Page 26 of Cursed by Death (Ruby Jane #1)

I woke up to sounds coming from downstairs that told me there was someone else in my house with me. I wasn’t worried about this but I was slightly disturbed that this just might be my life now.

The light coming in through my curtains let me know that it was early afternoon and I had slept in later than what I usually did. I needed to take a shower but wasn’t comfortable taking one until I knew who was downstairs in my kitchen. I could guess, but I needed to know for sure.

I put my robe on and tucked my knives into each pocket on either side or me. I would have rather put my wrist sheaths on but that seemed a little aggressive, even to me.

I checked my phone and found no new texts or calls, but that was my usual normal. I left my phone plugged in and on my dresser. I hadn't plugged it in last night. I was pretty sure I had left it on the coffee table in the basement, so Rally must have brought it up here and plugged it in to charge after he’d carried me up two flights of stairs and put me to bed. That was very thoughtful of him and totally what I was coming to notice as just Rally being Rally.

It still didn’t make up for the fact he’d left Fox here to watch over me. I wasn’t a damn child and I could take care of myself. I didn’t think I’d ever get used to someone watching over me.

I found Detective Rowans and Fox in my kitchen. They were sitting around my island holding coffee mugs. How cozy. I did not appreciate either of them being in my kitchen when I had not invited either of them to be there.

“How did you get in here?” I asked and they both turned to greet me. Neither of them had a smile on their face.

Detective Rowans nodded at me as he took a sip from his coffee. Fox just shrugged. “Rally let me in. When the nice Detective here showed up at your front door not fifteen minutes ago I let him in. Your house might be nice and big but it lacks warmth and personality. It’s like a show home that nobody lives in. What’s up with that?”

He wasn’t wrong but I found it annoying that he felt the need to point it out. I wondered if he even knew just how rude he was being. I was feeling pissy because I hadn’t invited him into my home and now he sat at my kitchen island drinking coffee out of one of my mugs that I hadn’t offered to him. He’d simply helped himself and then he’d gone and played hostess to the Detective.

It’s not even that I wouldn’t have invited them inside or offered to make them coffee, because I would have. It was having the option taken away from me that bothered me so much. Maybe I just liked being in control of everything all the time and that was my problem.

“You didn’t text,” the Detective said, causing me to frown at him. “You told me you’d text when you got home last night and you didn’t. I had shit to do this morning or I would have been here earlier. And you're a terrible texter, so I didn’t even bother with that.”

Well shit.

I had been so distracted by having Rally come home with me last night that I had forgotten my promise to the Detective. “I’m sorry, Johnny. I completely forgot. I do suck at texting. I’ll try to do better going forward. Sorry that you had to come all the way out here.”

He didn’t look mad, which I was grateful for. I’d probably be and or, at the very least, incredibly annoyed.

“That’s not the only reason I’m here,” he said as he sat his coffee cup down onto the counter.

I didn’t like the look on his face and figured something bad was coming my way. “I’ve been in contact with the hunters. They are pretty certain they found the body of our murderer. But they are refusing to tell me any more than that and will only talk to you. I even threatened to arrest them and it didn’t so much as phase either of them. In fact, they treated my threats like a joke. I’m sorry, Ruby Jane.”

I had been right about his look, it was bad news. I wanted nothing to do with the twins and thought they were using the Detective to get closer to me.

I frowned as I thought back over his words. “Wait. You said body. Does that mean he’s dead?”

“We won’t know for sure until we see the body for ourselves, but yes.”

Fox sat a cup of coffee down in front of me and I found myself thanking him, even though I kind of wanted to hit him with something. The shifters were all very comfortable in my home and I was willing to bet the Detective wouldn’t have just helped himself without an invitation from me to do so.

I ran the Detective’s words back through my mind. Thomas’s murderer could potentially be dead. It was either him or someone else who had died. How had the twins found the body? And, more importantly, were they the ones responsible for him being dead?

I wouldn’t know until I contacted them and I hated that. I thought I had made myself very clear in letting them know that I wanted not one thing to do with either one of them. I needed to just get this over with and out of the way, rip the band aid clean off, and hope they went away once again when the dust finally settled.

I sipped from my coffee and it made me feel more generous towards Fox because I needed the caffeine. I got up and picked the landline phone up out of its cradle. People didn’t really have the need for landlines anymore and I wanted to laugh because Rally had had one in his kitchen as well. That was where the similarities had ended though because his had been an old blocky number mounted on the wall with a long, curling cord dangling from it. Mine was a sleek, small silver cordless number. I very rarely used the thing but it came in handy now because I’d left my cell phone upstairs.

“Did they leave a number for me to contact them with?” I asked the Detective. He pulled out his cellphone and rattled off a phone number that I punched in and hit the call button. I did it quickly, before I could chicken out and forget the whole damn thing.

It rang twice before Bane answered with a husky hello. The fact I found his voice so attractive pissed me off and made me feel like a traitor to myself. My stupid body wasn’t supposed to have that kind of reaction to just his voice.

I needed to remember that he’d left me, they both had, and neither of them had once looked back for me. I had to harden my heart against them and make sure that it stayed that way.

“It’s Ruby,” I said in greeting. “Tell me about the body.” There was no need for pleasantries on my end.

“Ruby Jane,” he breathed out my name like a soft spoken prayer. “I don’t want to tell you about the body. I’d rather just show you.”

I didn’t like the sound of that at all. Let me just pencil in going to look at a dead body into my schedule. No problemo. My life was all kinds of fucked up now and it was nonstop every single damn day. “When and where?”

He gave me an address in town that actually wasn’t that far from Rally’s garage. I agreed to meet him there in an hour and hung up on him.

An hour didn’t give me a whole lot of time and I would have to skip taking a shower. I absolutely hated not being able to start my day without taking a shower first but I figured maybe it was for the best just this one time because I’d probably want to shower after looking at a dead body. I had only seen the one before and I’d absolutely needed to take a hot shower afterwards.

“Well?” Detective Rowans asked sharply. “Did I just hear you agree to meet them in an hour? We should have discussed this before you agreed to anything.”

We hadn’t been friends for very long but you’d still think he’d know me better than that. I was head strong and I didn’t ever ask for permission from anyone to do anything. Ever.

He sighed heavily and I knew he was getting fed up with my bullshit and seeking patience with me. “I’ve got to go, but make no mistake, Ruby Jane, I’ll be meeting you there. You’re not going to meet hunters to see about a dead body by your own damn self.”

Well, we could certainly agree with each other on that front. I had no desire to go there by myself and if he hadn’t invited himself to join the party I would have asked him to ride along. “Thank you. I had no intentions of going it alone and if you hadn’t been here for that conversation I would have called you to let you in on what was going on before I ever went to meet with them. I would have let both you and Rally know.” I had to include Rally in there, couldn’t forget about him.

He didn’t look like he believed me and even though I couldn’t blame him I was still slightly insulted.

“I will be with her the whole time,” Fox said in what sounded like a promise to the Detective. “And I will be letting my Prince know what’s going on.”

Well, hell. I’d almost forgotten that Fox was even here and I’d certainly forgotten that he was here because he was supposed to be guarding me. Of course, he would expect that he’d be going along with me. His Prince had given him his orders and he’d be the good little soldier who followed them to a T.

The Detective left in a hurry after that but not before kissing me on the forehead again. That was the second time he’d done that to me and both times I’d been left speechless by his actions.

Fox stared at me with a face that looked like he’d sucked on a lemon. “That man is far too familiar with you. Just so you know, I’ll be telling Rally about this.”

I sighed, deciding that I no longer wanted Fox to be my friend. Not if he was going to run back to Rally and snitch on me all the time. “You go right ahead and do that, buddy. I haven’t hidden a single thing from Rally yet and I don’t plan on starting now. I have to go get ready. I’d tell you to make yourself at home but clearly you’ve already done that.”

“I don’t believe you,” he said with a cruel twist to his lips. “My Prince doesn’t deserve to have you disrespect him in such a way as you getting physical with other men while you’ll be the only female he allows to get anywhere near him in such a way.”

Wow.

I wanted to rage and call him a dick but I was kind of glad to see him sticking up for Rally like this. I just wished it wasn’t directed at me or at my expense.

I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at him. I didn’t think I looked very serious doing it while in my robe but I still went for it. “Look, I get that Rally is a good person and you don’t want to see him get hurt. And I can even tell you that it’ll never be my intention to hurt the man because I respect him too much to ever want to do something like that to him. But I never asked to be his mate and I’m still learning just what exactly that means. But, and I’m only going to tell you this once, Fox. My relationship with Rally is my business and no one else’s. I don’t want you to get in my face about it but I’m not going to hold it against you that you run back to him and tell him everything that I do. I know where your loyalties lie and I’m okay with them. Okay?”

He pursed his lips and dipped his head slightly, acknowledging that he’d heard me. He didn’t look like he liked anything that I’d said, but that was really his problem and not mine.

“Great,” I muttered sarcastically. “I’m going to go get ready now.”

I carried my coffee upstairs with me and did just that.

But I did it thinking about Rally and if he was going to demand I enter into a monogamous relationship with him. He’d just come into my life and I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to him just yet.

But, make no mistake, I absolutely would walk away from him if he tried demanding such things from me.

I didn’t think I was heartless, just incredibly realistic.