Page 18 of Deception and New Direction

“These flowers got delivered.”Shepointed to roses onRuthie’sdesk. “Shethought they were for me, soIopened the note, but they were for some woman namedRose, and whenIgave her the card, she went pale and fell to the ground.Irealized she was having a hard time breathing, and thenIcalled you.”

“Shit,”Archersaid, standing up, grabbing a tissue from the desk, and picking the card up and reading it. “Fuck,” he all but growled out loud.

“What does it say?”Iasked him asIstood, not moving away fromRuthiebut putting myself inArcher’sline of sight.

“It says,”Catsaid whenArcherdidn’t answer, “Beautifulroses for my beautifulRose.Ifound you, andI’mnever letting you out of my sight again.Andit was signed just with the letterM.”

Archer looked out the windows of our building and spoke. “Dane, can you stay down here and man the front desk for a bit?”Archerasked, andDanenodded in return.

“Help me get her upstairs,” he said as he turned to me.

“Cat, you come with us upstairs,”Archertold her, andIsawVincego on alert even more.Vincehelped her grab her stuff so they could meet us upstairs inArcher’soffice.

Not wantingArcher’shands onRuthie,Itook the lead and picked her up bridal style, carrying her to the elevator.Icould carry her up the stairs no problem, butIdidn’t want to jostle her when she was already this upset.

She leaned in, andIswore sniffed my neck, butIdidn’t say anything.Shefelt good in my arms, and that was the only thing that helped calm me down, because seeing her like that burned at my chest.

We walked intoArcher’soffice, andIsetRuthiedown on his small couch.Herbreathing had settled a bit, but she still looked pale and terrified, and her hands were still shaking a bit.

Vince andCatfollowed us in asAxel, who had been down the hall, stepped into the doorway to see what the commotion was about.

Ruthie’s dogDashwas also there, trying to squeeze his way past the people in the doorway and into the room.

“Sorry.Hewas freaking out trying to follow her, soIbrought him up,”Catsaid aboutDashthen moved to the side to let him in.

Dash sprinted over toRuthieon the couch and sat by her feet with his head on her knees.

“Everybody have a seat,”Archersaid. “Ithink we need to fill a few of you in onRuthie’sbackstory.”

“Do you want me to leave?”Catasked, andIunderstood why.Shetechnically wasn’t part of the security business.Shejust worked downstairs.

“No,”Archerexplained. “Youwork in the building too, so you should be aware of what’s going on in case trouble finds itself close to you.”

I heard whatArcherwasn’t saying out loud—becauseCathad spent years in theWitnessProtectionprogram.Whileshe was no longer in any danger, none of us wanted to add to any anxiety she may have.

“Let me do it,”Ruthiespoke up, her voice a little weak. “Atleast the beginning.Youcan help fill in some of the gaps toward the end.”

“Go ahead,”Archerreplied softly to her, andIhated that these two were so close and not me.Iknew that shouldn’t bother me because they clearly hadn’t been more than friends, but it still irked me because he had a closeness to her thatIwanted.Isat down next to her on the couch as she spoke.

“My real name isRoseRice,”Ruthiesaid softly but not quietly. “Iwas supposed to be a boy.Theultrasound said so.WhenIcame out a girl, my father was unhappy to say the least.Onlysons would do forFloydRice, and he spent every day for the rest of my life under his roof telling me so.”

What the hell?Firstoff, who would care as long as the baby was healthy, and even if you did care, who would say that to their own child?Myanger was building up, andIdefinitely growled aloud.Ruthielooked over at me and put her hand on top of mine.Instantlysome of my anger faded away.

“My brotherJasonwas two years older than me.Thenmy mom had me.Shehad complications with her pregnancy, so she couldn’t conceive any more after me.Myfather only tolerated me but put my brother on a pedestal.Mymother always tried to tell me that my father was just old-fashioned and thought girls were high-maintenance.Eventhough my dad hated me, my mother loved me and always made sure to tell me.”

She stopped, took a deep breath, and closed her eyes.

“My mom died whenIwas fourteen.Complicationsdue to anesthesia when she was getting a colonoscopy.Whenmy mom died, my father’s indifference toward me turned to obvious disdain and mild animosity.Thator he simply ignored my existence.MybrotherJasonwasn’t a dick to me like my father and he helped take care of me after my mom died.Notin the sense of feeding me—Iwas old enough to do most of that stuff on my own—but rather making sureIgot to school every day or had money to buy shoes and such.”

She turned to me now and spoke. “Ididn’t have the same type of relationship that you have withEllie.Buthe was very good at redirecting my dad when he would get belligerent or drunk and take his anger out on me.Henever hit me or anything else physical.Justa lot of verbal abuse and neglect.Jasonkept my dad from taking it too far.”

I hate that she brushed that off like it didn’t matter.Verbalabuse and neglect were still abuse.Theymay not cause physical scars, but non-visible scars were definitely there.

“My father owned a pawn shop and worked there with my brother and my brother’s creepy friendMal.RightbeforeImoved out,Malstarted coming around the house more often.I’dfind him in my room or always staring at me, and it really freaked me out.ThemomentIgraduated high schoolImoved out.Ialready had a pretty decent job and had been saving up for rent and moved in with my best friend.”

I hated both of these men already, andIdidn’t even know them.Shesat there telling this story, twisting her hands back and forth in her lap.Thiswas not theRuthieIknew.Shewas strong, full of piss and vinegar, and loved to throw attitude all around.Thewoman in front of me was scared, nervous, and fragile.Sensinghow upset she was,Dashjumped up into her lap and snuggled into her—all sixty-five pounds of him.

“My father and brother were also big into greyhound racing,”Ruthiesaid, looking atDash. “WhichIhated becauseIknew the ones that didn’t win would sometimes get abused.Whichwas whyIjumped at the opportunity to getDash,” she said, looking down at her dog, petting him in her lap.

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