Page 86 of Rebel's Fairytale

“I’m so sorry, Ruby. Damn it. I’m so sorry I wasn’t here to protect you.”

She pulled back to glare at him through her tears. “I’m not an invalid. I can protect myself, Port Christopher.”

He snorted a laugh at her use of his real name. “Yes, ma’am.”

She nodded, and then her glare faded, and her tears intensified. “But Ireallydon’t want to be here, right now… or ever… I don’t think.”

“So… don’t be.”

“What?” She looked at him confused as he cradled her in his lap.

He shrugged. “Don’t be. Move in with me. We can discuss it more later, if you feel it’s necessary.”

“If I feel it’s necessary?Uh… yeah, it’s definitely necessary.”

Rebel rolled his eyes. “Okay. But for right now, just stay with me. I have to call Axle and get a clean-up crew in here.”

“What are we going to tell the police?”

Rebel looked her square in the eye and prayed to the gods she didn’t fight him on his answer. “Not a damn thing.”

He could practically see the million questions spinning in her brain as she stared at him, but he didn’t have time to go through them and explain everything. They could do that later, when they weren’t sitting next to a dead body, and she wasn’t covered in blood.

“Ruby, I know you have questions, but for now, I need you to just trust me. I’m going to call Axle while you head upstairs and get cleaned up. Then, you’re going to leave here with me. You’ll stay with me for now. And we aren’t calling the police.”

“But—“

“Ruby, the second you leave this house, this becomes club business. What you have to know about that is I won’t be able to share a lot of club business with you. Some of it isn’t legal, and we keep it from the Ol’ Ladies to keep you from getting into trouble if the police ever get involved. That’s all I can tell you right now. Okay?”

He knew she wasn’t really okay with it, but he let out a sigh of relief when she nodded and climbed to her feet. He noticed how she did her best to avoid looking at the dead guy a few feet away.

“Call Axle from upstairs,” she said in a quiet voice. “I don’t want to be alone.”

Climbing to his feet, Rebel replied, “I can do that.” He took her hand and led her up the stairs. “Come on. Let’s get you cleaned up.”

He washed his hands in her bathroom and waited for her to step in the shower. Thankful that the majority of blood didn’t stay on him when he shifted back from being in his wolf form, he returned to her bedroom and sat down on her bed to call Axle.

“Yeah?”

Rebel could hear the sounds of metal hitting metal in the background and knew Axle was still working on carnival setup. “Charles Williams was in Ruby’s townhouse when she got home. He tied her up. I don’t know what his objective was, but he’s dead on her floor with two stab wounds and a broken neck.”

There was a brief pause. “Shit. Give a guy a fucking warning.”

“Sorry, Pres. Don’t have time for that. She’s cleaning off the blood right now. Then, I’m taking her to my place. We need clean up.” He looked down at his jeans and saw a few areas where blood had transferred from Ruby. “And I need some clothes.”

“Yeah. On it. Was it her?”

“The stab wounds? Yeah. The broken neck? No.”

“Sounds like you found a good mate. I’ll take care of it. Any idea how he got there?”

Rebel sighed. “No. I didn’t see any strange vehicles on the street, but I also wasn’t expecting to walk in on this.”

“I’ll get Keys on it. Take care of your mate, Reb. Don’t worry about a thing. Someone will be there soon with clothes.”

“Thanks, Ax.” Rebel ended the call. After a moment of quiet thought, he stood and started packing her clothes into the suitcase he found on the top shelf of her closet.

Rock

---