Builder Bear (Justice Squad Book 6) Read online

  Sasha was looking at her with the most concerned and sympathetic expression Ruby had ever seen and it turned her stomach. Not that she didn't appreciate her sister's concern, but she hated it directed at her. Her sister and her husband lived on a fraction of the income that Ruby had for herself, and yet they had a lovely life that was enviable to anyone. And Ruby had nothing.

  "It's for the best," Sasha said.

  "Right." Ruby took another long swig of champagne.

  She pulled herself up from the chair, gathering her massive skirt up around her knees. She found her way to the bathroom and locked herself in the stall. Between chugging champagne and crying, Ruby's mind raced with possible scenarios. Was Chad having an affair? When had he fallen out of love with her? Was he going on the honeymoon without her?

  There was a knock at the door and then it slowly opened. Sasha stood on the other side, this time looking angry instead of sympathetic. An emotion that Ruby wholeheartedly supported.

  “Chad is an asshole. I've never said it before because I knew how much you loved him. But the fact is that Tony and I have never liked him. We've never thought he was good enough for you."

  "Not according to mom," Ruby wailed.

  "Who cares what Mom thinks? She's bitter and angry because she never had any success of her own. And now she takes it out on you."

  “And Dad," Ruby said, taking another swig of champagne.

  "Why don't you stay here in Fate Rock with me for a while?"

  "Hell no," she said. “I’m going to take that dream vacation to the Bahamas without Chad. I’ll have much more fun without him anyway."

  She was really starting to get tipsy. She hadn't eaten anything but toast for breakfast.

  “You do what you need to do," Sasha said.

  “I need to get out of here. Will you help me?"

  "Of course.”

  Sasha stood and pulled out her cellphone, and after a few minutes she informed Ruby that the limo was ready and waiting to take her to the honeymoon suite.

  "Does anyone know where Chad is?" Ruby asked.

  "He's not at the hotel, if that's what you're concerned about," Sasha said.

  "Thank goodness for small favors," she said.

  Ruby grabbed another bottle of champagne on the way out to the car. She slipped in the backseat and was off to spend her wedding night nursing a broken heart.

  Chapter 3

  Ruby arrived at Fate Rock Inn, a ski lodge and resort. It was the nicest place in Fate Rock, and the only place Chad had been willing to lower himself and his expectations for a single night. The driver helped her out of the limo, and Sasha helped her discreetly to her suite, with the driver behind them carrying Ruby’s bags.

  When she made it to the room, she opened the second bottle of champagne and the cork popped across the room to a shriek of delight from Ruby. Sasha gave her a concerned look and Ruby blew a raspberry in return. She was no longer concerned about looking foolish.

  Maybe Sasha was right. Maybe it really was all for the best. Maybe Chad really was an asshole. In fact, she knew Chad with an asshole. What other kind of person would leave someone they'd been in a relationship with for six years at the altar? Couldn't he have broken up with her sooner? Before she'd poured herself into this ridiculously tight princess dress? Before she'd humiliated herself in front of everyone she knew? Before she had to see that smirk on her mother’s face that said I knew this was going to happen.

  Her mom had actually looked pleased at the drama ensuing and the humiliation that Ruby suffered. It was so like her. Why had Ruby ever believed that she could have anything else? She was doomed to live her life alone, writing books about other people's happiness while she lived as a spinster cat lady, drinking her sadness away with expensive champagne.

  At least it was the good stuff. At least Chad had made sure that neither of them spared any expense. He’d needed to impress his friends. Of course, they'd gone Dutch on paying for the wedding. Ruby wouldn't imagine asking her parents to pay for it. She was a grown woman who made more money in a year than her father made in ten. So why would she ask them for anything?

  But still, he got his way. He always did. And now, after all those years of her taking a backseat and accepting whatever he wanted, he’d just left her. Just like that. Without even giving her the respect of doing it before she was wearing a corset and a push-up bra.

  Speaking of which, she couldn't get the damn dress off fast enough. She started pulling on the buttons at the side of the dress, ripping them off because her numb fingers weren’t nimble enough to unbutton them properly. Sasha shot across the room and helped her slide out of the monstrosity of a dress.

  She never would have picked a dress like that, so overblown, but she’d thought that it would impress Chad and his friends, and it was the one her mother approved of the most. Not that she'd really approved of anything that Ruby did. The dresses were all too tight for her curvy frame. They showed too much of her saggy breasts. Or they made her skin look too pale. It wasn't until she'd put on the taffeta and tulle abomination that looked like the fantasy of a Disney princess-obsessed five-year-old that her mom had shown even the slightest approval. She should have known.

  Ruby sat on the bed in her structured corset and yanked her stockings off the garter-belt. She had to get out of this outfit.

  The corset was strangling her, and if she had to look at white silk for one second longer, she was going to scream. She was a thirty-two-year-old successful woman. She’d made a life for herself. Why the hell was she wearing white like some nineteen-year-old virgin? She flopped face down on the bed.

  “Sasha, would you unfasten my corset?” she said into the mattress.

  When the torture contraption was finally loosened from her body, she slipped into the bathroom, and began drawing a bath. She poured bubbles into the water and finally slipped in, with her second bottle of champagne in hand. The bubbles rose around her red skin where the corset had rubbed her raw. She let out a sigh of relief as she finally relaxed in the steaming water. She took another long swig of champagne and Sasha stepped through the door.

  "I've ordered you room service. And I'll wait until it arrives so I can open the door for you. I got steak and potatoes, and some ice cream with chocolate syrup for dessert. And a few side dishes. I think you're gonna really need to eat after all that champagne." For a little sister, Sasha sometimes acted like the older one. Especially now, as Ruby was literally losing her mind. "Then I'm going to have to go. I wish I didn't have to leave you alone." Sasha rubbed her round, seven-month pregnant stomach. “But the kids need me.”

  "Go, go. I'm not going to keep you here. I'm a big girl. I can drink myself into a stupor all on my own," Ruby said, winking and pointing at her sister.

  "I fully support you in that plan, sis, but I really hope that tomorrow, you can see all of this differently." Sasha sat down on the padded chair across from her and pulled it closer to the tub. "I know that you wanted to come home to Fate Rock, but Chad didn't. Tony and I would love to have you closer. It would mean so much to me. And maybe now, without Chad in your life, you can do that. You can do anything you want. Ruby, you are an amazing woman. You deserve to be loved by a good man. I know that you will be. You just need to put this into perspective."

  "I know," Ruby said, looking at her sister. Sasha’s face swam in the light of the bathroom.

  There was a knock at the door and Sasha stood. Ruby smelled the scent of steak wafting into the bathroom and her mouth watered. She really should have eaten more for breakfast. Sasha returned to the bathroom and patted her sister’s wet shoulder.

  "I'm gonna leave now, sis, but if you need anything tonight, please call me. I'm here for you. And I want you to come over to the house tomorrow as soon as you're up for it. You shouldn't be alone right now. I'd ask you back to the house, but I think that you probably wouldn't be the best influence for the kids right now. No offense. But I think it's good for you to get this part over with. Then pick yourself up and m
ove on. You're the strongest woman I've ever known, and I know that you're going to come out of this stronger than ever."

  Sasha bent down and kissed Ruby’s forehead. Ruby patted Sasha's shoulder with her wet hand. A tear slid down her face. Her sister was the sweetest, wisest woman. She wanted to be closer to her, and at least maybe this would make it possible. But being left at the alter was still more painful than anything she’d ever experienced.

  "Thank you, Sasha," Ruby said.

  "Anytime, sis."

  And then Ruby was alone. She washed her face of the thick spackling of makeup she'd endured that morning and climbed out of the bathtub. She wrapped herself in a fuzzy bathrobe, grabbed her champagne, and hobbled her way into the hotel room. The food was all set on the table. Ruby plopped down in the chair in front of it and removed the domes from the main course and the appetizers. Sasha had ordered her fried shrimp and jalapeno poppers. Two of Ruby's favorite things. She dug into the meal, feeling even better now that she had food in her stomach, but she didn't end her attack on the bottle of champagne. Not by a long shot.

  By the time she was digging into the ice cream, the champagne was gone. With the food in her stomach, and a few glasses of water, Ruby had sobered up considerably. She walked to the bed, plopped down and turned on the TV. The first thing to come on the screen was a man professing his eternal love to a woman. Ruby screamed and threw the remote. It missed the TV screen by mere inches, whacked into the wall, and busted. She was lucky it hadn’t broken the TV.

  She groaned and stood from the bed. Kneeling in front of the TV, she tried to find a way to change the channel or turn it off, but she couldn't find anything. She was stuck with this damned romantic comedy. She groaned to herself and raided the mini fridge. It was full of bottles of liquor, wine, and snacks. She pulled out handfuls of chips and whiskey and made a picnic for herself on the bed. She decided to hate-watch the romantic film while getting drunker than she'd ever been.

  When the TV station went to commercials, Ruby opened a mini bottle of whiskey, drank it in one, and then pulled open a bag of chips. They flew all over the bed and she began to eat them from the comforter.

  The first commercial was of the local weather station. There was going to be a storm coming in next week and it advised the citizens of Fate Rock to prepare. The next commercial was just as corny as the movie had been.

  "Are you looking for that one special someone?" the commercial asked. "Join mate.com today and find your fated mate. We have a 99.9% success rate. The one for you is just a tap away."

  The screen showed a website address while the man and woman behind it looked lovingly into each other's eyes. It reminded her of a commercial for depression medication. She rolled her eyes. What a scam. Love was a scam. She was never going to find love like that; it didn't even exist. It was all lies to sell TV commercial slots and expensive ugly dresses to pathetic lonely women like her. She opened the second bottle of whiskey and downed the shot. That one really hit, and her head started swimming. She was going to prove to the world that love and romance were all a bunch of BS. It was pathetic, really, because she herself made a living peddling that same stupid drug.

  She picked up her purse and rummaged through it, looking for her phone. Finally, she found it and swiped it open. Her fingers were clumsy and barely working, but she finally managed to get the app downloaded and opened.

  "Let's see if you can match a drunk and depressed jilted bride," she said as she started the silly questionnaire.

  Ruby hit enter on her satirical profile and waited for her matches to load. She'd entered her profile name as ‘the corpse bride.’ She’d said that she lived in hell and that she reaped souls for a living. She was cracking up, when she must've blacked out. Because the last thing she remembered was the loading screen.

  Chapter 4

  Ruby woke up with a splitting headache, lying on the bed in a pool of chip crumbs, her bathrobe exposing half of her chest. She pulled herself up from the bed, groaning like she'd just woken from the dead. Her phone was beside her on the bed, and she reached for it to check the time, but it was completely dead.

  She groaned, and when she stood the room spun like a carnival ride. She trudged across the room to the complementary coffee maker and put a little cup in the dispenser. She stood over the machine, staring at it as it filled her mug. Her mind was blank. Why was she so hung over? When the cup was finally finished filling, she picked it up and took a tentative sip, gingerly avoiding being burned. She sat down on the table by the window with the remnants of last night's room service. The smell of the leftovers was repulsive, so she covered the plates back up with the domes.

  As she took another sip of coffee, what had happened the day before finally dawned on her. She looked back at the bed, half expecting to see Chad, but it was empty. He’d left her at the altar.

  Her stomach rumbled, threatening to empty. She took another sip of coffee, trying to settle it down. Her head ached badly, so she grabbed her purse off the floor and pulled out the small bottle of painkillers. With the half a cup of water on the table, she took two Tylenol and washed it down with what turned out to be flat, warm Sprite. She groaned at the sweet, sappy flavor and went back to drinking her coffee.

  Her life was over. She'd been utterly humiliated. And her way of dealing with it had been drinking what appeared to be at least one bottle of champagne, or was it two? And about five tiny bottles of whiskey. No wonder she felt like hell frozen over.

  She finished one cup of coffee and then made another, her brain finally thawing out. Chad had left her. That was a fact. The six-year relationship she had placed so much importance on was over. She let out a deep sigh. What was she going to do?

  And then she remembered the farmhouse. That beautiful turn-of-the-century farmhouse on fifty acres. Only forty miles from Fate Rock and her sister. She thought about the ancient oak trees in the front yard and the little lake with a bench nearby. She could sit by it and write her books. The dream of a place like that made her shudder with sadness and anticipation.

  Maybe now that Chad was no longer in her life, she could have her a place like that. A place to call her own. A home. The condo she lived in with Chad in Manhattan had never really felt like a home. It had all the luxuries that money could buy — between the two of them, even in a city like New York, they could live well — but Ruby had never really cared about any of that. She'd wanted to return home to Fate Rock since she'd gotten her first royalty check for her first novel, but her publishers had kept her in the city through several more books, and then she’d met Chad. By the time she had the sway with the company to finally leave the city, Chad was in her life and he wouldn’t have agreed to leave.

  Ruby went to her phone and plugged it in, waiting for it to power up. It was fully dead and took several minutes to even register. And then as soon as it came on, an auto update started. Then she remembered she'd already written down the address to the farmhouse and put it in her wallet. She opened her wallet and found the slip of paper. With a sigh of hope, she read the address. She knew that the farmhouse was empty, and no one would care if she drove by. Feeling like maybe there was a light at the end of the tunnel, Ruby put the address back in her wallet and went to the bathroom to get ready.

  When Ruby was finished with her shower, she emerged from the steamy bathroom wrapped in a fuzzy bathrobe, feeling a million times better than when she'd woken up. She dressed in boots, warm leggings and a long sweater. She combed and dried her hair and dabbed on some makeup. She looked better than she should considering what she’d done to her body the day before. But since she'd been dieting and working out nonstop to get in shape for the wedding, maybe she was healthy enough to take a little abuse. She'd heard enough insults from her mom during the dress fitting to want to avoid the topic on her wedding day.

  Not that Ruby was overly concerned about her appearance. She liked to be healthy and strong to do her favorite outdoor activities like hiking and camping, but she wasn't the kind of wom
an who tried to stay thin just for the sake of being thin. She was relieved, though, when she looked in the mirror and saw her recent health regimen seemed to pay off even after a night of overindulgence.

  When she was done dressing and getting ready, she checked her phone and saw that it had finished updating. She had a bunch of text messages and notifications from her sister, as well as from something called mate.com. It sounded vaguely familiar. Had she signed up for something last night while she was drunk? She could barely remember the night before, but she hoped she didn't do anything embarrassing.

  Sasha had wanted her to visit first thing in the morning, but Ruby had other plans. She quickly sent her sister a text letting her know that she was all right and not to worry about her. She slipped on her jacket and hurried out of the hotel. Luckily for her, her rental car was sitting in the parking lot; one of the few things that had gone her way in the last couple of days.

  She clicked they key to open the door. Climbing inside, she put her purse on the passenger seat, closed the door, and started the engine. She entered the address into the GPS and waited for the computer to come online. Then she entered the address from the slip of paper on her purse. It updated and started the directions. She had a smile on her lips as she started out of the parking lot and pulled onto the road.

  She followed the GPS instructions onto the freeway, listening to music on the radio. Her heart was still broken, but she couldn't help but feel a sense of freedom and excitement. She sang along to one of her favorite songs and made her way to her destiny.