Ruby (18 page)

What was on the
paper?
She’d forgotten about it and asked
one of the nurses to get it from her other scrubs. She wouldn’t
bring it in to her, but she could take it to Josh for her. When she
returned after doing as she asked, Ruby asked him what it
was.

Instructions to a safety
deposit box.
Ruby thought of Bart telling
them how he had a stash and wondered if that was it. But Josh
continued before she could ask him what he was going to do with
it.
There is what appears to be a license
plate number. Three of them as a matter of fact. I’ve given them to
Blair, and he’s going to call them in.

I need you to call in the
pack and have your sister surrounded by them at all times. Rufus
too. They’ll use him to get to her.
She
was still blown away that both she and Rufus had found their mates
that day, but Bri looked like she was happy, and seemed to have
very little effects from being turned. Just like Opal, she could
stand the sun all day.

I’ve already asked them to
do that.
She removed not just the bullet
that was lodged against Bart’s rib right over his heart, but she
also took a look at his heart while she was there. It was in
amazing shape for a man his age. There were two broken ribs, so she
put in a stent to help him breathe better as well.

By the time she was finished with his
chest, the X-rays came back on his head wound. She looked at Jenna
and shook her head. They couldn’t be removed without hurting him
more. Just as she was going to try anyway, the operating room door
opened. Even though he was dressed from head to toe in scrubs, she
would have known Rufus anywhere.

“
You can’t be in….” Jenna
looked at her when she stopped her from shoving him back out. “He’s
not a doctor.”

“
No, but I’m betting he
can help Bart more than either you or I can.” She sent her staff
back and watched as the vampire moved to the older man. Rufus
pulled down his mask and bit into his wrist. He looked at her as
the blood dripped onto Bart’s mouth.

“
Bri can’t lose him. She
is…I love her and I won’t let her lose him.” Ruby understood and
moved to Bart to remove the tube from his lungs. As soon as it was
pulled free, Rufus put his entire wrist over Bart’s mouth and
whispered in his ear. When Bart started to swallow, Ruby went back
to the head wound.

“
I have to remove the
bullets or he’ll die anyway.” As the nurses scrambled to work
around Rufus, she cut a hole into the man’s head. The first bullet
was removed even as Rufus pulled back. Working faster now, afraid
that the wounds would seal over the bullets, she got the second one
out near his temporal lobe before Bart coded. It took her three
times with the paddles to restart his heart. Then Rufus fed him
again.

“
He’ll make it, you
thinking?” Ruby wouldn’t lie to Rufus and told him she had no idea,
but he had a better chance now than he did before. “Good. That’s
good news to us. When this is done, send the bills to me and
Brianna. And we’ll be taking him in too. He can live in his box in
the yard for all I care. Just so’s she’s happy.”

Bart was on his way to
recovery when Josh spoke to her again.
The
plates are issued to Cartwright. All three of them. And the car is
his own personal one. Do you think he was there watching this
happen?

If he was, then he’s going
to pay. I’m going to personally tear his ass up.
Ruby moved to the scrub room and jerked off her
gown. The man was messing with the wrong family.

~~~

Manson was still laughing about the
shooting. He’d not planned to be there when they found the old man,
but it was just too delightful not to be. Dwight was in the wind
and when he found him, what was done to the old man was going to
look like a minor scrap compared to what he was going to do to
him.

The death of Brendon Howard, or David
Lucas as Dwight knew him, was a horrible blow to Manson. The kid
was his nephew, and had been helpful in the recent weeks with
setting up Dwight and then getting him to talk. The fact that he’d
been able to put in all those surveillance cameras right under
Kramer’s nose had been wonderful. He wondered how he’d missed how
stupid this man Kramer was. He glanced over at Teri, his one-time
lover and seldom friend.

“
You should have told me
he was a flight risk. That kind of information would have gone a
long way in keeping him in line.” She only glanced at him and
frowned. “Don’t tell me you had no idea. You told me that he had no
money and would have to stay put. You did not mention that he had
places that he could hide and hide well. We were there the moment
after he murdered my nephew and he was gone.”

“
I’ve been trying to bring
up the video from the office too. There is nothing after he answers
the phone. I mean absolutely nothing. It’s as if someone shut
everything down.” He nodded. Even though he used to sleep with the
woman, he didn’t trust her any farther than he could toss her. He’d
had his men on it as well. They had told him the same thing she
was…the recorder had simply stopped. “Do you suppose Josh had
something to do with this feed fucking up? I wouldn’t put it past
him.”

“
And how was he to know
that it was us watching him? Or that anyone was watching him for
that matter? Not unless you told him. Did you?” Manson looked away
when she shook her head. They were sitting in his living room, a
room he had come to hate over the years. Because of his…weight
problem, things did not hold him as well as they had before. But he
was sick of her more and glanced at her and saw the mark on her
face. “Cover that bruise. You know how I find them to be
distasteful.”

He felt bad that she’d been hurt, but
not nearly as bad as he felt because she’d not been killed. Manson
was tired of her. The scam they were playing was getting old and he
hated it. He had to act the fool every time they used it, and he
was anything but a fool. When he glanced back at her, she was just
putting her makeup away.

“
I have a group watching
that male friend of yours, Josh Ewing, and his woman. She’s a nurse
or something at the local hospital, and has been there with him for
the better part of two days. I’m assuming that they will all gather
when they realize who’s been shot.” Teri mumbled something, and
since he’d told her numerous times that he hated it, this time he
reached over and slapped her across her fine ass with his short
cane. “When you have something to say, I would suggest you say it
clearly.”

He turned away from her tears. Manson
hated those almost as much as he did getting blood on his clothing.
Looking down at his suit, he noticed that what had splattered on
him from the shooting was now dried and hardly noticeable at all.
But the suit would be burned. There would be no evidence on his
person if things ever went sour. He had always followed that rule,
and it had kept him alive all these years.

Manson had enough money to keep as
many men on his payroll as he needed, including a few hit men that
he paid monthly just in the event he might need them. Manson did
not want to wait for something else to be completed before he got
what he wanted.

Manson had been in the business of
dealing something illegal his entire life. Even as a kid, he’d
stolen from one merchant to sell it at a premium right back to him.
And he rarely ever had to tell a person no more than once. It was
his policy. Manson looked up when Teri tossed her cell onto the
table.

“
Josh won’t take my calls.
I’ve tried several times to reach out to him and it goes to voice
mail. Then today it said his number had been disconnected. I think
he’s avoiding me.” Manson mentally rolled his eyes. The woman was
much more of a problem than he’d first thought. And now? There was
more money missing than he could easily overlook.

“
He’s being watched. As I
have told you.” She nodded and he sat back to look at her. “Where
is the money?”

“
Money?” She sat there for
several seconds as he stared at her. “I’m not sure what you’re
talking about. Dwight has the last of it. The rest, what I could
gather, is in the account.”

“
My money. My account. You
only have what I deem necessary for you to live. And it is a great
deal more than you deserve.” He had to smile at the flash of anger
she shot at him. “Where. Is. My. Money, Teri?”

She stood up, and he slipped the gun
from his jacket when she turned. He wasn’t stupid, and he certainly
wasn’t going to let her get the upper hand on him. As she paced, he
knew what she was thinking…how to kill him and get away with it.
Well, he’d not been in this business and gotten caught by a woman
like her. He’d have been dead long ago if he hadn’t been one step
ahead all the time.

“
I needed a little extra.”
He laughed and put the gun on his leg where she could see it now.
“You plan to shoot me? Over money? I thought we meant a great deal
to each other. We’ve made some killer money together
too.”

“
Yes we have. But I fear
that it’s come to an end.” She didn’t move but stood staring at
him. “You’ve nothing to say? No pleading with me not to kill
you?”

“
I’ve taken precautions.
If you kill me, you’d better be prepared to run. People will know
all your dirty secrets if I come up missing.” Manson laughed and
reached into the drawer next to him, and tossed a file on the table
between them.

“
You mean that drivel? You
think that I don’t know your every move? You’re stupider than I
thought if that’s what you think. I’ve had you watched since the
first day you came sniffing at my door.” Manson nodded at the file.
“No one will receive that. There are no other copies to back this
up neither. I’ve taken care of it all.”

“
No.” He nodded as she
slid into the chair closest to her. “Please don’t kill me, Manson.
I’ve been really good to you. I’ll give you back all the money I
took.”

“
I’ve already taken it.”
She started sobbing then, great huffing noises that made him want
to blow her brains out. But not in this room. Not in his house. He
stood up and told her to do the same. “We’re going for a little
walk, you and me. And Shamus is going to join us.”

“
Not Shamus.”

He nodded and moved to the door with
her right in front of him. Shamus was on the deck waiting for them.
As Shamus walked behind the two of them, he thought about all the
times he’d done this same thing. Walk a person to their empty hole
and have them stand in it while he or one of his people took their
head off. When Teri stumbled, he nearly moved to help her, but
Shamus did it before him. Manson saw the flash of the sun glinting
off the gun just before he moved.

The shots rang through the open field
as he fell. Manson fired twice more before he had to reach into his
inner pocket and pull out his Glock. The little pistol was only
good for one thing, and that was not putting a line in his suit.
But real manpower was needed now. Teri and Shamus moved behind a
tree as they continued firing at him. Then he looked up when a
shadow fell across him. Smiling, he lay back while Duncan and Carl,
his two guards, made their way to Teri and Shamus. Manson was
helped up when they returned.

“
They both gone?” Duncan
looked like he’d been shot, but right now that was secondary to
being betrayed by the other two. “Duncan? Are they both
dead?”

“
Shamus got one in the
leg, and she left him. I finished him off as I went after Teri. She
had a car out there. Heard it take off when I came out of the
woods. Do you suppose it was their plan all along?” Manson wanted
to hit him but only nodded. “Yeah, that was really smart of her.
I’d have never thought of it.”

“
No, I don’t suppose you
would have.” He was helped back to his house where a drink and
another gun were brought to him. “Secure the house. Find the car.
Do you know what it was?”

“
No, sir. Only thing I saw
was a big SUV type car.” Carl was a little smarter than Duncan, but
that wasn’t saying much. He’d hired them for their ability to kill
without question, not how they played a game of chess. Which,
Manson was pretty sure, neither of them could spell, much less
play.

He set them both out to find her. It
wasn’t really hard for him to figure out, but he did call in a
little extra help, a man he used when something needed to be done
properly. A man he only knew as Dick. Such a normal name for such a
man as him.

“
I need her found today.”
Dick said nothing as he spoke to him on the phone. “She’s taken
something of mine, and I wish for it to be returned. Whatever you
need to do to get it.”

There was nothing she had that he
wanted. He had all the money, even the stash she’d thought no one
but her knew about. She might have a few hundred in her car, but
her style of living was well beyond that amount, and she’d be
looking for more very soon if she wasn’t already.

“
I’m on it.” The line went
dead. It was the most…well, more frustrating than talking to Duncan
and Carl. But he knew that if anyone could get what he wanted,
which was Teri Summer dead, then he’d pay whatever Dick asked of
him. And if Teri was lucky, Dick would only shoot her and not take
her back to his workshop. There she’d find a whole new meaning to
the term torture without thought.