Page 84 of Rebel's Fairytale

They were like newlyweds without the wed part. Well, in the shifter and biker senses, they were married. It was just the human definition that was missing. She briefly wondered if he’d want that, or even if she wanted that, as she drove to work.

Her day was ordinary in the sense that nothing crazy happened, but the library had been a lot busier since the vandalism. People showed up to gawk like they do as they pass an accident on the side of the road. Ruby just kept her head on her job, except for the stray thought about Rebel, and got through the day.

While she loved the way they spent their evenings, she was sorely lacking sleep. With Rebel and the clubs setting up the carnival, it would be the perfect time to get in a nap.

After getting in her car when she was done for the day, she sent a quick text to Rebel.

>Someone kept me up all night. I’m gonna get in a nap. Call me when you’re done.Your fault.Sleep well, Sweetie. Love you.<

Putting her car in gear, she headed home. Ruby couldn’t wait to change and climb into bed. She was pretty sure Rebel had left one of his Henleys in her room, and sleeping with his scent around her sounded like heaven.

After parking in her garage, she shut the large door and moved to the entrance to her kitchen. Yawning as she stepped inside, she didn’t see him. One minute, she was thinking about her pillow. The next, she was face first against the wall with her hands held behind her back.

“What the hell?” She tried to pull her hands away, but the grip tightened.

“I have a knife. Don’t make me use it,” an unfamiliar voice said into her ear.

Ruby swallowed hard and felt panic rise in her system. “What do you want?” Her instincts were telling her to fight, get away, but that was her panic talking. She needed to focus and remember what to do. Over the years, she had read a book or two about hostage situations. She knew there were recommended dos and don’ts, if only she could remember what they were.

“You’ll find out soon enough,” the man said as she felt a scratching material rub against her wrist.Rope? Then, her hands were tied together. Grabbing her upper arm, he yanked her through her kitchen to her dining area and forced her into a chair.

As she stared up at the man, she noticed he looked vaguely familiar. She couldn’t quite place him, but that wasn’t necessarily important at the moment. She needed to focus on keeping herself alive, unharmed, and getting through this.

Bits and pieces of things she had read started to trickle through her brain.Talk to them. Build rapport. Get them talking.Right. Okay. She could do this. “Do I know you? You look familiar. Or… you don’t have to answer that, if you don’t want to.”

The man started to pace in front of her, his knife in a sheath attached to his belt. She couldn’t see the whole thing, but it looked like it could do plenty of damage. Fear and panic began to rise again, but she did her best to shut it down and focus on the situation at hand. If she were to make it out of this, she would need to know what he looked like so she could tell the police, so she watched him and clocked every detail she could. He had sandy blond hair, an average build, was probably in his mid-thirties, and was dressed in jeans and a dark blue polo. It was the polo that was snagging her focus.Why?

“That’s not important. What’s important is you need to know who you’re attaching yourself to. Thosethingsaren’t human. I know they look like it most of the time, but they ain’t. Do you understand?“ He stopped and looked at her, his brown eyes wide and wild. “Do you?”

Ruby thought it best to just nod, so she did.

“Good. Listen. I know they go around town pretending to begood citizensand all of that, but they aremonsters! You can’t forget that! And you can’t let children around them! If a child got hurt, the blood would be on your hands! Do you want that? Do you?”

As the panic gave way to anger, Ruby took a deep breath and told herself to keep it in check. The last thing she needed was to enrage the psycho.Don’t psych up the psycho. Don’t psych up the psycho. Don’t psych up the psycho.

“Do you!”

Ruby shook her head. “No. No, of course, I don’t want that.”

“Good. And really… you’re alibrarian! You shouldn’t be hanging out withbikers. They’recriminals! And you’re just giving up your beauty to them! You’re tainting yourself with theirslime! I get it, though. I do.“ He started pacing again. “I did it, too. Minx had me… brainwashed, years ago. I thought she was perfect and beautiful and… I wanted to marry her. Then, she just left me. Me! Can you believe that? She just ended it. No reason. No explanation. She was just done! She tainted me! But I got clean, Bri. I got clean… and you can too. You can. I’ll help you get clean. I’ll help you cut them out of your life.”

The panic began to rise again. She didn’t want this man helping her do anything. “I appreciate that,” she managed to croak out through the bile rising in her throat.

“Yeah, we’ll cleanse you,” he said, almost like he was talking to himself. “We’ll cleanse you. We’ll erase them. It’ll be like they never existed.”

Ruby fought back tears as she realized how deranged of an individual she was dealing with. She sent up prayers to the gods that she got out of this alive. Maybe Rebel would come over to check on her. Maybe the neighbor would hear something. Maybe the gods would protect her somehow. Until they did, she’d have to find a way to protect herself.

Rock

After settling Diamond in bed with pain reliever and ice packs, Rock stormed down the stairs and into the living room. He motioned with his hand to Brute, who stood up from where he was playing dolls with Mia and Jenna on the floor, and followed Rock out to the front porch.

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