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Chapter One
“Are we going to get some street meat or what?” Ruby gleefully shouted as she slung one arm out, pointing her finger in the direction of sustenance.
“Hang on, friend. I need to grab some cash.” I tugged Ruby’s other arm toward a side street where the bright glow of an ATM beckoned me.
It was late—or early, depending on what side of the moon you were on. Two a.m. and greasy sausages from the vendor down the road was top priority after a night of tequila shots.
Ruby was tanked, and I was feeling a nice floaty buzz, which gave me a perma-smile that hurt my cheeks and made my lips ache.
“Maybe I’ll crash at your place tonight,” Ruby slurred as she slumped against the wall next to the ATM, her body like a limp noodle. “Take a vacay from my life.”
The city streets were wafting some pretty heavy heat after the scorcher of the last few days. Summer was dying, and we were all paying for it. The patios had been full when we’d gone to grab dinner earlier, and the bars had been packed when we’d done a bit of hopping from one dive to the next. It had been fun, but I reeked of other people’s sweat, and I was ready to go home.
“My place is hardly a vacation destination.” Understatement of the century.
My place was a dump, with its hundred-year-old cracked plaster, peeling wallpaper and rusty pipes. But it was my dump, and I had been lucky to find something in the heart of Toronto. I got what Ruby was craving, though—peace, solitude, time away from her boyfriend’s two kids under five and her boyfriend, who might as well be kid number three. She wanted to stretch out her night of freedom, sleep until late in the morning. drink coffee that she didn’t have to chug and maybe have a bagel and some eggs that she didn’t have to eat cold. “I can’t promise you five-star anything, but you know my couch is always yours.”
“I love your place. It’s got so much old-world charm.” Ruby hiccupped as she rolled her head toward me, a silly grin making her eyes light up. “What’s taking so long? There’s a big fat juicy sausage calling to me.”
“That’s so dirty.” I attempted to joke, even though I was frowning at the machine, which had rejected my passcode twice already. “Don’t know.” I punched my code in a third time then slammed my hand against the side of the machine, because violence was always just under the surface for me. “What the fuck?”
“Here… Let me use my card.” Ruby pushed off the wall. “Move out of the way.”
“I can’t.” I was rooted in place. My feet stuck as I stared at the machine that was telling me my bank account didn’t exist. It doesn’t exist? “It won’t give my card back.”
I punched some buttons, agitation quickly turning to frantic rage. I had money in there. My monthly ‘shut up and disappear’ money would have gone in at midnight, replenishing the joint account with what I was owed. I slammed my open palm against the panel again, and the sting reverberated up my arm.
“Whoa there, lady.” A smooth voice slid out of the darkness, dripping with bad intentions. “That machine ain’t done nothing wrong.” He stepped too close to Ruby, pulling my attention away from the ATM.
Ruby’s eyes went wide. She straightened her back and winced. “Charlie.” My name was a squeak that shuddered past her lips. A tremor shook her shoulders.
The hairs on the back of my neck perked up.
He was wearing a gray hoodie pulled up over his scraggly dark hair. That and the shadow shielding his face made it impossible to get a good look at him. “You ladies are going to give me what you’ve got in your bank accounts.” He nudged Ruby, and she opened her mouth like she was going to scream, but he clamped his hand over her face. “Quietly.”
A loser holding up two women. Classy.
“I can’t give you jack,” I said with a nod to the machine, which was now flashing a recommendation to call my bank. “This piece of shit just ate my card.” He didn’t need to know about my other bank account.
He snorted what sounded like a laugh, and I got a waft of something not quite right. I mean, aside from the fact that he was trying to rob us, there was also a jitter about him that was making me think he was tweaked out on something. That, or he was really, really on edge. “I’m taking payment one way or the other.”
It was obvious that he had a weapon wedged against Ruby’s back by the way she was arching her spine. I didn’t know if he was hurting her or if it was fear, but she was contorting as far away as she could get with his hand on her mouth. “You scream, and I hurt you. Got it?”
Ruby nodded as tears spilled down her cheeks.
He lifted his meaty hand away. “You try your card.”
She made a mumbly noise then staggered toward me, towing the guy along with her.
I didn’t know if he had a gun or knife or if he was just using his fingers to scare the hell out of Ruby, but his eyes were dark and menacing, his pupils pinpricks. He licked his chapped lips as he gave me a once-over. I felt dirty just from his gaze. When he met my eyes again and his lips curled into a smug grin, I knew he wasn’t bluffing. The guy liked to make women scream.
I calculated the odds of Ruby getting hurt if I took action.
He was taller than me by at least a foot. Heavier, too. Probably had about a hundred pounds on me, maybe more. He likely had a weapon—cowards like him always did. I’d handled bigger men than him. I’d taken down meaner ones, too. I could deal with a bullet, even a few bullets. Nobody used silver anymore and lead, steel and brass are practically mosquito bites. Stab wounds? They would close with time.
“You do anything stupid, and I’ll kill her,” he growled like he was reading my mind.
It wasn’t me who would get hurt. Ruby was a fragile human—and not just physically. She was riding high on adrenaline right now, but that would crash soon, then she’d go into shock.
