Page 14 of Wild Card
“Sure.” Ruby smiles up at him, and I can see from the slight flinch she makes that it causes her pain.
“I gotta head to the club; find out what we know, but I should be done by lunchtime if ya need me,” I offer.
“I’ll be fine, ain’t nothing I didn’t handle before you showed up.” I hear the bite of sarcasm in her tone and can’t help but smile. She’s cute when she’s trying to be brave.
“Just tryin’ to pull my weight.” I stand up, picking up my plate and taking Earl's from his hands before I head out through the door to the kitchen so I can get 'em washed up.
I’m just about done with stackin’ 'em when the door opens and Ruby marches inside.
“About last night.” She’s got her head held high and her shoulders back like she’s given herself a pep talk on the other side of the door.
“You wanna go round two?” I throw down the dish towel and reach out for her waist, dragging her tight against me. It fuckin’ feels like she belongs there, and for just a few seconds, she forgets to resist me and looks up at me with those big doe-like eyes of hers.
“Ash.” She slams her palm into my shoulder and forces herself away. “I have a boyfriend; last night shouldn’t have happened. I came in here to apologize agai–”
“You don’t have a boyfriend.” I shake my head at her. “What you have is a mangled wreck of a man who used to call himself your boyfriend, or at least that's what you’ll have once I’m through with him.” I rest my hands back on the counter and wait for her to protest.
“Ash, I know who you are and what you're a part of, but that's not how people deal with things in the real world. Last night was a huge mistake on Brett’s part; he’s extremely sorry about it.”
“Oh, well, as long as he’sextremelyfuckin’ sorry, then it’s okay.” I can feel myself getting angry again, and it’s doing absolutely nothing to help Brett fuckin’ Porter’s cause.
“Don’t you dare be like that. You don’t know him, you don’t know me, and you know nothing about our relationship. Last night, I embarrassed him. He made a gesture that I wasn’t expecting, and I reacted in a way that wasn’t appropriate. He acted out of anger.”
“I see you ain’t wearing that gesture on your finger no more.” I look down at her empty finger.
“No. No, I’m not. I’m not ready for that yet, and it’s something the two of us will talk about today. Brett has a lotof pressure on him, his fath…” She pauses to shake her head. “...Why the hell am I explaining all this to you?” She laughs to herself.
“I don’t know, sweetheart, but it sounds to me like you need convincing more than I do.” I leave her on that thought and head out the door, picking up my cut on the way out and heading to where my bike is parked out back.
There’s a few members at the club when I arrive. Moby’s getting his dick polished in the corner, and Grizz is drinking a coffee at the bar. Despite the fact that I don’t really like the guy, I take a seat beside him so I can find out what we know.
“How d’ya like yours, handsome?” The woman on the other side of the bar asks, and since she’s holding an empty mug in her hand, I presume she means coffee.
“Just a straight black,” I tell her, figuring I could do with some fuel since I got fuck all sleep last night.
“I hear ya had a run-in with Kaleb Kingston last night?” Grizz looks unimpressed. I’m starting to think it’s the only face he’s got.
“A run-in that got us a lead,” I remind him, waiting for him to show some gratitude.
“You know he’s the town's hero, right?” He raises one of his big bushy eyebrows at me.
“What? ‘Cause he got some football scholarship?” I laugh, tipping my chin at the woman who places a coffee in front of me. “Kid was a prick, he got what he deserved, and we got what we needed.” I reach across the bar for a few sachets of sugar, ripping them open with my teeth before adding them in.
“Yeah, well, it came up as a dead end. Number belonged to a burner phone. Taint and Wraith rode out to the location Hack got its last bounce from and found nothing. The phone’s been turned off, and we got no more than we had yesterday,” he informs me.
“Little bastard must have given them a warnin’.” I shake my head and hear Moby moan as he bolts his load.
“He got no other place he can do that shit?” I snarl. Seeing a brother getting his dick sucked ain’t nothin’ new to me, but it’s barely ten am and my own cock is pulsing to the point of pain cause I can’t get a certain girl outta my head.
“Mobe didn’t go home last night; he slept here on the couch,” Grizz tells me, as if that's some kinda explanation.
“Mornin’, Sunshine.” Moby makes his way over to us, zipping up his jeans, then scruffing up my hair, while his little whore gathers up her clothes from the floor and heads for the bathroom.
“Looks like you had a good night.” Grizz sniggers while the woman behind the bar hands Moby a coffee.
“Thanks, darlin’.” Moby winks at her, taking a sip and smiling with satisfaction. “Girl’s been hangin’ out here a while; figured it was time I gave her what she’s been waitin’ for.” He grabs his junk and readjusts its position.
“That thing's gonna fall off the way you keep using it.” Grizz laughs at him.
