“Sadie said she was confident they’d wrap it up soon,” said Melanie.
“Silas is a nut,” said Jeff. “He’s dangerous and unpredictable. Until he’s behind bars, everyone in this room should be on alert.”
“Maybe it would be better if Ruby and her mom left town. Then we wouldn’t be in danger,” said Lucy.
“If you’re that scared, Luce, you can go to your aunt’s house in Arizona,” replied Jeff. “I’ll even pay for the ticket.”
Lucy rolled her eyes. “It just makes sense. If they’re not around, he wouldn’t have a reason to bug the rest of us.”
Jeff’s and Melanie’s faces turned red. Neither of them seemed sure of how to respond to Lucy’s latest outburst. I felt bad for them, so I waded in. “Lucy has a point. Silas only wants me, Mom, and the girls. Maybe if we went into hiding or set a trap—”
“You will not use yourself as bait,” Gray said in a fierce tone.
“The idea has merit,” said Annika. “We know, for sure, the four things he wants most right now. Obviously, we can’t use Pearl, and the littles are out of the question. But if Ruby is willing—”
“Ruby is not bait,” Gray repeated, just as deadly quiet as the last time.
“Gray, it’s a good idea,” I said softly.
“It’s the worst fucking idea I’ve ever heard.” Gray stood up from the table and gave a hard glare to everyone except Jeff and Hunter. “Get that fucking idea out of your heads. We will not play games with Ruby’s life.”
“I’m volunteering, Gray.”
“Enough!” he roared.
The outburst made several of us jolt in our seats. I opened my mouth to argue again, but Gray stalked out of the room before I could say a word.
Hunt and Jeff shared a look. “It’s never a bad idea to be proactive,” said Hunt. “But playing games like you’re proposing is reckless. Especially for someone who’s not trained.”
“Let the deputies handle it,” added Jeff.
I nodded at them and let the subject drop for now. I still thought the idea of using me as bait was a sound one. If the setting was controlled and I had the backup of law enforcement, the risks to me would be minimal. But the reaction from the men of my acquaintance was bad enough that I would think twice before contacting Liam or Sadie with our idea.
I would do whatever it took to see the end of Silas’s reign of terror.
Chapter 36
Ruby
“They’ve had to keep her under sedation,” Mary, my mom’s nurse, explained as we stood outside her hospital room two days later.
“Why?”
“She won’t eat, won’t drink, and insists she needs to go back to the shack before Silas finds her gone,” Mary replied.
“No one’s told her?”
“That Silas is dead? No. The psychologist that did an evaluation said he thinks it could send her into a worse state.” Mary’s smile was soft and kind. “She’s been through a lot. Her body and her brain just need to rest. You’ll see.”
I nodded and thanked Mary before going back into the room to sit at Mom’s side. Her eyes were closed, and she was hooked up to at least five different things, not all of which I was sure I understood.
I hadn’t seen her awake since the basement five days ago. Therefore, I hadn’t been able to tell her everything that happened since we’d been rescued. The police showed up yesterday morning to tell me that Granddad was found in his car on a remote logging trail.
The victim of a self-inflicted gunshot.
I’d wanted to come to Mom and share the news immediately, but I had been waylaid by all the legalities—including dealing with Grandma. I’d debated for hours about how to tell her Grandpa was dead, but in the end, chickened out and let the police inform Grandma of his passing.
Grandma was as much of a victim of Silas MacLean as Mom and I were. Though she’d never made a move to protect or help us, I felt obligated to do what I could for her. With the help of Melanie and her church lady contacts, I arranged a rotation of women to stay with her until a more permanent decision could be made.
With Grandma set and the police questions answered, I’d come today, ready to share in our good news. But after speaking to Mary, I worried Mom could never cope with reality again. When we were in the basement together, I assumed she’d snap out of it once we got free. Now, it looked like it would be a much longer recovery.
“Can we come in?”
I looked up to see Lucy poking her head in the doorway with Ray and Brit at her side. “Of course,” I said and waved them in.
The girls approached the bed like they were terrified of it.
“It’s okay,” I said. “She’s just sleeping.”
Ray walked up to the foot of the bed and gently touched the edge of Mom’s blanket. “Why she gotta sleep so much?”
“She was a little sick when we found her,” I said. “The doctors want her to sleep until she’s all better.”
“Will she ever wake up?” wondered Britnee.
“Yes, baby,” I said and smiled at her. “She’ll wake up soon, and you can tell her how much you’ve been missing her.”
Britnee still looked scared, but she moved closer to me and put her hand near Mom’s on the bed. “Hi, Mommy,” she whispered. “I love you.”
Tears pricked the back of my eyes, and I had to blink them away before I fell apart.
Lucy pulled up another visitor’s chair and covered Mom’s hand with hers. “Hey, Pearl. You’re looking better today.”
“They finally let me wash the dirt off her,” I said. “Her hair’s still a mess, though.”
“We must get some Clairol in this place before she leaves. Can’t have the woman of the hour looking less than her best when she meets her adoring public.”
The story of my mom and her ordeal, buoyed by the coverage from Annika, had become national news. Eagle Creek had been inundated with visiting journalists, amateur sleuths, and lookie-loos. The outpouring of support and curiosity was overwhelming for me, my sisters, and Gray, so we’d moved into the rental house with Hunter for the time being.
I just hoped there would be a chance for normalcy soon.
“Was Gray in the hall when you came in?”
“Yeah, he was on his phone,” said Lucy. “Sounded like something was going down back in Texas.”
I frowned. “He didn’t mention any problems to me.”
“Huh,” Lucy said. “That’s odd. Hunt was full of stories last night. Something about Gray’s sister kicking out her POS husband with the aid of a branding iron.”
I laughed. “Oh, I would love to watch that.”
“Me too.”
“So, you and Hunt?”
Lucy rolled her eyes. “We’re just friends, Ruby. Don’t get any ideas.”
“You hear that, Mom,” I whispered. “Lucy claims here and Hunt are just friends.”
“Ruby and Mr. Gray were friends. But now they kiss, a lot,” Ray said from her spot at the end of the bed where she was busy playing with her baby doll.
Lucy and I stared at her in shocked silence for several beats before we both burst out laughing.
“She’s not wrong,” Lucy said through fits of laughter.
“Turns out friends make the best boyfriends,” I said with a wink.
There was a knock on the door, and Gray poked his head in the room. “How’s it going in here?” Lucy and I just laughed harder. “Did I say something funny?”
“No, no,” I said and wiped off a tear from my cheek. “Lucy’s just telling silly stories.”
Lucy snorted. “You’re the one making it into a joke.”
“I am so confused,” said Gray. He turned to Ray. “Ray, baby, what are they talking about?”
“Lucy is kissing friends with Mr. Hunter.”
“Oh really,” he said. “Wh
en did this happen?”
“It hasn’t,” insisted Lucy. “Ray and Ruby are just making stuff up.”
“Your red cheeks tell a different story,” I teased, and I fell into another fit of laughter.
Lucy sighed and stood up from her chair. “Well, as much fun as it’s been, I have to meet the new chef at the restaurant.”
“Does Hunter know you’re meeting Marcus?” Gray asked.
Lucy just waved her middle finger at Gray and me as she exited the room. I continued to snort and giggle about her relationship with Hunter for a few more minutes. At first, I thought the two were mortal enemies, but as time had gone by, they’d seemed to warm up. I’d been hoping they would become something more than friends, and the blush Lucy hadn’t been able to hide gave me hope.
Gray sat down in the chair Lucy had vacated and pulled Britnee into his lap. “You should stop meddling there.”
“Why? We both agree they would make a good match.”
“You hated when Ida was manipulating us,” he said.
I frowned. “That was different.”
“It wasn’t, and you know it. Now tell me, how’s Pearl today?”
“The nurse said they’re keeping her sedated for a bit longer. They want her to gain some more strength before they take the feeding tube out.”
“She’ll get there, Ruby. You just need to be patient.”
I sighed and rubbed at my temples. “I know. I guess I just hoped getting out of the basement would snap her out of it.”
“We can’t dictate how others respond to trauma, shortcake.”
“Maybe not, but I can sure as hell hope my mother gets cured of her freaking Stockholm Syndrome.”
U
Patience.
Gray said I needed to have patience. Yet, he was the one that tested my resolve daily. After my rescue, something had snapped in my boyfriend, and I wasn’t sure how to put him back together. Or even if he wanted it.
With each day that passed, Gray grew more and more distant with me and the girls. I’d noticed his reaction was odd the moment we were in the doctor’s office, and he turned into Mr. Robot. That night as we’d laid in bed together, he’d held me close and kissed the top of the head, but he’d rebuffed all my sexual overtures. I’d told myself it was just the stress of the day and that he’d be back to normal in a day or two.
That had been two weeks, five days, ten hours, and twenty-two minutes ago.
He spent days without saying more than a few words to me or the girls. He’d stopped sleeping in bed with me, he’d been a zombie through Christmas, and we hadn’t had sex or kissed since the day I was rescued.
I was at my wit’s end.
“Gray, will you snap the fuck out of it?” I said and slammed my hands on the kitchen counter. I’d begged Lucy and Hunter to take the girls for the day, so I could try to straighten Gray out.
Whether he wanted me to or not, I was going to try.
“Gray!” I slapped the counter again when he continued to stare at his phone.
I don’t know what possessed me, but I couldn’t take it anymore. I grabbed the phone out of his hands and started banging the screen against the edge of the granite countertop.
“I. Am. So. Sick. Of. You. Ignoring. Me.”
I punctuated each word with a strike of the phone’s screen against the edge, then flung the device into the kitchen sink, where it landed with a satisfying crunch.
“Ruby, what the fuck?”
“You’ve been doom-scrolling on that phone for two weeks.”
“I haven—”
“You have!” I said. “When you’re not reading mean comments from trolls on news stories and social media posts about us, you’re walking around here like some crazy guard dog.”
“I’m trying to keep you safe!” he yelled. “You were kidnapped two weeks ago, or have you forgotten that?”
“No, I haven’t. How could I with you reminding me every day?”
Gray got up from his spot at the counter and paced in the space between the kitchen island and the dining table. “You were gone, Ruby. Gone, and I could do nothing about it. For six hours!”
“I know!”
“Then act like it!” he roared.
“Grayson Lowell Archer, you are out of your mind,” I said in a quieter voice. “Are you actually trying to get me to have a breakdown?”
“At least it would be a normal fucking reaction to being kidnapped,” he argued. “Instead, you just go about your day like nothing’s happened. You even organized a funeral for that psycho.”
I should have known he was not as okay with the brief service I had given my grandfather. But Mom and Grandma had needed the closure. Both of them had suffered at the hand of Silas McLean, yet they’d loved him in their own ways. I’d arranged for the minister, the urn, and a brief graveside service even as I wished the man to endure eternity being cornholed by a pineapple.
“Gray, I told you why—”
“I know!” He sighed and collapsed onto the stool he’d just vacated. “I know.”
I reached out and linked my fingers with his. “Gray, I didn’t have a bad reaction because I was never scared for my life. I never worried for a second that you would make sure I got out.”
“But I didn’t.”
“You did.” I squeezed his hand for emphasis. “You were the one that noticed I wasn’t coming back. You were the one that chased after me. You were the one that wouldn’t give up the search until they found the brick. And you were the one that pointed the finger immediately at Silas. If you hadn’t done those things, there’s no way I would have been found so quickly.”
Gray hung his hand and sighed.
“I’m okay because I knew I could trust you to take care of things. I will not break because I’m okay. And that’s because of you.”
I walked around the island and pushed at his shoulder until he spun in his chair and let me step between his legs. I could see the circles under his eyes were darker than ever before, his skin was sallow, and new lines had been etched into his face. The insomnia that had abated was back in full force and was slowly eating away at my Gray.
“I failed you.”
I dug my fingers into the fabric of his sweatshirt and shook him just a little. “Stop it. You saved me.”
Gray’s face crumpled, and he pulled me hard into his embrace. Big ugly sobs wracked his body.
Finally.
I wrapped him as tight as I could and gave him all the same words he’d given me two weeks ago in the cruiser. I told him how much I loved him, how much the girls loved him, how much we appreciated all the little things he did for us every day. I implored him to let it go, to let me take away the rest of his fears.
“I don’t know why I can’t let this go, Ruby,” he whispered.
“It’s okay, we’ll get the help you need to get rid of it. Whatever it takes, we’ll get through it together,” I said and leaned back to smooth my hands over his cheeks. “I love you, Gray. You know that, right?”
“I love you, too.” He leaned forward to kiss me softly on the mouth before continuing, “I don’t know what I did to deserve you. But now that I have you, I’m not letting go.”
“That’s good, ’cus, neither am I.”
Epilogue
Gray
I’d come to Eagle Creek to save a failing business and support a family I’d felt beholden to. My plan had always been to get in, fix the marina, and get out so I could go back to my self-imposed isolated retirement. Never in my wildest dreams had I considered the possibility that I’d find the love of my life and plant roots in this place.
Not until Ruby.
Six months had passed, and I’d been through intensive therapy for three of them. Ruby had insisted that I seek professional help, not just for my reaction to her kidnapping, but for the insomnia I’d
never fully gotten under control. With her support, I’d checked into an intensive program in California and spent three months working on me and my mental health.
Ruby remained in Wisconsin with the girls. The temporary order we’d gotten in September had been made permanent when Pearl had signed over her rights just after leaving the hospital. The time in the basement had changed her, and rather than seek help, she’d run. We knew where she ran to, though, which helped the girls cope. But her abandonment had left a mark on both Ray and Brit.
“Don’t burn the burgers,” Ruby scolded as she came up next to me with a large platter of hot dogs.
“I know what I’m about, woman.”
She laughed, and the sound sent a fresh wave of happiness through me. Ruby was better than serotonin.
“Throw these on for the kids, will ya? I need to go check on a minor scuffle in the bouncy house.”
After my return from the facility, I’d convinced Ruby to move into the rental with me until we could find a more permanent solution. After weeks of searching, we’d found a cabin on a quiet part of Eagle Lake close to the Masons and Hunter. Today, we were celebrating both our housewarming and Ray’s fifth birthday.
Life couldn’t get much better.
I snaked my arm around Ruby and pulled her in for a long kiss that elicited whoops and whistles from our friends and family.
Ruby leaned back and put one hand on my chest. Her cheeks were flushed pink, and there was a sparkle in her eye. She was beautiful.
“What was that for?” she asked in a breathless whisper.
“Because I wanted to.”
She grinned. And leaned in to kiss me again.
“Good. Never stop.”
Author’s Note
Thank you for reading More Than Words! This story and its characters are near and dear to my heart. Ever since I started stealing my mom’s Harlequins from her nightstand, I’ve wanted to read a romance that had characters I could identify with. It wasn’t until 2005 and Jennifer Crusie’s Bet Me that I got my wish. Minerva Dobbs was my inspiration for Ruby McLean, so if you’ve never read Bet Me and you loved my take not shit heroine you’ll love Minerva Dobbs.
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