Chapter 9
NINE
Ruin
She looked so adorably shocked that I had to clamp down the urge to take her in my arms. But then shock instantly gave way to terror when I strode toward her.
Fuck. I can’t shake off the horror that had twisted her face when I was near her. My heart is still brokenly beating at the sight that I’d failed to recognize in my panic.
I was so consumed by my fear, to check if Charlotte wasn’t hurting from any trauma, that I forgot I was one of them.
She shakily picks up her phone from the coffee table, tapping away. Her silence is jarring. I would give anything to hear her voice again.
And not from forty feet away.
“There were two men from an unknown club with Glory,” Ryder’s steady voice grabs my attention.
“What?” I grit out.
Glory wasn’t alone?
I force myself to stay in the present, pressing down my panicked rage.
Ryder ignores my fury, calmly forming his next words. “They didn’t touch her. But it looks like Glory has found some… allies.”
“Here,” Charlotte says, springing up from the couch as she hands her phone to Ryder. “I tried to draw their patch. As much as I could remember.”
I watch as Ryder’s face pales a good two shades. Fuck, what the hell did she draw? Before I can comment on his ghostly pallor, he sobers up, clearing his throat. “Thanks, Charlotte, that’s…” He pauses. “Helpful.”
Charlotte isn’t gathering the subtle, dreadful shift in the atmosphere. Exhaustion lines every inch of her face, and I can only imagine how she must be feeling after such a scare from fucking Glory.
Fuck. And two unknowns.
She sighs, her shoulders shaking. “I’m going to bed. See yourselves out.”
As she turns away, I find myself blurting out, “I’ll stay here. They… they could come back.”
She spins around so quickly it gives me whiplash. Her glare firmly planted on me. “Get. Out.”
I raise my hands in surrender, ignoring the amused smirk Ryder is darting my way. “Listen, it’s not safe. You… you know that, right? I just want all three of us stationed here until we can get you back home. Then we can—”
“This is my home,” she snaps, staggering a few steps back. “God! What the hell makes you think I’d want any of you here? You shouldn’t even fucking be here!”
Ryder frowns slightly, and I think a thought possesses him.
But all I can focus on is this beautiful, fierce woman who I never in a million years would’ve thought could talk like this.
I’m… gone.
“I get it, Charlotte,” I say softly. “But you need to understand you’re not safe here. Not with her back. Please, you’ve gotta know that.”
I see conflict and reluctant understanding dawning on her face. She lets out a slow, heavy breath. “I’m not stupid. I get it. But I’m… too wired up to make decisions.”
She looks up at Ryder then, who’s giving her a look I don’t like. A softness she’s never experienced from me, and I feel ruinously left out.
“Let’s just… talk tomorrow,” she says, her voice trembling. I can see the adrenaline crash taking over her.
“You sleep, love.” The bastard caresses her shoulder, nudging her toward her bedroom. “We’ll be here to talk next steps tomorrow.”
She nods numbly, dazedly making her way to her room. All while a raging, jealous heat climbs up my spine. He can call her love without her scowling. He can fucking touch her without her flinching.
The moment Charlotte’s bedroom door clicks shut, a strange silence falls over the apartment. Too loud. Too fucking heavy.
I hear boots shuffle behind me, her main door locks. Wolf. He drops my keys into my palm. “Is she okay?”
I close my hand over them. “She’s… yeah. She’s fine.”
Ryder mutters beside me, arms crossed. “Physically, at least.”
The words hit like a slap, even if they’re said softly.
I grit my jaw, eyes dragging to the door she disappeared behind. I should’ve known, should’ve fucking caught myself before scaring her. That look on her face, that flinch. I don’t even realize I’m clenching the keys until they dig into my palm, biting through skin.
Wolf exhales, rubbing a hand over his face like he’s trying to scrub guilt from his pores. “What all did she tell you?”
“Everything Glory said,” Ryder says, rubbing his jaw absently. “And how she’s probably colluding with another club.”
“I swear to fucking God,” I growl, shoving my hands through my hair. “If any of them show up again—”
“Another club?” Wolf cuts in with a frown.
Ryder sighs, his jaw working. There’s something in his face that makes me pause. That edge, that dread.
I turn slowly. “What aren’t you saying?”
He blows out a breath, pinching the bridge of his nose. “The patch she drew. From memory.”
My heart stutters.
“I thought it was vague at first,” he says, tone grim. “But… I think I recognize it.”
Wolf lifts his head. “Who is it?”
Ryder meets my eyes, then Wolf’s—like he’d rather eat glass than say it. “It looked like Hell’s Army.”
Silence. Like something cold slithered into the room and took root in our lungs. I feel the blood drain from my face. My fingers go numb.
Wolf doesn’t breathe. Doesn’t move. His voice is flat. “You sure?”
“I—I’m not sure sure,” Ryder mutters. “But the flame insignia, the chain and the skull. The placement. It’s fucking close, brother.”
“Fuck,” I breathe, backing up to the kitchen counter, palms braced tight. “Hell’s Army?”
Wolf lowers himself onto the armrest, elbows on his knees. “Doesn’t make any sense. They don’t roll through here.”
“They do now.” Ryder’s jaw tightens. “Or they will if they’ve been working with fucking Glory.”
My stomach churns. The fuckers were this close to Charlotte. I want to scream, yell. Tear the whole place down. My mind starts to conjure images of the horrors I know Hell’s Army is capable of.
Charlotte’s sleeping now or trying to, so I don’t let my voice rise when I speak. “I thought it was just Glory.”
Wolf grits out, “We hoped it was just Glory.”
Ryder shakes his head, fire lighting behind his gaze. “You remember how we figured out she was timing her deposits with Charlotte’s tutoring earnings?”
I nod slowly, bitter taste flooding my mouth. How could I not? I’d stared at those fucking bank statements. Let them decide what I believed about her. Never asked questions. Never pushed back.
I swallow hard. “I didn’t even flinch. I just believed it.”
“We know she planned it, Ruin,” Ryder says, softer this time. “Glory was calculative. From the beginning—”
“That’s for sure. And she’s still up to something. We haven’t traced the rest of the hundred grand,” Wolf mutters. “It just vanished. It has to be about that.”
“That’s not what I’m getting at. And it can’t be about a measly hundred grand if Hell’s Army is involved. I think… she’s been in contact with them since the start,” Ryder says.
My mind whirls, thinking about the timing. How Glory couldn’t have two men from Hell’s Army at her back unless she knew them from before. “Could be,” I answer, my voice low. “Wait. She joined our club eight years ago. Before that? We don’t know shit, do we?”
“Her background check just showed a few foster homes she’d run through,” Ryder says, shrugging. “She also joined us just under a year before Charlotte came to us, though. I doubt that was a coincidence.”
The words hang between us like loaded weapons.
I glance at Wolf. He’s still as a statue, expression unreadable.
“I don’t think she befriended her to steal some damn money,” Ryder says, eyes distant. “This feels… deeper.”
“You think she was planted?” I ask hollowly.
Ryder nods, tension bleeding into his shoulders. “It doesn’t make sense, otherwise. How the fuck would she know another club—enough to grab two of their men—two days after her parole?”
“I don’t understand how Charlotte fits in this.” Wolf frowns, but I can feel the fear radiating off him.
Ryder’s eyes widen. “Fuck. I think… I think Glory came to see her tonight to check if we were keeping watch on her or not. There was nothing of substance she talked about, just spat some bullshit about the money. Fuck!” He paces away slightly, one hand clutching his hair.
“Did she want to see if Charlotte was still under club control?”
“Or protection,” Wolf adds quietly.
My eyes snap to his. And everything slots into place with a sickening click.
“Fuck,” I whisper. “And we gave her the answer, didn’t we?”
No one speaks, because the silence says it all. We just showed Glory—and whoever the fuck she’s working with—that Charlotte does have Wardens’ protection.
And now? We have no idea what the hell that means. Whether it’s about Charlotte or an act of war on us by one of the deadliest, most vile clubs in the state. Hell’s fuckin’ Army.
I do know one thing. They’re going to learn real fucking fast. She’s mine. Ours. And she won’t ever be unprotected.