FRACTURED (19 page)

“I'll see you around, blue eyes,” he said before his silhouette vanished entirely. My heart seized a tiny bit.

“But I won't see you...”

Saddened, I walked through where Matty had just stood and shut off the stereo. The silence was deafening.

Sean's eyes finally fell upon me, but I couldn't read them at all. The deep pools of black gave nothing away.

“What in the bloody hell was
that
?” Alistair asked, slowly making his way into the room.

“Long story,” I replied with a shaky voice. “You guys stay up here, please. Cooper will be home shortly, and I don't want to get shit for something else when he gets back.”

Alistair looked as though he wanted to argue then thought better of it. Janner eyed me as sympathetically as his unexpressive face would allow. Surprisingly, it was Beckett who had something to say.

“You loved him,” he said softly, his face impassive as always.

I nodded.

He gave a nod in return and took a step back away from the door, clearing a path for me. Sean placed his hand on my lower back and guided me forward to the landing then down to the second floor. His hand never left me as we entered the apartment or while we made our way down to my bedroom. When he closed the door behind him, a tiny jolt of fear shot through me.

“How long have you known?” he asked quietly.

“The day before yesterday. Sean, I had every intention of telling you when you stopped by the store, but―”

“I didn't let you,” he replied, cutting me off. “I know you sensed my anger upstairs, Ruby, but it was not for you. I didn't let you tell me the other day. I cannot hold that against you.”

I was floored. That was not the speech I was expecting to get at all.

It was almost impossible to process.

“So you're not mad at me? At all?”

“No.”

A nervous laugh escaped me.

“Do you think I'll get off this easily with Cooper?”

He shot me a look that said, “You'll get away with whatever I tell him you can get away with.” Point taken.

I slumped down onto the bed and propped my elbows on my knees, dropping my head in my hands. Sean moved towards me silently, but I felt his approach as I always could, his body calling to mine in the most inexplicable way. His tall frame blocked the light above as he loomed over me like a dark-eyed angel. In a sense, he kind of was. When I finally lifted my head to see him, his eyes displayed a much lighter shade of green when they met mine.

“I missed you,” he said softly, cupping my face in his hand. I pressed my face into his touch, soaking up every bit of it.

“I missed you too.”

“I had an evening planned for us the other night before I was so rudely pulled away. Can I make it up to you?”

“Well, since I hadn't known we were going to be doing anything at all until after you told me we couldn't go, I'm not sure you need to, but I'll take it, if you're offering.”

I slowly stood up before him, leaving our bodies inches from one another, still connected by that single hand to my face. Then his lips were on mine, light and sweet as if he hadn't been ready to do murderous things only minutes earlier. He truly was a two-sided coin―a product of two diametrically opposed parents.

“Then I should go,” he mumbled over my mouth, not wanting to break our kiss to explain. “I have to get a few things...”

My heart cartwheeled around in my chest.

“Okay,” I replied breathily.

“I'll be ready for you in an hour.”

I'm ready for you now...

He looked down at me and laughed, undoubtedly knowing what I was thinking because, true to form, it was plastered all over my face.

“I'll be there,” I replied, trying to play it cool.

He laughed a little more.

“I'll be back to get you,” he said as he headed toward the door.

“I think I'll walk, if that's okay. I've got some things of my own to do, you know.
Important
things,” I told him with the slightest hint of mocking. I may not have been as smooth as he was, but I could do sarcasm like nobody's business. It was the next best thing as far as I was concerned. “I'll meet you at your place in an hour. Maybe. Maybe I'll be fashionably late just to keep you guessing.”

Again with the laughter.

“Ruby,” he said with a voice smoother than silk. “You won't want to be late.”

18

He was right; I didn't. But, as luck would have it, I inevitably was.

Even after the shenanigans upstairs, I returned to work without Peyta to finish out the day. Cooper stormed into the store about ten minutes after I returned, none too happy about what he had just witnessed. He calmed down uncharacteristically fast when I pointed out that he was the one who shut me down when I tried to tell him about Matty. He wasn't happy about it, but he admitted it was his fault. I'd gotten two of those in one week, and I wondered when the third would drop. Things
always
happened in threes.

By the time I kicked him out, I only had half an hour left to clean up and close down the store, run upstairs, and get myself ready. It took an hour and a half.
Thirty minutes late and counting.
A frantic text on my way out of the house to Sean was the best I could do to remedy the situation.

The air was brisk with an edge of humidity to it. If the temperature had dropped any further, snow would have inevitably fallen. I pulled my coat tighter around me and buried my face deep in my pink hand-knit cowl while I ran through the downtown streets in an effort to make up for my tardiness. I was making great time until I hit Sean's block.

That's when everything got derailed.

I rounded the corner right into Gavin, who stood waiting―waiting for
me
.

“Ruby,” he said, looking down at me. He was parading around as his younger self, the one who’d pulled me from the bay where the Rev had attempted to plant me deep below the water's edge. I still wasn't used to seeing Gavin that way, so it took me a moment to realize who he was, and I stifled a scream just in time.

In retrospect, maybe I shouldn't have.

“Ginger mentioned she saw you with the dark-eyed one.

'Canoodling' was the word she used, I believe.” His eyes were hard and shrewd, attempting to pry my head open and search for the answers himself, knowing it was likely easier than confronting me for them.

“So she's spying on me too? Awesome. I would have thought she was above being your lackey,” I snapped, trying to step around him.

Quick as lightning, his arm was out, blocking my way.

“Ginger adores you, and, if I were you, I'd watch how you speak about her.”

“Sweet! We're going to skip right to threats then, are we?”

“If need be,” he growled. He lowered his arm in an attempt to lessen the tension between us, but as far as I was concerned, we were way beyond that. “Ginger told me that she said something she shouldn't have.

She's very protective of me, Ruby. You mustn't rile her up like that.”

“She did. Something about extinction and how you apparently saved the day. Funny that she clammed up as soon as the words left her mouth. I couldn't get a thing out of her after that.”

“It's not her story to tell,” he said, leaning in closer. “And I'll tell it when and if I choose to.”

“Well, unless you plan to do it right now, I'm late,” I informed him, shooting a glance up at Sean's building.

“You're not making this easy for me, Ruby,” he said, closing the distance between us to an intimate gap, our bodies nearly touching. “I'll have to try harder to convince you.”His hand grasped my elbow. It wasn't an uncomfortable pressure, but what coursed through me as a result was.

“He is your enemy―
our
enemy. Do you understand me?”

I shook my head, trying to clear the fuzzy sensation that was wrapping around it, suffocating my rational thought. My heart warred with my brain, each telling the other that it was right. Love versus truth.

“No,” I said, snatching my arm away, “I don't understand. If you want me to believe your creepy ramblings, then give me
answers
, not more questions for once. And don't talk around shit either. I
hate
that.

You want me to stay away from Sean then give me something solid. Tell me
who
would have been extinct without you.”

“No,” he replied, low and menacing, “but I'll tell you who did the eradicating. I believe he's upstairs waiting for you right now.”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a photo. It was old and weathered. He handed it to me without explanation.

The picture was of a stunning raven-haired woman who would have been around thirty at the time. Beside her was a towheaded toddler with wild, untamed curls. It was hard to make out under the street lamp, but around them was a pale, hazy glow.

“What is this?” I asked, trying to make sense of his offering.

“A good faith token.”

“And how is it that? I don't even know who this is.”

“That's you,” he explained with an irritated tone, indicating the child. “And
that
,” he said, pointing to the young woman, “is someone that I could not keep safe when the time came.” His energy fell heavily around me. There was true sadness behind his words. “Keep this for now,” he continued, his voice slipping back from the distant tone it had just held. “You have so few mementos of the happier times.”

With that, he started to walk away.

“But
who
is she?” I pleaded, begging to know. My childhood had always been a blacked-out blur, and I was desperate to know just who the mysterious woman of my “happier times” was.

“When you're ready to believe the worst of the dark-eyed one, ask him. He knows.”

“He's not
all
dark, Gavin,” I argued defensively. “He's equal parts dark and light.”

Gavin whipped his head around to stare me down, further emphasizing the importance of the point he was about to impress upon me.

“He
is
part angel, Ruby,” he agreed, his eyes menacing and mocking, “but does that imply he's
good
? You seem quick to base your favorable opinion on the illusion that angels are all creatures of the light.

But what happens when that light has been snuffed out?” He paused to assess my reaction, searching for a sign that he was getting through to me. “I wonder just how convincing your illusion will be when your faulty logic crumbles from beneath it.”

“So you're saying there are
bad
angels?” I asked incredulously.

“Yes. The Dark Ones. They are the things that nightmares are made of.”

A nervous scoff escaped me.

“Isn't that what you say about Sean? That he's what nightmares are made of?”

A broad and satisfied smile crossed Gavin's face.

“One and the same, Ruby,” he called over his shoulder as he walked away. “They are one and the same...”

19

I stood alone in the street, staring in the direction where he had disappeared into the night. With the innocuous photograph still in my hand and visions of an evil Sean etched into my brain, the barrage of questions started to race through my mind, none of which were going to be answered anytime soon. Gavin was scheming, but I didn't know why.

Apparently I knew the woman in the picture but had no clue how. Worst of all, Sean allegedly could tell me who she was, but, somewhere deep down inside me, a seed of doubt had been planted. Was he as dichotomous as I thought he was? A product of both good and evil? Did I really want to know the truth if it meant collapsing the house of cards that Sean and I had so precariously built? Was that all Gavin was trying to do, and, if so, why? To what end?

I needed to figure out his end game and fast.

As I looked down at the picture one last time before tucking it into my coat pocket, I wondered about the stunning woman who looked so happy to be staring down at me. I'd never remembered feeling overly loved as a child, and judging by the pure joy in her face, she loved me more than anything. She looked at me the way Kristy looked at Louie.

Forcing those thoughts aside, I made my way across the road and over to Sean's building. Instead of a growing sense of anticipation with every step, all I felt was doubt overtaking me. It pissed me off that I was letting Gavin's mind games get to me, and I wondered why I let him play them at all.
Answers. He has answers,
I reminded myself
.
Supply and demand was a bitch when the supplier had a warped sense of how to distribute the information.

With leaden feet, I climbed the stairs to Sean's apartment.

Hesitating before the door, I swallowed my lingering insecurities as best I could, hoping that I could overcome them. Love could conquer all, couldn't it?

Before I could knock, he was there, smiling down at me with the face of an angel.
Light or dark,
I found myself wondering as the happiness slowly bled from his expression.

“
What's wrong
?”
he asked, stepping out to meet me on the landing.

I took a step back.

I needed to get a hold of myself before irreparable damage was done. Letting Gavin's curious riddles plague my mind was not a way to live, nor was it fair to Sean. He had no way to defend himself against Gavin's ambiguous accusations, and I had no intention of going to Sean with anything until I had more solid evidence. All that would prove was that I didn't trust him. After everything we'd been through, I owed him more than that. And yet, one single photograph threatened to undo it all―a photograph and an unsettling feeling that Gavin attached to it.

Something wasn't right about the situation, and come hell or high water, I was going to figure out exactly what before it swallowed me whole.

“I'm sorry,” I said, shaking my head a little for clarity. “It's been a long day. Can I come in?”

“Of course,” he replied, stepping back into the apartment. He watched me acutely, no doubt trying to read me like the open book he always found me to be. For once, it looked as though my novel was closed.

“I'm sorry I'm so late,” I told him as I slipped out of my coat.

“I expected you to be here about ten minutes ago. I was getting mildly concerned.”