Chapter 6
Ruby
It took everything she had to wipe the excited smile from her face as she slipped back into the suite. And even more to keep her expression as neutral as possible as she returned to her spot beside Silver.
“He found the rings,” she whispered, careful to keep her voice low enough for the woman running a comb through Silver’s poof of hair from hearing them.
“Oh, thank god.” Silver pressed a hand to her chest. “Crisis averted.”
“For now. I’m still in so much trouble when he gets here, though.”
“As you should be, you brat.” Giggling, Silver patted her hand. “And you know you’ll love every second of it.”
“True,” Ruby agreed with a sigh. “I’ll feel a lot better once that particular black mark is cleared from my slate. I hate that I put him through so much stress for no reason.”
“The stress is good for him. Keeps him young.”
“Considering the way he freaked out over the gray hair he found the other day, I don’t think he’d agree with you.”
A vicious delight lit Silver’s eyes. “Really? Beckett found a gray hair? Oh, Ice is going to have so much fun fucking with him.”
As if she’d conjured the man himself, the door to their suite opened and Ice stepped inside, his gaze scanning the room. Ruby had to bite back a giggle at how disappointed he looked when he spotted Silver in the stylist’s chair.
“Hey!” Popping up from her spot on the couch, Aria waved her hands at him in a shooing motion. “No boys allowed. Get out!”
But then Aria’s eyes widened and her hands dropped to her side. “Holy shit. You’re Ice. Oh my god.”
“I am, and I won’t be long. Just checking in on everyone, making sure everything is going smoothly over here.” Flashing Aria the breezy rockstar smile he used to give Ruby before they’d become friends, he sauntered over to where Ruby and Silver were seated in the stylists’ chairs.
“You heard her,” Silver said with a grin and a shooing motion of her own. “No boys allowed.”
“I’ll only be a minute.” Turning his back on the rest of their friends, Ice pinned Ruby with a look that had her squirming in her chair. “I haven’t heard from Beckett and he’s still not here. What’s going on, Ruby?”
Heat flooded her cheeks. Even knowing that the situation was handled and Beckett had found the rings, it was embarrassing to admit she’d done something so reckless.
And while Ice was much more laid-back than her own Daddy, she’d learned the hard way he could be as ruthless as the tattoo on his chest claimed he was when it came to bratty subs.
“Nothing, Sir.” It wasn’t a lie. Nothing was going on now that Beckett had found the rings.
Ice’s eyes narrowed. “Ruby. Are you being honest with me right now?”
Unable to meet that hard gaze any longer, Ruby dropped her gaze to the floor. Thankfully, Silver stepped in—literally. Jumping up from her chair, Silver placed herself bodily between Ruby and Ice. “We’re handling it, Elias.”
Oh, shit. She’d called him Elias, which she hardly ever did. Ruby risked a peek up through her lashes at Ice, who had his steady gaze locked on his babygirl. “You’re handling it.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“You’d tell me if there was something wrong. If Ruby was hurt.”
Warmth filled Ruby’s chest, alongside a pressure she recognized as guilt. Ice cared about her, and Beckett, and here they were, keeping secrets from him.
They’d have to find a way to make it up to him later.
“Yes, Daddy. I would tell you,” Silver said softly, her hand coming to rest on his chest.
“And you?”
“Sir?” Silver’s voice pitched up, and Ruby couldn’t help leaning forward a bit.
She wasn’t the only one keeping secrets, it seemed.
“You’d tell me if there was something going on with you that I needed to know.”
“Yes, Daddy.”
Oh, crap. If the look on Ice’s face was any indication, he knew Silver was lying, and he was ready to drag her off somewhere to get the truth out of her.
But before he could, Frankie came barreling back through the door of the suite. “Oh, no you don’t, Elias Turner. We don’t have time for—” She waved her hands at him and Silver. “Whatever this is.”
Sliding an arm around Silver’s waist, Ice jerked her toward him and whispered something that had Silver’s face reddening before he released her and Silver returned to her seat.
As he stalked out of the room, Ruby turned to her friend, curiosity replacing the worry that had been churning in her gut all morning. “Okay, what the hell was that all about?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Nose titled in the air, Silver looked every inch the goddess Ice often referred to her as, but Ruby wasn’t buying it for a single second.
“What are you keeping from him?”
“Who says I’m keeping anything from him?”
“Me. I say you’re keeping things from him. Why?”
Because she was watching so closely, she noticed the color creeping into Silver’s cheeks, even as she raised one shoulder in a gesture of nonchalance. “I have my reasons.”
“C’mon, Sil, I told you my thing! Tell me yours!”
Sighing quietly, Silver looked over, her expression serious. “I would if I could, I promise. And I will, when it’s time. But today isn’t the day, which is why I haven’t told Ice.”
Now the worry returned, though for a completely different reason than before. “Can you at least tell me if everything is okay? You’re not sick or something?”
Silver smiled, so bright and happy it nearly hurt Ruby’s eyes to look at it. “Everything is more than okay, I promise. Don’t worry about me, honey. You should be worrying about the state of your ass once Beckett gets a hold of you.”
Groaning, Ruby leaned back in her chair as her stylist continued the process of spraying and curling her hair within an inch of its life. “Trust me, I won’t be thinking about anything else until he gets here.”
Beckett
With the weight of all three rings securely in his pockets, he made his way up to the suite he’d been directed to earlier that morning. Hopefully the fact that he was here, now, rings in hand would help mitigate any annoyance on Braden’s part at his tardiness and the reason for said tardiness.
The moment he opened the door, several heads swung his direction, ruining any hope he’d had of slipping in unnoticed.
“Ah, damn.” One of Braden’s brothers, he thought it was Damian, though he still struggled to tell them apart even after all his years at the club, made a show of sighing as Beckett stepped into the room.
“Kinda hoped you were Emily, coming to take me up on my offer to make use of the bedroom like everyone else has this morning.”
“Sorry, just me. But I’m sure the girls wouldn’t mind if you popped over for a bit.”
From his spot on the couch, Ice scowled. “They’re more likely to kick you out the second you step foot in there. Someone tell me why they’re allowed in and out of our suite, but theirs is ‘no boys allowed’.”
“Maybe it’s just no boy Daddies allowed,” Jacob teased. “Bet I could go over there.”
“Go ahead.” A wicked grin stretched across Holden’s face. “Report back to us on how your Daddy feels about you crashing their party without a damn good reason.”
Red flooded Jacob’s cheeks. “On second thought, maybe I’ll just stay here.”
“Good call, kid.” Holden’s gaze shifted from Jacob to Beckett, one silver brow raising in silent question.
You good?
Beckett nodded, just enough for Holden to visibly relax. As he did, Braden rose from the chair he’d been lounging in beside his brothers, his expression open and bordering on bored, but his eyes filled with worry.
“Everything okay?” he asked, keeping his voice low as he approached.
“Yeah. Just a bit of a… snafu this morning.” Fuck, this was harder than he’d expected it to be, admitting he’d come so close to ruining his friend’s entire day.
Reaching into his pocket, he pulled two boxes free. “Ruby had a little too much to drink last night and moved some of my stuff around. Including your rings.”
Braden blinked down at the black velvet boxes in Beckett’s palm. And then he did the absolute last thing Beckett expected.
He laughed.
And not just a little chuckle, either. Head thrown back, tears streaming down his face, the notoriously smooth Braden Elliott laughed until his cheeks were so red Beckett vaguely worried he might give himself a heart attack.
“Oh, man,” Braden said, his voice little more than a wheeze as he pressed a hand to his stomach. “I can just imagine your face when you realized they were gone. Poor Ruby. I assume she’s sitting rather gingerly this morning?”
“You… think this is funny?”
“Funny? I think it’s fucking hilarious. Of course, I can think that now because you obviously have the rings, so all’s well that ends well.
Can’t say I would have found it half as funny if I’d known earlier.
Good call keeping me and Lottie in the dark on that one.
” Blowing out a deep breath, Braden shook his head.
“I do have to know, what exactly was your plan if you couldn’t find them in time? ”
“Come to the hotel, grab Ruby, and flee the country.”
Braden let out another snort of laughter. “Probably the best plan, all things considered.” Plucking the boxes from Beckett’s hand, Braden opened one, and then the other.
And frowned.
“Ah… Beckett?”
Panic beat at Beckett’s chest. “What? What’s wrong? Did I pick up the wrong set?”
“I’m not sure. My ring is fine, but what’s this?” Braden turned the second box around, the light catching the ruby nestled in the black velvet, turning it to living fire.
“Shit. Hang on.” Now reaching into his other pocket, Beckett pulled a third box free and flipped it open. “Here it is. Sorry about that.”
But when he reached for Ruby’s ring, Braden pulled it back toward him, one eyebrow winging up toward his hairline. “Not until you tell me what this ring is for.”
“It’s for Ruby. I was going to ask her to marry me on Christmas morning.”
Everything about Braden seemed to light up with what could only be described as pure joy. “Are you fucking kidding me? And you didn’t tell me, you sneaky sonofabitch.”
Before he could defend himself, he was pulled into a tight embrace. And when Braden spoke again, his voice was thick with tears. “I couldn’t ask for anyone better for our Ruby. Maybe now she’ll let you pay for her goddamn membership and she can quit bartending.”
His own tears burned in his eyes, and Beckett gave himself a moment to return the embrace as he swallowed them back. “Thanks, man. And I’ll try, but we both know how fucking stubborn she is.”
Pulling away, Braden grinned and handed the ring over. “I could fire her if that would make your life easier.”
“You try and she’ll just make both our lives a living hell.” Beckett shrugged. “Even if I do pay for her membership, I’ll probably have to let her work a night or two at the club. She really seems to love it, for reasons that continue to escape me.”
“Well, we love having her, so as long as she’s not running herself into the ground, she’s more than welcome to stay on as long as she likes.
” Slinging an arm around Beckett’s shoulder, Braden turned toward the rest of the men in the room, all of whom were watching him with various degrees of curiosity.
“Guess what? Club BDE’s resident playboy is getting married! ”
A cheer went up around the room, and the next thing he knew, he was being passed from man to man for a round of back-slapping hugs and congratulations. Ice, who’d come with him to pick out the ring, held on the longest and tightest.
“So fucking happy for you, man.”
“Thanks. I’m pretty fucking happy for me, too. Just gotta figure out a new way to surprise her since she already found the ring.”
“Maybe we can help.” Braden’s voice all but vibrated with excitement. “A wedding and a proposal. Seriously. It’s perfect.”
Despite the thrill that shot through him at Braden’s suggestion, Beckett shook his head. “I can’t ask you to do that. Today is about you and Lottie.”
“Please, you know how Lottie is. She’ll be thrilled to share today with you and Ruby.
” Without waiting for Beckett to agree, Braden turned, jabbing a finger at Jacob, whose eyes went wide with what could only be described as panic.
“Time to take one for the team, Jacob. I need you to pop on over to the bridal suite and get Lottie for me.”
“Oh, I’m not sure I should…”
“C’mon.” Holden slapped a hand on Jacob’s shoulder and grinned.
“Delia did say you could pop over if you needed them for something. And it’s for a good cause.
Plus, once your women realize you risked their wrath to set up something this fucking romantic, they’ll be putty in your hands the rest of the night. ”
“You really think so?”
Beckett couldn’t help the pricks of guilt at the hopefulness in Jacob’s tone. “Look, if they aren’t completely bowled over by your part in all this, I’ll take you to DC and let you explore the natural history museum until you’re so sick of dinosaurs you can’t see straight.”
Jacob’s face lit up, as it always did when dinosaurs were mentioned. “It’s a deal. I’ll be right back.”