Chapter 10 Ruby
TEN
RUBY
“Thanks for helping me pack up my things,” I said.
Puck shoved my clothes into a suitcase. “Not a problem. You know I’m always here.”
I sighed. “I appreciate that.”
He zipped up my suitcase. “You aren’t really getting soft for that Diego fucker, are you?”
I rolled my eyes. “Just get my toiletries packed.”
He strode his way into my bathroom. “At least the new clubhouse is up and running.”
I snickered. “And not a moment too soon. Didn’t it just get completed, like, two or three months ago?”
I heard him fiddling with things under my sink. “You think you got enough conditioner down here?”
I cackled with laughter. “It takes a lot of work to look this sexy.”
“Ew.”
“You mean, yum?”
“No, I really, really don’t.”
After Harry Cheng and Terry Wolf were killed a few years back, the guys sort of took a break.
They established the bar and decided to get it up and running, and from there they slowly started things back up normally.
Once they were flush with cash, they started heavy research on where to put their new clubhouse before building one from scratch.
Well, not completely from scratch. But the abandoned warehouse they picked out needed so much work that it might as well have been from the ground up. And the best part about the damned thing was that it was completely off-grid. So, it wasn’t trackable by the Chinese or by the cops.
Just outside the city limits of Mira Mesa, to be exact.
“I still think I should hire a bodyguard to stay here with you,” Puck said as he came out of the bathroom.
My head fell back with a groan. “Not this again. I’m telling you, I’m going to be fine bunking with everyone else. It’s not like I’ll be the only girl under the roof.”
“Well, you just make sure none of those horny-ass guys touch you.”
“You mean, make sure Diego doesn’t touch me.”
He grumbled to himself. “Him, too.”
I finished packing my end of the room. “I’ll be fine. You know I can take care of myself. Trust me, the second one of those guys tries to touch me, their fingers will get broken.”
“Good. Because if they do, they’ll also have a broken skull by the time I’m done with them.”
“Hey, Puck?”
“Yep?”
I peered over my shoulder. “You do know I want to get married and have a family someday, right?”
He nodded. “Yep. But you won’t do it with any of my guys. Got it?”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re insane, you know that?”
“Better to be insane than helpless.”
My thoughts rushed back to Diego and my heart sank for him.
I couldn’t imagine the unbelievable pressure he was under, especially now that his mother was in the spotlight.
I knew that if Puck was in trouble for something I had done, I’d feel like shit, but to think of his life being on the line because of decisions I made out of desperation? It made me sick to think about.
I mean, I wasn’t sure what kind of mindset Diego had been in to even consider shacking up with the cartel. But my gut told me it was desperation.
Or maybe I simply hoped it to be desperation.
“All right, I think that’s everything,” Puck said.
I stood back and looked at my stuff. “I’ve got four suitcases.”
He chuckled. “Which is why I brought the van and parked my bike.”
I shrugged. “Sounds like I’m driving the van, then.”
“Yep. Because you sure as hell aren’t driving my bike.”
I grinned. “You know I can drive it, though, right?”
He chuckled. “I know you've got your license. So, now that you do, you can save up for your own bike.”
“When I’m not in lockdown and having my income stripped from me.”
He sighed. “You know this is for our safety.”
“I know, I know,” I said as I picked up a couple of bags, “but it doesn’t make this any easier.”
He got the other two. “I know, Roo.”
“Come on,” I said as I headed for the door, “let’s get out of here before someone catches up to us.”
Hauling my shit down to the van wasn’t what did me in. It wasn’t even the drive to Mira Mesa and the warehouse that did me in. Oh no, no. It wasn’t until I got inside the warehouse and saw it finished for the first time that it finally hit me.
The club was in trouble.
Again.
“Jesus,” I whispered as I blinked back tears.
Puck slipped past me. “Come on. I know which room you’re going to want.”
I wanted to kill my brother. When he first joined up with the crew, I figured, how much trouble can they really get into? I mean, all they did was ride around, shoot the shit, and occasionally work in the bar and their mechanic shop. What was so bad about that?
Then, everything with Chang and Terry happened.
And now, after we had just gotten back on our feet with life after we almost died, we were back in the clutches of yet another group of people that wanted us dead? And for what? Because some guy stumbled into the wrong bar and because Notch befriended the wrong family?
“Okay, here we are,” Puck said as he turned on the light.
I walked over to the bed and hoisted my things onto the mattress. “Thanks.”
I heard the smile in his voice. “What do you think?”
I didn’t bother looking around. “It’s great, thanks.”
“Uh, just great? I practically tailored this room to all of the things I knew you’d like.”
I lifted my face to the ceiling. “Puck, I love you, but I really need you to leave right now, okay?”
He scoffed. “The fuck did I do to you?”
I spun around and glared at him. “Get out!”
He narrowed his eyes before he backtracked out of my room, slamming the door behind him.
I cupped my hands over my mouth and screamed into them, trying to get my frustration and worry out before I settled in for the long haul.
I couldn’t believe I was in this situation.
I couldn’t believe that my life was now on the line because of a patch-up job I did for a guy that came to us on the verge of bleeding out.
“We are in so much fucking trouble,” I whispered to myself.
I eased myself onto the corner of the bed and my mind drifted back to Diego.
I wondered how he was settling in and adjusting to things, especially being surrounded by men that wanted nothing to do with him.
That saw him as the threat rather than the client they needed to help.
For as tough as it was for me, at least I didn’t have the guys breathing down my neck about shit.
Well, Puck always breathed down my neck about something, but still.
And his mom.
Jesus, that man’s poor mother.
“I should go check on him,” I murmured to myself.
Before I could talk myself out of it, I rose to my feet.
I walked around until I found the bathroom connected to my room and for a split second, I was shell-shocked.
The bathroom was massive, easily the size of my living room.
The vaulted ceilings gave it a grand sort of feel and the jetted tub along with the walk-in shower made it feel decadent.
I stood there for a few minutes drinking it all in.
I even smiled at the idea of Puck tailoring this bathroom just the way he knew I would like it.
“Thanks, Puck,” I whispered to myself.
Then, I fluffed my hair in the mirror, put on some lip gloss, and went in search of Diego.
I had been slated to visit him today anyway, so I kept that at the forefront of my mind.
I eased out of my bedroom and peered around every corner as I tried to filter through the whispered voices pouring out into the hallway.
While I kept telling myself that I simply needed to change his dressings and clean up his wound a bit, I knew damn good and well that didn’t require hair primping and lip-glossing.
And as I walked up and down the hallways, I hoped and prayed Puck didn’t catch me trying to find the man.
“It’s endless,” I murmured.
Every time I turned a corner, there was another long hallway with closed doors and silence.
I managed to find the sprawling shared living room that was stacked with three couches, two loveseats, and four different leather rocker recliners.
There were three massive flatscreen televisions mounted to the wall and enough games and DVDs to last us through a damn apocalypse.
But I still hadn’t found Diego’s room.
“Come on,” I groaned.
I found the expansive kitchen and multiple gun and ammunition closets. I came upon two different hallways’ worth of rooms that served no purpose other than simply existing. I even found a staircase that headed into a basement sort of area that smelled dark and dank.
But still no Diego.
“I swear, if they’ve done something to him—”
Ruby, calm down. They’ve probably secluded him away somewhere.
And that was when the lightbulb moment happened.
I turned around and rushed back up the steps. I tore down the hallway and grabbed the corner as I rounded back to the hallway where my room was. I sprinted as quickly as I could to the other side of the warehouse and took the path that ran down its right side.
And when I got to the stairs leading up to the lofted portion of the warehouse, I drew in a deep breath.
Before I opened the door and started up the steps.