Page 20 of Deception and New Direction

“He shot you!”Catscreeched. “I’llkill him myself and bury him where no one will find him!”

“Calm down,TonySoprano.LetArcherfinish,”Vincesaid to her.

“No, she landed funny and hit her head on the nightstand when she dove off the bed.Buthead wounds bleed a lot, which caused blood to get all over her shirt and rug, so it looked worse than it was whenIshowed up,”Archerexplained. “Wegot anEMTthere pretty quickly and had her off to the hospital in no time.Shetold me what the intruder had said right before he shot at her.Shestayed the night at the hospital with a police detail guarding her room.”

“Apparently my brother tried to come visit me and bring me flowers, but they wouldn’t let him in to see me,”Ruthieadded.

“The next day whenIcame back, she had just been cleared by the doctor, soIoffered her a ride home,”Archercontinued. “Onthe way back, she mentioned she wanted to leave because she was afraidMalor her father would track her down, even if she changed apartments.Shementioned she had a grandfather who lived inGeorgia, but she would have no job or anything and wasn’t sure what to do.Ithought about what she’d said and when we got back to her apartment,Itold her about our new security company we were starting and howIwas leaving in three days to come here.Ihad already turned in my resignation and everything.Ioffered her the job as receptionist here since she’d already done that at the salon for years.”

I hadn’t known the whole backstory on why we had hiredRuthie, butIhonestly hadn’t cared because the rest of the guys had set all of this up whileIwas still overseas.NowIknew.

“Just to make sure she was covered, we changed her name.Ihad a friend who worked in the court processing department who owed me a favor, so he expedited her name change.Whenwe moved here the only people who knew her real name were her grandfather and me, though he was under strict orders to never use that old name again.”

“Granddad was my mother’s father, and he hated my dad,” she explained. “So, he was more than happy to keep the secret when we told him what happened.Aftermy mom died, my father wouldn’t let my granddad visit, nor were we allowed to visit him.Iwrote him letters a couple times every year.Ruthwas my grandmother’s name.Mymom claimedIlooked just like her.”

“I pickedCampbellbecause it was a very common last name and wouldn’t raise any red flags,”Archeradded.

“My hair is also naturally a light caramely-color, butIcut several inches off and dyed it just becauseIwas paranoid.AndIguessIhad every right to be, sinceMalobviously found me.”

That explained the silvery-blonde hair…

The room was silent for a few moments as everyone likely took this all in.

“I’ll make a few calls to some guysIknow still on the force back inVegasand see whatIcan find out,”Archersaid. “LastIknew,Malwas found guilty and sentenced to a couple years in prison, so he shouldn’t even be out right now.”

“I know she’s staying with you right now anyway because of her bum foot,”Axelsaid to me from the doorway. “Butwe can come out and put up a few extra cameras around the perimeter of your house if you want.”

“It’s not a bad idea,”Vincechimed in.

“Why don’t you take her home now.Day’smore than half over anyway, andAxelandIcan follow you both back there and set up at least a couple extra, and we’ll do more tomorrow,”Archersaid.

“But who’s going to watch the desk?”Ruthieasked. “I’mnot going to let him scare me out of this job!”

“Diego can keep manning the desk for now,”Archersaid.

“I can help too,”Catspoke up.

Archer,Vince, andRuthieall said no at the same time.

“Listen,”Catinterrupted. “Diegohates talking, and he hates people.Heonly knows how to grunt and groan most days; he’ll be terrible at answering phones and talking with clients.Ican do it better, but if you’re worried about my safety,Diegocan sit next to me whileIdo it and be my bodyguard.Orthis lug can,” she said, pointing toVince.

“I need to callGranddadso he knows,”Ruthiesaid. “Becausemy father could very easily have toldMalwhereGranddadlives, andIdon’t want him to go there and catch him off guard.”

“Let’s do this,”Vincesaid. “AxelandDiegocan go set up the cameras atJack’splace, andI’llstay here withCatand man the front desk.JackandArchercan go withRuthieto her grandfather’s house and maybe even take some cameras for him too, just in case this guy shows up.”

We all agreed, gathered what we needed, and went our separate ways.Ihad a feeling this was going to be an unpleasant conversation, butIwasn’t going to letRuthiedo it on her own.Herreal family may not have had her back, but she had a new family now atRangerShield, and we took care of our own.

8

JACK

In the car ride over toRuthie’sgranddad’s house,Archermade some calls then filled us in on what he’d learned.

“Shortly after we moved here,Ikept checking in with my friendTyronewho’s still on the force back inVegas,”Archerdetailed. “Hetold me they could never pin anything solid on your dad or brother because they claimed they had no idea whereMalgot the items.”

“They didn’t think it was weird that he kept bringing in high-end jewelry from nowhere?”Iasked because that would seem like a red flag to me eventually.

“Apparently her dad always claimedMalgot them from friends who needed to pawn them,”Archerexplained. “Mal, however, had a lot of evidence against him, so he was charged and sentenced to two years but will likely get paroled early for good behavior.”

---