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“You can’t stay here,” I said and she impatiently replied, “I know but I have some things that need doing.”

“Ruby,” I started but she interrupted me. “Thanks for saving me and everything, but I had this, okay? I didn’t need rescuing. Now, get out of here before they find you!”

My senses were already picking up activity outside the building.

“Ruby…”

“Just go!”

She had taken a gun from Danny’s jacket and fired at the door lock at the top of the stairs, opening the way for us onto the roof. It was a low building and there were skips down one of the sides. She took a look and jumped onto one of them. I barely had time to see that she was okay before she was taking off.

Chapter 11

Ruby

I had to leave town.

Fast.

Any way I thought about it, there was no way I could stay here. As soon as Danny’s body was found, I would be the first suspect. His family would know that he came to fetch me, that he was taking me back to the ranch. If there was any sign of vampire involvement, that would mean even bigger trouble for me. Conspiring with the enemy on top of killing one of our own.

It meant certain death.

I had to get my money first. Everything I had saved up over the past few months, plus what Luc had given me for that night I had to trick Tomás. It was a fair amount, enough to have my mom moved to a facility out of shifter territory. I needed to get to her as soon as possible and arrange for the transfer.

First, I had to get home and find my money. This was going to be tricky. I knew there would probably be people watching the house and I took the long way back, deciding it would probably be best not to use either the front or back door. Instead, I snuck into the side where the bathroom mirror faced the wall. The window was always open and I knew I could slip in. I had entered and left the house many times this way as a teenager.

This was different, though. I couldn’t make a noise and took off my shoes in case. I carefully pulled myself up to the window and pushed my way in, watching where I put my feet inside. I held my breath and listened. I could hear people talking in the living room. They didn’t sound upset, which meant they were looking for Danny but hadn’t found him yet. I carefully climbed down from the window. At the back of the bath, I loosened the tiles and found my hiding spot with the bags of money. I stuffed them into my shirt, replacing the tiles and making my way up to the window as quickly as possible. On my way out, I caught my foot on the handle and a loud clanging noise sounded up.

“What was that?” I heard a voice say. It was Becky, Danny’s sister. I held my breath as I heard her walk into the bathroom. She looked around and called out, “Nothing here. Anyway, as I was saying…”

I slipped on my shoes and snuck out the back again.

I needed a car to get me out of town and I thought Mrs. Anderson from two houses down was my best bet. I snuck onto her porch, risking being seen but there was no other way.

I knocked a few times and then the old lady opened the door.

“Whaddaya want?” she asked through the small opening of the door. She wasn’t taking any chances.

“I need to ask a favor. Please, can I come in?”

The old lady narrowed her eyes,then relented. “Ah, well, all right.”

She closed the door behind us and glared at me.

“Well, what is it?”

I asked if I could borrow her car to get to Burton, where my mom was in the hospital.

“Why do you look like you’re running scared? What have you done?” she demanded to know.

I bit my lip. “There’s been an accident. Danny got hurt. They’ll be coming for me, I ‘ve got to get out of here and get to my mom.”

The old lady considered, “I always liked your mom. She was nice to me. Not a lot of people here are.”

She gave me a look. “What happened to Danny then? Never took to that boy, I’ll tell you.”

I sighed. “He wanted to take me to the ranch, but I didn’t want to go.”