Page 30 of A Tempting Seduction (Protectors of Jasper Creek #5)

“My sisters were already married. One to a lawyer, and one to a creepy politician who was older than dirt. Everybody sucked up to Grandpa Horace and my dad. I heard people talking. That’s when I started hearing things about dad.

I heard things about how, for the right amount of money, cases could get dismissed. It was awful.”

I could just imagine a young Ruby hearing this about her father and how it would hurt her.

“I should have figured out something was wrong before all that. We ended up living in a much bigger house after he married Diane. I had to go to a private school that I hated. I only got to keep one old friend.”

“You said you thought your dad was murdered?” I asked, trying to get her back on track.

“That’s where Lance came in. I told you about him.

When I was twenty, Diane and Grandpa Horace introduced me to him.

He was an assemblyman. He had big plans.

He was all California blonde, with big white teeth and a perfect tan.

He surfed, played golf and belonged to the same country club as all the bigwigs in California politics. ”

I winced. I could just picture the guy, and I couldn’t tell if I was jealous or if I thought the guy was a douche. Maybe it was a bit of both.

“Anyway, it was clear they wanted me to date him, and I felt like I didn’t have a choice. But it felt weird. He was the first man who had ever really shown an interest in me, and he was perfect. It didn’t make any sense. But after a while he told me he loved me, so I just assumed love was blind.”

“Ruby, sweetheart. That man was lucky to have you. You’re gorgeous.”

She gave me a desperate, disbelieving look, and I cupped her face and kissed her. Once again, the world melted away and I couldn’t stop kissing her. She tasted like honey and tears. I took my time, and as she whimpered and clutched my shoulders I came to my senses.

“Beautiful, baby. You’re beautiful.”

I watched a smile transform her face and something inside me relaxed. I’d been needing to see her smile since I’d brought her into my home. “Now tell me more about this douchebag.”

She giggled. “After a year and a half, Grandpa Horace had a lavish party, and he brought Lance and I onto the dias, and that was where Lance got down on one knee and proposed to me.” She looked up at me. “Do you know what the weirdest part is?”

“No, tell me.”

“I really wanted to say, let me think about it. Here I was, the less than beautiful Banks daughter being proposed to by Mr. Wonderful, and I wasn’t thrilled. But he and Horace put me on the spot. I had no choice but to say yes.”

“You had good instincts,” I grinned.

“I did, didn’t I?”

“Yep. And you were how old?”

“Twenty-one.”

“Sweetheart, that’s really saying something. Most girls that age would have been over the moon, but you already smelled a rat. That’s impressive.”

“Afterward, everybody said how lucky I was to have Lance Leeds as a fiancé.”

“But then you found him with your sister.”

She nodded. “It was a year after we’d been engaged.

He’d given me a key to his condo. He liked it when I cooked for him.

I’d told him that I wouldn’t be able to come over that night, I’d be volunteering with my literacy buddy.

But since Reggie was sick that day, I decided to go over.

When I got there, I saw Carla’s dress lying on the living room floor. I knew it was hers.”

“Shit.”

“I followed the trail of clothes to his bedroom. She was on top of him. He saw me first and winced. She looked over her shoulder and told me to shut the door, they weren’t finished. I lost my shit. I started yelling at Lance that we were over. That I never wanted to see him again.”

“Seems reasonable to me,” I nodded.

“Lance scrambled out of bed with the sheet around him, but not Carla.

She got up off the bed, bold as you please, and walked over to me.

She told me I was lucky anyone wanted to marry me.

That I shouldn't have a tantrum and ruin things for the family. That Lance was doing me a favor by pretending to be attracted to me, and I should be grateful instead of dramatic.”

Anger flared hot in my chest. The thought of someone treating Ruby like that, making her feel worthless, made me want to put my fist through a wall.

“I went to my dad,” Ruby said. “Told him I was calling off the engagement. He looked terrified, Ford. Not angry or disappointed. Terrified.”

“What did he do?”

“He asked me to wait. Just a little. Said he needed to smooth a few things out before I publicly announced the engagement was off. He practically begged me, so I agreed. The next day, he gave me a key to his old fishing cabin and told me if anything happened to him, I should go there immediately. I should look under the mattress in the second bedroom and take everything and go to Jasper Creek to find family. I was freaked out.”

Ruby’s eyes took on a distant stare. She was back in the past, reliving what had happened.

“I demanded to know what he was talking about. If he was scared somebody might hurt him, we needed to go to the police. He told me we couldn’t involve the police, and I had to trust him.

” She looked up at me with tear-filled eyes. “I should have called them.”

“Why? What happened?”

“Dad got into a car accident two days later.” Ruby’s voice wobbled. “They said he was driving too fast and missed the curve on one of the canyon roads. That couldn’t be right, he drove those roads damn near every day. And he never went over the speed limit.”

“What was under the mattress?”

“Cash. A new driver’s license, social security card. Everything I needed to become Ruby Miller.” She was holding back so much pain as she said those words.

I moved closer on the couch and pulled her against my side. She came willingly, pressing her face into my shoulder.

“I’m certain they killed him,” she whispered into my shirt. “I think when he tried to get me out of the engagement, they decided he was a liability.”

“Who's they?”

“Grandpa Horace. Maybe Lance. I don't know how deep it went, but I know it was bigger than just fixing a few court cases.” Ruby pulled back to look at me.

“I drove cross-country with just two suitcases. I took three different Ubers until I got to a used car dealership. I used a lot of my cash to buy my Honda as Ruby Miller and started driving east. It took me a while to find Miss Gladiola and Little Grandma. But I did.”

“And you've been here for two years.”

“Two years of thinking I was safe. That whoever killed Dad had gotten what they wanted and forgotten about me.” Ruby's voice broke again. “But today, Lance came waltzing into Java Jolt telling me a bunch of bullshit that he wants to marry me.”

I frowned for the fortieth time. “How did he find you?”

“I think a good private investigator would have made the Jasper Creek connection. They might not have found my new identity, but they could have come here and found a Ruby with red hair.”

I sighed. “You’re probably right. You called it bullshit that Lance would want to marry you. Why?”

“He says that he needs me to throw people off the track in California about him and Carla still having an affair.”

I stroked my hands down her arms. “Doesn’t that sound plausible?”

She sighed. “Yeah. I guess.”

“Can we take him at face value?”

“My gut says no.”

I smiled. “I trust your gut. What’s more, there is still the fact that your father was murdered. There’s more going on than Lance needing you as a smokescreen. Where is he now?”

“He’s staying at the Smokey Mountain Bed and Breakfast.”

“I say you and I go pay him a visit.”

“Why would you do that?”

“Because he needs to know you’re not alone.

He needs to know that you have back-up. And because you mean the world to me.

” I hesitated just a moment. I had really wanted to tell her this in a more romantic setting, but she needed to know this now.

I leaned in and brushed my lips against hers.

A soft, featherlight kiss, then leaned back so I could look into her eyes. “I love you, Ruby Banks Miller.”

Her green eyes got huge. “You do?”

“I do.”

She melted against my shoulder. “That’s such a good thing.” Her words were muffled against my neck.

“Why is that a good thing?”

She tipped her head back so that she was staring straight into my eyes.

“I love you more than those three little words will ever be able to express. Skip the saying, I love you to the moon and back , Ford, I love you past all the stars in the universe, around the sun and back. I want you beside my side forever.”

I grinned. “Count on it.”