Chapter 11
Ruby
“Daddy?” My voice trembles as I scan the scene. I vaguely heard my father apologizing to Judge. “What’s the matter?”
“Baby girl, it’s time.”
“I brought Evie and Lyra with me too.” Ben’s voice travels as if through a tunnel, unable to break through the emotions hurling at my body.
“Good, we’ll need Lyra too.”
I’m in a trance. I realize what’s about to happen and can feel my mind slipping back into that world. Back to that day.
Swede continues. “Years ago, the club was hired to eradicate evidence of a murder. Something about it bothered me, so I noted everything through video, audio, and paper. The man who hired us only gave me the name Lion. I knew it was fake, and several months later I was arrested for murder and tampering with evidence. As Law already told you, Cameron Rezos got me off, but the Albanians were not happy. The body of the man I got rid of was Aron Gashi, the eldest son of Besnik Gashi, the head of the family. Five months later, the Albanians took their revenge and killed Axe.” Ben’s hand tightens on my shoulder, and I hear Lyra gasp.
I turn to look at her, unsure of what’s happening.
“Lyra, it’s time for the truth to come out. ”
My father drops that bomb into the room, and Spike stands up to move to his mother’s side.
“I don’t know if I can, Swede.” Her voice shakes as she whips her head back and forth, not believing it’s come to this.
Boost pulls her into his arms and says, “It’s time, my love.”
“Now?” she asks.
“We thought Gashi’s men killed Axe, but later found out it was the second son of Gashi, who kept their given surname, Kurti, when he came to the United States.
He was also the man who paid me to get rid of his brother’s body.
He wanted control of the family and didn’t care how.
Because of the threat to the club after Axe died, and other threats, Lyra kept a secret from you, Torch. ”
Ben swings around to look at her, and I rise from my seat to wrap my arms around him, aware he’s about to come unglued when he finds out this secret.
It’s something I’ve suspected for a long time, but I never brought it up to Ben, and my father told me to keep it to myself; it was none of my business.
It doesn’t affect my love for him, and looking at Spike and Ben next to each other, it’s hard not to notice the similarities.
Lyra takes Spike’s hand and steps up to Ben. “Before your parents got married, your father…Axe and I…we were seeing each other. The night Mary found out she was pregnant with you, your father did the right thing and broke it off with me. He didn’t know I was pregnant too.”
Ben steps back. “What?”
“Mary threatened to have me and my baby killed if I ever told anyone. After their divorce, I’d already been with Boost, who raised Spike as his own but knew the truth.
” Lyra turns to Spike. “I wanted to tell you, but I let you keep thinking your father had abandoned us and went nomad because after Axe was killed, Swede, Boost, and I thought it would keep you safer. For some reason, the Albanians targeted Axe, but we still don’t know why. ”
“So, we’re really brothers?” Spike asks, and she nods, then drops her head. He then turns to Ben. “Doesn’t change a thing for me. What about you, Torch?”
I hold onto Ben, and he takes a deep breath. “Lyra, I wish you had told me after my mother was killed.”
“I couldn’t. I wanted to. I wanted you to come live with us, but Swede and Jade thought it would be best for you to continue not to know.” She pauses for a moment. “You were going through so much after her death; I didn’t want to make it harder on you.”
“Torch, we made the decision to protect both of you,” Swede interjects.
“If we’re telling the truth here, I think I need to tell my story,” Boost says, and I turn to him as Ben finally wraps his arms around me.
“I agree, but first my daughter needs to know why she’s here.”
“No. I need her to understand that I never wanted what happened to her to happen.”
My legs give out. I’ve trusted Boost since I was a young girl; he was there for me after the attack. Now he’s saying he didn’t want it to happen.
“What are we talking about?” Judge asks as he stands up.
Boost begins. “Besnik propositioned me to gather information on the club for him. He wanted to know who was involved in disposing of his son’s body. He also wanted to know who brought the body to us, and at that time, we didn’t want him to know it was his youngest son.”
Spike whips around to face him. “You betrayed the club and are still here?”
“No, I went to Swede, and he helped me get my precious cargo hidden safely, so I told the Albanians to go fuck themselves. But they held it over Swede’s head after Ruby.
” He points to me, and I close my eyes, taking a deep breath to calm and center myself.
I’m using every technique my counselor taught me, but it’s not helping.
“Ruby.” My father’s voice distracts me for a moment from my centering breathing.
“Dad, enough. What does this have to do with Kurti and his vengeance against the Knight family?” Judge barks.
That name.
I freeze, my body locking up as if I were an ice sculpture.
My breathing accelerates, and a panic attack looms. Blurry vision knocks me off-kilter for a moment, and screams come from somewhere around me.
Arms wrap me up, and I fight, trying to free myself just like I did that night.
“No. I won’t let you kill me. No. I can’t die.
I don’t want to die,” I sob, fighting even harder.
I only see him over my body. “Luan Kurti, I’ll never forget your name.
Noooo,” I yell at him until suddenly, I feel a pinprick, and the world fades away.
Torch
My nose is bleeding, and I’m sure I’ll have a black eye, but who cares? I hate that Ruby had to go through that, and even more so, that Lach had to sedate her.
“She’s pregnant, asshole. You can’t just give her medications,” I berate as I hold her limp body in my arms.
“I know. Bring her into the clinic.”
We all follow him, and I notice every man in Lach’s area of the clubhouse checking whether she’s okay. They heard Ruby’s screaming; there was no hiding it.
Swede is still on the phone, and I hear Jade in the background, crying as he tries to calm her. Same with Lyra and Evie.
“What the fuck happened?” Judge demands, and Swede begins telling him Ruby’s story.
“Stop!” I shout. “That’s Ruby’s place to reveal the details if she wants him to know them.
Judge, all you need to know is Kurti is the man that tried to kill Ruby.
It wasn’t a car accident that killed Nelson on prom night.
He turned her over to Kurti for him to torture and attempt to murder her.
” That’s as much information as I’m willing to divulge.
“Wait. You knew?” Judge looks at me, and I recognize the betrayal, the hurt in his eyes.
“I found her.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asks both Swede and me.
His father replies, “Because I already had to rein in Torch while he went on his killing spree; I couldn’t do that with you too. Plus, it was part of the treaty. The four men that worked with Kurti were killed, but he was spared. He was supposed to be in Europe and never return to the U.S.”
“Mal, look him up now,” Judge orders. I lay Ruby on the table but stay by her side. Judge takes Hammer’s phone and dials a number from memory. “This is Judge. Come to the clubhouse immediately. My sister is newly pregnant and suffered a severe attack. Lach sedated her.”
I hear shouting from the other end of the call, which sounds feminine. Lach’s body instantly tightens, and he says, “You didn’t fucking call her, did you?”
“I did. We need her help.”
“Fuck. Judge, how could you?”
“Don’t you want Ruby and her baby safe?”
“I do. That’s why I only gave her a dose of a semi-safe medication for early pregnancy.”
Judge turns away from Lach and stares me down while setting his phone on the table at Ruby’s feet. “And as for you, asshole, you were my best friend. I can’t trust you anymore. You don’t keep secrets from me; I’m your president. I don’t know if I can trust you to be my VP any longer.”
Hearing those words should make me angry or upset, but I don’t care; Ruby is all that matters.
“I did it for her.” I gesture with my hand at where she lies. “She didn’t want you to know. She was sure it would make you look at her differently. Shit, Spike knowing was bad enough, and he only found out because he wasn’t far behind me when I found her limping out of those woods.”
“You,” Judge says, swinging around on Spike.
“Son, listen, we all made difficult decisions during that time, but we did them for Ruby and for the club. If this happened again, I would do the same thing. I wouldn’t change anything.”
Jade can still be heard through the line, so Judge asks, “Mom, did you approve this?”
“I did. In the beginning, your sister didn’t want to die, but because of the pain and scars, she wanted to end her life at times.
Every day was something new. Surgery, scars, bruises, trauma, nightmares, and memories.
” Jade sobs, and after a deep breath, continues.
“The day we found out that Nelson purposely took her to that field, he was lucky he was already dead. Torch threatened to dig him up and kill him again.”
“What did his parents know?”
Swede answers, “They thought the same thing as you. It only took some well-placed money for them to give it up. Pierson was the only one who was hard to convince, but it didn’t take much.
We owe him a favor, and I know the day he comes to collect, you’ll do what’s necessary now that you know the truth. ”
“Is that the scar on her neck…he cut her throat?” Judge grips the edge of the table as his legs tremble. Evie cries as she wraps herself around him. “He really tried to kill her?”
“He did that when she shoved her high heel in his eye. The fucker was left with only one eyeball when she was done. He missed, though,” Spike adds in.