Page 6 of Derick

He was handsome and in great shape. The shirt he was wearing at the self-defense class had been tight on him and showed his muscular body. He had an amazing body, and I’d seen some nice ones. I tried to stay as far away from my father’s club as possible, but sometimes I couldn’t avoid it, and then I saw his men in all kinds of situations. My brother had tried his best to protect me, but my father was truly evil, and sometimes I couldn’t avoid seeing things I wish I never had.

Dustan hadn’t looked good after the women of the club got finished with him. I had stayed back and quiet. I’d learned never to bring attention to myself. I usually avoided the compound as that was where everything bad that had happened to me had occurred. I’d unlocked the door to the room Dustan had been held in and got the girls that owed me a favor to keep the men busy so it would help him escape. I had thought after Dustan escaped the police would come, but they didn’t come for months. That was why I thought I was safe and no one knew I’d let him out, and why I’d let the new batch of young girls go before they could be shipped off, but as I’d left, my father had known it. He used Hope to get me to cooperate.

I would have gotten my brother’s help, and if he had been home, he would have made sure I wasn’t put with the women that were sold. Human trafficking was something my father’s biker gang had been into. I knew the Silverman family were a problem as they had security and were public figures and hard to kill if they saw or got information they shouldn’t, and some ofthem had seen things they shouldn’t have and put some of the Devil’s Queens members in jail.

I wondered if Derick knew I had helped his brother. I’d talked to the police several times. I told them some of the things I knew. I was clear that I would help in any way I could. I hoped that Derick didn’t think I was anything like my father and his gang. I knew I didn’t have a chance at a romantic relationship with him, but I could dream. He was a blond god. Well, he wasn’t a god, but he sure did look like one with his blond hair, scruffy beard, and full lips. I’d never really had a crush on a guy, not that I liked girls either, but my experience with men wasn’t good. My first sexual encounter wasn’t anything I ever wanted to remember, but Hope was the best outcome from it.

Shaking my head, I tried not to go down the dark memory of how I lost my virginity. I looked outside and brought an image of Derick up. Breathing in deep, I let it out. He was so much better to think about. Hopefully, he was a nice guy. I’d like to meet one besides my brother. Derick hadn’t said much to me, but I did wonder why he was watching the house. Could he know one of these women? Shrugging, I smiled and slowly stood and made my way to the bathroom to bring a little pleasure into my night with Derick’s image on my mind.

I didn’t eat out much,but the therapist I liked had asked me to do this. Cassandra Silverman, Dustan’s wife, had requested to meet me. I was curious as Derick was still outside of the house I was staying in every night, and I’d seen him yesterday at another self-defense class. I’d committed myself to two a week. It hadn’t been as bad as I thought it would be. I hated crowds, but again, that had to do with my father, and I had never experiencedanything good when a lot of people were around, and this gym was busy.

Hope wouldn’t go to the daycare there though. As soon as we arrived, she went straight to Derick. I wasn’t sure he would be there again, but he was, and Hope went searching for him as soon as we entered the gym. She’d never been like this before; she usually stayed clear of adults she didn’t know. She hid from my father and anyone in his gang, she seemed to know from the moment she was born who wasn’t good. Even as a baby she would cry and scream her head off if my father or his men tried to take her or came near her. So I trusted Hope’s judgement of people. I wasn’t bringing her along today because I didn’t know how Cassandra would treat me, and I didn’t want Hope to see anyone upset with me.

One thing I had done since living in the halfway house—or it should be called a treatment house, because we were all seeing therapists and trying to get back out into the real world after being treated like shit and nearly human trafficked—was saved money. So, I could afford to eat at a restaurant. I was usually on a tight budget. I loved Hope, but she was expensive.

The bus stopped six stores from the restaurant’s door. I only had to walk a couple of minutes to get to the fancy beachfront restaurant. I gave my name to the hostess, and she checked an iPad, smiled at me, and waved a waiter over. “Theo will show you to your seat. The other person in your party isn’t here yet.”

“T…thanks. Am I…I okay tt…to go sit and w…wait?”

“Yes, just follow Theo. I’ll send Mrs. Silverman to your table.”

I smiled back at the hostess and followed Theo.

My stomach churned, and I wished I’d brought something to play with to calm my nervousness. I left my earphones with Hope, but wished I’d brought them. Music helped calm me. I sat in the seat against the wall. It was a table that overlooked the ocean.

Picking up the menu, I put it down again and looked toward the exit, nervous. I opened the menu and glanced at the items listed. Holy crap, the prices were ridiculous. A meal alone was a quarter of my grocery bill funds for a week. I went through the whole menu and winced. Even a salad was eighteen dollars. Looked like I was drinking water and ordering fries.

I had money put aside, but I was saving it for bond for a new apartment to live in. I would love a house, but they were more money for rent in a good area, and their general maintenance was more than an apartment. My brother would help me if I asked, but he had his own problems right now. He was collaborating with the federal police to help them capture all the Devil’s Queens members who were on the run or had done wrong.

I gazed around and saw a woman walking with Theo. She was beautiful, with hair the color of the setting sun, a beaming smile, and as she got closer you could see her green eyes behind black glasses. She glowed, and as my eyes scanned lower, I saw she was pregnant. She stopped at the table, and that was when I noticed two men following close behind her. The smaller man, with black hair, pulled the chair out, and the woman sat on it.

“Hi. I’m Cassie.” She held her hand out.

I shook her hand. “N…nice to m…meet you. I’m R…RR…Ruby, but I…I th…thought your...r…r name was Ca…Cassandra.”

“My friends call me Cassie, and you, Ruby, are my friend.” Her smile was sincere, and her eyes were warm. “I know it was you who helped save my Dustan.” She rubbed her stomach. “I owe you.”

Shaking my head, I gave her what I believed was a smile too, but I was nervous, so I probably looked like I was constipated or in pain. “It… it w... was my f…family that t…took him.”

She waved her hand in a dismissive action. “Pish-posh. They’re not your family.” She reached across the table andgrabbed my hand. “You deserve better. You can be a part of mine.” She caressed her stomach again. “I read that you have a daughter. Where is she?”

“I…I left her at…at the h…house with Fl... Flora.” Cassie was nice, and somehow I knew she didn’t mean me any harm. My stutter lessened the more comfortable and safer I felt. “Truthfully, I…I didn’t know how th…this would go and… and I didn’t want t…to risk h…h…her seeing someone yelling and being mmm…mean to me. I wasn’t su…sure how you’d be with mm…me.”

“Oh, you have nothing to worry about with me or my family. We all know what you did for Dustan. I’ve met your brother too. He told me all about you. I’ve been looking forward to meeting you. I thought I’d give you some time to settle after the ordeal you’ve been through, and then I found out that I’m having triplets, and my hubby barely lets me out of his sight. I love him, but since I got pregnant, he’s been smothering me. I have at least two guards always close to me, and he’s always making sure I eat and exercise. He won’t even let me lift the milk out of the fridge either. Argh,” she moaned. “So, this lunch is something I’ve been looking forward to. I just know we’re going to become the best of friends.”

I relaxed and knew I’d just met the sweetest woman. I had nothing to worry about.

Derick was out there again.He’d been outside in his BMW SUV every day this week, just watching the house. Hope wouldn’t stop talking about him. She’d even gotten out of the house again and tried getting to him. Hope now came to the toilet with me as I wasn’t risking anything happening to her.

I couldn’t stop thinking of Derick, and my daughter wasn’t any help, she asked about him at least a couple of times a day. He was so handsome. No, beautiful, maybe even too beautiful. I peeked through the window as much as I could without making it too obvious that I was watching him back.

Hope had been taking naps lately. She had stopped taking them a little before she turned one. It was like she figured out that we weren’t safe. I protected her the best I could, but I was always being watched, and my father’s gang knew how he treated me, so they didn’t give me any special treatment and were just as cruel as him. Hope slept now. She slept through the night the first night we were rescued and started napping the next day. So, nap time was my ‘perv on Derick’ time lately.

A knocking on the front door had me dropping the blinds and creeping out of my room and to the stairs. I knew it wasn’t my brother, Toby; he was down in NSW helping the federal police clean up the club. He’d call too if he were coming, because he didn’t want to scare any of the women. Toby was nothing like our father, but he was tall and built like an ox and his tats helped with his menacing image. Besides the women who lived here, the careers and the therapist, who all had keys, there wasn’t really anyone who came around to the house.

I was surprised when I heard the deep, sexy voice of the man I’d dreamed about since meeting him—Derick. I thought he’d been in the car watching and I hadn’t seen him get out. “Can I talk to Ruby?”

My whole body stilled. I even held my breath waiting for the answer. A part of me wanted to run down and throw myself at him, taking his lips to my own and climbing him like a tree. But the other part of me was terrified, not just about how he made me feel, but what he could do to me. He could tear me down with words, I knew my family deserved his hate and anger, but I wanted Derick to know I wasn’t like my father and his friends.

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