Chapter 22 #2
Deeks’ cough burst out of him like a phlegm-filled rocket, making Rubin lean back as Deeks slapped his chest and took a minute to regain some composure.
“You’re Walsh’s boy?” he croaked, his head snapping my way in disbelief. “And you knew?”
Keeping my lips pressed together, I smiled as high as I could, creasing my eyes shut.
“Do the others know?” Deeks asked.
“I don’t want it to be a problem,” Rubin said urgently. When I looked at him, I could see the mild panic in his eyes. “I like it here. I’m friends with Tate. I don’t tell nobody nothing when I walk out of those gates, I promise. I wouldn’t ever—”
I held my hand up, cutting him off before I pushed off the back of the bar, dropped my beer on the counter surface in front of Deeks and Rubin, and I leaned in closer to them.
“Will you two quit acting like pussies for just one goddamn second?” I raised a brow, watching them both turn to me in surprise.
“Rubin,” I started, focusing on him. “We can’t help who brings us into this sorry little world.
I’ve got no issue with knowing who your father is.
You know what will happen if you ever cross us, I know you do.
You’ve already seen things in here that will stay with you for the rest of your life.
You’re a smart kid. You’re bright. Brighter than I ever was, or any of the other scruffy fuckers around here.
” Deeks coughed to clear his throat, and I shot him an amused side-eye before I brought my attention back to Rubin.
“You know what we’d do to you if you ever hurt The Hounds, and that’s not because you’re Walsh’s boy.
It’s because it’s what we’d do to anyone.
I trust you, so cut the paranoia out of your life.
It ain’t worth the wrinkles or the shriveled dick. You’re good.”
Rubin’s shoulders instantly relaxed, a small nod of understanding showing his gratitude. “I promise I never would. You guys are like family to me.”
“Works both ways,” I assured him before I turned to Deeks. “And you…”
Deeks held both his hands up in the air, admitting defeat before I even started to say anything. “Your club, your rules, your way.”
“That’s why I love you, brother.” I grinned.
“You gonna tell the men about it?”
“When the time is right. No need to add more worry to their shoulders right now, hey?”
“Do you think they’d be pissed with me… for keeping it from them?
” Rubin asked quietly, looking around the bar to see if Moose, Owen, or any of the other women were paying any attention.
They weren’t. They couldn’t give a shit.
Moose was slumped in his chair, asleep. Owen was leaning over a low table working on some books, lost in concentration, and the women were too busy pushing their tits up and reapplying their twelfth coat of that shiny, sticky lip gloss I hated so damn much.
When Rubin looked back, he leaned in closer, just in case. “Do you think they’d trust me less?”
“Not if I told them not to.”
Rubin’s young, almost-innocent but very knowing eyes searched mine. “What if I could prove to them how trustworthy I am?”
“I’m listening…”
Rubin shuffled his stool and himself as close as he could possibly get, and Deeks instinctively leaned in with him. Our faces were no more than a few inches apart. I could smell the whiskey on Deeks’ breath and the over applied teenage deodorant from Rubin.
“Mom said Dad is spending a lot of time with that scary looking woman who’s always in Rusty’s. The one who looks like a shorter haired Cruella DeVil?”
“Winnie,” I said on a breath.
“You know her?”
“She’s ATF.”
“ATWhat?” He frowned hard.
“Part of the law, kid,” I told him quietly.
“They’re responsible for anyone in this country who is trafficking, building weapons, acts of arson…
” I looked over at Deeks, the memories of our perfectly plotted warehouse explosion drifting back to me before I looked back at Rubin.
“They take down criminal organizations and shit.”
“Babylon has those?”
I couldn’t help my smirk as I raised both brows and pressed my lips together. “Uh, yeh.”
I waited for the penny to drop, and when it did, Rubin just looked really fucking angry. “That’s bullshit!” he whisper-cried. “You guys aren’t like that. The Hounds don’t work that way. It’s… You’re… What the fuck?”
“Shh,” I said, amused. “But thanks for the vote of support.”
“You think she’s coming after you guys for real?”
“We know she is.” I drained my beer quickly, taking half the bottle in a few thirsty gulps before I dropped it back on the bar.
“If your dad is spending time with her, and after the night at Rusty’s when he was pressing Sutton and his force to make one of us pay for what happened, that could mean he’s trying to take us down, too, Rube. ”
“Fuck.” He slammed a balled up fist down on the bar, his eyes searching the surface of it wildly. I looked over his shoulder to see the women and Owen had both looked up out of curiosity, but Moose still slept on. After a second, they all looked away again and got back to their business.
“Hey,” I whispered, leaning closer to him. “Rein it in.”
“Sorry,” he practically growled. “I just… he’s such a....”
“Dick?” Deeks offered sweetly.
“A pussy,” Rubin corrected.
“Betty White says they’re stronger. They can take a pounding.
You should go with dick, kid. They’re easier to snap.
” Deeks’ smile was one that said he was proud of himself for that one, and I had to admit, it made my chest bounce with silent laughter as I watched on.
Rubin didn’t see the funny side, though. He was openly furious.
“You really don’t like your father, do you?” I asked him after a few seconds of silence.
When Rubin looked up, his eyes were bloodshot, and his face was set to stone. “What’s to like about a man you know is more corrupt than the people he’s constantly trying to keep off his streets?”
My face fell instantly. All my cool and humor dropped to the floor like a lead weight, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood to attention immediately. Rubin’s skin paled, but his eyes were made from fire and rage as he held my gaze and worked the muscles in his jaw.
“You don’t have to do this…” I warned him, knowing what was about to come out of his mouth before he spoke the words. “Once you do, there’s no going back.”
Deeks looked up at me, his face full of questions that were tainted with a smidge of worry.
But all I saw was Rubin.
“Kid…” I ground out.
“I want to work with you if I can. I want the men to trust me,” Rubin began. “I want you to trust me.”
My chest rose and fell as I released all the air in my body and waited for him to go on.
“I don’t know much, but I know he isn’t as innocent as Babylon thinks he is. I hate the way he treats me, treats Mom. I know he’s not a nice man, Drew. Sometimes, I feel it in my bones with just one look at him. He’s my dad, but he’s also a stranger to me.”
“Son…” Deeks tried to interrupt, but Rubin was a boy who wanted to become a man, his path set in a way he’d never expected it to be set and his course clear.
I’d seen that look before. I’d seen it a thousand times in the mirror.
Staring at it on someone other than myself was chilling, but also made the adrenaline rise to the surface.
“I want to earn your trust. I can get close to him. To the law. I can be your mole instead of the rat the others expect me to be. Let me in, Drew. Let me help.”
The two of us stared at each other for a long time.
A huge part of me wanted to say no. Rubin had something about him, something pure and rare, and I knew this life would only take that away, turn his white to gray before he eventually became an angry man with black on his chest, Prospect over his heart, and The Hounds in his blood.
He was at a crossroads.
A responsible man would have urged him down the path that ensured his life be nothing but good.
But I wasn’t that man. I had a club to protect, and something about the kid made me believe he could be the secret weapon we didn’t even know we needed.
I searched his eyes for a sign of doubt. It wasn’t there no matter how hard I looked or how deep I dug. In the end, there was only one thing left for me to say.
“You’re in.”