by Fiona Roarke
She simply wanted to get him to take that ring off of his right hand and satisfy her curiosity. And if the amazing happened and he had the tattoo, then she’d be able to collect on the second half of the payment for delivering the message.
Would he let her read the message in the package that had been sent? Maybe. He said he loved her and wanted to marry her. Surely that would garner her a peek at the mystery message, wouldn’t it? Perhaps.
<^><^><^>
Max hoped this wouldn’t take too long. He did need to get up early in the morning for work.
Sheriff Merrow sat him down in a chair next to a woman he introduced as Deputy Jenna Blythe. She was still in costume from the party. She was dressed as a bunny, complete with pink nose, whiskers and floppy ears.
“Deputy Blythe will take your official statement and then give you some mugshot books to look at and see if you recognize anyone.”
Max did his best not to crack a smile at the interestingly dressed deputy, sure she wouldn’t appreciate it. “Sure. Great. Thanks.”
Sheriff Merrow disappeared into an office at the back of the room. Deputy Blythe handed Max a book filled with pictures of criminals. He had a flashback to his criminal picture taken the night his life had changed forever. He shook his head to banish the memory.
Max studied each of the pictures in the book, but none of them looked like the grumpy man in the green tux and top hat. “I don’t see anyone even close. Do you have a sketch artist? Maybe I could describe him and you could draw a picture.”
Deputy Blythe nodded. “We don’t have anyone permanently on staff, but there is a local artist we can consult with for that purpose. I’ll have to set it up.”
“Okay.” Max gave her his work schedule for the next week. She promised to call and let him know when to come back in. “You have my number,” he said nodding once at his official statement. “Call me whenever.”
“Great,” Deputy Blythe said, making a notation in a small notebook.
“Is that all you need?”
She nodded. “I’ll call you in a day or two at the latest.”
Before he stood from Deputy Blythe’s desk, someone entered the station from outside. The sound of fast footsteps approaching came from the direction of the front entrance. He turned and his mouth fell open.
Ruby stopped right next to him. “Please, don’t arrest him,” she said to the deputy. “I truly don’t believe he did anything.”
“We aren’t arresting him.”
“I’m just giving a statement,” Max said. He stood up, but kept his eyes focused on hers.
“A statement?” The gaze she returned was filled with what looked like relief.
“Yes.”
“What statement?”
Deputy Blythe told Max, “You don’t have to discuss your statement with others.”
“Is it a secret?” Ruby asked.
“No. However, this is an ongoing investigation.” The deputy glanced back toward the office the Sheriff had disappeared into.
Ruby nodded. “I understand. No worries.” She smiled up at Max in a way that he understood to mean she only had to ask him a direct question and he’d be forced—by whatever spellbound force had hold of him—to tell her the truth.
“Are you free to go?” she asked.
Deputy Blythe nodded. Max smiled.
“Could we go somewhere and chat?” she asked seemingly unable to stop staring at him.
“Sure. Want to go back to my place? It’s not far from here.”
“Yes. Lead the way.” Ruby glanced at his ring finger again. If she asked, he’d be compelled to tell her the truth, if not rip his ring right off his finger and serve up his greatest secret without a moment’s hesitation. He clenched his hand protectively in a fist and shoved it into a pocket. He was a bit surprised she agreed to go back to his home. Perhaps a paranormal investigator had extra bravery built-in or more likely she had suitable self-defense skills.
“I’ll be in touch,” Deputy Blythe repeated as they moved away from her desk.
Max held out his arm for Ruby. She linked her arm in his and together they exited the station.
“Where do you live?”
“Not far.” He pointed to the left and recited his full address. The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. She squeezed his arm and they strolled along Main Street toward his apartment.
“Are you still compelled to tell me the truth?”
“Yes. But could we wait until we’re off the streets before I confess all that I know?”
“Sure.”
Arm in arm, they reached his apartment building in no time. He entered the vestibule, bypassed checking his mailbox and headed for the stairs. “I hope you have stamina. I’m on the fourth floor and there isn’t an elevator.”
She shrugged. “No worries. It’ll help me get my minimum exercise for today.”
Arms still linked, they traversed all four flights of stairs together. He didn’t slow his steps and she kept up with him. Perhaps being a witch made her stronger than regular humans. He liked everything about her. Was it because he was spellbound? He hoped not. He liked being in love with Ruby. Everything he learned about her made him love her even more.
Max unlocked his door, flipped on the lights and gestured for her to enter ahead of him. Ruby walked inside and looked around with interest. Her job likely made her extra inquisitive. While he was compelled to tell her the truth, as time went on, he found it easier to temper the words coming out of his mouth with partial truths.
“I love you,” was always the first thing he wanted to tell her, but since leaving the Black and Orange Ball, the impulse was getting easier to control. Perhaps his love for her would wear off. Part of him hoped it wouldn’t.
Max closed the door, took off his jacket and hung it on the curvy, wooden coatrack also left behind from the previous owner. The Realtor had labeled it a Bentwood coatrack when they toured the place.
She sat on the red leather sofa left behind by the previous owner. Pretty much everything he owned had once belonged to the previous tenant. He hoped whoever it was didn’t ever come back for all this great stuff.
“Okay, I’m dying to find out what you told the police,” Ruby said. “Sorry, it’s in my nature to be curious. Goes with the job, you know?”
Max joined her on the sofa, keeping a civil space between them. “I told them that I saw a strange little man dressed in a green tux and matching top hat in the bathroom at the same time I was in there.”
“Who was it?”
He shrugged. “Don’t know. He wasn’t in any of the mugshots they showed me. But Deputy Blythe is going to set up a sketch artist for me to render a picture of the man I saw.”
Ruby’s lovely mouth formed an O and she nodded, still looking around his apartment.
“Do you like my place?”
“I do. Sparse, but with eclectic furniture.”
“Sparse? Eclectic? Is that good?”
She grinned. “Well, I like it.”
He grinned back. “I like it, too.”
Her gaze lowered to his right hand and the wide ring on his finger hiding the letters of his name.
“Will you take your ring off so I can see underneath it?”
He moved to do what she asked, but restrained himself with some effort. “Why?”
“For my current job, I’m looking for a man with a tattoo of some letters on his right ring finger.”
Max had to force himself not to immediately do her bidding and express his undying love. He closed his eyes to concentrate, finding it easier to keep silent if he wasn’t looking at her.
“So, will you please show me what’s under your ring?”
“I’d rather not.” I love you. I love you. I love you. Here, go ahead, look at my initials. Let me rip my ring off to show you the permanent reminder and shame of my past. He pressed one hand over the other to keep from yanking the ring off.
“Why?”
“Well, um.” How to explain. �
�Because it’s personal.” He nearly gave in to the drumbeat of compulsion egging him to do as she asked. Was it her low husky voice that compelled him? Her inquisitive blue eyes? Because she smelled so good? All of the above?
“Personal? What does that mean?”
“It means that the mark under my ring represents something I used to be very proud of. But that I’m not proud of anymore.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Please do not ask me to show you.”
“But I need to know.”
“Once you know, it might change your opinion of me.”
“I don’t have an opinion of you.”
He opened his eyes. “Yes, you do.”
She ignored what he said. “Do you have an old girlfriend’s name tattooed under there or something? Because I promise you that I don’t care.”
“No. It’s not a girl’s name.” I love you, no one else.
“Okay then. Please let me see.”
“What initials are you looking for?” he asked. What were the odds she was looking for someone else with initials on a right-hand ring finger? Astronomical?
“MCVIV.” Space potatoes.
He sucked in a hard, fast breath and stood up. He’d expected her to say it, but hearing the hated initials spoken out loud sent a shard of panic to his very soul. He’d been found out. Someone was looking for him. Who was it? Should he run for it? Where would he go? He was stuck.
“Are you truly the one I’ve been looking for all night?”
Max pushed out a long sigh, pulled the wide band off his finger and showed her the hated initials that forever identified him as Maximillian Cornelius Vandervere the Fourth.
“I guess I am.”
Ruby looked beautiful, staring up at him with those fathomless dark blue eyes, a hue that matched her coat perfectly. However, the realization that he’d been found out eventually obliterated her face from his perception as fear soaked into his tortured soul.
Chapter Eight
<^> <^> <^>
Stunned, Ruby stared at Max’s finger and the initials she’d been searching for all night long at the party. What were the odds that the guy who loved her and wanted to marry her was the person she sought? Apparently, the odds were even.
“Why did you hide this?”
Max looked miserable. Like his life was over. “Like I said, it’s personal.”
“I see. Well, what does it mean?”
“Don’t you already know?”
“Nope. I was hired to find a man who had these initials and deliver a message. That’s it.”
“What message?”
“I don’t know. It’s in a small package back at my office in the mercantile building down the street.”
“Do you know anything about me? About my past? Is that why you sent the Sheriff after me?”
She frowned. “No. The initials were merely a means of identification. And I didn’t send the Sheriff after you. The police asked me if I saw anyone near the bathrooms at the time in question and you’re the only person I saw.”
“Okay.” He sat down, but didn’t look any happier.
“What do the initials stand for? Some alien sacrificial pledge for mayhem or something? A vile swearword? What?”
He looked skyward and shook his head as if at the end of his patience. Occasionally, she had that impact on people.
“They are my initials.”
“Really? Huh. Well, you have quite the mouthful of a name with five initials.”
“You have no idea.”
“Max Vander isn’t your name?”
“Not exactly.” He gazed into her eyes and blinked once as if releasing a stranglehold on his voice after being tied down all night. “Maximilian Cornelius Vandervere the Fourth. I used to go by Ilian.”
Ruby smiled. His expression shifted. Clearly, he hadn’t expected her to smile. She crossed her arms and studied him. “I don’t know. You look more like a Max to me.”
“So, now you know.”
“Are you a famous alien or something?”
“Sort of. In some circles. Probably the term infamous is more accurate.”
“Infamous. Wow. I can’t wait to hear that story.”
A small smile replaced the frown shaping his mouth. “Well, there is definitely a story.”
She made an encouraging sound, trying to get him to spill already.
He ran the fingers of one hand through his blond hair and huffed out a short sigh. “Sorry for being so difficult. I’m used to having people see the mark and look at me with disgust.”
“Where? Back on your planet?” Weird to say that out loud, even though she knew it was true. She had been slow to believe in extraterrestrials, but the evidence was irrefutable. Humans believed witches, vampires and dragons to be the stuff of myth when they were very real. So why not aliens?
Her sisters-in-law Bianca and Isabel were from the planet Alpha-Prime by way of a small town in Arkansas called Alienn. Most Alphas had some level of telepathy with non-Alphas. Bianca could read Ruby’s mind sometimes, even though she was a full-blooded witch.
Isabel didn’t have any mind-reading skills because she wasn’t pure Alpha. The other half of her heritage was Dre, another extraterrestrial species.
Ruby looked at Max. He seemed much more serene than before, even as he studied her very intently.
“Are you reading my mind?”
He frowned. “How did you kn— I mean, what makes you think that?”
“You have the same look Bianca gets when she tries to peek inside my mind. She always has to focus and try really hard to get in.”
“Yes. You are very difficult to read.”
“That’s another thing she says. Supposedly, being a witch makes it impossible for aliens to read me. I wonder why you and Bianca can when you work at it.”
“Huh. Don’t know.”
“Is that all you have to say?”
Another grin shaped his mouth.
Suspicious, she asked, “What else did you see inside my head?”
“You like me.”
“What?”
“And you think I’m handsome.”
“Of all the conceited—”
“I’m not conceited!” he said quickly. “Wait. What does that word mean again?”
“It means you have a very high opinion of yourself that not everyone else shares.” Ruby stood up, changing the subject and its trajectory. He got to his feet, too. “Will you follow me to my office? I still need to give you that package.”
“Nope. I don’t want it.”
“What? Of course you do. I have to give it to you.”
“No. Thanks. I don’t want anyone from my former life to find me or know where I am.”
“But I need—” Ruby didn’t want to tell him she needed the money. She understood not wanting to share personal information and all, but if he didn’t accept the package and issue a response, she didn’t get paid the second portion of her fee.
He stared at her again, focusing hard.
“Stop trying to read my mind.”
“I don’t understand about the money.”
“Never mind.” She walked around him and headed for the door.
“Wait. Tell me about the money.”
“No thanks. I don’t want anyone to know about my life, either.” She echoed his words on purpose, trying to keep him from finding out the truth.
Ruby felt foolish as she started singing an Earth jingle in her head over and over. It was like a song from something called a commercial. She’d heard it while living in Alienn, Arkansas.
“Aunt Idee’s itty bitty pig snouts. Deep fried for lip-licking flavor. In your grocer’s freezer.” Ruby concentrated on singing the little jingle in her head, hoping he wouldn’t be able to see beyond that to just how nearly desperate she was to receive the second portion of that generous fee.
Max frowned as he dogged her heels to the door. “Who is Aunt Idee? Pig snouts? What’s that? Sounds bad. Are they really in a
freezer?”
“Stop reading my mind.”
“Okay. I’ll stop. It’s very taxing anyway.”
They stared at each other for a count of ten.
“Will you accept the package?”
“I don’t know. Will you marry me?”
“I don’t know. Will you come to my office and give me a response to whatever is in the package? You can find out the truth that way.” Two could play this game.
“The truth is that I love you. Will you marry me?”
Ruby threw up her hands. “We haven’t even known each other for a full day. I don’t believe that you love me. No. I will not marry you.” But I’m starting to like you, even though I shouldn’t.
Max released a long sigh. “I guess we are at a standoff then.”
Ruby tilted her head back and tried not to scream her frustration to the heavens above. What to do? How could she get him to cooperate?
She lowered her head and stared at him. “Will you at least look at the package? Maybe it’s not what you think. Maybe it’s good news.”
He looked dubious at the suggestion of any good news coming his way and gave her a searching glance.
“You don’t get paid if you don’t deliver the package to me? Is that true?”
Ruby said a very bad curse word in her head. “Stop reading my mind, Max. Or I won’t ever love you or marry you,” she lied.
<^><^><^>
Max was in a panic. He needed to calm down. Someone was looking for him. Who was it? What did they want? To give him grief? To hound him until the end of his days?
Also, Ruby wouldn’t ever love him or marry him if he didn’t cooperate? That seemed unfair.
He saw in her mind that Ruby needed to give him that package. She also needed to relay a response from him back to the sender or she wouldn’t receive the rest of the money owed to her for this investigation job. He couldn’t fathom who might be on his trail or seeking to deliver a message.
It had been made very clear to him that no one in his family or previous circle of close friends wanted anything to do with him. His parents hadn’t even insisted on hearing from him to ensure he made the trip to Earth alive, like they always had when he traveled pre-incident.
