13

 

It was well past eleven when I parked a block down from the clinic in the only available space against the curb. Still upset over Antonio’s visit to the cafeteria, I didn’t pay attention when I grabbed stuff from the SUV’s passenger seat. I only managed to grasp one handle of my duffle bag and the zipper ripped open, dumping the contents into the gutter.

“Great,” I muttered and bent down to fish everything out of the brown sludge.

I shoved my stuff back in and turned to face the clinic. I unlocked the door and pulled it open. A movement down the sidewalk caught my eye. Tom slipped out of a car parked across the street. He walked towards me.

“Go away!” I called out.

I pushed through the door and locked it.

His footsteps stopped at the door, and he knocked. “Ruby, let me in. I need to talk to you.”

“Tom, I’m really tired. Can we do this another time?”

“I really want to explain what you saw at the club the other night, but I’m at risk shouting out here in the dark.”

“Oh, I’m sure you can find a comfy place to stay till morning,” I shouted back. “I seem to recall seeing you with a really close friend.”

I ran hands through my hair and leaned against the door. I reached over and flicked on the lights. The place was still relatively intact. Maybe I could reopen in a few days.

“Ruby,” Tom groaned against the door. “Open up. I’ve been looking for you for the past four days.”

I sighed and unlocked the door. Tom pushed it open and slipped inside. He blew out a breath, and looked at me, exasperated.

“What?” I asked genuinely confused.

“What do you mean, ‘what’…You disappeared.”

“That’s rich, coming from you.”

Tom rubbed his face with both hands. “You can’t just disappear like that, Ruby. Not after what happened to Dakota. I thought you were going to meet me at the cafeteria. I nearly went insane with worry when you didn’t show up.”

I stalked into the kitchen.

He followed.

“Well, I’m sorry I made you worry, but as you can see, I’m fine.” I opened the fridge, looked at the empty shelves and clenched my jaw. “And you didn’t look too worried at the club, Tom. You looked perfectly relaxed, actually.”

Tom looked at me over the refrigerator’s door with his lips pressed thin. Ignoring my comment, he spoke softly. “I thought we decided that coming back to the clinic was too dangerous.”

“You decided that, Tom. Not me.” I swung the fridge door back and forth on its hinges, not looking at him.

“I tore up this city looking for you.”

Angry, I stepped into him, my finger poking his chest. “I don’t owe you any explanations, Tom. You don’t get to be protector anymore.”

“You can’t stay here, Ruby.” He looked down into my eyes, not angry, but worried.

“Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do,” I said evenly. “You just showed up after ten years, ten years, Tom. I think you are just a little too optimistic about how far your charm and good looks can get you.”

He stepped back and put his hands up in surrender. “Look, forget about the clinic for a second, OK?” His eyes were sad, tired. “I…I saw you at the club and knew you’d misinterpret what you saw…”

“Oh, no, you did not just say that!” I interrupted. “Misinterpret? Were you actually giving her the Heimlich on the dance floor? Is that what you mean?”

Tom never fought with me, never in the three years I was with him. He never raised his voice at me, never used his size to intimidate. “Ruby,” he said quietly. “That woman is working with me and the DEA. I had to be there with her at the club to make a buy. It’s part of my cover.”

“Right.”

“Her boyfriend is the guy who shot me the other night when he found out she was with me.”

“Well thanks for explaining, Tom. I feel much better.” I put my hands out in a grand gesture.

“You’re not getting it. She’s a criminal. She flipped on her brother for a deal with us. So we had her pretend she was seeing me so she could vouch for my cover. The fact that her boyfriend shot me over her was actually a great thing because her brother bought it. I mean, who gets shot over a girl if he isn’t serious, right?”

“You almost died!”

“I didn’t expect him to do it. She wasn’t supposed to say anything to her boyfriend until her paperwork was in place. He apparently made her mad, so she just announced that she was leaving him for me during a party. He and I tussled outside. He pulled a gun, and you know the rest.”

I remembered the dirt on his clothes and his bruised face, shuddering. Yeah, I knew the rest all right. I’d forgotten how easily Tom brushed off harm.

“So you were just enduring that beautiful blonde, for your job, huh?”

“Ruby…” Tom sighed with frustration.

“I thought you’d be on leave or something,” I said. “Don’t they care that you almost died?”

“Ruby, I’ve been working this case for months. I asked to go back in.”

“There are other DEA agents.” Worry and helplessness swelled in my throat. “Why can’t you just back off this time, Tom?”

“I need to bring this case home successfully for the position I want here.” His expression darkened. “Or my transfer won’t go through.”

Anxiety tugged at my stomach. This might not be permanent. “Oh,” I said quietly. “This girl, is her brother the king-pin…guy?”

“King-pin?” Tom chuckled. “No, but we think he’s a step in the right direction.”

He flashed a dimpled grin, and I remembered this feeling from before. My inability to talk him out of anything, and my need to join him in the danger, came crashing back. My heart fell. I was trying to avoid repeating this cycle with Tom.

“Well, whatever. I hope you catch the kingpin,” I said and picked my duffle bag back up. I walked down the hall and set it on the card table in the kitchenette.

“If you don’t trust me personally, at least trust me professionally.” Tom followed me.

I turned to face him, and scrunched my eyebrows together with confusion. “What?”

“I can’t prove it, but I know that Antonio was behind Dakota’s disappearance. And whatever drove him to attack, I guarantee you, it’s not over.”

“How do you know any of this?” I countered. “Dakota did drugs. What if he just got on the bad side of his dealer?”

“No, this is not chance, Ruby. I can feel it. I just can’t figure out what attacking Dakota was meant to accomplish. If he wasn’t working for Antonio, then he must have posed some threat or leverage to him. I think it all has to do with the clinic.”

I grabbed a handful of clothes out of the gym bag and carried them to the office. Swinging open the supply closet, I dumped them in a hamper shoved in the corner. “You have no proof that Dakota wasn’t mixed up in something that has nothing to do with me or the clinic. Besides, I told you that we haven’t even heard back from the shipping company yet…there might not even be a problem with the paperwork.”

“Do you really believe that, Ruby?” he asked quietly.

“We are in the worst part of town, Tom. The chances of someone getting killed and it having nothing to do with me are pretty high, actually. Now, this is my home and my work, Tom. I’m staying here.”

Tom nodded silently, thinking. Then he plopped down on the futon. “Fine, we’ll stay then.”

Hands on my hips, I shook my head. “You’re not staying here.”

“I am if you are,” he answered, and leaned back.

“No, Tom. I mean it. You’re leaving…now.”

“Unless you’re stronger than I remember, and can carry me out, I’m stayin’.” He looked up at me with a smirk.

“You’re being infuriating.” A frustrated growl left my lips. “I don’t need your protection, Tom. This isn’t Dresden Heights, and I’m not a helpless teenager anymore.”

Smiling, he turned on the futon, and lay with his hands behind his head. His feet extended over the end by a foot. “Aww Ruby, you were never helpless,” he said lazily and yawned. “You just didn’t believe that at the time.”

“Then why do you need to stay?” I challenged; the thought of Tom staying overnight sent quivers of nervousness through my chest. This was the total opposite of how I’d planned to deal with him.

“Because you’re right…this isn’t Dresden,” Tom answered and his face was serious. “We aren’t dealing with a delinquent kid, this is more dangerous. In fact, it’s deadly, and you refuse to see it.”

My gaze flitted to the boarded up windows, and I suppressed a shudder. Lilah’s bloody car, my own sore neck, the pain was adding up. I could see Tom wasn’t leaving, and a tiny part of me was relieved to not be here alone. “There’s only the one futon, though.”

“I can share.” He grinned broadly and extended his arms out to me.

“Ha,” I said and pushed his legs off with my foot. The momentum rolled him to the floor with a thud. “If you want to stay, then you get the floor.”

He looked up at me a grinned.

I turned away, silently railing against his dang dimples.

An hour later, lying awake in the dark, I listened to the steady in and out of Tom’s breathing. I turned on my side and looked at him lying on the floor, a thin sheet over him, rolled towels for a pillow. The blue light from the alarm clock on the desk cast his features in a pale glow. My gaze went to the gun he’d taken out of his ankle holster. It rested on the floor next to his head. Confusion and longing rolled over me. My heart pulled in his direction ever so slightly.

“Ruby,” he whispered, startling me.

How long had he known I was staring at him?

I wiped my eyes quickly, turning onto my back to peer at the ceiling. “Yeah, Tom?”

“This is more than when we were kids...”

I sniffled, not able to answer without crying. He sounded sad, as if his throat hurt like mine did right now.

“I believe in my bones that we won’t end the same way we did back then,” he murmured.

“I-I can’t…”

His hand slipped up and grasped mine. “That’s OK, Ruby. You believed for the both of us once. It’s my turn.”

I covered my mouth with my free hand, desperate to keep my sobs from his ears.