Manito Park hada plethora of gardens, including a Japanese garden and a rose garden. The rose garden portion of it was where Sterling and I had our first kiss. I parked my Bug, stepping out and stretching my back. It was about an hour and fifteen minutes from Vampire City to here. I pulled my jacket over the Glock at my hip, concealing it, as Liv tucked a dagger into her boot. I had no idea if this was a trap or not, but we owed it to Sterling and all of the hunters to try to get to the bottom of this.
“Sterling wouldn’t tell her where we kissed unless he trusted her,” I told Liv.
Liv didn’t look so sure. “Unless Ruby is the one who killed Sterling and got that out of him before she took his head.”
My stomach sank. She was right. We couldn’t be sure. “I’ll meet her alone, you slip into the trees. If there is a struggle you come up behind her.”
Liv nodded, disappearing into the park and then the woods beyond. I let out a shaky breath. We’d gotten up so early in order to get ready and feed Luka before the long drive, I hadn’t had time to have caffeine, something I was now regretting.
After locking my car, I headed into the park. There were a few people out and about, mostly on walks or biking the trails. One loved-up couple was having a breakfast picnic on a blanket. I crossed the open grass area and went around the building that concealed the rose park. This time of year they would all be in bloom. Striding up the steps, I looked out onto the pinks and reds and golds of the buds and petals and in that moment I remembered Sterling. We hadn’t even had a burial for him…
Guilt ate away at me until I heard Ruby’s voice.
“Aspen.”
I jumped a little, spinning with my hand tucked under my jacket and on the trigger of my weapon.
She was alone, but she was also packing heat, hand on her blade. We both looked at each other for a moment, sizing the other up.
I could tell she didn’t know whether or not to trust me, which made me trust her in that moment. I decided to go first. “I raided the breeder camp in Magic City three days ago and freed my biological mom. The women there have babies that psycho Maz buys and then sells to the Vampire Hunter Society.”
Ruby sighed, pulling her hand away from her weapon and extending her arms to hug me. She pulled me into her and I allowed it, wrapping my arms around her. My idol. Ruby Thorn.
“I knew you were a good kid when I met you in Portland. It’s so hard to know who to trust right now,” she murmured against my ear.
I pulled back and she looked out into the tree line, waving. Another hunter stepped out into the morning light and I chuckled.
“Your backup?”
She nodded.
I waved into the woods beyond her and Liv stepped out, causing Ruby to grin.
“Let’s sit and talk. It goes so much deeper than you think.”
After we settled into an unpopulated portion of the park, Ruby rubbed her forehead in a sign of stress. “I was on to Maz since last year. I didn’t know what exactly was wrong, but as I made it higher up into the ranks of the society, I started to see things that didn’t make sense. Only Maz got the files from our connection at the chief of police, only Maz brought in babies from the orphanage, Maz held all the money … you get the idea.”
I nodded, swallowing hard as Liv leaned in closer.
Ruby looked at me honestly. “I… I don’t even know where to begin.”
I shrugged. “Sterling?”
She swallowed hard. “I’m sorry to hear about what happened to him. They’re saying he fell in the line of duty. Maz had a whole vigil for him and everything.”
Anger flared up inside of me at that. Fell in battle!
“That’s bullshit,” Liv seethed.
Ruby nodded, her long braid shaking at her back. “I know. Sterling contacted me and said he wanted to meet up. I thought it odd a House of Rose hunter would want to meet with me, but he was acting paranoid and urgent over the phone, speaking in code and such, so I figured I would meet him and see what this was about.”
She continued: “We met up at Gonzaga University campus. He said he was going to meet you right after at Riverfront … I feel awful that—”
I reached out and grasped her shoulder. “It’s not your fault.” My throat was tight.
Gonzaga was right by Riverfront. It meant that Maz had gotten to Sterling directly after his meeting with Ruby and right before he was going to meet me. He’d probably only been dead minutes before I saw his head in that box. Maz had clearly followed him and waited for the perfect time to strike. I just wondered if she’d seen him with Ruby and if her life was in danger now.
If only I’d come sooner, drove faster, ran instead of walked … maybe I could have intercepted.
