Free Haunted by Amber Lynn Natusch Page A

you. I owed you that much,” he continued, still standing in front of me. “If you'd given me the chance to, I think it would have avoided the whole parking lot incident.”
    “Possibly. However, you shouldn't be surprised that several months worth of abandonment, confusion, and trauma wouldn't come out especially pretty.”
    “Touché.” He had the faintest curl at the corner of his mouth.
    “I meant what I said, Sean, but I didn't say it how I wanted to. I've got a lot going on right now. I'm pretty stressed and I've had nobody to confide in. It's been miserable,” I told him, feeling an instant sense of relief. The simple act of admitting that I couldn't deal with the chaos in my life, especially to him, seemed to ease my sense of impending doom.
    His brow furrowed and once again he moved towards me only to stop himself before making contact. He looked concerned.
    “What's going on?” he asked.
    “It's…it's Cooper. I don't really want to get into it now, Sean, it's late. I'm tired. It'll keep until tomorrow,” I said, not hiding the fatigue in my voice.
    “OK, but where do we go from here?” he asked, searching my face for answers.
    I looked around my room at the mess and at the clock on the stand. 3:02 a.m. The reality of the situation was that I needed to clean, and it seemed like Sean was up for explaining himself; I could multitask.
    “If you want to get things off your chest, go for it. I've gotta clean this mess anyways,” I said, looking around the room. “Maybe we can clean up two messes at once.”
    He chuckled quietly at my play on words and proceeded to kick his shoes off and climb up onto my bed, which was the only clean surface in the room.
    “You want to know why I left, correct?” he asked. I gave him my best “seriously?” face and he took the hint. “Okay, okay, point taken!” he said, holding up his hands in surrender. “I'll start from the beginning. When I originally left, after I found out you were RB, I met with the Elders of the PC to see how things were going to be handled.”
    Handled?
    “When I arrived, they had already met and decided things. You were to die,” he said, sounding solemn. “You have no idea what I went through to change their minds…what I had to agree to.”
    “What? What did you agree to?” I asked, staring at him across the room. His expression was heavy.
    “It's nothing I want to get into right now.”
    “Horseshit! Tell me now or go. If we're going to do this, Sean, you're going to tell me everything,” I said, snapping at him more loudly than I should have.
    He looked at me conflicted. He didn't want or mean to tell me what he was about to, and he sighed aloud before starting.
    “I needed to make them see that I was serious, that you were not a threat to the humans,” he said before pausing yet again. “I swore it on my life.”
    I literally gasped at those words.
    “You did what?” I shouted, lunging towards him, nearly tripping on a rogue pair of jeans.
    “I told them that my life would be forfeit if anything happened – they could kill me,” he answered calmly.
    “Why? Why would you do that? Why would….”
    “Because they wanted you dead, Ruby, don't you understand? There was no negotiating; it was done. I wasn't there to inform them of the situation, I was there to receive your assassination orders,” he said, springing from the bed. I took a deep breath before speaking.
    “So the only reason I'm still alive is because of what you did?” I asked softly, averting my eyes.
    “Yes,” he replied, walking towards me. He came to rest with his hands on my shoulders. “And I'm glad I did it.”
    I looked up at him through teary eyes. I had no idea…
    “Sean, I…I'm…I don't know…,” I stammered, never finishing my sentence.
    He pulled me to his chest, wrapping his arms around me.
    “You and I should be enemies, Ruby. You should arouse the mercenary in me, but you don't. It couldn't be more the opposite,” he said, still