Chapter Thirty-six

JACESON

" J ace. Jace. Jace. Jace. Jace." Jameson keeps repeating my name like a chant, nudging my shoulder each time and dragging my tired ass from sleep. I groan, lunging up to shove him off my bed, but he easily evades me. "It's five o'clock. It's technically morning. I want to go see my pookie."

As much as I want to shove my head under my pillow, I force myself to roll out of bed instead.

Seeing that I'm up, Jace grins and skips out the door. "I'll make sure the others are awake."

"Don't leave without me," I yell at his back, but he only waves a hand in the air and disappears down the hall with a skip in his step. Without someone to keep James in check, I have no doubt that he will try to sneak in through Rue's window and probably get arrested.

A moment later, James finds his next victim. Gunner's curses blister the air, and I inhale sharply, praying for patience.

If I admit the truth, though, I want to see Rue just as much.

I didn't like how last night ended.

I didn't like seeing her walk away from us wounded, her shoulders slumped in dejection. I hated it even more that she disappeared before we could get to our feet and prevent her from leaving. By the time we had the strength to follow, her doors were locked tight. Gunner pounded on the front door for a good twenty minutes before Hicks hauled his ass away.

Jameson refused to leave, and I ended up chasing him across the lawn, dragging him, kicking and biting, back home. The only way to get him to stop was to promise him we could return at first light. I stood guard for most of the night, needing to make sure no one bothered her. I didn't want her to wake up in the middle of the night alone and afraid—not to mention I didn't trust Jameson not to sneak out either.

It wouldn't be the first time.

I only fell into bed just before dawn, managing an hour of sleep at most.

Honestly, I was tempted to pick the lock to her house myself, and I barely talked myself out of it, wanting to respect her wishes. We didn't do enough of it, and I didn't want to break her trust any more than we already did.

I also needed time to process what the fuck happened last night.

I can only come to one conclusion—I'm hopelessly and completely in love with Rue. That's the only explanation for why I'm not freaking the fuck out that ghosts exist.

To my shock, I recognized the voice that belonged to the gangster. I've heard it for most of my life. I thought it was my fucked-up conscience. The way James reacted to the ghost told me he recognized him too, and I cursed myself for not realizing that he was being tormented as well.

It's probably what drove him insane.

The ring she purchased for me muted the voice enough that I could almost think for myself. After last night, it vanished completely, disappearing when she banished the bastard.

The silence in my head is almost deafening and more than a little intimidating.

Rue tried to tell me about ghosts, hinting that they existed, but I was too stupid to understand what she was saying. I thought I was going crazy, just like James, and I was so terrified that I acted like a dumbass and refused to listen.

If I just believed her, I might have been able to spare her from getting hurt. Instead, I stood back, wanting proof.

I'm a fucking idiot, and I hurt her with my doubts.

Even as I shuffle toward the bathroom to take a piss, the chill from last night still clings to me. We came too fucking close to losing her.

Trust doesn't come easily for me, and I feel like an ass for not giving her the benefit of the doubt. I can't imagine how difficult her life must have been all alone. While my parents were too busy with their lives to pay attention to me, at least I had my brother.

Rue had no one except for the ghosts.

I can't imagine how she survived so long on her own.

Well, no longer.

I won't allow it.

James is right, Rue is ours, I was just too stupid to understand until now.

Twirling the ring on my thumb, I take comfort from the warm metal, a grin tugging at my lips at the thought of seeing her again. She burst into my life, yanking me out of my humdrum existence and showing me how to really live.

It's not chasing one thrill to the next on the racetrack.

It's her.

She has more than enough excitement in her life to keep me on my toes for the rest of my existence.

I yank my pants up, something hard nudging me, and my hand fumbles over the planchette I pocketed last night. The toy feels heavier, the dark singed edges no longer cardboard. It's wooden. Heavier. My fingers tingle at the contact, and I shove it back into my pocket.

Something warns me that it's too dangerous to leave it just lying about for anyone to stumble across. I'll need to ask Rue what to do with it. She'll know. Grabbing a shirt from the floor, I sniff it cautiously, then tug it over my head.

I meet Gunner in the hallway and follow him as he walks downstairs.

Ellis and Hicks are already in the kitchen, each staring forlornly at their coffee mugs. I don't miss that both of them are wearing their jewelry, and the pinch in my chest eases at knowing neither are willing to give up on Rue, despite what happened last night.

"Are we going yet?" James shouts from the front of the house. "We're all here now."

Without missing a beat, Gunner and I head in his direction, and I hear the others follow. Instead of opening the door, James stands in front of it, his arms crossed, the massive scowl on his face lethal. "Not you. You shouldn't come."

The statement is directed at Hicks.

The bastard looks suitably dejected.

In fact, he looks like shit.

"It's not only his fault." It hurts to admit the truth, and I grimace. "As much as I want to be pissed at him, we each played a part in what happened last night. None of us could have ever guessed the evening would end that way."

"It never should have happened. Period," James snarls, not even a fraction of his anger having abated.

"James—" I start, but Hicks cuts me off.

"He's right." Hicks' voice is gruff, and he drags a hand down his face. It looks like he didn't get a wink of sleep last night, probably going over every second of the evening again and again, wondering how it could have all gone so horribly wrong.

"I thought she was hurting herself." His shoulders droop, and he stares blankly at the floor. "I thought if I could prove it, I could get her help. All I wanted to do was help. I never thought… I never expected…" He pauses and swallows hard, his green eyes tortured as he pleads for understanding. "I fucked up."

"Yeah, you did," James replies harshly, then his expression softens. "Rue has every reason to be pissed. You're going to be in the doghouse for months."

He sounds cheerful about that fact.

I glance at my brother, noticing that he seems calmer than normal, less frantic. I'm not sure if it's the ring quieting his mind, Rue's influence, or if he's just so obsessed with Rue that the rest of the world no longer holds his attention.

It's almost like he's growing up, and I can't help feeling a touch nostalgic…not that I think my job as my brother's keeper is anywhere near done. He'll always need someone to guide him, but it's nice not to have to do it alone anymore.

As James throws the door open, we all plow outside like eager puppies tripping over each other…and stop dead when we catch sight of two cop cars parked in the street.

I whirl toward Rue's house, and my heart feels like it's being ripped from my chest when I see an ambulance parked in the driveway. The vehicle is backed up to the house with the doors hanging open, a single cop waiting outside on the porch.

"What the hell?" Ellis is the first to break the trance, then no one says anything as we charge across the lawn, desperate to reach Rue.

"Stop!" a police officer yells, blocking our access to the house. Before James can throw himself at the cop, two more officers appear behind him. One has his hand on his weapon, while the other two hold their tasers at the ready, expecting trouble. "Please don't interfere."

"Interfere?" I say hollowly, refusing to believe anything could have happened to Rue during the few minutes I fell asleep.

"The sirens are off," Ellis murmurs, his hair ruffled from lack of sleep. "That means this isn't an emergency."

"Pookie!" Jameson bellows, backing away from the door, his eyes jumping from one window to the next as if waiting for her to appear…or he's looking for an alternate entrance. "Pookie!"

I'm a second away from helping my brother break into the house when Ellis, Hicks, and Gunner exchange a pointed look. The two bigger men are ready to charge the police, creating a distraction so Ellis can slip past them and find out what the fuck is happening.

The cops are already distracted by James, and I'm ready to join the others until I hear the heavy tread of footsteps coming from within the house.

"Please, step back," the lead cop barks, the three officers shoving us back from the door until we're pinned against the wall. We remain mute, waiting expectantly for Rue to appear, and I'm not even breathing as dread tightens my chest.

A paramedic steps out the door first, hauling a gurney behind him, and my heart plummets then splatters at my feet. Rue's bright pink hair is a tangled mess, appearing bright against the stark white sheets. A perfect imprint of a large hand is wrapped around her throat from where the ghost tried to choke her. Tiny nicks and scrapes from the mirror are made all the more vivid by her pale skin.

Desperate to make sure she's okay, my gaze jumps to her face. Dull, lifeless teal eyes stare unblinking, the spark that makes her so special completely gone, and a lump forms in my throat. My mind immediately goes to a dark place. It's only when I see her chest moving slightly that I snap back to awareness.

"She's alive." I don't realize I say it out loud until Gunner shudders beside me, his expression devastated.

"She's drugged," Ellis snarls, taking a step forward, a pissed off scowl twisting his face. "Why do you have her restrained?"

The paramedics move down the steps, and the cops curse as we surge forward to follow. A scuffle just starts when one more cop, a big black man, steps out of the house.

"I'm sorry, but we've been ordered to take" —he peers down at his papers— "Ms. Tallulah Rue Killaghan Farthington into custody." Before we can descend on him, he holds up his hand, concern cutting deep lines into his face. "She's being taken to St. Mary's Hospital in Easton for a forty-eight-hour psychiatric hold. You can follow us, but you won't be able to see her until after her evaluation. Once she's deemed fit, she will be released."

Ellis snatches the papers from him and immediately begins scanning the pages. Hicks is already talking on the phone with his team of lawyers, while Gunner and I do our best to keep James from getting his ass arrested.

"Why is she restrained?" I snap, unable to bear seeing the belts dig into her flesh. Her wrists and ankles are secured tightly, not to mention the straps over her legs, hips, and chest. "You have her strapped so tightly that she can't even breathe properly. And why can't she speak? She's practically catatonic."

I'm not sure what's worse—that she refuses to speak to us because she thinks we're responsible, or that she's not even aware that we're here.

My fingers twitch for my knives, desperate to cut the bindings away…or carve up the officers who are preventing us from reaching her. It takes all my control not to hop in the ambulance and drive off with her before they are aware of what's happening.

"Orders," the police officer says bluntly, looking even more unhappy. "Even though she surrendered herself, the hospital staff " —he spits out the words in disgust— "insisted that she's dangerous and needed to be restrained. They sedated her because she has a history of hurting herself and others. The restraints are for her protection as well as ours. There is nothing I can do."

From his scowl, I suspect he tried.

The man is only a few years older than us, but there is a hardness to him that says he's seen stuff like this way too often. Even as I step toward the ambulance, watching them load her up into the back, he steps in my path, his shoulders pressing into mine. "Don't. You'll only get arrested. She needs you on the outside more than she needs you sitting in a jail cell."

"Her jewelry." I turn toward him, knowing how important her jewelry is to her. Without it, she would be vulnerable. My fists clench at my sides, and I'm seconds away from launching myself at the fucker. "Why did you remove it?"

"The young lady opted to remove them herself when the orderlies said they would remove them from her." He reaches into his pocket and produces a small baggie that clinks when he hands it over.

Nestled inside is every single one of her warded rings.

I take the bag mutely, my chest feeling like it's being cracked open when the doors to the ambulance slam shut. I'm barely conscious of Hicks' voice rising as he talks faster and faster into his phone, my focus cemented on the attendants as they jump into the front of the vehicle and it slowly creeps down the driveway.

"Pookie!" James leaps over the railing, devastation in his scream as he runs after the ambulance. The police give chase, but Gunner steps down the stairs, blocking them with his bulk.

Knowing my brother wouldn't do well in jail after losing Rue, I charge after him, barely able to hold him back as the ambulance pulls onto the street.

"You promised you would never leave me!" he yells, everything inside him crumbling as the ambulance disappears down the road, and he sags in my arms.

My chest pangs at my brother's declaration. It's only been the two of us for so long. Letting the guys in was hard, but I eventually learned to tolerate them.

It was different with Rue.

She is like my heart living outside my body.

It's the most terrifying, thrilling thing I've ever experienced in my life. As I hug my brother to my chest, I vow to get Rue back no matter what. There is no place she can go where we won't follow, no place they can hide her that I won't infiltrate. It's only a matter of time before I break her out.

After all, it's what I do best.

"Son of a bitch," Ellis curses, pushing his glasses up to squeeze the bridge of his nose. "It's her father. He's trying to get her back. He's using the incident at the police station and the social media reports from last night to prove she's mentally unstable."

"Do we need to call Mrs. Killaghan? Can she do anything to stop them from taking her away?" Gunner asks, and I turn to discover the rest of the guys have followed us, leaving us standing in the middle of the street as the police cars pull away.

"It's already too late," Hicks says as he lowers his phone, his eyes hard as he gazes down the empty road. It's been twenty minutes since they took her away from us, but none of us have moved. "That was Mr. Hollis. There is no Rue Killaghan or Farthington in the system at St. Mary's Hospital, or anywhere for that matter. The psychiatric ward is defunct. It was discontinued in the eighties when it was discovered that the doctors were experimenting on their patients."

Jameson's head snaps up at the news, vengeance darkening his pale blue eyes until they turn stormy. "Then where the fuck did they take my pookie?"

A muscle ticks in Hicks' jaw, and he shakes his head. "That's what I intend to find out."

To be continued…