Cut Glass: Jewels - Ruby

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Warning

“We have problems.”

“How are you, Cut?” Bar asked her before she could go further.

Cutler sighed. The woman already knew she was currently sitting in an emergency room, getting her leg tended.

“Physically, I’m fine, but my leg looks like a very ugly prop in a horror movie. And that’s why I’m calling.”

“Is the leg going to extend your down time?”

Cutler snagged the physician who was still in the emergency room and spoke to him while Bar listened. “Dr. Pankow, you said I had a hairline fracture. How long should I stay off of it?”

“Forty-eight hours. Then we’ll take another x-ray. I’ve prescribed a pain killer.” He paused to give her a smile. “That was quick thinking on your part, using the skis to protect the fracture, and provide some leverage so you would keep the weight off of it.” Giving Cutler a pat on the shoulder, he nodded and left the room. Cutler went back to the phone.

“Did you get that? I’ll be here for at least forty-eight hours. Oh, joy, oh, joy. Hospital food for two days. My cup runneth over,” she drawled with as much sarcasm as she could muster. Truthfully, though, she was thankful to be at the hospital. The place was well guarded, and she could finally get some restful sleep. The past couple of nearly sleepless months had eroded away her meager energy reserves. The pain killers would drug her enough to finally get a few hours of actual rest, which would help her build up her stamina again.

“You mentioned problems,” Bar reminded her, breaking into her thoughts. “Do they have anything to do with the jasper?”

“I hope the problem is just with the jasper. For beginners, the damn thing attacked me with a monkey wrench.”

hope The brief silence that followed her statement, Cutler had expected. Bar’s next reaction, she hadn’t.

“Then it’s started.”

“Huh?”

“I said.” Bar took a long, deep breath and noisily let it out. “I said it’s started.”

“Yeah, and I said huh,” Cutler responded without trying to hide her peevishness. “That’s lapie talk for what the hell is it, and why did it start, in case you need a translation.”

itit “It’s something I’d rather not discuss over the phone.”

“Oh, quit the bullshit, Bar! It’s my ass on the line with these things. Mine and all the other lapies still out in the field. What I don’t need from you right now is for you to make some scary comment like that, and leave me hanging in the breeze until I get back, or you’re ready to explain further. Now, come clean with me. It’s not good news, is it?”

“No, it’s not,” the woman reluctantly admitted.

“FUBAR time, right?”

“Cutler.”

“Never mind. I get the picture. Gee, I didn’t know I’d develop the ability to read minds, among all my other skills.” Cutler snorted.

“I won’t mince words with you, Cutler. I won’t lie to you either, nor will I sugar coat it. I can’t. Not when lives are at stake.” The woman laughed lightly, making Cutler blink in astonishment. She had never heard Bar laugh like that, especially when discussing the bloody business of jewel hunting. “I haven’t heard that expression in a long time,” the boss admitted.

“What expression? You mean ‘FUBAR’?”

“Yes. That one. How very apropos. Things have become very f****d up beyond all recognition.” Then, suddenly, she was all-business again, the Bar Cutler knew and relied upon. The boss she trusted and sometimes hated with a passion. “Are you positive the jasper meant to use the wrench as a weapon?”

“Yes, I’m positive. How else do you think my leg got bashed? The damn thing hit me with it!”

“It didn’t happen to have it already in its hand when it swung it at you?” Bar persisted.

“No. It deliberately went for it.”

. “Was there anything else it did out of the ordinary that alarmed you?”

“Oh, s**t, yeah. I hope you’re taking notes.”

“Go ahead. I’m listening.”

Cutler adjusted herself on the emergency room bed. Fingers of pain clawed at her leg, making her wince, but the drugs were beginning to take effect. “It ran from me.”

“It what?”

Gee, was that disbelief in the woman’s voice?

Gee, was that disbelief in the woman’s voice? “Yeah, Bar. You heard me correctly the first time. It made the usual taunts and threats. Then it turned and ran like hell. I managed to catch it in the garage before it could escape.”

“How did the kill go?”

“Fortunately that one was by the book. Sort of. Oh, and it had a funny taste.”

“What kind of taste?”

“Umm, kind of like cherries. Spicy cherries. Or very unusual strawberries. Bar, have you ever eaten a jewel that had a taste?”

taste? “No. Never,” the woman admitted.

“Neither have I,” Cutler told her. “It wasn’t a pleasant taste, but neither was it so awful that I couldn’t hold my gorge until I got far enough away to throw it up.” She smacked her lips, aware of the jasper’s flavor even now. “I can still taste it in my mouth.”

“Cut, have the doctors swab the inside your mouth.”

“Already done.”

“Good. Anything else?” Bar asked.

Cutler gave a humorless little laugh. “Oh, like a cowardly jewel that tastes like peppered cherries and uses a monkey wrench to try and bash in my head isn’t enough?”

“I’m sending out notification right now to the others,” Bar told her. “Besides the leg, are you all right?”

“Yeah.”

“How about your stomach?”

Oh, s**t. Now she’s gone and done it.

Oh, s**t. Now she’s gone and done it. “Stomach’s fine,” Cutler managed.

“Good. I need to go. Get some much needed rest, Cut.”

“I’ll try.”

She hung up before Bar could say anything more. The woman’s order to rest was a given. It was what the boss didn’t say that bothered Cutler.

didn’t For one thing, Bar didn’t try to reassure her. Many times in the past when Cutler had voiced any of her problems or worries, Bar had always been quick to ease her mind. This time there was no allaying her doubts or fears, no calming words or promises, and that omission was disturbing.

But not as disturbing as the simple question about her stomach.

Damn it, Bar! Damn you!

Damn it, Bar! Damn you! The woman knew what the query would do. It would put her mind back on the one thing she couldn’t handle. On the one person she could never forget, and the pain that was worse than anything she could tolerate physically. The pain that would never stop tearing her heart into pieces.

You had to bring him up in that typically abstract way of yours, didn’t you? Why?

You had to bring him up in that typically abstract way of yours, didn’t you? Why? Oh, God, it hurt to think of him. To remember the days they had spent together driving through Colorado. Days they had used to learn about each other, to open up and reveal their innermost secrets and desires. Followed by nights spent in sensuous exploration and raw s*x. It had been their honeymoon without the prerequisite wedding.

She stared at the vision of his face floating before her. His gooseberry garnet eyes were soft as he stared back. David Fellowes had been the only man to touch the real person inside the hard armor named Cutler Glass. He had promised her the impossible, and like every one else in her life, he had broken his promise. The other broken promises had hurt for a little while, until she’d managed to shrug them off and go on with her life. But this time Cutler doubted if she would ever get over the pain of him abandoning her. Not when every memory sliced through her with the same intense agony.

Time heals all wounds? What a load of BS.

A soft sob escaped her before she could stop it. The nurse still in the room heard her but mistook its cause.

“I’ll go see if I can’t get you something else for the pain,” she murmured, and hurried out the door.

Hastily, Cutler wiped her face and nose with the thin, thermal blanket they’d given her. She forced herself to take a deep, calming breath, then she cleared her throat.

Concentrate, Cut. Concentrate. You can do it. You’ve done it before and you can do it again. Think other thoughts. Think about, yeah, think about that crazy ass jasper. Why did it act freaky? And why did Bar say ‘it’ was starting? What"s ‘it’? What was starting?

Concentrate, CutConcentrate. You can do it. You’ve done it before and you can do it again. Think other thoughts. Think about, yeah, think about that crazy ass jasper. Why did it act freaky? And why did Bar say ‘it’ was starting? What"s ‘it’? What was starting? Obviously Cutler wouldn’t get her answers until the hospital released her and she reported back to the company. Until then she might as well get some rest while she had the chance.

Her eyes dropped to the old, battered duffle bag sitting on the only chair in the small space. The piece of jasper was inside it, waiting to be placed in her personal vault amid her other trophies.

Cutler blinked. The nurse had returned and was injecting something into the tube that fed saline solution into her bloodstream. Already she could feel herself becoming drowsy. Whatever it was they were giving her, it was definitely some good stuff. It was even easing the brittle hurt in her heart.

“There. You need to lie down. The other medicine should already be taking effect,” the nurse smiled.

Giving her a wobbly nod, Cutler allowed the woman to help ease her back onto the bed. The room was fogging, and her thoughts were starting to disconnect as the blanket was pulled back over her.

Less than a minute later, she was unconscious.