Ruby (3 page)

“
I thought we could at
least be civil now.” He didn’t answer Teri, but looked at the
lawyer that had come in with them. “Josh, we were in love once.
Can’t we be friends again? I’ve missed talking to you. You and I
were very close once.”

Not answering her was a lot easier
than he’d thought it would be. It was childish, sure, but right now
he wanted this finished more than he wanted to get into a heated
debate on what friends did to each other; or for that matter,
people who professed to be in love. Especially when one of said
friends was wearing his diamond ring.

After the contracts were signed and
the checks, both in separate envelopes, were handed to him, he and
his lawyer stood up. Dwight did as well and it looked as if he was
going to block him from leaving. Josh stretched his neck and stared
at him until someone touched him from behind.

“
Josh?” Christ. He wished
the fuck she’d just give it up. “I want us to be friends. We all
want this. Please, we shouldn’t end things this way. Not between
us. We will want to keep in touch.”

“
No, we all don’t need to
be anything to each other ever again.” He jerked from her touch.
“Don’t contact me, touch me, or even have a conversation about me
ever again. I don’t want to be your friend; not now, and not in the
future.” As he made his way out the door, he heard her say
something to someone, and he turned back to look at her.

In that moment, that shining moment,
he realized two things. He no longer loved her. And secondly, he
thought that all the hatred he’d had for them both was a waste of
time. They were not worth it. Laughing for the first time since
this whole thing started, Josh made his way to his old office. His
things had been packed up by the moving crew he’d hired and were
being loaded onto a large cart. The desk, the first thing he’d
bought himself when he’d made it big, was being loaded onto a
separate truck.

He’d almost left it…everything as a
matter of fact. It would have served as a memory that he would have
just as soon forgotten. But in the end his sister said that if he
left it, she’d murder him. So he was going to gift the desk and
chair to her. He had an idea that once she found out about the
money, she’d maybe move to a safer line of work. And pigs would
learn to fly too.

Bri was a social worker for the
homeless. She also had a law degree, but she only used it to help
the downtrodden, as she called her friends. He’d tried a great deal
over the years to get her to go into a nicer line of work, but he
could see that she loved it. And Josh helped her out as much as he
could, like with blankets and bottled water. It was all she’d ever
asked him for.

“
Sir?” Josh turned from
the window he’d looked out so many times in the eight years he’d
been here. “There are several boxes in storage, several of them
heavy, and the rest…well, we’re not sure what to do with
them.”

“
Whose name is on them?”
The man said his name was with the mailing address on the top.
“Then load them with the rest of them. And make sure when you do,
you have my attorney inventory them.”

After the man left, Josh took one more
look around. He thought he might miss it a little less than he’d
thought, but it was still giving him a heavy heart. Moving to the
elevator with the desk, he rode down to his car and got
in.

Driving to his former home, he met
with the realtor there. Dwight had purchased it as well, but he
wasn’t going to be there as Josh showed the new housekeeper and the
staff around. He’d been asked by the attorney to show them what had
been put in new or he would never have bothered. The house wasn’t
nearly as big as the one he had now, but it had been home for a
while.

He was just showing them the full
finished basement when his cell phone rang. His sister would call
him first thing, he thought as he looked at the caller ID. Josh
answered with a smile on his face.

“
I just signed the papers
and am at the house now. I was thinking of just coming on home.
Want to meet me for dinner, say around nine tomorrow night?” There
was no response, and he thought the connection was lost when a man,
a man with a great deal of authority in his voice, told someone to
look on Seventh Street and not to come back until they did. “Who is
this?”

“
You that Lilywhite’s
brother, that one that gives us all that water and blankets? This
here is Bart, her friend.” Josh moved from the basement to the
kitchen. He was sure something had happened. “I asked you
something, boy, are you?”

“
Yes. Bri. Bri Gamble is
my sister. Why do you have her phone?” The man said something to
someone else about looking on Tenth when Josh was getting into his
car. “Please tell me why you have Bri’s phone.”

“
It’s all we done found of
her.” His heart stopped beating, literally stopped for several
seconds, and he felt his knees weaken. He opened his door again for
air, glad now that he’d not started driving. “She was a headed to
her car to get some more of them salty pills she keeps for me, and
I waited a good long time before I found myself back there. Her car
is there and it don’t look like nobody has touched it, but she
ain’t nowheres.”

“
Is there…is she dead?”
The man started cursing and he nearly smiled. He knew now where Bri
had picked up a few of her more colorful terms.

“
Did I just tell you that
we found her phone and nothing else? Don’t be buying trouble that
ain’t there.” Josh found himself nodding. “I got me a crew set up
and we’re looking at all them places she hangs from. She might just
have dropped it, but well, we’ve been looking for a time
now.”

“
How long?” The man told
him since noon. Josh looked at his watch; it was just after six
now. “Have you called the police?”

“
They done washed their
hands of this here area a long bit ago. I done called in a few
favors from a few friends, some that ain’t quite human, and they
got them noses of theirs to the ground.” Josh had no idea what that
meant but just ignored it. The man was in his eighties, Bri had
said, so he was probably a little senile. “I gots me a full-out red
alert on her. If’n she’s out here, we’ll find her.”

Josh started the car just as his
realtor came out of the house. The sale was done as far as he was
concerned. He handed over the shed keys he’d found when packing up.
He told him briefly what was going on and was told to
go.

“
I’m coming now.” The man
said he’d hoped so and hung up. Josh smiled at the man’s tone. No
wonder his sister loved this man. He was a great deal like she
was.

~~~

Ruby made her way to the emergency
room at a full-out run. A woman had been beaten and was on her way
in was all she knew so far. Ruby was the only doctor in the place
and had been summoned from a consult for one of Cochran’s friends,
and now this. Diamond had called her three minutes ago.

Diamond was standing at the door where
the squad was due to come in when she slid to a stop. Ruby could
hear the ambulance as it screamed its way into the parking lot.
Diamond handed her a sheet of paper as she spoke.

“
Woman, mid-twenties to
early thirties, with single GSW’s to the chest, leg, and abdomen.”
Gunshot wounds were nasty, but becoming very common around there.
“Head wound with massive bleeding, and she has a beer bottle stuck
in her left arm.”

Diamond gave her the blood pressure
(which was low), temp, and all the other vital signs as the
ambulance pulled to the door. As soon as the woman was pulled out,
Ruby looked at her sister.

“
This is going to get me
fired…you know that, don’t you? I’m only here because he needed
something from me. And those two days off without pay isn’t going
to do a thing toward making him any less of a bastard about this.”
Diamond nodded and asked her if she wanted them to transport. “No.
She’ll never make it. If we can save her, it’ll be worth it. I’m
just letting you know so that you can tell Sapphire and the rest of
them when you get home.”

There was no time for the emergency
room. Bypassing it for the elevator to take her up to surgery would
save the woman precious moments she could use. As soon as the doors
came to a close, the woman coded.

Ruby, not one to care much for
blood-borne pathogens because of what she was, leapt up on the
table and began CPR. The nurse that had come with her bagged the
woman, using a large ventilation bag over her mouth and nose. Ruby
was still riding the gurney to the OR when the woman’s heart
started to beat again. As they prepped her for surgery, Ruby got
cleaned up and suited up as well.

“
We’re going to be on the
unemployment line by morning. Make sure you let Blair know if you
need anything, all right?” Ruby told Jenna as she helped her on
with her gown. Usually it was another nurse, but Jenna insisted on
doing this for her. “You should just leave now. There is no reason
whatsoever for you to lose your job because I can’t leave someone
to die.”

“
I already told you we’re
in this together. But if you find yourself at one of those fancy
hospitals, you’d better be calling me in.” She snapped both gloves
on her before she continued. “You’re going to get one chance to
save this woman before he kicks us all out. Make it
count.”

“
I will.” They entered the
surgery room just as someone was guiding an IV into the woman.
Blood had been drawn, and they were getting in a supply as they
moved to start. The first thing they had to do was take care of the
bullet in her chest and see what sort of damage was done to her
heart, if any. X-rays were done of her head and arm even as Ruby
made her first of many incisions.

Her chest wasn’t as bad as she’d first
thought. The bullet had missed all of the main blood vessels and
arteries, and had only done minor damage to her right lung. She had
three broken ribs as well, one of which Ruby had broken while
performing CPR. Next, Ruby worked on the wound in her
abdomen.

Extensive damage here. I
would say a botched abortion.
As Ruby dug
deeper, she could see what it really was
.
Nope. Someone tried to repair some damage from something else.
Perhaps an accident.

Can you repair it?
Ruby thought she could and nodded at
Jenna
. Good. We’re being watched as of
five minutes ago.

Ruby didn’t look up. She knew as well
as anyone who it was. And since she and Jenna, another wolf, could
talk through their link, Cochran wouldn’t hear them. As Ruby worked
to repair the damage from whatever had happened today as well as a
long time ago, the x-rays were brought in from the head
wound.

It took her over nine hours to put the
woman back together. And if she was right, and she hoped she was,
the woman would now be able to have children if she wanted. It
would be difficult for her, but possible. As soon as she closed up
the wound in her arm after removing the broken bottle, Jenna
started making arrangements to have her put into a room. The loud
speaker in the room interrupted her.

“
She will be transferred
out of here as soon as she is cleared for moving. And Miss
Erickson, I would like to see you and that nurse of yours in my
office as soon as you’re finished.” Ruby glanced up at Cochran, who
looked like he’d come straight from the golf course, which was more
than likely the case since the man was only at the hospital when he
had to be.

“
Can I wash the blood off
me first or do you want me to come as I am?” He growled. “I didn’t
catch that. Clean or bloodied?”

“
You’d fucking better not
have one single drop of blood on you, or so help me I’ll have you
quarantined for a month.” Ruby laughed. “I’m going to take great
pleasure in firing the both of you. You will be on the streets like
those degenerates you’re so fond of working on.”

“
All righty then.” Ruby
had Jenna put her patient in ICU as soon as she left recovery. She
contacted her sister too as she finished up.

She’s being transferred as
soon as she is fit. Can you delay that for me? At least a couple
more days. Moving her too soon will kill her.
Diamond said she would.
I’ve also
got a meeting after this, and Cochran has already told me he’s
firing me and Jenna. Can you contact Blair for me and let him know
that Jenna will need help? I don’t think she will ask, and she’ll
need it.

I will. Do you really
think he’s going to fire you both?
She
told her what he’d said.
Ruby, we won’t
have a single doctor on staff after this. I’m serious, everyone has
left. And those that he hasn’t fired are on a suspension. If he
fires you, half the nurses will walk too. Including me. We can’t do
this without doctors.

Don’t. If you do and the
nurses do, not a single person here will make it. You guys are the
backbone of this place, and if you all walk, then the patients are
fucked.
She could feel her sister’s hurt
and pain over this.
I was looking for a
new job anyway. This will just make me work harder.

I’m here with Sapphire and
Blair. I told them what you said. They are not happy.
She told her to tell them she was sorry.
Not unhappy with you, but the hospital. They said
they’re coming down there now.