Chapter 15
Overdrive
“This Ryan?” I called out, leaning down to check out one of the photos on a table.
“Yeah.” Her voice was distant as she answered from one of the back rooms in the apartment.
I picked up the frame and studied the photo. They both looked super young, but wore matching grins and antlers as well as some of those ugly ass Christmas sweaters. “Where’s your parents?” I asked as I heard her move into the room.
“Never knew my dad. Or Ryan’s. Mom took off when we were young.”
Looking over my shoulder, I watched her rummage through her duffel bag. “How young?”
She straightened up and just shrugged. “Mom wasn’t exactly the maternal type.”
I didn’t pry further. She clearly didn’t want to talk about it, but it was my goal to get Rue to open up about herself. Eventually. I didn’t need to press her now. “You have everything you need?”
“Yeah,” she said, looking around for anything she might’ve missed. “We can go.”
She’d taken a shower and changed here, and while that made sense, there was a part of me that had wanted her to clean up at my place.
Jesus, I was cooked. No way I was getting out of this without my brothers noticing my obsession with this woman.
Just fucking great. Like I needed those assholes chiming in.
We went out to the parking area and she looped the strap of her duffel over her shoulder so it hung against her back before she got on the back of my bike.
I’d count that as a win. That she was riding with me rather than on her own motorcycle.
It was a nice looking sports bike, but Harley’s were my go to.
After a quick stop to drop her bag off, and one more to pick up a cage ride from the clubhouse, we were heading out to the address that Glitch had tracked down for us.
I glanced over as Rue made a noise. “What?”
“Nicer part of town than where he recruits and does business,” she said with disgust in her tone.
I’d filled her in on everything I knew on the way over. “Yeah, guy like this isn’t going to intermingle with the hired help.”
It was a sprawling community with slightly larger plots of land that the homes sat on, desert landscaping as far as the eye could see.
Not a place with mansions, but they were still bigger homes with pools and hot tubs.
Parking the SUV on the side of the road a house or two down, I kept an eye out for any older women.
They tended to watch their neighborhoods like hawks, looking for any kind of trouble that would alleviate their boredom. Or give them something to gossip about.
We were in the clear for now. I pointed out the house that Glitch had ear marked as Carrick’s in the email he’d sent over. “It’s that one.”
She watched the home with a steady gaze and I wondered what she was feeling. She had a damn good poker face. I handed her a pair of binoculars and she smiled at me for a brief moment before aiming them at the house.
While she watched for any signs of life, I kept my eye on the street. Last thing we needed was some of his assholes sneaking in behind us.
“You think he has a family?” she asked, her voice low and full of emotion.
“Would it matter if he did?”
She sighed and dropped the binoculars, those gorgeous green eyes swinging my way. “I don’t know. If he has kids…”
She had a huge heart. “Even if he has kids, Rue, he’s killing people. Taking other people’s kids.” She nodded at that. “And in my experience, men like that don’t exactly treat their own families much better.”
“True,” she replied, and went back to watching the house.
We fell into a comfortable silence as we sat and waited.
I wasn’t expecting much from this. Just wanted to get a lay of the land.
See which neighbors paid attention and who to avoid when we eventually came back.
Carrick had a building down in the same area he ran his empire, the guys were checking that out today.
That would be where we’d likely hit him at, but just in case, I wanted eyes on his home, too.
And this was the exact reason why. I groaned to myself. “Heads up.”
Rue dropped the binos down to the floor boards and pasted a smile on her face as a woman shuffled up to my open window.
“Who are you?”
I lifted an eyebrow at the old woman. “Name’s Ralph.” I could feel Rue giving me a considering look.
“What’re you doing here, Ralph?”
“Waiting to meet with our realtor, Karen.”
“My name is Betty.”
“Of course it is,” I said with a grin.
She huffed out an offended breath, her eyes roving over my tattoos before settling on Rue. “We don’t like people to just be sitting in our neighborhood.”
“Good thing this is America,” I told her, voice still easy. Old biddies like her lived to cause drama and it took a lot to get under my skin.
“It’s private property,” she said with a sniff.
“Pretty sure the state owns the road, which is where I’m parked.”
She didn’t like my responses. “You’re rude.”
“You’re nosy,” I countered, grinning. I was beginning to enjoy this.
She huffed and put her hands on her plump hips. “This neighborhood doesn’t need riff raff hanging around. Move on,” she snapped as she started walking away.
A laugh made me glance over. Rue was shaking her head. “How are they all the same?”
“Karens?”
She nodded. “They take one look at you and assume the worst.”
“She took one look at me and assumed. I’m surprised she didn’t try to save you from the big bad biker,” I teased.
Her eyes roamed over me. “Guess I like riff raff.”
My smile spread over my face. “Want to go engage in some shady behavior?”
Her eyebrows shot up. “I’m not having sex with you out here.”
I chuckled. “As much as I like that suggestion, I had something else in mind.”
We waited about fifteen more minutes, then crept around Carrick’s house after the coast was clear.
“What about cameras?” Rue asked in a low voice as we circled to the backyard.
Our backs were to the stucco of the house and I reached up, grabbing the camera stuck to the side of the house.
It crunched under my boot. It was obvious that no one had ever given Carrick any push back.
If they had, he’d have known his security system was shit.
We made our way to the back door of the house and I pulled out my knife and flipped it open.
Jamming the tip into the lock on the door, I started twisting it.
I worked in silence for a few moments until Rue’s voice made me freeze.
“OD.”
Looking over my shoulder at her, I saw she was staring, wide eyed at something behind us. I turned and let out a curse as I watched the Rottweiler slink across the yard. The sunlight played over dark fur as dark brown eyes watched us unblinkingly. “Shit.”
“Good boy,” Rue said in a low husky voice.
Okay. Why the fuck did that make my dick hard? I swallowed and watched as the dog focused on her.
She held out a hand and I wondered if she was going to pull back a stump.
I had my gun on me, but fuck I didn’t want to have to go that route.
We’d watched that damn house for over an hour and I never saw any signs of the damn dog back here.
He’d probably been sleeping in the shade.
“Rue,” I warned as she started to squat down.
She was putting herself in too vulnerable of a position. I shifted toward her, then stopped as the dog growled.
“It’s okay,” she coo’d. “He’s not going to hurt me.”
The Rottweiler stopped in front of us, watching us with intelligent eyes.
“He is if you keep talking to him like he’s a Pomeranian,” I muttered.
“He’s just a big baby,” she continued, eyes glued to the dog. “A gorgeous boy who wants to say hi.”
Women. This could be a rabid coyote and she’d still be talking to him in that sing-song voice, eyes soft and body relaxed as though she expected him to behave.
They were the only creatures on this planet who would take a dangerous animal and dress them up in a sweater.
I wasn’t sure whether I should be grateful this wasn’t a mountain lion, or be amused that her voice seemed to be working on the Rottie. His nub of a tail started to wag.
Fingers met fur and I tried not to flinch as I gripped my knife in my hand. My gun would be too loud. I fucking loved animals. They were great. But I wasn’t about to let this dog rip Rue to shreds.
Luckily for me, she seemed to possess that same magic most women did and I watched in fascination as the dog flopped in front of her then exposed his belly for her to rub. “Seriously?”
She smiled up at me as she scrubbed her hands over him. He huffed in delight. “See? I knew he wouldn’t hurt us.”
He’d looked like he wanted to eat us when he first slunk out of the shadows in the yard. I wasn’t about to examine the fact that she pretty much had me as transfixed with her as this dog currently was. I wasn’t ready to face that truth.
“You go take a look,” she said, not looking up from the animal. “I’ll wait here.”
Shaking my head with a mystified grin, I opened the back door and stepped inside the home. I snorted to myself as I took in the ornate decorations. There was fucking gold plating everywhere. This guy couldn’t be more of a fucking cliché if he tried.
I poked around for about five minutes, not at all surprised that I didn’t find much. I wasn’t really expecting to. The guy had a wife, but didn’t seem to have kids. That made it easier to dismantle his life brick by brick.
Locking the door, I shut it as I stepped back outside. “Ready?”
“Did you find out anything about where Ryan is?” Her face fell when I shook my head. “Okay, then let’s go. Good boy,” Rue told the dog again and scrubbed behind his ears.
My eyes slid to the animal as he scrambled to his feet and followed us across the yard the way we’d come in. “Stay,” I muttered as I held open the side gate for Rue. Then I swore as the dog darted past me and followed her out onto the street.
“Rue,” I said in an exasperated tone because she had a look on her face that I didn’t like.
“I’ll feed him,” she offered. “And walk him.”
I scrubbed a hand over my face. “You can’t just take him home,” I countered.
“Why not? People like Carrick don’t deserve animals.”
Eyeing the dog, I sighed. For the most part the dog looked healthy. It was probably the wife’s pet.
“He wants to come with us,” she continued.
It wasn’t even like she needed my permission. We didn’t live together. But she was still looking up at me with wide green eyes.
Fuck me.
“You have to be the one to-”
“I will! Promise!” She patted her thigh. “Come on, Norman.”
I stopped dead in my tracks and watched her sashay away with her new pet. “Norman?”
“That’s what his collar says.”
Catching back up, I held the door open as the dog, then my woman got into the cage. I went to the driver’s seat and started the engine. “Stupid fucking name for a dog.”
A long wet tongue darted in from somewhere in the back and licked up my neck and over my ear.
“I think he agrees with you,” she said with a laugh as I shuddered and wiped off the dog spit. “I’ll give him a better name.”
Shaking my head, I pulled away from the curb. My life was already upside down thanks to this woman. I’d never brought a civilian on a stake out. Never flirted while breaking in. And I’d certainly never come home with a new fucking pet before.
I’d be damn nervous about the other ways she might change me, but honestly I didn’t fucking care enough to do anything about it. I’d known her for mere days, yet it was like she’d always been there.