Wraiths of Winter (The Haunting Ruby Series Book 3) (18 page)

The first obstacle came when he didn’t take the
onramp at mile marker 101. So he thought he was too cool
for the interstate, huh?
So City Boy knew a shortcut, did he?
Whatever. Not a problem. Once we hit the two lane stretch, I
dialed her number. She was supposed to call me as soon as
she left Rosewood. Why did she always seem to forget about
me the minute she saw his smirky little face?

One ring. Two rings. Why wasn’t she answering her
phone? Three rings went by before I heard her sweet voice
on the other end. A bit
too
sweet for my liking. She sounded
like a girl who was trying to make a guy jealous—only
I
wasn’t the target of her little game. I was torn between
screaming at her and crying like a baby.

It looked like her little trick worked. City Boy swung
into the fast lane and gunned it. It was time to find out what
my car was made of. I pushed the pedal to the floor and took
off after them. When my speedometer hit ninety, I knew it
was time to put down the phone and pay attention to what I
was doing.
Keeping her in my sights was far more important
than listening to her try to make him jealous.

City Boy slowed down once she was done talking to
me.
Figures.
Now that he
knew he
had her undivided
attention, he would milk that drive for all it was worth.
Why
couldn’t she see that he was only playing that whole adoption
thing for a little bit of sympathy?
Okay, so finding out you
were adopted would really suck. I wouldn’t want to be in his
situation but I certainly wouldn’t use it to try to get into a
girl’s pants.

Just thinking about it made me want to rip his head
off.
Time to use some of my anger management skills.
I
counted down backwards from ten but it didn’t even take the
edge off. Dammit! If I could only hear what was being said in
that car!

I always thought our relationship was unbreakable—
even during the times we were broken up I knew we would
be together again. But this time, this time I was scared. Sure,
I had that crush on Misty back in the day but Ruby was
different. She wasn’t just a crush. I felt an unexplainable
connection to her and I never wanted to let her go. When the
other boys looked at her they just saw a pretty face and a
smokin’ hot body but she was more than that to me. To me,
she was everything. Sigh. It’s going to be an awfully long day.

While I watched them obviously having fun in the car
in front of me, I drove without even turning on my radio. Why
should I?
Every song would just remind me of her in some
way. Not that I thought of anything
but
her the entire way to
Pittsburgh. Or ever, for that matter.

When I saw that bridge looming in the distance, I
knew exactly what was going to happen. Being in that car, on
that bridge with Lucas being a dead ringer for Lee—all of that
added up to paralyzing fear for Ruby. Just as they approached
the bridge, I could see her start to freak out. And Lucas take
his hand off the wheel to reach for her.

No! It should be
me
comforting her—not him!
Hell,
I
never would have taken her over that bridge in the first place.
I would have driven to Ohio and back to find another way into
the city. But that was the difference between us—
I
actually
cared about her. Just past the bridge, he pulled into a parking
spot. I watched her throw her arms around him, grateful to
have made it to the other side, no doubt. Even knowing why
she did it didn’t keep me from getting sick to my stomach. I
was losing her and I couldn’t do anything about it.

I stayed in the car and watched them climb the steps
to the Allegheny County Hall of Records.
Wait a second—
that’s
where he thought he would find information about his
birth parents?
On
a Saturday afternoon?
Government
buildings were
never
open this late on weekends—noon at
the very latest. Of all people, City Boy should have known that
and using my best guess, he probably did. He brought her all
the way to Pittsburgh
knowing
they weren’t going to find a
single thing!

Whatever. All he accomplished was wasting a tank of
gas and copping a cheap feel when she freaked out. He was
probably
talking
her into coming
back here
with
him,
probably pouring his heart out to her about how badly he
wants to find answers. Well, I knew how to fix that. I would
have to work hard to dig up some dirt on him between then
and now.
There had to be a way to prove to her that he
wasn’t who he wanted her to think he was.

As bad as I felt, at least I knew they would be heading
back to Charlotte’s Grove earlier than originally planned and I
would be able to see her tonight.
Ruby would text me any
second now to tell me what happened. I watched them get
into the car, expecting to see her dig for her phone instantly.
Any second now. Umm, now? Nothing.

City Boy pulled back out into traffic and I followed
him. He wasn’t turning the car around, though. Where was
he taking her?
We passed about a thousand restaurants,
reminding me that I was starving to death. I didn’t eat
breakfast because I was pretending to be sick and I was
paying for it now. Maybe I would get lucky and he would aim
that beast of a car into a drive thru.

Not used to city driving, I had a hard time keeping up
with him.
I cut off a few cars and got the finger more than I
did when I was learning how to drive. And I got the finger a
lot
back then. I better not get into an accident!
It took every
last penny I had—and then some—to buy myself a new tire. I
couldn’t afford to fix the front bumper of some flashy
Mercedes.
Not to mention the wrath I would face at home
when my parents found out that I lied about being sick. They
were both at work and assumed that I was in bed—I had to be
home and in one piece before they found out otherwise.

It felt like we were driving in circles—did he spot me
and decide to lead me around the city like a dumbass? For
real, I was so hungry I was about to dig between the seats for
a stray fry or two. When he pulled into a shopping center just
outside of Monroeville, I immediately honed in on the string
of fast food joints. If they were stopping for food, I could get
myself something to eat, too.

Burgers, chicken, seafood—it didn’t matter to me.
Wherever they went, I would pick someplace different and
chow down. D’avoir un rêve. You have
got
to be kidding me.
Even the garbage can on the sidewalk looked expensive. Ruby
wasn’t poor but she didn’t have expensive tastes. Or at least
she claimed she didn’t. Eating there had to be
his
idea.

I hit the nearest drive
thru and
got myself
two
burgers, large fries, and a chocolate shake and waited for
them to come out. I was pathetic, wasn’t I? Was I only here
because I thought Lucas was dangerous or was there some
other reason? He hadn’t done anything to hurt her. He
minded his own business in school and didn’t seem to have
any other friends.
I slurped down the last of my milkshake
and had an epiphany. What I was doing today
totally
qualified
as stalking.

I decided to leave, to stop following her around. If she
found out, she would be so mad at me. She probably wouldn’t
speak to me for days.
I was
just about to leave when
something landed on the hood of my car.
It was a bird—a
huge, black, and familiar bird.

Common sense told me that it couldn’t be the same
crow that warned me that she was in danger before—I was
over a hundred miles away from Charlotte’s Grove. But since
I met Ruby, I’d given up on relying on common sense.
I
charged
out of
the
car,
ready
to go stop
whatever was
happening in that restaurant but the crow charged back at
me.

With strong ebony wings, it pushed me back toward
the Neon until I gave up and sat back down. Once I was inside
the car, the crow settled back onto the hood and stared at me
for
several
minutes.
Then
it
sat
there,
calmly
and
methodically preening itself. For whatever reason, it wanted
me to stay where I was. And for some unexplained reason, I
did what it wanted me to do. If that was Lee, he’d never
steered me wrong before. Patiently, I waited. Okay, maybe
patiently wasn’t exactly the right word for it.
I stared that
crow in his beady little eyes while I waited.

When they finally walked out of the restaurant, I saw
something in Ruby’s face that I’d never seen there before—
satisfaction.
What exactly
happened in
that restaurant
anyway?
Besides money, what did he have that I didn’t?
Money never seemed to matter to Ruby so there had to be
something else. I was a nice guy. I treated her like a princess.
There wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do for her. Hell, I’d even
risked my own life to save hers. Yeah, I’d acted like a jerk
before but I joined an anger management class so I could be
the guy she deserved.

Was he better looking than me? I didn’t really like all
the attention I got but so many girls would go out with me if I
asked them to. But Ruby wasn’t just any girl. Did she have a
thing for that slightly emo, punk rocker look that Lucas had?
She thought I looked like a Norse god—that
had
to count for
something. Didn’t it? I gazed into the rearview and pictured
myself with a Mohawk. Maybe but mom would
definitely
kill
me.

The crow gave a quick peck on my windshield, cocked
its head in Ruby’s direction and flew away. I guess that was
my cue to follow them back home. Except home wasn’t where
they were heading. I counted down backwards from twenty
this time and gave a cleansing exhale. If I lost it on him now, I
would lose her for sure.

When I watched him pull into the parking lot of a
skating rink, I laughed out loud. She couldn’t skate! Ruby
would sit there bored and miserable while he tried to impress
her. Well, I knew from personal experience that
that
wouldn’t
work. I’ll bet he doesn’t even know how to spray! Our date at
the rink was the worst we’d ever had but at least it was
working in my favor now.

I gave them
enough time to get comfortable then
snuck up to the building. All I needed was to see her having a
rotten time and I would be happy. Not that I wanted her to be
unhappy—I
just
wanted
her to be
unhappy
without
me
.
There wasn’t any real way to disguise myself so I threw my
hood up over my head hoping it would be enough and walked
in the front door.

When I saw her, my heart dropped right out of my
chest. She wasn’t sitting on the bench being pissy—she was
gliding around the ice like an angel.
Her hair flew out behind
her as he swung her around.
And what was with her new
hairdo anyway?
She never did her hair different for any of
our dates other than the fundraiser and that’s only because
Rachel did it
for
her.
She looked so beautiful—her cheeks
were rosy and she was practically glowing. So that’s what she
looked like when she was totally happy, totally worry free.
The connection we shared was intense—maybe she wasn’t
ready for the kind of relationship I wanted with her. I always
knew she had unresolved feelings for Lee but I seriously
underestimated their effects. I couldn’t watch any more. If he
kissed her, I would die right where I was standing. It already
felt like I’d lost a piece of myself that I would never get back. I
turned around, got in my car and drove home. This time, the
crow wasn’t there to stop me.

Why didn’t Zach text me one single time today? For
real, I was gone for hours—he should have been wondering
where I was!
How could a really fun day leave me feeling so
rotten?

What if Lucas was right—what if Zach loved being a
hero more than he
actually loved me?
Our relationship
started out on a dramatic note when he thought Lee was
beating me. He came to my rescue then and about a thousand
times since then. If I stopped letting him be a part of my ghost
drama, maybe I would find out for sure. That’s it! I would
downplay anything that happened to me at the Bantam and
see if he acted any differently toward me.

With this plan in mind, I got up the nerve to just call
him and tell him about my day. One, two, three rings later and
he still didn’t pick up. Just as the call was about to go to voice
mail, he answered.

“How was work?” I asked casually.
Talking about the
shelter always got him excited so I figured it would be a good
way to start the conversation.

Cryptic answer. It was time to just tell him about my
day. “So the trip to Pittsburgh was a bust—the hall of records
was closed when we got there.”

I couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic or sincere.
“Yeah,” I replied, deciding to go with sincere. “We’ll have to
go back on a weekday if we hope to find anything.”

Zach’s voice was impossible to decipher this time. It
was almost like he was bracing for some sort of impact. What
did he think we did while we were gone?