Page 35 of Ruthless

Chapter 14

Rebel

Shit, I'd fucked up. I should never have touched Ginger. I should have taken her friend up on her offer and given her a ride home. We both knew that it would have ended in sex. She would have scratched the itch, but would it have satisfied me? I hadn't lied to Ginger when I'd said that it made a difference when you were with someone that you wanted, and God knows that I'd wanted her from the start. I had rubbed one off many times with her pretty face on my mind. I couldn't explain why I couldn’t get her out of my thoughts, and I refused to think that it meant anything more than wanting to sink my dick inside her tight, little pussy. She was right in calling me an asshole.

I couldn't afford to have ties.

I was a nomad, wandering the country and taking jobs as they came to me, mostly from MCs that needed something done under the radar. The kind of jobs that were dangerous and could lead to long prison sentences if caught. Such was my current job that I was doing with Jace and Moody. The three of us worked together a lot. In a way we were our own MC. We trusted each other, we had each other's backs, and we were as tight as brothers could get. Each one of us had at one time or another been in clubs, deciding early on that we preferred to run solo.

Right now we were looking for a politician's daughter. It wasn't news that she and a friend had been snatched up right off the street one morning while they'd been jogging, but there'd never been a ransom demand for either girl. They'd simply disappeared. Of course their families wanted them back, so they'd hired Jace's firm to find her. He had a legit business on the side that focused on investigative services. The Politian had ties with the local MC back in his hometown, and had gone to them for help, desperate to find his only daughter. They'd referred him to Jace.

Jace had contacted Moody and me for help, mainly as backup. Not that his firm couldn't have handled shit on its own if it had been a typical kidnapping situation. The fact that there'd been no ransom demand led Jace to believe that this was a human trafficking situation, and that was so far underground that it would be impossible to find the girls if you didn't have the right connections and resources. The people involved in human trafficking were serious about their business, and they had strict rules in place to make certain that the average Joe didn't stumble upon their operation, one of which was that they moved around a lot, until it was time to sell the girls.

I finished my shower, dried off, and slipped into my jeans before heading out to the kitchen. I noticed that Ginger's bedroom was door closed, but something about the utter silence in the apartment told me that she had left. When my gaze lit on the unlocked front door, I guessed that she had probably gone next door to check up on her friend. I padded barefoot to the fridge, opened it, and looked over the meager contents. Salad and sandwich stuff wasn't going to satisfy me, so I ordered a couple of pizzas and then walked across the short hallway to her friend’s apartment.

I rapped a few times on the door, and didn't have to wait long for it to open to a cute little blonde in a pair of loose pajama bottoms and a tank. She was a little on the pale side, which I contributed to her recent illness, and her hair was a wild mess. Still, there was a sparkle in her pretty blue eyes and a welcoming smile on her full mouth.

"Della?"

She giggled. "Rebel?"

"Don't let him in!" I heard Ginger snap from somewhere behind her.

With an eye roll and a smile, Della stepped back and opened the door. "Ignore my irritable friend." She swung back to Ginger and said in a low tone that I was sure she didn’t think I would hear, "He's yummy!"

I entered the room just in time to see Ginger roll her eyes and cross her arms over her chest. My gaze ate her up. She wasn't wearing much, just a clinging tank and pair of boy shorts, both of which didn't leave much to the imagination, and, I knew that she was naked underneath. Her hair was still wet and uncombed, her cheeks rosy, and her eyes were flashing fire from the heated emotions running through her. It was obvious that she was still angry, but I knew the flushed look of sexual gratification on a woman's face when I saw it, and little Ginger couldn't deny that I'd satisfied her.

She was a hot mess, and the sight of her made my dick twitch.

"What did you do to piss off my best friend?" Della asked, still holding the door open, her smile giving her a little color in her cheeks.

As if she doesn’t already know, I thought to myself. I'm sure Ginger hadn't wasted any time in telling Della that I'd thoroughly fucked her in the shower and then ruined it by saying what I had afterwards. My gaze moved from Ginger, who was poised like a statue shooting lightning bolts my way, to the shorter, curvier woman standing in front of me.

"I'm innocent," I grinned, hearing Ginger's snort. "And I'm not staying. I just wanted to let you ladies know that I ordered a couple of pizzas and that I'm willing to share them."

Della's eyes widened into twin pools of excitement. "Not sure how my stomach feels about that, but I'm willing to give it a try. Pizza is my weakness. What time do you want us over?"

Another snort from Ginger, this time louder. "Yes, what time do you want us over to my apartment to eat?"

I smirked, liking her sass. The door was still open, and before I could answer them, a tall, thin man walked up on us. He had a look about him that reminded me of the meth heads that I'd come across over the years. I didn't know what the guy looked like before the drugs had taken control of him, but the clothes that he was wearing were hanging on his thin frame, and it appeared that he had a nervous twitch. He barely met my eyes, instead looking directly at Della with an intensity that I thought should worry her.

"Who's this?" he demanded. "Heard you were sick, but it looks like you're cheating on me."

Della's eyes rounded and her jaw dropped. "Well, ‘hi’ to you too, Daryl, and I was sick as a dog for two days," she explained in a slightly pissed off tone. "This is Rebel, Ginger's man."

I glanced at Ginger and she remained mutinously quiet, her lips pressed together, but it was the hard look in her eyes that warned me that she didn't like the man.

"Then why the fuck is he here with you?"

The man was an idiot if he couldn't see that his attitude was starting to piss me off. I knew the threat even if the women didn't recognize it. He was on something now, his pupils were so dilated that they practically covered the whole brown of his eyes. The look on Della's face told me that she was used to Daryl’s appearance, but saddened by it. Maybe he hadn't always been a prick.

"Maybe because I am, too?" Ginger snapped, drawing his attention. Her tone backed up my earlier observation that she didn't like the man. "By the way, I took care of your girlfriend while she was sick. Where the hell were you?"

"Shut the fuck up, bitch?"

I snapped, grabbing him by the collar of his tee and slamming him up against the door. He grunted at the impact, and Della gasped loudly, but I ignored them both.

"Rebel?"

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