“You sure?” I asked, as Aiden handed Logan the toolkit, and the kid instantly searched for what he wanted to disarm the collars, regardless of how badly he was crying too.
Despite not knowing that much about medical care, I knew enough to treat a bullet wound and took some supplies from Ruby, using it to patch Lincoln up as best as I could until we could get him to a proper doctor. The wound didn’t look so bad – it was a through and through shot, minimal bleeding, and nowhere that would impact anything important.
Still, it would have hurt like a bitch.
“Positive. It was definitely a woman.” Lincoln replied. “She was even wearing this floral perfume – I can still smell it and I swear I’ve smelled it before.”
As much as I hated my Diamond being taken, least of all by a psychopathic stalker, there was one silver lining to who had snatched her away from us.
“That’s better than it being John.” I said, head nodding as I forced myself to remain calm and not let the anger or panic take hold just yet.
“How’d you figure?” Price croaked, as he shrugged off Ruby’s medical care the moment she’d stopped his bleeding arm, and grabbed Misha’s hand, holding on tight and keeping him close the minute Lincoln was finished playing doctor.
“John would have her raped, tortured and dead within the hour.” I spat, hands clenching. “The stalker won’t. She’s wanted Sapphire and will have every intention of keeping her alive for a while, at least. Which gives us more time to find her.”
Despite everyone around me shocked at the stalker being a woman, I wasn’t anything but glad we were finally narrowing down our suspects.
Women were vile creatures – I had known it for years.
They had the capacity in their soul for such twisted violence just as much as men did.
“You think they won’t torture her?” Misha whimpered as he broke his silence with a rough voice and shaky words. “Do you think she won’t be hurt?”
Hurt? Yeah. I thought Sapphire would be hurt. But to the same levels of physical pain that John O’Malley would inflict?
I replied, “No. I think the stalker will do more mental things to her than physical. Which is shitty either way, but we can fix mental a fuck ton easier than we can fix dead. So long as Sapphire plays along with the whole Maggie thing for a while, she won’t be killed yet.”
I trusted my girl to do just that. Not just because she was smart enough to figure shit out, but because all of those ridiculous podcasts she enjoyed had instilled a deep knowledge of bullshit crimes and crazy people in her mind. Sapphire would know her best bet was to play along – she would know exactly how to keep herself safe and what her options were to have the best chance of survival.
Just as I finished speaking, the van door creaked open, a masked up driver stumbling out, much to my surprise. I saw his hand reaching for the gun on his hip and my lips parted in warning, knowing that my presumption of the gangsters deaths was yet another foolish thing I had done lately.
My hand rose to shoot, just as two gunshots went off from right behind me. Spinning on my feet, I readied myself to thank what I presumed was Aiden for his help in saving me a bullet wound, only to find it wasn’t him holding the gun. It was a feisty red haired woman who was grinning ear to ear. Who clearly had been paying attention to all the shooting lessons Aiden had been ordered to give her over the last few weeks.
“You’re welcome, sugar.” Ruby leaned over and patted my arm, the most condescending tone in her voice. “Consider us even now.”
Lips parted, jaw a little slack, I tried to force the sight of her with a gun in her hands out of my head — tried to push away the fact she had just killed someone to help me…
“Thanks.” I muttered, after I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I’ll buy you dinner to show my gratitude,darlin’” I mimicked her accent again as she laughed at me.
And though I turned back to the task at hand - the bomb collars around the guys necks that needed removing, before John realized they weren’t in the van heading his way and he detonated them for fun just like the guys had said he’d done to Malone. I couldn’t help but replay Ruby’s laughter like a stuck record in my brain.
“Who knows how to work with bombs?” I asked.
Right as I finished my sentence, Logan moved to the car mirror, some tools already in his hand.
“I need ten minutes. Nobody fucking speaks to me or moves – I can do this so long as you don’t interrupt me.” He snapped, far more vicious a tone than I had ever heard him have before.
It was ridiculous, but I liked that he started with his own collar on the off chance he fucked up and triggered the bomb. Though I knew Sapphire would never have dared be with a man that wasn’t a good person at his core, it was still nice to be shown proof that she had made smart choices. It was evenmore ridiculous and nice that Logan somehow figured out how to unlatch it and deactivate it within a handful of tense minutes that had me a little in awe. He was oddly talented with bombs for a man who had never really used them before, beyond our time ruining the docks and casino. If he ever gave up being a mechanic, I would have loved to have him help me with future explosive fun.
“Fuck.” Logan ran a hand over his dark face the second he was sure his collar was dealt with, and it dropped to the ground with a click. “Whose next then?”
It was no surprise Price was pushed forward and that Lincoln insisted on going last. As much as I hated continuously complimenting men who were far too involved with my daughter, I had to admit I was glad she had them and that they were truly good people. Too good for the likes of John O’Malley to be dealing his bullshit out with, like taking away their father.
A pang of grief I refused to feel yet shot through my chest as my phone rang, an unknown number on the screen. Normally I wouldn’t have answered it, but I had a bad feeling so threw caution to the wind. With a wave of my hand, I shushed the group and they hurried their asses into the backseat of my car, Misha having to sit on Price so we could all fit, and left me and my people outside for a moment.
Not that Ruby wasmyanything. She was just… there.
“What?” I hissed into the phone.
