With All my love,
Ruby
Tears streaked down my face as I crumpled the paper in my hands that were trembling and shaking. She was gone, leaving me behind so she can finish what she started. Maybe if I was lucky, I could find her on the highway, but I had no idea when she left, which way she went, or where she would go.
I tried to think back about all the conversations we had, but nothing stuck out in my mind.
Finally finding my phone, I dialed her number.
“Pick up. Pick up. Pick up.” My silent plea was answered by a ringing coming from the bedroom, and even more dread took over me.
She left her phone here… there was no way to track her.
My fingers flew as I dialed the only person that could help me.
Scorpio picked up on the second ring.
“Cap?” he asked.
“She’s gone!” I cried out, literally unable to hide my distress.
“Who?”
“Ruby! She fucking left me.”
Scorpio whispered something to someone near him, and I was hoping it was Juliette.
“Juliette wants to know if she left anything behind?”
“Yeah me. Did you not hear me the first time? Oh, and a fucking suicide note. How can she do this to me, Scorpio? How can she just up and leave and think that I can go on without her?”
“Maybe the same way you thought she could go on without her husband, Cap.”
“That’s not the same thing!” I raged, getting pissed off. “She’s going somewhere to kill herself. She left her goddamn cell phone behind, and I have no idea where the fuck she went. She could be anywhere.”
Juliette took the phone away from Scorpio. “Don’t worry, Cap. If she’s still alive and out there somewhere, we’ll find her. I’ll put out an APB. She couldn’t have gotten too far, right?”
“I don’t know,” I yelled in frustration, my hand tearing at the mohawk on my head. “She left sometime last night, on her bike. She took her husband’s urn with her. She’s planning on killing herself, Juliette. And there’s not a single goddamn thing I can do about it.”
Hyperventilating, I fought to take a breath, only being able to get out short gasping sounds.
“Breathe, Cap. You need to keep your head right now. Just breathe. Give me ten minutes, and I’ll be right over. If she’s out there somewhere, we’ll find her.”
Juliette could assure me all she wanted to, but I already knew the outcome to this tragic love story. Ruby was gone, choosing the ghost of her husband over the real romance thatwas blooming between us. It was a blow I didn’t think I’d ever be able to come back from.
She had chosen him.
She had chosen wrong.
And the guilt of sleeping through her departure will never leave me. Last night was a fucking beautiful mistake. I should’ve never touched her… she wasn’t ready. I knew she wasn’t, but I still pushed her to keep going. I was putting my own selfish urges before her needs, and because of my stupid mistake, the only woman I’d ever really cared about, just rode out of my life, ready to die.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The sun beat down on my back as my bike curved along the winding road that made up the Pacific Coast Highway. The view was breathtaking. Everything I ever imagined it to be.
Chase would’ve loved this.
Cap would love this.
