Page 10 of Keeping Knight

Ruby draws in another shuddering gasp. She looks up at me with eyes shiny with tears. “He… he ran. When you…” Her gaze shifts to the apartment doorway, and her brow creases. “Did you…”

“I kicked in the door. I had to. I heard you yell. I thought… shit. What happened? Who did this to you?”

Tears leak from her eyes and streak down the sides of her face. She swallows, then winces. “I don’t know. He had… he had a mask. He…” Her voice cracks. “He knocked me down. Hit me. Then…”

More tears spill free, dampening her hair.

Rage ignites an inferno inside me.

A man put his hands on her. Tried to kill her. And there I was, taking my time coming upstairs, hesitating in the hallway…

Guilt punches me hard in the chest. “Shit,” I mutter. “Dammit.”

“He ran,” Ruby whispers. Her gaze searches mine. “When you… were hitting the door. I think… he was afraid of being caught. So he went out the window to the fire escape.”

I glance at the window again. And yes, now that Ruby’s mentioned it, the blind looks like one might if a person in a hurry tried to shove past it. A piece of shit monster who would attack a sweet, innocent woman like Ruby.

“I don’t know… how he got in here.” Ruby sucks in another shuddering breath. “The door was locked. The lights⁠—”

“Was he alone?” I interrupt. “Did you see anyone else? Hear them?”

She shakes her head. “No. Just him.”

I know I need to look for myself. I have to be sure.

But first, I look Ruby up and down again. Her clothes are rumpled, but thankfully all in one piece. She doesn’t appear to be bleeding or have any obvious broken bones, although without a full examination, it’s impossible to know for certain.

“I have to check the apartment,” I tell her. Before I think about it, I brush a tear from her cheek. “I’ll be quick. Just stay right⁠—”

“No. Don’t.” Her voice breaks at the end. One small hand grabs my sleeve. “Please. Don’t leave me.”

Ah, shit. I don’t want to.

What I want to do is pick Ruby up and carry her far, far away from here. Far enough away that all of this becomes a nightmare she can wake up from instead of being her terrifying reality.

The protectiveness I feel for her is overwhelming. There’s barely room for anything else.

“Hey, what’s going on in here?” At the sound of a new voice, my head jerks towards the hallway, where a tall man with shaggy hair and horn-rimmed glasses is standing. He’s peering into Ruby’s apartment with an expression of deep concern. “What happened? I heard the pounding.” His gaze shoots over to Ruby, and his features jolt with shock. “Shit! What happened?”

He starts to come into the apartment, and I bark, “Stay back. Call 911. Tell them there was an intruder. That he attacked a woman. We need an ambulance.”

“Ruby?” An older, white-haired woman joins the shaggy-haired man. She looks inside the apartment and gasps. “Ruby! Oh, lovey, are you hurt?”

“Stay outside,” I order. These people are making me itchy. They’re unknown variables who seem harmless, but until I get a better handle on things…

“I’m just going to check the apartment real quick,” I assure Ruby. The fear that flashes across her face makes me feel horrible. Like I’ve failed her again. “I’ll be right back. I promise.”

Ruby pinches her lips together, as if she’s trying to physically hold her words in. Her chin wobbles. Then she gives me the tiniest nod. “You’ll be right back?” she whispers. “You promise?”

The urge to pull her into my arms is almost impossible to resist. But instead, I settle for stroking her cheek. “I promise.”

Chapter Three

RUBY

“We can release you tonight, as long as you have someone who can stay with you.”

The doctor glances up from his clipboard, his unruly brows drawing into a questioning V. “Is there anyone?” he continues. “I don’t feel comfortable sending you home unless there is.”