Hawk (Ride with Me)

Chapter 11

Hawk

Things are suddenly moving a lot faster. Bricks is panicking over losing a couple of big contracts. The only way to make some fast cash is to sell a few girls. It makes sense why he would attempt to kidnap Ruby. He has no use of her anymore as I haven’t been telling her much in the last week or so. He’s got all that he thinks he needs out of her, and now it’s time to move on.

When he sells her, he doesn’t have to worry about her running her mouth and betraying him by sharing that he helped him in this mission. He also makes some cash in the process, and everybody is happy.

Except for the fact that his problem has now become my problem. Allowing the Steel Lizards to hurt Ruby in any way, shape or form is not an option.

I’m not sure how I got to this revelation. It’s built over the last few weeks as I spent more time with her. I got to know her a lot better, and I understood that she got caught in an impossible situation where she felt like betraying me would be the only way out.

The thing is, there is no actual betrayal since we are nothing to each other. I’m not even sure what’s stopping me from offing her myself.

She whimpers from her spot by the wall, bringing my attention back to her. Lately, every time I look at her, I get this painful pang in my chest. I know that our time together is almost over, but I don’t want it to be.

My mission here is done as Devereaux declared we gave Bricks enough rope to hang himself twice. Prez told me it’s time for me to head home. Neither one of them told me what would happen to Ruby Santiago once I left. Now, as I look at her, I understand there is only one outcome for her, and that is for her to die.

“Do you need anything from your house?”

She jumps when I ask her the question. She shakes her head no and whimpers again. My eyes go to her bloody feet.

“What happened to your shoes?”

“I lost them,” she cries out. “When I was running from them.”

I resist the urge to roll my eyes at that. She was most likely wearing her flip-flops just like I saw her countless of times lately as I waited for her to get home from the club.

“Do you think I can go back home?” she asks, sounding terrified to even breathe anymore.

If I was a different person, I’d lie to her right now. Alas, I’m not, so I give it to her straight.

“No, sweetheart, not unless you want to end up shipped off to parts unknown where they make you a sex worker by night and a drug dealer by day. Until one day when your body gives in and you die.”

She starts shivering even more than before, fear and confusion clear in her eyes.

“How old did you say you were?”

“A-almost twenty-two,” she stutters.

I nod and bounce my knee up and down. “You’ll be good for a couple of years.”

The sob ripping from her chest should break me, but I don’t move. I just continue sitting on the bed, staring at her. There is nothing I can help her with, at least not long term.

“What am I going to do?” she cries. “I wanted to move soon. Can I still do that?”

Jesus, she’s not getting it. But I decide to humor her, nonetheless.

“Where are you moving to?”

“Louisiana,” she tells me in between sobs.

I sigh again before moving around to lean against the wall, feet on the bed now.

“Come here.”

She stares at me but doesn’t move to follow my directive.

“Ruby,” I snap at her, and she jumps. “Come.”

This time, she gets up from the floor and walks to where I am, but not before sniffing and grossing me out with all the snot audible in her head. I look around, wondering what she could clean herself up with.

“Go to the bathroom first and blow your fuckin’ nose.”

She looks almost relieved when I tell her that. She turns on her heels and hobbles along until she walks into the bathroom. I hear her using the toilet and flushing before using the sink to wash her hands. Sounding like she’s using toilet paper, she blows into it so hard, I’m not sure if there’s any brain matter left in her head following it.

When she walks back, the pain in her feet is obvious. To be honest, I’m not even sure why I called her to me. But now that I truly take in the state she’s in, there’s only one acceptable option.

I stand up from the bed and grab her arm to walk her to the spot I just vacated.

“Don’t move,” I tell her before turning around and walking out of the room.

Looking around to make sure no one is around, especially the two crackheads chasing her, I approach my bike. After some digging in the right saddle, I find the first aid kit I knew I had in there. While I’m at it, I fish another pack of cigarettes, too.

I head back into the room and close the door behind me. Ruby is just where I left her, only sadder. Her face has tears running down, the tank top she’s wearing looks weird and crooked on her. Her sweatpants are dirty from wherever she crawled while hiding, and her feet are bloody. The sight of them springs me into action.

I grab a couple of sketchy looking towels from the bathroom, running one of them through warm water. I wish I could say the water gets hot at some point, but that is not a thing at this run-down place.

“What are you doing?” She sniffles when she asks, making her sound a lot younger than the almost twenty-two years she keeps on claiming she has on her.

“We need to take care of your feet before anything gets infected,” I explain and get to work. “The floor here is dirty enough that I can’t see any blood trailing.”

Once I wash off all the grime, I notice a few cuts. While they do look painful when walking, I’m sure they’re not too deep, except for maybe one.

I don’t talk while I pull out a couple of thorns, paying close attention to every single mark on her tender skin. She gasps in pain a few times, but overall, she is a trooper and lets me do my thing.

When I am done cleaning her, I place band aids on the bottoms of her feet, the last one with a flourish.

“Look at you,” I tease. “Like brand spankin’ new.”

“Thank you, Hawk.”

She starts crying again, and I resist the urge to roll my eyes at her. I get that she got scared, but that was nothing compared to what it could’ve been.

“Can you give me a ride back to my house?”

The request sounds so innocent, I bust out laughing.

“Girl, you are in a world of trouble. You can’t go back to that dump. They’ll come back for you.”

She wipes at her face, a mixture of fear and determination now taking residence on it.

“What am I supposed to do? Stay here with you forever now? I have to go to work, Hawk!”

I love the way she says my name. It’s nothing special, but my heart picks up a little every time I hear it from her lips.

Sighing, I get up from the floor and sit on the bed next to her, pushing her a little when she doesn’t move to make room for me. It’s almost like she wants me to cradle her in my arms. I finally give into temptation and do just that.

“Sweetheart, you have to understand that you are on Bricks’ radar. He and his club are bad people. They literally sell people…”

Her entire body tenses in my arms.

“That’s what they told me about you and your club, Hawk.”

I chuckle at that. “I know. That’s the reason why we chose you to carry the information to them.”

I probably shouldn’t come clean to her, not sure it’s the smartest decision, but at this point, who cares anyway. My time here is limited, literal days left before I have to head to Austin for Devereaux’s big mission there. After that, we are done with this shit. Our contracts with Devereaux will be in place and the Steel Lizards MC will be extinct.

“Wait.”

Ruby moves to the side a little so she could look at my face. I don’t have the lights on, but there’s some coming from the big sign outside my door.

“You know that I was telling them everything you were telling me?”

Her voice is a little shaky. Her body follows as soon as I nod in confirmation.

“You were doing it on purpose,” she whispers.

I actually feel sorry for her right now. I wish she had never been involved in any of this. Under more normal circumstances, I would’ve considered asking her if she wanted to work at our strip club and continue our fuck fests. But that would not be an option now. Prez would never allow it. She is not trustworthy.

“I am so stupid.”

Just as the tears run down her face again, a loud fist bangs against the flimsy motel room door. Without stopping to think more about any of this, I jump off the bed. In one swift move, I pick Ruby off the bed and walk her to the small bathroom, dumping her without any ceremony in the little tub there.

“Lie down,” I direct her without actually looking to make sure she does as she’s told.

When I turn back, I notice the pink case of her cell phone on the floor. I grab it and throw it in the tub as well. From the small whimper I hear, I’m sure it landed on her head, but I don’t have time to worry about it.

The loud knock shakes the door off its hinges when I don’t open it fast enough. As soon as I do, I come face to face with the two from earlier.

“Hey, man,” the taller of the two lifts his chin at me. “We need to check your room.”

I chuckle at first, but then let out a booming burst of laughter when I realize he is serious. They both look at me in confusion, and that’s how they don’t pay attention when I bring my left hand to the back and pull out the gun I always keep at the small of my back in a holster that fits perfectly there.

“I don’t know who the fuck you fuckers think you are to come at me like this, but you will be two dead fuckers if you don’t leave right now. And tell Bricks it’s war if he doesn’t watch it.”

Both their eyes widen in surprise at me mentioning Bricks. They’re not wearing any colors so I’m sure they’re not part of his club, but it is obvious they’re part of his side job.

“Hey, man, we don’t mean no trouble,” the shorter one tries to make peace. “We’re still looking for that girl. We’ve been looking through all the rooms, not just yours.”

The door is wide open behind me, and the bathroom only has a wider opening, but no door. It’s easy to see the whole thing from the entryway where we’re all standing.

Praying that Ruby doesn’t choose this exact moment to lift her head from the tub, I turn sideways and allow these motherfuckers to see the entire space.

“If I had a girl in here right now,” I growl at them, gun still pointed at their heads, “I’d be fucking her instead of wasting time by talking to you.”

Despite by obvious thirst for blood, they both lean forward, eyes going over the seemingly empty room.

“I need to check behind the door,” the taller one says. I guess he’s the smarter one of the two.

Knowing that of they walk inside the room, it wouldn’t be hard for them to see the top of Ruby’s chest as she’s lying back in the tub, I take a few steps back. My arms are both on the handle of the pistol I have pointed at their heads, and my wide back somewhat blocks the bathroom behind me.

I take another couple of steps back to allow them to walk inside. The tall one takes the lead. He moves just enough to look behind the door, then walks back outside.

“It’s clear,” he tells his friend.

“Like I said it would be, no?” I growl at them.

They both shrug, oblivious to how close they are to dying. Or maybe they just don’t care. This is the life of a criminal. There are dangers at every corner, and you become desensitized to it.

They walk outside, stopping in front of my bike.

“You seem to know Bricks pretty well,” one says.

“Not well,” I smirk. “And I like it that way.”

They nod and walk away, no other words exchanged between us. I remain in the open doorway until they are out of sight before turning around and slamming the door behind me. I look toward the bathroom, expecting to see Ruby raising her head to look at me, but there is no movement.

With the gun still in my hand, I walk over to the tub, only to find her completely frozen inside of it. Her eyes look wild in her face, and the phone I threw in here earlier is resting on her chest. Arms are at her side, and for a second, I’m not even sure she’s breathing.

“You can come out now, Ruby,” I encourage her. My voice sounds a lot harsher than intended, which is not helping with her obvious fear.

I sigh when I realize that she is not going to get out on her own. Making sure the safety is back on the pistol, I place it back in the holster, then lean down and pick her up effortlessly.

I walk us back to the bed where I sit with her in my lap. She is like a statue in my arms, making me want to shake her. Just as I am about to do just that, she turns her head and looks at me.

“What will happen to me if they catch me?”

There is no matter of if, more like when, and we both know it. I decide to be honest with her.

“Best-case scenario, they rape and kill you fast.”

“What is the worst-case scenario?” she whispers.

“They rape you, sell you off to people who will continue raping and torturing you until you’re of no use to them anymore. It can take years.”

Ruby nods and looks down at my hands. When she brings her eyes back to mine, I am shaken to my core by what I see in them.

“Why don’t you help me and kill me now?”