“Yeah. It has been a weird couple of years. I’ve had no one to rely upon, and now, I don’t know.” She chuckled. “Even though I tried to kill you, I feel like I can trust you.”
“You can, and I want you to know that. You can trust me with everything.”
“Thank you.”
****
“Do you think we can trust her?” Jacob asked.
“Don’t have much of a choice,” Damian said. He was hoping to stay with his family, and spend some time with his baby girl. As it was, he’d been dragged out to the old Santos home, and Gideon had been left behind. Life sucked.
“We do,” Maddox said. “There’s not a lot we can do about this. Ruby Santos was a family friend, and we promised to help her, and her family. Charlotte wouldn’t thank me if I left her alone.”
“We don’t have a clue who she is, not really,” Abel said. “What if she killed the real Ruby, and took her identity?”
“Then we’ll get our answer when she walks around this place. No one has been inside since we had it cleaned. Everything is the same. Mom demanded it,” Jacob said. “An imposter wouldn’t know where they were going.”
Jacob knew Ruby was who she said she was. He didn’t know why he trusted his instinct on this one. What he didn’t know was if he could trust her.
****
Ruby
took a deep breath as she looked at the house she hadn’t seen in ten years. Climbing out of the car, she ignored the Denton men, focused on facing her past, facing the pain. Her heart was pounding, and her stomach twisted. She shouldn’t have eaten that burger that Oliver had gotten for her. Rubbing her chest, she moved toward the door, and twisted the handle. It didn’t budge.
“Who has the key?” she asked.
Maddox held the key toward her.
She took it, inserting it into the lock, and twisting it. The door clicked, and she opened the door.
You can do this, Ruby.
This is your home.
Stepping inside, she flicked on the light, and watched the corridor brighten up. Licking her lips, she made her way down the hall. There were a lot of cobwebs everywhere, and there was a lot of dust in the air. Stopping where she remembered one of the guards had fallen, she held her hand out, almost seeing him as she did ten years ago.
Tears filled her eyes, and she forced them back. This was not the time for tears. She was not going to cry in front of the men. Standing up, she heard Jacob whispering but once again, ignored him. She didn’t need to know what he was saying. Standing in front of the office, she placed her hand on the door handle, and paused. Taking her hand away, she closed her eyes.
“Everything is fine. It’s fine. You can do this. It’s fine.” She kept repeating the same words again.
“There are no bodies in there. We had it all cleaned,” Maddox said.
“He was in there. They were all in there.” She opened the handle, and stepped inside. The pain increased as she saw the cleaned office. The books were all in the same place, and the windows were filthy. The rug that had been in the center of the room was gone. “What happened to the rug?” she asked. “It was Mom’s favorite. She bought it when she was in Egypt.”
She still couldn’t bring herself to face the Dentons.
“It had to go. It was destroyed because of the blood,” Jacob said.
Breathe, Ruby.
Breathe, just breathe.
“Are you okay?” Oliver asked, coming toward her. He knelt down beside her.
“I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine. You look like you can’t breathe.” He placed a hand on her back and cupped her cheek. “Look at me.”