with my old
partner fell through, and I was too busy being all cocksure to
remember they had his name on them.”

“
Good thinking but flawed,
don’t you think?” Dwight nodded. “What do you plan to do to get me
my money? All of it.”

“
I don’t know what she did
with the rest of it. But I can get you the rest of what I have. I
trust that my partner has not taken any of it.” Manson nodded and
said nothing. The voice in his ear was screaming at him to tell him
Josh’s name. But Dwight would never do that. “I can see about
getting you that money, but the rest? I have no idea.”

“
She has hidden it in an
offshore account. One that I’m aware of but have no access to. For
now. I will soon, however.” Dwight didn’t even want to think about
how he’d get the information. “You will return the portion that
your friend took or I will exact it from you. And there will be
interest and penalties attached. I’m a businessman first and
foremost.”

“
I have nothing.” Manson
looked around the office, then back at him, and Dwight laughed.
“It’s all going to be taken by the bank in a few days for
nonpayment of a few other outstanding bills. Including some
gambling debts that…we tried to win it back, and it didn’t work out
as well.”

“
No, it did not.” Dwight
wasn’t even surprised to find out that Manson knew about the losses
at the track. “You will have my money here by Friday, Mr. Kramer.
The entire twenty-eight million seven hundred thousand. I think ten
million is a lovely number for all that the two of you have put me
through, don’t you?”

Manson stood up and looked at him as
if waiting on something. Dwight had no clue what it could be. He
stood as well and looked down at the imposing man. He had to
ask.

“
Will I die when you get
it?” Manson only smiled as he moved to the door. “Mr. Cartwright,
what’s to say that I don’t go to the Feds and have you turned in
for extortion? Or any other deal that you’ve made between Teri and
I?”

“
Because I know where Josh
Ewing and his new lovely female companion Ruby Erickson
reside.”

Dwight didn’t move. He couldn’t. He
just watched the man lumber out of his office and shut the door
behind him.

Manson was going to kill Josh if he
didn’t get him the money. And Dwight had a feeling that even then
his friend wouldn’t be safe from him, even if Dwight managed to get
whatever amount there was in late charges. Manson Cartwright was a
ruthless man, and he would get what he wanted no matter who he had
to kill to get it. When David came into his office, he looked
pleased. There was, as far as Dwight could tell, nothing at all
about any of this to be happy about.

“
This is going much better
than we had hoped. Teri is out of the picture and you are still
around to help us out.” David sat down on the couch that Manson had
just left. “We’ll make plans now to make the exchange for the two
of you at Ewing’s estate.”

“
No.” David cocked a brow
at him. “I’m not going to get Josh involved any more than he
already is. He’s had nothing to do with this other than to pick up
something that had his name on it when I fucked him over. We won’t
be using Josh or whoever this Erickson person is.”

“
Oh but we will, and
you’ll do as I say. This is going bad enough for you, Dwight, and
the less you cooperate, the harder it will be on you.” Dwight sat
down and picked up his pen. “We have things to discuss. One of
which is when I tell you something you will obey. I’m a man who
gets what he wants and you will do as I say or else.”

Dwight wanted to tell him he was no
dog, but looked for his pad of paper. When he found it, he began
reading it from where he left off to continue writing, a confession
of sorts to Josh. David tried to take it from him, and Dwight
snapped. His entire body and well-being were already strung tight,
but the little shit in front of him had just pushed him right over
the edge. Dwight lashed out with his fist so quickly it was like
watching a horror flick with the lights off. David was falling
backwards onto the broken chair just as Dwight stood up. He was
dead before he hit the carpet—the broken leg to the chair
protruding from his eye wasn’t going to be something that he could
walk away from, Dwight thought with a burble of
laughter.

Dwight picked up his phone. He was
trembling when he tried to dial the three numbers. They were
blurred a little, and he knew that as soon as someone answered on
the other end he was going to be taken away. But before he could
try a third time to make his fingers hit the right keys, the phone
rang. He answered it as it started to peal the second time. It was
Josh, according to the caller identification.

“
The agent you sent here?
I just killed him.” Josh didn’t answer, but he could hear him. “He
was trying to get me to use you to get Manson. I told him I’d
fucked you over enough and wouldn’t do it. He was treating me
like…I’m so sorry, Josh. You have no idea. But Manson knows where
you live and who you’re with now. He’ll come for you no matter what
you do.”

“
Where are you?” He told
him he was in his office. “Get out of there and come here. I’ll…I’m
sending someone for you. Go to that place…. You remember where we
celebrated? The day we signed off on the contract
together?”

Dwight started to ask him if he meant
Leo’s, but realized that Josh would know the name as well as he
did. “Yes. I remember. I’ll go there.”

“
Be safe. And don’t talk
to anyone but me. Understand?” Dwight told him he did. “Go now. I’m
leaving here as we speak. Remember. No one.”

Dwight picked up his pen and the pad
of paper. He looked around the office, knowing it would be the last
time he ever came back here. And he realized then that there wasn’t
a thing in the entire building that he wanted. He had it all in his
hands. Picking up his jacket, he didn’t even look at the little
shit on the floor, but moved out of the office and to the parking
garage under the building. He started for his car, then detoured
around it to leave the garage and the car behind.

As he came out on the lower level to
the street, he pulled his jacket on just as three large cars, SUV’s
really, pulled up in front of his building. One of the men who
exited went to the garage and shot the guard they had there. He
pulled him out of the little shack and dragged him to the back of
the SUV still in front of the building. The others, about eight all
together, moved into his building as if they were on a mission. A
mission to kill him…Dwight knew it.