Page 23 of Deception and New Direction (Ranger Shield Security #3)

JACK

I’d never felt worse. In fact, I was pretty sure I was dying. Every part of my body ached, from my head to my feet.

“Come on, sleepy pants,” Ruthie said loudly from the bedroom doorway. “ Let’s go, or we’re going to be late for work.”

Why was she shouting at me?

“I’m not shouting,” she yelled back.

How was she hearing my thoughts?

“Because you are saying them out loud,” she said continuing to speak at volumes that hurt my head.

She then placed her ice-cold hands on my forehead, which felt amazing. I sighed into her hand.

“Jack, you’re burning up.”

“No, your hands are just cold, but they feel amazing. Give them back.”

“Do you have a thermometer?” she asked loudly.

“Yeah, I think there’s one in my first aid kit somewhere,” I replied.

Then everything was quiet. Since I felt like death warmed over, I assumed that everything must get quiet before you pass on to the afterlife. I accepted my fate, though I was slightly pissed because I had finally gotten Ruthie into my bed, and now I had to lose her. Life wasn’t fair.

“Open your mouth, Jack ,” Ruthie again yelled from a few inches from my face. “ Let’s check your temperature.”

She stuck the device in my mouth and waited until it beeped, and then I handed it back to Ruthie without even checking it.

“Wow,” she exclaimed.

“Please talk quieter and stop yelling,” I begged her so she didn’t make my head hurt more.

Thankfully she changed to a softer, more manageable voice when she spoke again. “ You have a fever of 100.8 degrees. You are staying home today. I’ll let Archer know, and I’ll have an Uber come get me for work.”

“Don’t leave me,” I begged her. “ Have sex with me one last time before I die so I can die a happy man.”

She laughed, and the sound was both lovely to hear and painful to my eardrums.

“Ruthie,” I groaned rolling to a facedown position in bed. “ I’m leaving everything to you and Dash when I die.”

She snorted next to me. “ You’re not going to die. You just have the flu or something.”

She was wrong. I was definitely going to die. I felt terrible.

“It’s not the flu. It’s the plague. I know it,” I mumbled to her, feeling my headache start to worsen.

She kissed the side of my forehead and it felt great, and then my world went black. Dying felt a lot like falling asleep—which was good. I needed sleep.

In a cruel twist of fate, I did not sleep for long.

A loud banging noise was taking place somewhere in my vicinity.

I wasn’t sure if it was construction workers or someone trying to break into my house.

Either way, I was in no shape to go investigate, so they were just going to get free rein of the house.

I did feel slightly better after my very brief nap. If I had to guess I would say the nap was a little more than ten minutes, but it did help.

“Hey patient, how you feeling?” Ellie said from the doorway.

“What are you doing here?” I asked her.

“Ruthie called me— I had the day off—to come check on you,” she said, and I was thankful she wasn’t shouting like Ruthie had earlier.

“You got here quick, ‘cause I only took a short nap after Ruthie left me.”

Ellie laughed and walked closer to me. “ You’ve been napping for almost three hours by my calculation. You were napping when I first got here, so I went to the drugstore to get you some meds. Then you were napping when I got back, so I started to make you soup.”

Ahh, so that’s where those loud noises came from.

“I only woke you now because you need to get some food in you so you can take the medicine,” she added, and I noticed she had carried in a bowl of soup and set it on my nightstand. “ Here , drink up. I also made you some tea.”

“You didn’t need to come over,” I told her, though she made amazing soup, so I was happy to have it.

“I know,” she replied. “ I came over mostly for Ruthie’s benefit. She was worried about you this morning and was half tempted to call off work, but Archer needed her for some things, so she called me. I think she got the better end of the deal.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I grumbled, feeling like I should be offended.

“Jack, I love you, but I remember what you were like as a child when you were sick. You were the worst patient ever.”

“No, I wasn’t,” I defended. “ I just always got a worse version of whatever you got.”

She chuckled next to me. “ Sure .”

I sat up so I could drink some of her amazing soup and hoped it still had its same magical healing powers it had when we were kids.

Clearly unafraid to contract the death virus that I had, Ellie sat next to me on the bed while I ate.

“Look, you’re my favorite brother, but I have to ask.”

“I’m your only brother,” I pointed out.

She waved me off as if it were one and the same. “ What are your intentions with Ruthie ?”

I nearly spit out my soup. “ Why are you asking, M om ?”

“She may not have had a crazy ex like me, but she’s had a rough go,” Ellie spoke up, and I knew this was hard for her to bring up still so I let her speak. “ I’m not saying you’re a bad guy, but she’s my friend and I’m watching out for her, that’s all.”

“She’s lucky to have someone like you to do that, sis. Which is why I’m not going to be overly offended that you would think I would do harm to her.”

“Jack, I don’t think you would ever harm her,” Ellie quickly added. “ Not on purpose. But you work together, and if it goes bad, it’s going to be tougher on her since she doesn’t have as many people in her corner like you do.”

“I get it, Ellie -girl,” I said, using my nickname for her from our childhood. “ You of all people should know that mixing work with pleasure can get complicated.”

My sister’s blush was the only response I needed.

I knew she would get it because she and Wade had worked together when they were first dating.

Wade had taken a step back from the bar lately since he had given Tammy more of a managerial role so that he could focus more on Ranger Shield .

Still , they continued to work together on occasion, so she understood.

“I’m only telling you this because you are my sister and I know you care for both of us, but if you tell Ruthie , I will tell Wade all your embarrassing secrets from childhood,” I said, holding my hands up before she could protest. “ Ruthie is it for me, sis. I know that with a certainty I can’t really explain, but I know it to be true.

But Ellie — Ruthie isn’t ready for that yet.

I’m making my way through to her slowly because that’s how she needs it to be.

How it has to be because of her shitty family situation. ”

She sighed and nodded, letting me know she knew about the family dynamic there and understood all too well.

“I wouldn’t put that added pressure on her if I wasn’t one hundred percent sure on my end,”

I continued. “ But I am. So I will go as slow as she needs me to go to get her there. I’m in it for the long haul.”

She smiled back at me. “ I always wanted a sister. I just always assumed you’d get stuck with a loser because of your terrible personality.”

I loved having her tease me. There was a time when she was more of a broken version of herself because of her asshole ex, but she wasn’t that person anymore. She was herself again, and I was happy to have her back.

“Alright, well, now that that heart-to-heart is over, I need you to leave because your nagging is making my headache worse,” I told her, hoping the meds I’d taken would kick in soon.

Mostly I was just giving her crap, but my headache had actually gotten worse, so I wanted to nap again. Hopefully for longer than the last time.