Still, the reality she was raped is hard to handle.
She was beaten with rocks, mutilated like a barbarian in a place she should’ve felt safe.
She was kicked in the sides, hard enough for bruises to show up on her ribs to the back of her arms.
They used whatever they could find.
I’ll kill them for what they’ve done. I’ll kill every last fucking one of them! I know how I need to keep my rage bottled up because I don’t want to scare Ruby off, but I’d be lying if I said it was easy. I’ve kept my anger bottled up for a month, and I’ll be determined as fuck to keep it bottled up a bit longer. So, I wrap my arms around my sweet girl and pull her to my chest. And I hold her.
I hold her so tight her eyes might eventually pop out of her head, hoping she’ll know how much this brazen, experienced outlaw cares about her. I might be a shit man at putting things into words, but I’m a damn good one at showing people how I feel.
Taking the palm of my hand, I force her to look up into my eyes. I want her to see the seriousness crossing my face, as well as the sincerity in my voice. “If you’re telling me this because you think it changes things, it doesn’t. You aren’t broken. You aren’t damaged. What you are is a survivor, my sweet, precious girl. You are as resilient as they come.” Bringing my lips down to hers, I wait, not wanting to force the action. If I’m right, she wants me just as badly as I want her, but I’m not a foolish man.
I’ll wait for her to make the first move. I’ll give her the option to decide if this is where she wants to pause things tonight, but I won’t ever make her feel like those cowards did.
Ruby tilts her head up and her velvet lips collide with mine. Our kiss isn’t hungry or rabid, but slow and sensual. Her body falls against mine, showing me just how much the woman trusts me. She slides her hands up my chest, around my neck, and pulls herself onto my lap. As her hands become tangled in my hair my cock grows harder with every waking moment.
But as much as I want to sink myself inside her, to show her how a real man who cares about her can make her feel, I know this isn’t the time.
Ruby is a delicate woman.
She’s my sweet girl, and I won’t scare her off before I’ve even had the chance to claim her as mine.
Pulling my lips from hers, I stare into her blue eyes. “Let me hold you tonight, sweet girl.” My words come out raspy, filled with need and my heart beats heavily in my chest.
“I . . . I want more than to be held,” she murmurs sweetly, her eyes looking at me, trying to figure out where I’m going with this.
“All in time, Ruby. All in time.” I bring her lips down to mine and kiss her passionately, needing to show her what she does to me. As I do, I bring her down onto the bed with me, forcing her closer to my body, ensuring she’s nestled under my protective arms.
No one will fuck with my sweet girl ever again, and if they try, well, they won’t know what they’re going up against.
Chapter Four
The most beautiful part is, I wasn’t even looking when I found you
~ Autumn
Zorro
New Year’s Day
“What are we doing up here?” Ruby asks while wrapping her arms around herself. We’re on the top of the clubhouse. Well, not on top. We’re out on the second level porch, the one that leads down to the back area of the property where we have most of our parties. In the winter we barely use this deck since it’s so damn cold and it snows about every other day.
“You’ll see,” I mutter against the back of her hair, looking up to the dark night sky.
Since Christmas things have been going good. We haven’t consummated anything between us, but I have her wrapped in my arms every damn night and steal forbidden kisses from her behind closed doors. She’s too afraid to tell her brothers we’re making anything official, so I respect her need to be a bit private right now. She tells me everything will come out eventually, but I don’t want her keepin’ me waiting forever.
A loud whistling sound rings out and a second later there’s a popping that follows. Gold, silver, and pink fireworks explode in the sky. With every pop, Ruby jumps just a bit and her eyes light up with excitement. “This is beautiful!” She laughs, completely in awe.
Here at the club we haven’t gone big for holidays in a while. This Christmas was the first real holiday we had in a long time, but after having so much death come at us in a short amount of time . . . it felt fuckin’ rude to plan extravagant parties and get togethers. Not when we were missing some of the most important people in our lives.
Fuck, it started with Cracker getting blown to bits trying to protect Ivy. Saffron was burned alive in the old clubhouse, and Fist took a knife to the heart to save Alexa. Three people who were important to every single one of us here.
Sure, we survived it all . . . but I won’t ever stand here and act like it was easy.
I’m just glad I was able to talk Zane into putting on a spectacular show for New Year’s Day. Octavia and Ashley nagged on him for having a party for Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day. Because of it I thought he’d put his foot down, but Octavia said Neo would love the lights, and it was a done deal. He’d do anything for his kid, fuckin’ anything.
I stand here with my arms wrapped around Ruby for at least fifteen minutes while we watch the entire show. The club must’ve spent at least five grand on fireworks for tonight, but it’s alright. We can afford it, that’s for damn sure. With the extra work we’ve been picking up and the alliances we’re forming things are going well. Hell, Zane already told us we have church tonight, so there must be somethin’ he needs to tell the group of us.
“That was so pretty,” Ruby giggles, turning around to face me. Her eyes can light up the darkest of my days. Every time I look at her I see it, her positivity, her resilience. I’m a damn lucky man and I don’t take it for granted.
My phone buzzes in my pocket so I take it out and look at the time. It’s five to seven and Zane asked us to be downstairs at seven sharp. “I’m glad you liked it, sweet girl. But I gotta go head downstairs for church. I’ll catch up with you after, alright?”
“Okay. I’ll go see what Ashley and Octavia are up to,” Ruby immediately answers, walking off toward the French doors that lead out onto the second story deck. I decide to cut down the wooden stairwell and take the back door into the club and get settled into my seat in the room where we hold church.
Leaning back in my seat, I wait as the rest of the guys pour in. Zane came in right after me, and Blackjack was behind him. It was a good couple of minutes before Bull, Grim, Tex, Dracus, Bolt, Hammer, and Axel came piling in. Skirting it close like they always do.
Dracus shuts the door firmly behind him, opting to stand at the door instead of taking his seat. Zane cocks a brow and looks at him. “What’re you doing over there?”
Dracus stifles out a chuckle. “We don’t need any Crina repeats. You hear about that girl bustin’ into church? Heard she planted a few slammers into some faces too.”
I spot most of the brothers trying to hide their laughter, but I sure don’t. Chaz, our brother at our Las Vegas charter, sure does know how to pick women. He’s never gone for the plain Jane type of girls.
Zane waves his hand in dismissal, not wanting to waste his energy on dealing with Dracus’ nonsense. “I have some news brothers and figuring it’s a new year . . . today seemed fitting to tell you all what I’ve been able to solidify with the Steele brothers.”
The Steele brothers. They’re multi-billionaires who act as investors to small start-up companies, but in reality, it’s all a front. They’re criminal royalty, running guns across North America. A few months ago, they contracted us and a couple of our ally MCs to help them get their product where it needed to go. But, it was done on a job-by-job basis. From the sounds of it, we’ve got something a bit more solid.
“You gonna tell us, or just stand there with that smug look on your face?” Bull quips, crossing his arms.
“I secured
us a contract with the Steeles. We’ll do a couple runs for them every month to move their product, mostly at night but sometimes it’ll be during the day depending on where we need to go. They’re paying us . . . well. Very well. We could shut down Vixens tomorrow and still have plenty of cash to keep the club going, feed everyone, and have shit leftover.”
“Octavia wouldn’t ever let your ass shut the Vixens down. That’s her pride and joy.” Hammer cackles, cocking a brow to our Prez. I’m sure Zane was only using it as a form of expression, but Hammer isn’t wrong.
Zane puts both his hands up. “Look, I’m not shuttin’ Vixens down. Y’all know O’ would castrate me if I ever tried to tell her how to run her business but, I didn’t just come here to tell y’all about our contract with the Steeles. I wanted to give y’all a heads up. I’m debating pullin’ Chaz from Vegas and sending him to Mexico. Amara needs a solid VP, and I think he’d be a good choice. I spoke to Damon about it briefly and he has no problem with it. Nothing is solid yet, ‘cause y’all know how much of a wildcard Chaz can be.”
Furrowing my brows, I’m the first one to speak. “Everything cool with him?”
Zane nods. “Yeah, everything is fine. It’ll be easier if he’s helping Amara with her charter,” his tone drops to something a bit more serious, so I pick up on his que and know not to irritate him further. I drop it and accept his answer for what it is. “Our newly contracted runs won’t start until mid-February, but I’ll run down shit with you when I have it figured out. O’, Neo, and I will be flying out to Atlanta in the beginning of February to meet with Jordan personally. Now, Blackjack will be in charge while I’m away, so do me a favor and don’t fuck up my club.”
With that, Zane slams the gavel down on the table and we all file out of the room. Everything that’s been said behind church’s closed door won’t be muttered off to the prospects, or our ol’ ladies. Well, that’s a lie. I’m sure some of the guys will open their big, fat jaws.
Chapter Five
She’s mad, but she’s magic. There’s no lie in her fire
~ Charles Bukowski
Ruby
Mid-January
“This is the last one, I swear.” Ashley’s trying to convince everyone she’s not having any more kids after this, but who can really believe her? Blackjack gives her one glance from across the room and she practically melts into a puddle.
Octavia gives her a glance that says it all, nods her head up and down while raising her brows. “Uh-huh, and the sky isn’t blue either, right?”
Ashley rolls her eyes at her sister-in-law but waves her hand in dismissal. “Don’t even act like you wouldn’t be doing the same thing I am. You love my brother so damn much. If he wanted another ten, you’d give them to him.”
“Ten? I don’t think so. I might stop at three, max, but Neo is enough for us right now. Everything is so perfect and I don’t want to risk another baby . . . not messing things up but changing our routine just yet. Instead, I want to live in the honeymoon stage a little while longer.”
It feels weird being seated at this table with the two of them. They’re Reapers royalty and I’m . . . two of their guys’ little sister? I’m not trying to put myself down or anything, but they have a solid place here and sometimes I get the feeling like I’m replaceable. I guess I can give credit for having those issues, to my father. He really did a number on me as a kid, going from city to city, never around enough to come to a birthday party or even show up for the holidays. I thank god every day my brothers’ moms were close. If they weren’t, I don’t know where I would’ve ended up. Especially after my mom died. God, I don’t even want to think about the routes I would’ve gone down without my family.
“Ruby, did you hear Rosa?” Ashley asks while Noelle shrieks in the background. There’s a part of the clubhouse that’s like an open playroom for the kids. Since the club is growing, they needed something a little bigger, especially with these babies on the way too.
“Huh? No, sorry.” Turning around in my chair, I look for Rosa. She’s one of the women who work for Octavia’s company, also known as one of the Vixens. They take artistic nudes of themselves and post them online under a secure website. Rosa pays a fee to Octavia for being one of the Vixens, and Rosa gets a percentage of fees from her subscribers, as do all the Vixens.
Rosa’s near the front of the club. I can tell because she has this rich dark green hair, a little darker than emerald and it makes her olive skin pop. In front of her is a short, curvy woman I didn’t ever think would actually show up here. Sure, I invited her to come and visit . . . but I never thought Portia would actually come.
This isn’t her type of scenery. She’s more into going to Vail for drinks, or Toronto for the food. If it’s a big city versus a small town, Portia is always going to choose the city.
“Portia, what’re you doing here?” My shock is made very known by the tone of my voice, which I guess I should’ve thought about before I spoke.
She puts a hand on her hip and comes strutting up to me, dragging her luggage along with her. “If I can remember correctly, you were the one who invited me up for a visit anytime, remember?”
Yep, that was me. “Sorry, I’m just so glad to see you. I didn’t know you were coming so—”
“Cut the bullshit, Ruby. Just tell me where I can put my bag,” Portia snaps, not that I can blame her. I’ve barely spoken to her since Halloween and I’ve been dodging her texts, needing to work through my head by myself before I put any sort of burden on her.
“We have an open bedroom in the red barn house, next to the white one,” Rosa adds, talking about the new construction the club had built not too long ago. There were two houses added in addition to the updates around the club. I’m pretty sure I remember Grim saying something to me about friends of the club, allies or something, staying there from time to time.
“Cool. Thank you. I’m Portia, by the way.” Portia extends her hand to Rosa and Rosa shakes it.
“Nice to meet you. I’ll get one of the prospects to take your bag over,” Rosa tells Portia but a second later she’s hollering over to Bama to take Portia’s shit in the house. He of course bends to anyone’s will. The guy seems to be really trying to prove his place here, at least, it’s what I think.
Heaviness swarms through my chest at Portia’s sudden arrival and feeling the need to get out of here I clear my throat. “Do you want to go for a walk and catch up?”
Sassily as ever, Portia nods. “I think it’s about damn time we do.”
I nod, understanding her frustration and head for the front door of the club where I have my winter coat. Sliding my arms through the sleeves, a group of men come inside. They’re wearing cuts like all the Reapers’ guys do, but instead of it saying ‘Reapers’, it reads ‘Corrupt Kings’.
The group of men pass us but one of them holds open the door for me so Portia and I can get outside. “Thank you.”
“You’re very welcome,” the guy responds while we make our way out of the clubhouse. I immediately walk to the right, down toward Ashley and Blackjack’s house. Maybe I can take Portia to see the lake. It’s really beautiful when it’s frozen over. Zorro took me and showed me the other day, even brought a canister of hot cocoa and everything.
“I don’t get why you’ve been so damn quiet. It’s like after Halloween you barely wanted to talk to me,” Portia speaks up out of nowhere while our boots crunch on the day’s old snow underneath our feet.
I continue walking, needing to think about how I’m going to respond to her. I didn’t want to tell Portia what happened that night, just like the way I didn’t want to tell her about that asshole groping me at the frat party . . . but Ian beat me to it. I know he meant well, hoping she’d check in on me and whatever, but it just made things worse. It caused me to literally get the soonest available flight into Billings and run as fast as I damn well could.
Tucking my hands in the pockets of my coat, I turn back to face her. “I should’ve communicated with you sooner
and I’m really sorry for that. I was just—”
“Going through some shit? Yeah, Ian told me when I told him how you went AWOL.”
Narrowing my eyes in on her at the fact Ian defended me, I take a moment for that to sink in. He’s the first person I told when Grim got in the motorcycle accident. I didn’t want people worrying and I was in such a state of shock that I didn’t even think to tell Portia. Hell, it was like being hit with one thing after the next.
Deciding not to walk any further down the path, I stop just after we’ve reached the house that Rosa told Portia there was room in. Rosa isn’t a boss lady around here or anything, but I notice Octavia and Ashley rely on her a lot. She’s kind of the mother hen to the Vixens when I think about it. “Look, I don’t give a damn about the past, but tell me you’re coming back at the end of the month to start our last semester. It’s been you and me since the beginning, Ruby. I don’t want to do this without you.”
I stare into her caramel colored eyes, not wanting to give her any sort of false hope. “I’m . . . I’m not coming back.” I keep my tone serious as ever, so she doesn’t think for a split second that I’m lying to her.
She blinks rapidly, like she’s not really processing what I’ve just said. “What do you mean you’re not coming back? You do plan on graduating, right?”
I give her a curt nod. “Yeah, I spoke to all of my professors and they said I could finish off my courses remotely. I explained the situation with my brother and—”
Zorro (Reapers MC Book 16) Page 4
