FRACTURED (24 page)

I tried unsuccessfully to slow my racing heart. We were flirting with disaster, Cooper and I. We agreed that it was best that the boys not know about Scarlet's AWOL status, but at some point, it was bound to come to light. I didn't know how much longer we could keep that cat in the bag.

As I reached the bottom, I heard Janner's phone ring and him answer it through the open apartment door. Given the tone his voice held and the few choice words he used, something was up and it wasn't good. Whoever he was talking to was not an ally.

When a wave of fear washed through the stairway and over me, I knew who it was.
Alpha...

Sprinting back up the stairs, I arrived just in time for Janner to greet me at the apartment door, his face slack and expressionless. He looked like he had seen a ghost.

“It's happening,” he whispered, looking through me rather than at me.

“It was him, wasn't it?” I asked, my fear rising along with his.

“I'm so sorry, Ruby. We did not mean to bring trouble for you.” He pushed past me and headed up the stairs, calling the others as he made his way.

“What did he say? What's coming?” I nattered, trying to keep up with the unending surge of questions that shot through my mind.

“I have to tell the others,” he continued, ignoring my questions entirely.

“Tell them what, Janner?”

He turned his blank face toward me as the others met us in the hallway.

“
Death
, Ruby,” he uttered with complete detachment from his ominous words. “Death is coming for us.”

23

The three of them started to argue back and forth about the best course of action as though they'd never once planned what they would do in such an event. Apparently, they'd put all their eggs in one basket―
my
basket.

They were in for a rude awakening of epic proportions.

“Wait a minute!” I yelled over them. “Is that what he said?”

“In a sense,” Janner replied.

“No, this is not time for paraphrasing. You're going to tell me exactly what he said,” I informed him, heading down the stairs. “But I'm going to call Sean first. You're going to tell us both what he said so we can figure this clusterfuck out.”

They eyed me tightly, not seeming too pleased by my bossy tone, but they were going to have to live with that. As far as I was concerned, I was next in line behind Cooper, so my word was law in his absence. They may not have liked it, but there wasn't time to bicker about who was in charge. When the universe threw you a curveball, it wasn't the time to discuss whether or not you should swing or stay. It was time to get the fuck out of the way, and that was exactly what Sean was going to figure out―how to dodge the pitch.

I stormed into the store, running past Peyta and a customer at top speed. Ungracefully, I slammed through the door to the back room and my purse, yanking my cell out before turning around to frantically exit.

All Peyta got was a warning look from me. We'd learned to communicate without words during perilous times. I knew she got the message.

Dialing as I took the stairs two at a time, I had Sean on the line before I even heard it ring.

“I hope this is a social call.”

“It's not. We've got a situation.”

“Define 'we',” he demanded, his business tone in full bore.

I decided to cut to the chase. There was no point in trying to pretty it up.

“Tobias called...”

The name was met with a growl.

“And what did he say?”

“Well, that's what we're going to find out right now,” I told him, cresting the final step to the third floor where Janner stood with the others. “Janner spoke to him. I didn't, but he's right here. I'm putting you on speaker.”

I hit the appropriate button and adjusted the volume as loud as it would go for my benefit. I knew the boys would hear him regardless.

“Okay, Janner,” I prompted. “Just spill it.”

He sighed heavily, shooting me an uncomfortable glance. He clearly feared more than just Tobias. Sean was not going to take kindly to his suspicions of danger coming our way because of the boys. If they thought Cooper was overprotective, they were about to get schooled by Sean.

“He was his usual pompous self on the phone, making a game of threatening me. Threatening
us
.”

“What. Did. He. Say?” Sean ground out. I could practically hear his jaw flexing, knowing how hard he was trying to compose himself. He wanted to find a solution to the problem first. He'd figure out how to make them pay later.

“He laughed when I answered and then quickly pointed out how irresponsible it was for me to not have gotten another phone, like I had made the game too easy for him.”

“You have the same phone?” Sean roared.

“We left with next to nothing. We took whatever we could throw in a bag and the cash I had stashed away in a contingency fund. Our accounts were paid for the year. I had other more pressing things to deal with when we fled. It never dawned on me see if the numbers could be changed, not that changing the numbers would have been enough, really.

Tobias is smart. Most likely, we would have had to dispose of them entirely,” he said, trying to explain why they hadn't gotten rid of that connection to their past. It seemed that carelessness was the true reason.

“As it stands now, I soon would have to have renewed the policy and would not be able to do it. Please understand, Sean, we left in chaos. We were not in Maine long before we happened upon Ruby. We haven't had much time to regroup. I had no idea that he would come for us this quickly.”

“And now he's going to follow that phone right to Ruby's doorstep.”

Sean was seething―I could sense it through the phone.

“Perhaps it hasn't come to that yet,” Janner countered. “He said he was sending out a search party. He wouldn't have to search hard if he knew where we were.”

“Sean,” I interjected, thinking back to a conversation we'd had when he had offered to locate my phone for me. “Maybe not everyone has access to the technology you're used to working with. It's possible that they could know roughly where the boys are...maybe using the cell tower to trace their location, but they might not be able to do what Trey can.

Maybe we still have a chance to fix this.”

“Oh, it can be fixed.” His voice was low and calm. Sean was at his scariest when devoid of emotion entirely.

“Sean...”

“I won't be back there in time to deal with this myself, so follow my instructions to the letter, understood?”

“Go ahead.”

“You are going to drive down to Boston. You're going to find Trey, and he's going to make this go away, in a sense. Nobody is to get rid of those phones, is that clear?”

We all looked at each other with utter confusion. Knowing that the other three were too smart to ask questions, I served myself up and addressed the obvious.

“Why aren't we getting rid of them? I mean, if he's going to track them, why would we keep them?”

“He won't be able to track them once Trey is finished, but he'll
think
he can. Besides, he seems to have gone underground for the moment. Jay and the London boys seem to be having trouble tracking him. That's where I am now. I want Tobias to be able to reach them in the future.

Trey will be able to locate him once he's worked his magic on the phones.

We'll flip the situation on him and get the upper hand.”

I liked Sean's plan immensely, but it all hinged upon Tobias not being able to directly trace Janner, or any of the boys' phones, and I wasn't overly optimistic about that. Luck rarely seemed to be on my side.

“Where is Cooper?” he asked, finally realizing that he hadn't heard him pipe up yet.

“He's not back yet.”

“And he left you home alone with them?” Sean started with a low rumbling accenting his words. “Apparently he and I need to have a chat.”

Sean didn't do chats. His euphemism fooled no one. Cooper was going to get his ass handed to him on a platter when Sean got back.

Damage control again...

“Sean, I'll explain later, but don't freak out on Cooper,” I pleaded, knowing it was likely in vain. To distract him, I threw the more pressing CF back in his face. “So where are we going?”

“
You
aren't going anywhere until Cooper gets back.”

“Sean―”

“I'm sending you directions now, but you are not to go
anywhere
without Cooper,” he dictated, biting off his words for effect. “Nowhere.

Understood?”

I sighed dramatically.

“Yes. We understand.”

“No. I need
you
to understand,” he countered. “I need
them
to get very comfortable with the reality that their lives will be short-lived if anything, and I mean
anything
, happens to you before I return.”

They all looked to me and I shrugged. I had no control over Sean, and they knew that. Mate or not, I was
so
not in the driver's seat of our relationship.

“You are understood,” Janner replied on behalf of the boys.

“Good. I'm on my way now,” he said as the wind around him garbled his words slightly. “And Ruby, I love you. Don't make me live to regret your judgment.”

He hung up before I could respond. I just smiled at the phone instead.

My smile dropped the second Cooper walked through the main door downstairs.

“Rubes?” he called. “Are you upstairs?”

“Yeah, I'm up here. Don't bother coming up. We've gotta go to Boston. Now.”

We started down the stairs, meeting him on the landing by my apartment door. And he did not look pleased.

“I don't know how closely you three like to play with death, but I am telling you―”

“Seriously, Cooper. Now isn't the time. You can tear the trio a new set of assholes all the way down to where we're going, if you want to, but we have to go. Sean said to leave the second you got home.”

“Hence his subtle text message: 'go home now'.”

“Yep. That sounds about right.”

“Boston? Christ, Ruby, I was gone for half an hour. How much shit did you manage to stir up in thirty minutes?” I gave him a sheepish look that told him everything he needed to know. Knowing my gifts, he scowled in return. “Worst case scenario?” he asked, leading the way down to the car.

“Tobias might be here.” He stopped dead in his tracks on the stairs.

“The car, remember?” I cried, shoving him onward to the door. “You can flip out in the car. Sean sent me directions to Trey's in Boston. We've got to get something done to their phones,” I told him, hedging slightly. I'd hoped to not waste time explaining things until we were in the car.

“Why?” he asked, that time without stopping. “Do you want to give me the abridged version of what in the hell is going on?”

“Tobias called Janner. They still have their old phones...we think he traced them somehow.” I flinched, stepping in front of the boys so Cooper couldn't kill them without harming me in the process―or at least to slow him down slightly.

“Mother. Fucker.”

“He probably is,” Alistair quipped from behind me.

“Sean thinks we can throw them off, but we have to get to Trey ASAP. Can we put a hold on the ass kickings until after we know we're on the right side of a war?”

Cooper stared the boys down over top of my head as we stood outside the building. He was breathing hard and furious, but for once, I didn't think he was going to kill them. Not yet anyway. I hoped for their sakes nothing eventful came of Tobias' threats.

“You three, in the Navigator. Now,” he ordered. The boys complied without a word. “You,” he said, golden eyes flaring, “you need to get Peyta home or send her to Ronnie's shop, but I don't want her anywhere near here until we have a better idea of just how pressing this danger is.”

“I was going to do that,” I replied, opening the door to the shop.

“Sean thinks we can use this to find Tobias. Jay hasn't been able to find him over there.”

“Well, I sure as hell hope that doesn't mean he's already here,” he snarled, before softening his tone. “This could be bad, Ruby. Really bad.”

His eyes held a sadness that was easily read. My questionably human status made me vulnerable, and if harm came looking for us, I was going to be a casualty for sure. There was no prettying up that reality.

“It won't be,” I told him, forcing a wan smile. “I trust you, Cooper. I trust Sean too. It'll be okay.”

I turned to push the door open and heard him mutter something under his breath as he walked to the car.

I have a bad feeling about this,
he'd said, shutting the car door behind him.

He wasn't the only one.

It took me a while to convince Peyta to listen to me and leave the store. She no longer had her constant guardian at her side to keep her safe, though I didn't bother to point that out. She was more than aware of his absence. I promised to fill her in later, when I knew we were all going to be safe. She accepted that for the time being and filed out of the store, leaving me behind to lock up.

I watched her walk to her mom's car while I turned off the lights and placed the 'CLOSED' sign in the window. She waved to Cooper, who yelled something at her from the SUV. Her face became serious, and she gave a brisk nod in response before jumping into the vehicle and speeding off down the street.

Apparently, I needed to have a chat with her about the dangers of having a lead foot.

I hoped to live long enough to have that talk.

24

“Thanks for driving, Coop,” I said as I buckled myself in. “My eyes are all whacked out today, and it's giving me a headache. I really need to get some quality sleep soon.”

“Yeah,” he grunted, having gone back to fuming about the situation.

He was less than impressed by the boys' oversight. He and Sean both.

“Please explain to me again why we aren't just destroying the phones and getting new ones?” His irritation was plain.

“Sean said he wanted them to be in contact with Tobias, if need be,”

I explained for the second time. “Sean has a purpose for everything he does, Cooper. You know that.”

“Doesn't mean I have to agree with him.”

“You never do. Why would I expect that to change?” I asked, looking out the passenger window. The boys quietly sat in the back, trying to keep themselves off of Cooper's hostile radar.