Chapter 13—Kooper
Iwatch Ruby deflate at my words. It seems to do a number on me too.
Watching her leave with those kids was one thing.
Seeing the car swerve the first time had me calling the club and having them run the license plate to get me the owner’s details.
The second swerve was all I needed to gun it.
Atom was in line with my thoughts, as he didn’t hesitate to take flank on the other side of the SUV.
The power of the club had the prick pulling over quickly. I didn’t give a fuck about him till I saw her face. Half the time I see her, she seems in one fucked-up position after another. And yet it doesn’t deter me from seeing her in a light that I shouldn’t.
Our headlights revealed all I needed to see.
She was still clothed, nothing missing, but her corset was doing God’s work on pushing up her tits, and her eye was already red and swollen.
Seeing that had me wanting to take my gun out and shoot the kid on sight.
All of them. I didn’t care who did it, just wanted them all to pay.
But if I did that, Atom would see. And so would Abigail and the roommate.
And Ruby would know.
They all would know.
That somehow, somewhere along the road, I started to have feelings for Ruby. I might not understand them or want them, but I’ve got them. Reacting the way I wanted would show that. Letting them go was the right move.
I was actually going to let it go, but then that prick had to open his mouth.
He had to say that she wasn’t worth it. He had to cause a bit of the light to go out in her eyes from the words that she would deny affected her, but I know they did.
How could they not? Anytime someone says a person isn’t worth it, it hurts.
It’s a subconscious thing our brains do.
We could hate the person talking, but the words?
The words fester in the brain and can trick us into believing them.
I’m a bastard. A stone-cold killer. An asshole to anyone and everyone.
And I’m a liar. But those are all the things I need to be.
And telling her I’m not going after that pissant of a kid is the biggest lie.
It would have been the truth till he spoke.
Now I’m about to rain a world of hurt down on him.
But Ruby doesn’t get to know that. She can’t.
This will be a solo job. Not even the club will know, but I might get some of my other boys to help. They might not live locally, but they’d be willing to drive or fly out for a little bit of fun.
But that will be later. When he thinks he’s safe. When Ruby has him out of her head, and I can do what I need to do to make sure I get my taste of justice.
Right now, I need to back the fuck up. Because while I might say shit to get all this out of her mind in the long run, all it’s doing is pulling me in closer.
Her perfume is clogging my senses. Wisps of her hair are floating in the night wind and grazing my cheeks when I bend down. Her breath is giving me life as she pants in my face. Her eyes hold me captive, full of a defiance that I both want to break and define for her.
I’m seconds away from being pulled all the way in and letting myself fall into her space to feel her body pressed against mine as it fights for air through her anger. And so help me, if I touch more than my boot to hers, my control will shatter, and I’ll taste the forbidden fruit that is her lips.
Calling out her dad is the breath we both need to take a big fucking step back.
But does that mean I’m done with her? Fuck no.
“Let’s go.” I turn and head for my bike.
“Go where?” She doesn’t move from her spot.
“Call the boys. Get a ride up here to get them home.” I nod to Abigail and Natalie as I direct my words at Atom.
“You got it.” He’s already pulling out his phone and dialing away.
“You can’t just tell them what to do.” Ruby throws her arms out at her friends as she takes a few steps toward me. Good. She’s going in the right direction.
“I can, and I did. Now get on.”
She crosses her arms and sticks out her hip. “I ain’t going anywhere. Not with you. I’ll wait for a ride to go home with Nat.”
I lean across my handlebars. “Get the fuck on my bike, Ruby.”
I watch her jaw move back and forth as she thinks it over.
I don’t blink, and I don’t hide my anger at all of this.
It’s not her I’m mad at. Well, it is and it ain’t.
I’m mad that she was too stupid to see this going anything but sideways when she left the bar.
But she’s young, and I have to remember that.
She might seem older than she is, but she’s still very much sheltered in life, and that has to do with both her age and her dad’s club shielding her from things.
I’m also plenty mad at the kid still. So, showing all my anger is for her and her actions alone is easy.
With a huff, she gets on the back of my bike. I bite my cheek to keep from grinning. And I’m enough of a prick to gun the engine to force her to wrap her arms around me as we shoot out of there.
It’s torture. Pure, blissful torture.
This is what I give myself. This is all I give. I can’t take more than this. I can’t even imagine more than this.
I drive us down the road, then double back down another road and back my bike into a parking spot.
“What’re we doing here?”
I don’t answer, just get off my bike and walk away. I hear her huff a second before I open the door and the bell overhead jingles.
“Take a seat anywhere, love. Be right with you,” one of the waitresses calls out, and I nod at her as I grab a booth toward the back and take a seat so I can see the front. I pull a menu from the holder on the table and glance over it.
“Being an asshole makes you hungry?” Ruby says as she slides onto the seat across from me.
“Being hungry makes me hungry,” I reply without looking up.
“What can I get you?”
“I’ll take a number five with a Miller,” I say to the same waitress who called out when we entered. She’s around my age, but the bags under her eyes tell me she’s done this job too long.
“And you, hon?”
I look at Ruby with a raised eyebrow. She rolls her eyes, shakes her head at me, and then tells the waitress, “Same.”
The waitress nods and heads toward the kitchen.
“You even know what the number five is?” I ask.
“Food.”
Her response has me huffing out a laugh. When the waitress drops off the beers, I tell her to bring some waters too. Ruby’s going to need it, even if she doesn’t know it.
We sit in silence during the short wait for our food. I don’t mind. Ruby does a great job of looking at everything but me, and I don’t hide my looking at her, and everything else. I’m not ogling her, just watching her like I would an asset on a food run.
“Here you go.” The waitress sets the plates down, and I smile as I watch Ruby take in what she signed up for.
“Oh dear God, I’m going to die.”
I snort. “Not this again.”
“How the hell do you expect me to eat all this?”
I shrug. “Didn’t tell you to order it.”
I’ve come here a few times. This isn’t Ruby’s kind of thing. She’s never been a wing girl, hates the spicy stuff. She’s only eaten it when forced or dared, never on her own. And she just ordered thirty sweet and spicy wings with extra sauce, crisped chips, and a pickle.
I eat while she looks over her food a second before taking a chip and munching on it slowly. I can hear her stomach growling from here, but she’s still contemplating if the spice is worth it or not.
When she finally digs in, she’s hesitant, then does what she does best: closes her eyes and takes the biggest bite ever. Nothing half-assed about Ruby Hofstadter.
Her groan of pleasure shoots straight to my dick. I didn’t expect it and bite my tongue to keep from reacting. Which fucking sucks. Because, like Ruby just realized, the sweet overlays the spice, and it tastes amazing. But it’s still spicy enough that with an open wound, it burns badly.
I grab my beer and chug half of it before motioning to the waitress for another.
I just need one more now, and then I’ll wait till I get back to the clubhouse.
I don’t need to find a buzz here, not while I’m still driving.
But I need something to take the edge off, just a little. And this place doesn’t do hard liquor.
“Wow. How have I never known about this place?” Her lips are covered in sauce, like her hands. There’s nothing dainty about her eating, and I, unfortunately, find it adorable.
Seriously need my head checked.
“You don’t do wings.” I say it without thinking.
“How do you know that?”
Dammit. I was hoping she’d let me get away with knowing something about her that I don’t even think her dad knows. Or if he does, he doesn’t seem to care when he orders a big wing spread for Super Bowl Sunday every year.
I just shrug. I’m not about to answer her.
“Whatever. This place is cute.”
She looks around, and I think this is the first time she’s actually seeing the place.
Before, she was just trying not to see me.
But now I watch her take it in. It’s a small hole-in-the-wall.
It popped up five years ago and is conveniently located down the block from my computer area.
I try not to come in here a lot; I don’t want people to see me as a local and notice when I’m in the area.
I prefer when people don’t see me. Which is hard enough as it is since I’m a big guy, drive a Harley, and am part of a biker club that’s well known around here.