She’s pale and the amount Dan beat her around the head worries me. “But I think you need to see a doctor.”
“No!”
Or the police, but I’ll save that suggestion until she’s calmer. “What if you’re concussed? Aren’t you supposed to stay awake or something? Are you sleepy?”
Ruby drags her hair from her eyes. “Your concern is touching. I’m fine, I’m not concussed.”
“How do you know that?”
Staring straight at me, Ruby says, “He gave me concussion before. I know the difference.”
Rejection. Frustration. Heart-rending pain for this girl. I can’t respond and return to the kitchen where I can hide how I feel. My knuckles are swollen and I grab ice from the fridge. I should get Ruby ice too. Should I?
I throw the door shut and grip my hair. I don’t know what the hell to do. Liv’s pain and abuse happened before I knew her; Ruby’s is current and in my face, her blood smeared on my blue shirt.
“Did you call Jax yet?”
Lost in the memories of Liv, I’m unaware of Ruby joining me in the kitchen. The bright halogen light illuminates the darkening and torn skin across her forehead and the caking blood on her cheek.
“No.” I touch her face, a small space my fingers can fit without brushing her injury. “I’m not going to.”
She takes my hand and moves it from her face. Ruby’s fingers are ice cold despite the warmth of the evening and I curl mine around them, refusing to let her go.
“Why?” she asks.
“Stay here. You’re safe here.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?” She doesn’t answer but I know why: because what happened last night. Because I fucked this up. “Besides, Jax is probably drunk somewhere, or in bed with whatever her name was.”
Ruby huffs. “Yeah.”
But she wants Jax, not me.
“Stay here. Tomorrow we talk about what we need to, Ruby.” I rub my fingertip across her cheek and she closes her eyes.
“I doubt I’ll be able to do much else.”
Oh, yes you will. You’ll be going to the police and sorting this. Then I can step back.