Wraiths of Winter (The Haunting Ruby Series Book 3) (6 page)

“What makes you so sure that
I’m
the one who
forgot?”

He wouldn’t take his eyes off of me so I looked away
instead. Did he know that I saw Lee when I looked at him?
Did he know that it stirred up unresolved feelings in me,
feelings
I was
afraid to
feel?
The
sooner we
found his
biological family, the better.

Ignoring his last comment, I got back to the reason I
was hanging out with him in the first place. “What do you
want to know about him?”

Lucas slumped back in his chair. “I want to know
everything
. What he was like, how you met…how he died.”

 

“Well, we met when—”

“No—not here, not now!” he said forcefully, yet in
hushed tones. “I don’t want to talk about my dead brother in
a roomful of strangers. It’s my first day in a new school—I’m
traumatized enough already!”

Now
that,
that
I
could
sympathize
with.
“Understandable. When do you want to do this?”

 

“What about tonight—at your house, maybe?”

“Okay, but it will have to be later—I have plans right
after school and so does Zach. What about seven? We should
both be free by then.”

“No go.” he said shaking his head vehemently. “Not
with
him
there—it’s you and me alone or it’s nothing!”

“But Lucas, he already knows everything about Lee!
Zach and I are close—we don’t keep secrets from each other.
I’ll just tell him everything we talk about later anyway so why
does it matter if he’s there with us?”

“He doesn’t like me. He’s already made that pretty
clear.” Lucas pushed his lunch tray to the side and leaned
over the table toward me. “Not that I can blame him. If you
were mine, I wouldn’t want you hanging out with another guy
either. Especially when that guy reminds you of someone you
were in love with. You’re beautiful. I would be afraid of
losing you, too.”

Either those tacos were bad or my stomach was filling
up with butterflies because he called me beautiful.
Just to be
on the safe side, I would assume it was the tacos.

“Fine,” I consented, doing my best not to show how his
words may or may not have affected me. “You can come over
to my house at seven. But don’t expect to find yourself in my
bed again. Not tonight—not ever.”

The
cocky
smile returned when he
got what he
wanted. “I’ll see you at seven then.” He grabbed his tray and
got up from the table. “And if there’s one thing I’ve learned in
life, it’s to never say never.”

Before I could answer him, he was gone. And I was
left with the task of figuring out a way to break the news to
Zach.

5. …Or That!

I dreaded the arrival of math class for the rest of the
day because it was the only opportunity I would have to tell
Zach about my plans with Lucas. Throughout the afternoon, I
rehearsed in my mind exactly how I would break the news to
him.
The
only
problem
with
that
was
the
fact
that
conversations always went smoother in my head than they
did in reality.

I ran down the hall full speed so I could have as much
time to talk to him before class started as possible. Zach was
just walking in the door when I caught up to him.

“There you are!” I said putting my arm around his
shoulders and giving him a kiss on the cheek.

 

“Hey, sweetie! You seem happy to see me—I like
that!” Zach returned the kiss and followed me to our seats.

 

“Yes…but…. You may change your mind when you
hear what I have to tell you.”

 

I watched as the smile faded from his lips. “Let me
guess—you talked to Lucas.”

 

“I did,” I answered him. “He sat with me at lunch.”

 

“That figures,” Zach replied bitterly. “So what did he
have to say?”

Here came the tough part. “He said he wanted to
know everything about Lee so I invited him over tonight.
He’ll be at Rosewood at seven.”

“Okay, that gives me enough time to get a shower and
eat dinner first before I head over. I don’t have any
homework so far and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that
Mrs. West takes it easy on us, too.”

So I had it all wrong—
this
was the tough part. “Well,
Zach, the only way he would agree to talk to me was if we
were alone.”

“Of course he did, Ruby! He’s after more than just the
truth here!” Zach pleaded with me, “Open your eyes! Can’t
you see what he’s up to?”

I wanted to disagree with him, to protest that Lucas
was merely looking for information just like I was.
But I
couldn’t. Why? Because I wasn’t completely convinced that
Zach was wrong.

My only hope was to dodge the issue. “Look—I tried
but he said he wouldn’t talk about it if you were there. If I’m
ever going to put this behind me, I have to talk to him on
his
terms.
Dad and Shelly will be there and I promise you he
won’t make it past the first floor. As soon as he leaves, I’ll call
you with all of the details.”

Zach’s expression was unreadable. I’d never seen that
look on his face before. “Fine. Just don’t forget to call me this
time.”

Mrs. West walked into the room and called the class to
order effectively ending our conversation. I squirmed in my
seat the
entire period,
never quite finding
a comfortable
position. Zach was unhappy and I didn’t like it. There had to
be some way for me to balance our relationship with my
friendship with Lucas.

It was a good thing I made plans with Rachel for right
after school. In between discussing Crimson’s disappearance
and Drake’s precarious situation, I would have a chance to tell
her about Lucas and get her expert opinion. Rachel was a lot
better at dealing with boys than I was and she knew her
brother very well.
She would know what I needed to do in
this awkward situation.

As soon as I said my goodbyes to Zach, I ran to meet
Rachel at her car.
Unfortunately,
my
boots
were more
fashionable than functional and my foot slid out from under
me when I hit a spot of ice. I started to fall backwards and
mentally, I braced for the impact. I put the “ass” in asphalt
with such force that it took my breath away. Rachel ran to
help me but someone else got to me first.

“I
do
want you to fall for me but this wasn’t exactly
what I had in mind,” Lucas said as he offered a hand to help
me up.

“Thanks,” I countered sarcastically, “but I can get up
all by myself.”

I placed my hand on the ice for support and tried to
stand back up but the heels of my shoes had something else in
mind. Once more, I slipped back down onto the ground at his
feet.

Lucas still stood there looking down at me with his
hand outstretched. “When you’re done hurting yourself, I’d
be happy to help you up.”

Just as I was about to swallow my pride and reach out
to him, Rachel appeared at my side. “Here, Ruby, take
my
hand.”

Gladly. Rachel helped me back up and I snatched my
bag from the ground where it fell. “How do I look? I didn’t get
the back of my jeans dirty, did I?” I was very conscious of the
fact that Lucas was still lingering a few steps away. Maybe a
little
too
conscious.

Rachel turned me around to survey the damage and I
came face to face with Lucas. “No, your backside looks fine,
Ruby.” I was about to tell her thanks when Lucas spoke up.

“I could have told you that without even looking,” he
said with a flirty wink. “But I definitely looked anyway.” He
flipped his hair out of his eyes and walked away.

Once he was gone, Rachel nearly pounced on me.
“Ruby! Wasn’t that…I mean, he looked just like….” Rachel
struggled for the perfect words but came up short.

“I know exactly who he looks like,” I said as we walked
to her car. “I’ll explain the whole thing later. Right now, I just
want to get out of here. Crimson first, boy troubles second.”

Rachel agreed and we drove to the Mason house with
barely a word spoken between us. Once she found the perfect
picture of Crimson, she quickly wrote up a brief description of
her, grabbed a jarful of change from her desk, and we were on
our way.

“Her real name is Charisma Cox?” I asked, reading the
flyer as we headed downtown to the post office. “Now I see
why she changed her name.”

“I know, right? She always said that giving a child a
name like Charisma was the cruelest form of child abuse—not
to mention the kind of trauma the last name Cox brings with
it. And she hated her mother just as much as her name—she
became an emancipated minor at sixteen.”

Wow.
As bad as my life seemed at times, at least I
wasn’t alone. I couldn’t tell if Rachel wanted to talk about
Crimson or not so I changed the subject to be on the safe side.
It was time to tell her what was going on.
“So about that boy from earlier—his name is Lucas

and he’s Lee’s twin brother,” I began.

“What? Shut the front door! You’re kidding me,
right?” Rachel looked at me with complete disbelief. “Why
didn’t you tell me Lee had a twin?”

“I didn’t know until yesterday—Lee was
adopted,
remember? He never knew his real family.”

 

“Hol-ee hell! Does Zach know about him yet?”

I launched into the account of how we met Lucas and
how I thought he was just another ghost until I realized that
Zach could see him, too.
I was just about to explain that
seeing him made me faint when Rachel stopped me.

“Wait a second—what do you mean by
another
ghost?
And how does Zach seeing him too make any difference in the
matter?”

Son of a…. I never meant to let that part slip! Rachel
knew nothing of my encounter with Garnet and I wanted to
keep it that way.
But it was too late now. The ghost cat was
out of the bag, so to speak.

“There’s something I haven’t told you, Rachel, but I
guess now I kind of have to.”

Rachel parked her car and forbid me to get out of it.
“You’re not going anywhere until you tell me what you’re
hiding from me.” Oddly enough, her eyes seemed to lighten
the madder
she
got, too.

With the least amount of details possible, I explained
the events of the last three months. When I was finished, she
looked at me with the same look Zach gave me the night he
broke up with me.
It was a mixture of hate and betrayal and
something I never wanted to see on
her
face, either.

“Ruby! How could you do this to me! I thought we
were friends—
best
friends!” Rachel thrust the photo of
Crimson in my face. “You could have been helping her—
helping Drake—all along but you haven’t! How could you be
so selfish?”

While I knew she would be mad, it was much worse
than I expected.
But calling me selfish made
me
angry, too.
“Selfish? I almost
died
—twice in the last six months!
Not to
mention that your brother’s life was in danger, too! Garnet
pushed him down the damn stairs because of me! Forgive me
for not wanting to die or see Zach get hurt again.”

Rachel and I both slumped back in our seats and
stared silently out the windows for what seemed an eternity.
Having her mad at me was almost as bad as having Zach mad
at me. After several minutes, I couldn’t take it any more so I
broke the ice.

“I know you think I can just go talk to that girl who
died five years ago and ask her who killed her but it doesn’t
exactly work that way.” I took a look at the photo of Crimson
and was overcome with guilt. “I don’t really have control over
who haunts me and who doesn’t.”

“I get that—really I do. But couldn’t you at least
try
?
For me?
For Crimson?
If the same person who killed Allison
Cornell has
her
now too, she really needs your help! There’s a
chance that she’s still alive, Ruby, locked up somewhere being
tortured night after night.”

Rachel’s desperate pleading finally got to me. “Okay,
I’ll see what I can do but I can’t guarantee anything.”

“Thank you, soo much, Ruby!” she said giving me a
hug. “Don’t worry, I’ll help you and I won’t let you get hurt
again. I swear!”

I knew she meant every word she said but there was
no way she would be able to back those words up if the time
came. If I put myself in danger again, there might not be any
way for her or anyone else to save me—Zach included. Maybe
I would get lucky and not actually make a connection with
Allison.
In that case, I could walk away knowing that I did
what I could but without actually putting
myself
in
any
danger.

“So, I don’t know anything about Allison. Where do I
even start looking for her?” I asked as we stepped inside the
post office lobby and approached the copy machine.

Rachel plunked a handful of coins into the slot and
pressed the copy button. “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of that.
Drake flew back with his parents after Thanksgiving. I’ll get
ahold of him and find out where she used to hang out and
stuff.” Rachel pulled the first copy out of the machine and
held it up for my approval.

“Looks good,” I said, rubbing at the sore spot on my
behind from where I fell on the ice.

Rachel set the machine to make fifty more copies then
leaned back against the wall. “So, what was Zach really doing
at your house yesterday?
He told Mom and Dad he was
working.”

“Nothing special—we just spent the day together.”
Nothing special?
I tried hard not give anything away but I
knew I failed miserably at it. Sex or no sex, the morning we
spent together walking in the snow was magical in and of
itself.