Page 4 of Derick

It was time to partner up, and I watched as everyone looked around for someone, but no one chose Ruby. She shrunk back like she was trying to hide. An older woman who I’d seen at the gym before and had been in the room stretching while the huge group came in went over to Ruby with a warm smile on her face. She took small steps toward her like she knew if she moved too quickly Ruby would run.

What the fuck had happened to my woman? My seething hatred for the biker gang that started all this tripled. I vow that I would make sure none of those Devil’s Queens bikers would ever see the light of day outside of jail, and if they did, they wouldn’t stay out for long at all.

Four hours later,I sat in my car, staring at the large three-story house that housed some of the women from the sting the police did of The Devil’s Queens clubhouse. I seethed from the information I’d learned. My soulmate was a filthy daughter of a Devil’s Queens, and not just any member, the fucking president’s daughter that Jade, Stephan’s wife, had help put away. I didn’t know whether to go in and strangle the woman, putting me out of my misery, or run like my brother’s woman Cassandra had tried to.

My security team said they would get back to me with more information about Ruby Decker. One thing I did know was that Ruby wouldn’t be keeping that last name for long. I despisedher family, but she was my one, my soulmate, so if the fates had chosen her for me, I would make the best of what I’d been dealt. My new daughter Hope was beyond adorable, so that softened her up to me, but until I had more information about Ruby, I’d be keeping my eyes on her.

Reclining my seat, I stared at the house, watching, waiting. I wasn’t sure for what exactly, but I was going to watch them, and truthfully, I didn’t know if it was to protect them or see if she was anything like her father.

I jerked awake,my neck aching as the tapping on my window came again. Blinking, I focused on my window, smiling when I saw my cousin Ryder in uniform tap again, and this time he yelled, “Push the damn button for the window to go down, Derick.”

Raising my brow, I smirked at him as I pressed the button for the window to go down. “What’s up, cous’?”

“What the fuck, Derick? Do you know how scared you’ve made the women in the house? They’ve been through enough wanker.” Ryder reached into the window and unlocked the door and opened it, glowering at me. “What the fuck is up with you?”

“I, well, my, fuck, I didn’t mean to scare them. She’s in there though.” I jerked my head toward the house I’d been watching for hours. “She’s… You’ll never fucking believe who she is, she’s a daughter of the sons of bitches. Why the hell is she here with all these poor women and children?”

“Who the fuck are you talking about?” Ryder scrubbed his face with his hand. “Look, I got a phone call telling me that you and your bodyguards are sitting in cars out the front of this halfway safe house. These women are here to acclimatethemselves back into society and get the therapy and guidance they need for the traumatic experience they’ve been through.”

“Yeah, I know, so why the fuck is Ruby Decker here?”

“Ruby Decker? Ruby,” he mumbled. His green gaze became dark, his lips turned down, and there was no mistaking the pity and sadness when he thought of her.

“What!” I jumped out of the car and got in his face. “Why do you look like that when I talk about my soulmate? My one?”

“Oh Derick,” he groaned. Ryder’s gaze darted to the house and then back to me. “I’ll make sure I have a talk to the helpers and the other cops. Take your time, Derick, Ruby belongs here more than some of the others even.” He shook his head. “Ruby’s brother has a lot to answer when it comes to her.” Ryder stepped away from me. “I’ll get it sorted out. I’ll make sure everyone knows you’re harmless. Just…just know she’s nothing like her family. They treated her…” Ryder shook his head again as his voice faded. “I got to go. I was only half an hour from finishing my twelve-hour shift, when I was told you and some of our family’s guards were hanging around this safe house. I want to get back to Divinity and Quinten.” He took another step back. “Keep an open mind, cous’. Ruby deserves a much better life than she was dealt.”

He turned and I watched him go back to his car. I sat there thinking over what Ryder said, terrified now of what I would learn when my investigators got back to me. She was a daughter of the club, but Ryder had said she’d had a hard life and deserved better. He didn’t mention Hope either.

Picking up my phone, I called Zeck. I wanted the information about Ruby now.

Devastatedand sick to the bottom of my stomach, I pushed the laptop with all the information on Ruby away. I couldn’t read any more. My stomach rolled and I swallowed the bile that rose at what I’d read. My heart sank at every word as I discovered what Ruby had been through. Immense guilt settled through me as I realized that my initial dislike of who I’d been gifted as my soulmate was wrong. Ruby had been screwed over by the Devil’s Queens more than I and my family ever had.

Where the hell had child services been? Having never gone to school should have brought up major red flags or all the hospital visits caused by beatings. How many times can a child fall down the stairs or walk into the door? I knew someone was going to pay for what Ruby had endured, and I would make sure all the incidents were investigated too and find out why on earth nothing was done for her.

After reading as much as I could bear to, I contemplated how I was going to make my next move. From what I learned, Ruby had had an even harder life than my cousin’s soulmate Alexa. I needed to be careful with how I wooed her and let the caveman come out. I knew the gift we had turned us a little crazy for our woman.

It had been forty-eight hours since I first set my eyes on her, and Ruby hadn’t left my thoughts. I’d spent most of my time staring at the house she and Hope were staying in. I was surprised the police hadn’t come by to say anything to me. Ryder must have really set them straight. My own security team had something to do with it too. I knew I looked like a creep watching the house and brooding.

I tried not to think of Hope and how she had supposedly been made. A lot of information in the files were just what had been bribed out of people or what they’d heard from someone and was a retelling. I’d fallen in love with that little girl from the moment I saw her, but now that I knew how she was conceived, I dug deep to see if my feelings had changed for the child, but I still knew that she was my daughter now, and nothing, no matter how she was conceived, would change that. There was no doubt that Ruby loved her child, and from what I learned, put her first, even with everything she’d been through. So Hope would become my number one priority along with her mother.

My thoughts now centered on how I was going to get Ruby to give me a chance and not scare her away. I had a feeling Ruby knew who I was and how I felt about her family. I hadn’t been quiet about my hate for them either. My anger for them had started rifts between me and my closest family members. I knew I needed to fix the mess I’d made with Cassie and how it affected my relationships with my brothers, and even how Jade and Cassie reacted to each other.

Today I needed to start to make things right. I had a plan. I didn’t know if it was a good plan, but it was something that I didn’t have forty-something hours ago after I’d met her. I needed to slip myself into Ruby’s life slowly. I wanted her to see me a couple of times first and get a feel for me. She needed to see that I was good with Hope too. Between doing this, I wanted to make things right with my family. I owed Cassie a better apology and wanted to make things good with her and Jade.

The house was extravagant, but not as big as I thought Dustan would buy as his houses and apartments around the world were always expensive and over-the-top elaborate. Since his kidnapping, Dustan had changed. He lost his memory, and the doctors didn’t think he’d ever get it back if he hadn’t already. Dustan wasn’t the workaholic, uptight arsehole he used to be; he was a family man, devoted to his wife Cassie, and worked less than half the time he used to. I had to admit I’d never seen him so happy.

I’d given a half-hearted apology already, but I knew Dustan and Cassie needed a new one. I wanted them to know that I was going to work on myself. I’d snapped. I’d taken my anger and frustration at what had happened and kept happening to my family out on the people I loved. My brother and I seemed to be the only ones who got caught by the bikers, and when I found out that Dustan had been taken, I’d gotten mad, but when he was rescued, battered, beaten, and hanging onto life, I cracked. I wanted to be normal. I was sick of everything that came with being a Silverman. For six or so months now, I’d been stuck in a ‘fuck the world’ mood that I couldn’t seem to shake. But after reading what Ruby had been through, I knew my problems with the world and what it threw at me were minimal.

After meeting my soulmate the other day, I’d done a lot of thinking and reflecting on my behavior, and I was disappointed in myself for how I’d treated my family and cousins. I wasnot only ashamed but horrified at how I was with their wives, especially Cassie, Dustan’s wife, I’d never been so rude, cruel, and just plain nasty to anyone else. She had put up with it too, which had my heart sinking and guilt assaulting me. I’d caused a rift within my family by silently making my twin brother, Stephan, take sides, and through that his wife Jade had followed, and she had been best friends with Cassie, but I’d caused a strain. I really was an arsehole. I didn’t want my Ruby seeing me as one. She deserved better than that, and so did my family.

Yesterday I started seeing a therapist again. I’d seen one when Stephan and I had been taken when we were little, but it had been years since I’d spoken to one. I was determined to make things right. I wanted to be the man Ruby deserved, and not the arsehole I’d been lately.

It had been almost an hour since the guards at the gate had opened it and I’d driven up to the house.

Knocking on the SUV window had me giving a mental head shake out of my thoughts and staring at the house I had to go into, but was being a fucking coward. “You getting out, or you staying in the car and staring at the house all evening?” Dustan shouted.

Waving him back, I opened the door and got out, using my arse to shut the car door. “Procrastinating. I know I’ve been a dickhead.” I nudged Dustan with my shoulder.

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