Page 85 of Ruthless

"I agree with Rebel," Vinny spoke up. "You should go home in the truck."

This time he was looking at me. I gave him a weak smile. "Thank you for caring, Vinny. You're nothing but a big, soft teddy bear."

"Yeah, well, don't let that get out," he grumbled, looking a little embarrassed.

"I'm staying with Rebel," I said firmly, hoping that that was the end of it.

Tanner and Vinny stood staring down at us with neutral expressions as the rest of the men moved about busily. There was a lot of activity going on, a lot of movement, yet the big, boot-wearing men moved about in a surprisingly quiet way. They worked efficiently together toward one common goal, like quiet little ants, seeing that the job got done--the job of removing and disposing of the bodies.

I tried not to think about it, but I knew that this would be a day that I was going to remember for a long time to come. I shuddered at how close I'd come to being gang raped, at how close I'd come to losing Rebel forever. I curled my fingers into his cut, gripping it tightly, willing him to understand my need to be with him right then.

"You heard my woman," Rebel said after a minute. "She stays with me."

"Her decision, brother. Let me check on the guys’ progress." Tanner turned and walked off.

"Della?"

"She's okay, honey," Vinny said standing above me. "Stevie and Skipper are still with her. Stevie was the one who alerted everyone."

"I saw her watching when they threw me into the van. She'd been waiting for me in the cafeteria. There was nothing she could do to stop it."

"Yeah, she feels bad about that."

"There's nothing for her to feel bad about. It wasn't her fault. I'm just glad that she and Della weren't targets, too."

"Skipper would have given his life to protect them," Rebel told me. "I should have been there to protect you." His bitter words drew my attention to his chiseled jaw and the tic in it.

Was he blaming himself? "You can't be with me all the time." I watched as someone came over to remove Rocky's body. He was simply picked up by the ankles and dragged away. I shuddered at the trail of blood left behind.

"Let me help finish up," Vinny said after a moment. "I'm glad this shit is over." He turned and disappeared around a corner.

"Is it over?"

"Yeah, angel. Daryl's dead, too." I wanted to ask him how, but decided that that was a conversation that could wait. "This shit that happened today was about me, not you. Rocky found out that I was the one who caused the end of his club four years ago. We knew back then that not all of the Red Devils were dead, but we got Wildman and the majority of his men." He pulled in a breath and released a sigh of aggravation. "I never saw this shit coming, especially after all this time."

"They wanted revenge?" It seemed obvious.

His nod confirmed it. "Yeah, and Rocky wanted you. I'd kept him from you back then."

"They were going to kill us, weren't they?" It wasn't a question. I stated it as a cold, hard fact, and I didn't expect Rebel to respond to it. "Do you think there's any more of them out there?"

He released a heavy breath. "I fucking hope not." He kissed me on the forehead. "Come on, we can't sit here all night." He nudged me to my feet. "Are you sure you're okay to ride on the back of my bike?"

"Yes." I slipped the shirt on that Tanner had handed me earlier, pulling out the length of my hair. Rebel raised his hand, cupping the side of my face with a tenderness that was unlike him. He stared silently into my eyes, and I could sense the disquiet simmering beneath the surface of his hard veneer. There was no denying the raw emotions gripping him in that moment. "We're okay," I murmured softly, comfortingly.

"No." That small, single word caught me by surprise, and revealed so much about where Rebel’s head was. "You should never have to worry about being snatched off the street. You should never have to worry about being raped by a gang of outlaws." He stiffened, clenching his jaw to stop himself from saying more.

His gaze moved to some point over my head, unblinkingly staring at something only he could see. I could still hear the men moving about, but the activity seemed to be slowing down. I cupped his cheek to bring his attention back to me. It was slow in coming.

He'd resisted. I could see it in his eyes--the concern, the grim determination, and the regret. I began to worry about the thoughts that I knew were going through his mind. I stared deeply into his eyes, willing him to see that I loved him, because I wasn't brave enough to say the words.

I did love him.

"Don’t even think about getting rid of me," I said firmly.

He snorted. "You're a mind reader now?"

"It's what you were thinking, wasn’t it?"

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