Wraiths of Winter (The Haunting Ruby Series Book 3) (43 page)

Again, I nodded and stepped aside so they could enter.
How did serial killers do it?
You know, the ones who kept
bodies
in
the
crawl space and
torture chambers
in
the
basement yet invited the police into their homes on multiple
occasions before they were actually caught?
Just having one
live
body hiding in the attic made me want to reach for the
anti-anxiety meds.

“You seem much calmer than the dispatcher
described,” California Sun Kissed observed. “Is everything
okay?”

I swallowed hard as I watched them both look around
suspiciously. “Everything’s fine. I just overreacted—that’s all.
Snow fell from
the
roof
onto my
window and
I thought
someone was breaking in.” That sounded plausible, didn’t it?

Milan Museum took a few steps forward and glanced
up the steps. “Are you alone here, Miss Matthews?”

I looked up to see a distinct trail of wet foot prints in
the carpeting leading upstairs.
How was I going to explain
that
?

“Yes,” I blurted out just a little too loudly. “After I
made the call, I figured out where the noises were coming
from and went outside to see if I was right but by that time
you were already on your way. I’m sorry for the false alarm.
I’m sure my parents will be home any minute now.” Did I look
and sound as nervous as I felt?

Apparently so because Milan Museum wasn’t letting it
go. “Do you mind if we take a quick look around?” His hand
drifted a bit closer to the handle of his gun as he spoke.

“No, go ahead.” I lifted my chin as I uttered the words
in an attempt to look more confident and less like the cat that
ate the canary.
Meanwhile, I was
about to cough up a
mouthful of feathers.

I followed them into the kitchen where they checked
the lock on the back door to make sure it was
secure.
Satisfied with that wing
of the house, they back tracked
toward the entrance hall and on toward the conservatory.
Padding along quietly behind them, I grew more confident
with each step.
Once they saw that the ground floor was
locked up tight, there would be no need for them to inspect
the second floor or the attic.

But when we got to the conservatory, they found
something I wasn’t expecting. The door to the outside was
unlocked and showed signs of having been recently opened.
Holy shit!
Was there someone hiding in this house besides
Lucas?!

California Sun Kissed looked up the spiral staircase
and back to his partner.
Milan Museum nodded and they
proceeded cautiously up the winding stairs.
As I began to
follow them, Milan Museum stopped me.

“Wait here, Miss.”

I couldn’t have argued with that face if I’d tried. But
now what? When they found Lucas in the attic, I would have
to tell them I lied to them. Oh no, what if he surprised them
and Milan Museum pulled that gun out too quick?! He seemed
a little anxious and potentially trigger happy. Please don’t let
anything happen to Lucas!
He was here to protect me, not to
get shot because of me! Why do bad things always seem to
happen to people I love?

Love. I said it again. I loved Lucas. I didn’t want to
love him, why couldn't I just stop? I paced the floor of the
conservatory
fearful that I would hear a
gunshot at
any
moment. Oh God, he couldn’t die in my bedroom—I’d never
be able to sleep in there again! Would he come back to haunt
me?
Would I see his spectral face before me day after day,
year after year? I lost Lee once—I couldn’t lose him again!

But he
wasn’t
Lee!
This was all so confusing!
Was it
really Lucas that I loved or merely who he reminded me of?
Either way, I couldn’t let him die because of me.
I had to get
to the police officers before they found him. I had to tell them
the truth. Even if it meant that Lucas wouldn’t be able to stay
the night, I couldn’t let him get shot for being an intruder.

I sprung up the spiral staircase hoping that I wouldn’t
be too late. As I rounded the last turn and stepped into the
ballroom, I came face to face with Milan Museum.

“The house is clear, Miss Matthews but I thought I told
you to wait downstairs for us.” He looked me straight in the
eye and I wanted to confess to crimes I didn’t commit just so
he would pat me down and slap on the handcuffs.
Wow!!
What was
with
me lately? It was like every boy I saw was a
magnet and I was a giant chunk of metal! I’d never been this
boy crazy in my entire life.
Was this how Rachel felt at any
given moment?

I shook the hormones aside for a second and digested
what he had said to me. “The house is clear.” That meant one
thing—somehow I got lucky and they didn’t find Lucas. But
how?
I usually had rotten luck—what happened to change
that now?

I followed the officers downstairs and thanked them
for coming out to check on me. As they opened the front door,
I saw Dad and Shelly getting out of their vehicle with worried
looks on their faces. Great—one more lie coming up.

“Ruby!” Dad shouted as he ran up to the porch with
Shelly close behind, “Are you okay? What happened?”

“I’m okay, Dad. I just heard some noises and thought
someone was trying to get into the house but I was wrong.
They checked the entire place—there’s no one here.” Except
for Lucas, of course, who had successfully remained hidden
while the police searched for an intruder.
Where
was
he
anyway? And if
he
wasn’t discovered, was there a possibility
that someone else could have eluded them as well?

Shelly thanked the officers
for coming
out then
announced that she would make me some hot chocolate to
soothe my nerves. “Don’t worry about it, Ruby. Sometimes
even I get a little scared when I’m here alone. This is an
awfully
big
house—so many
rooms, so many
places
for
someone to hide. But we’re home now and you’re safe—
that’s all that matters.”

Was I?
Jackson was still out there somewhere—or
even in
here
somewhere. Shelly said it herself—there were so
many places to hide in this house.
officers
could easily
outwit even
In a normal home, two
the smartest
criminal.

Rosewood was
a different
story, though.
With multiple
staircases, couldn’t someone have slipped away from them
unnoticed?
Stupid question—Lucas
already did.
Jackson
seemed stupid but something in his eyes told me he was
craftier than he looked.
Could he actually be in the house
somewhere right now, too, hiding in silence until we all went
to sleep?

Sleep. It was a luxury I couldn’t afford tonight. I knew
the hot chocolate would make me sleepy but I couldn’t refuse
to drink it. I never turned down hot chocolate—ever. My not
drinking it would be a dead giveaway that something was
wrong. So instead, I took the steaming hot cup upstairs with
me saying that I would drink it and go straight to bed. Dad
and Shelly both offered to walk up with me to check that my
room was safe one last time before I went to sleep, but I
insisted that I was fine and walked up the steps by myself.

Once out of their sight, I wanted to run to the attic at
full speed to find Lucas but the nearly overflowing mug in my
hand made that impossible. Even just trying to take the stairs
two at a time caused a scalding hot splash of liquid to burn my
hand.
So carefully, I climbed the stairs feeling like I was
walking in slow motion. My brain raced a full flight ahead of
my feet, trying to figure out just where in the attic Lucas could
be hiding. When I got to the third floor, I still had no clue.

I snuck in quietly and locked the door behind me.
Placing the mug on the coffee table, I looked around for my
secret visitor.
The
kitchen
and
living room
were clearly
empty and without sufficient places to hide. My bedroom was
equally empty. I even checked under the bed. The shower—
that had to be where he was. I walked into the bathroom and
whispered his name quietly.

“Lucas?”

I turned on the light and poked my head around the
shower curtain but all I found was Coco curled up with a toy
mouse. She stirred at the sound of the rustling curtain then
tucked her head back down into her paws.
Granted, her
choice of places to sleep left something to be desired, but if I
thought I could sleep as peacefully tonight as she was, I would
have gladly given the shower a try. As it were, as soon as I
found Lucas, I would be hooking myself up to a caffeine IV.

I walked back into the bedroom bewildered. Where
was
he?
Even the closet door was open to prove that he
wasn’t in there. Wait. The closet door was open. I hadn’t left
my closet door open like that in years. Once when I was about
six or seven, I snuck a peek at a horror movie when my dad
thought I was asleep.
All I saw was an ugly demon-like thing
crawling out of a closet and it was enough to make me turn off
the television.
For weeks I slept with a chair blocking the
door in case my closet contained a similar such beast. Ever
since then, I never left the door open when I wasn’t getting
something out—not even a crack.

Now, the door hung wide open inviting the demons to
come out and play. Except there wasn’t anyone in there—
human
or
demon.
Every inch of the floor was covered in
shoes but every pair was mine. Usually though, they were all
lined up neatly and in order.
There was only one spot not
perfectly organized—my boots were in obvious disarray.

“Lucas!” I whispered again but a bit louder this time.
“Where are you?”

 

From the other side of the closet wall, the muffled
sound of footsteps met my ear.

 

“Ru? Is that you?” Lucas’ voice sounded from within.

“Of course it’s me!” I said out loud before I realized it
then clapped my hand tightly over my mouth.
I had to be
quiet so that Dad and Shelly wouldn’t realize that I wasn’t
alone.
My dad already thought I was a shameless hussy after
finding me in bed with Zach. What would he think if he found
a different boy in my bedroom this time?
Never mind that, I
knew
what he would think—he would think of the closest
nunnery and drive me directly there himself.
Sister Ruby
Rose. Unfortunately, that name had a nice ring to it. I couldn’t
imagine spending
the
rest of my
life living
humbly
in
a
convent. And my best guess was that I would have to leave
my straightening iron at home, too.

As I pondered how differently my closet would look
once my own things were replaced with an array of black
tunics and sensible shoes, one of the panels in the back of the
closet shifted and a hand appeared through the crack. As the
opening widened, Lucas slid sideways through it and into
view.

“Whew! Glad to be out of there!” he whispered
excitedly. “There are
tons
of spiders in there, you know.”

“I know,” I said with a shiver, remembering the thick
veils of webbing that shrouded the hidden parts of the attic.
“But how did you know that opening was there? How did you
know there was a room on the other side?”

Lucas stood in front of the mirror and brushed the
cobwebs out of his hair. “When I told Zach the police were
searching the house, he told me where I could hide and not be
found.”

Zach.
Of course it was Zach.
He always seemed to
come through for me when I needed him—even now when it
meant pushing me closer to Lucas. As I snagged us both the
first of many cans of diet soda from the fridge, I thought of
Zach. He now knew that I would be spending the entire night
with
Lucas. He wasn’t going to need a single drop of
caffeine—worry would see that Zach didn’t get a wink of
sleep tonight.
Fate once again took my hand and dragged me
in the direction it wanted me to go.

34. Shifting Fortunes

It was going to be a terribly long night no matter what
but
it
would
seem
excruciatingly
endless
without
conversation. We would still have to whisper but I turned on
the TV to help drown out the sound of our voices.
Once I
double and triple checked the lock to the attic door, I invited
Lucas into my bedroom figuring that two locked doors were
better than one.
If Dad decided to come up to check on me,
he would have to wait for me to unlock both doors before he
could come in giving Lucas ample time to hide.
Even if it was
Shelly who paid me a visit, I would have an impossible time
trying to talk my way out of this one. So for Lucas’s sake—
and most definitely mine—two locks were infinitely better
than one. Oh, and I almost forgot—there was still that pesky
psychotic killer Jackson to worry about.

Okay, so I didn’t actually forget about Jackson—I was
in
some serious
denial
about the
situation.
There was
something way more frightening about knowing that a living
person was stalking me instead of just a ghost. Maybe it had
something to do with the fact that I knew that Allison could
only touch me while I was at the Bantam. Or maybe I’d finally
just gone truly insane. Either way, being the target of a serial
killer wasn’t the only thing I was in denial about.

Sure, I was glad that Lucas was spending the night
because I felt so much safer with him there. But if I said that
my safety was the only reason for my happiness, it would be
the biggest lie ever. I liked spending time with Lucas, I liked
being close to him. I liked…
him
. Everything about him—from
his cocky attitude down to his Converse All Stars.
From the
way he made me smile when I least expected it, to the way he
reminded me of a much simpler time in my life. If I’d only
known a few years ago that my life was going to get so much
harder, I would have cherished the moments when things
flowed so easily.