13. Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Thirteen
Sophia snickered at Ruthy whacking Justice’s hand with a spatula when he tried to steal a bite of the baked beans.
“Mom,” he whined.
“Justice, you are an adult. Get those grimy paws washed before you get near my food,” Ruthy warned.
“I thought Pit provided all the food and you were just reheating it,” he smarted off.
“Oh, you’re in trouble now,” Tack crowed, sitting down beside her. “Mom, I, however, showered and made sure I wasn’t grimy before I came to the table.”
“Do you have to be such a suck-up?” Justice whined, glaring at Tack.
“Mom, do you need help with anything?” Tack asked.
“Seriously? I’m going to go clean up before Tack makes me throw up,” Justice shot back, walking out of the room.
Sophia enjoyed the comradery of the group and how much it felt like a family. It made her miss hers a little less.
Tack’s finger touched her chin, turning her toward him before he kissed her.
Why was his kiss so much better than any she’d ever had?
He made her tingle from her lips down to her core.
She was glad she had her overalls on today, or her hard nipples would be showing through her shirt, and thank goodness, Tack was kissing her.
She didn’t need to worry that she’d said that out loud.
Hooting and hollering had Tack finally pulling back from her lips, but after he’d kissed her so many times today, she wasn’t embarrassed.
She was wishing she could take him upstairs, climb the man like a tree as Lake had suggested, and man, she hoped he had her screaming his name.
She wondered which one he’d rather she scream: his club name, Tack, or his given name, Ryder.
“Ryder, and I can definitely take you upstairs after we fuel up,” Tack offered softly into the quiet of the kitchen.
The quiet laughter rolling through the room warmed Sophia’s heart because they weren’t laughing at her but with her.
“Fuel up, Tack. It sounds like Rufus was an asshole, so you’ll need to make it spectacular,” Ruthy quipped.
Sophia giggled, leaning closer to Tack. “Did she just give you advice on how to please me?”
Tack nodded, reaching across the table for the large platter of meat. He tilted the platter and covered half his plate with meat, then dumped some on Sophia’s plate.
“Happy, Mom?” he questioned.
Her answer was stopped by pounding on the back door. “Open up, Sophia. We need to talk,” the voice she’d hoped to never, ever hear again yelled.
“We do not need to talk, Rufus, but if you really need to speak to someone, I’ll be sending my man out to chat with you,” Sophia yelled back.
She shook her head, and Tack rubbed his knuckles across his cut with a smug look on his face.
“You don’t have a man. Nobody would put up with your fat ass,” Rufus shouted back.
Tack stood up, dropped a kiss on her forehead. “Feel free to eat without me. I’ve got some trash to take out. Anybody want to go with me and make sure I don’t kill him?”
Shield stood up with Stinger and followed Tack out. Sophia started to follow, but Ruthy held up her hand. “Let the boys deal with the trash. You don’t need to worry about him bothering you again,” Ruthy directed.
Sophia thought about it and decided Ruthy was right. Her man could take care of anything that needed to be done.
Tack dropped a kiss on Sophia’s forehead and vowed that he’d take Rufus farther away from the house before he taught him a lesson. He planned on making the man howl a little before sending him on his way.
Rufus was standing close to the door. Tack shoved it hard, knocking Rufus off the step and watching him fall to his butt with satisfaction.
“Let’s go for a walk,” Tack suggested.
Rufus stood up, dusting off his pants. “I’m not going for a walk with you. I want to talk with the fat cow in the kitchen,” Rufus replied.
Tack stepped closer and grabbed Rufus’ neck, lifting him off his feet.
“That’s my fucking woman you’re talking about, and if anything about her comes out of your mouth, it better be fucking respectful.
Shield, wrap him up so we can head back behind the barn,” Tack directed, striding away, knowing that the guys would have his back.
He walked by the barn, crossed in front of the garage, and followed the trail around back.
Stinger wasn’t far behind and came to stand by Tack.
“Where’s Shield with numbskull?”
“Shield decided to wrap him for transport instead of fighting him the whole way here. Oh—there they are,” Stinger confirmed as Shield came around the tree line driving the tractor with Rufus duct-taped to the scoop. Shield was raising it up, then lowering it back down as he drove over to them.
Once Shield was in front of them, he lowered the scoop to waist height, tilted it, and dumped Rufus out. Tack had to admit the groan Rufus emitted behind the duct tape gag had him chuckling.
Tack waited for Shield to shut off the noisy tractor before bending down and ripping the duct tape off Rufus’ mouth. His screech was music to Tack’s ears.
“Now, I have a couple questions for you, Rufus, and depending on how you choose to answer them will determine how you spend your evening. Nod if you understand,” Tack threatened.
“But…” Rufus pleaded.
“Nope. Nod yes or no. I don’t want to hear your voice because then it reminds me what that whiny voice said earlier when you called my woman names.” Tack waited until Rufus nodded yes.
“All right, now tell me why you’re bothering Sophia, even though you’re divorced,” Tack directed.
“I’m not bothering her. I came to check on her. I heard someone left dead squirrels on her front porch,” Rufus stammered.
“Oh, you heard that, did you? Where?”
“Where what?” Rufus asked.
“Where did you hear that?” Tack repeated.
“On the police scanner,” Rufus replied.
“Now, Rufus, you nodded and said you understood that how you answered would determine how your evening went, and you just lied to me. Now, tell me how you really found out,” Tack ordered, leaning down, picking up Rufus’ foot, tugging off his shoe and sock.
He grasped a toe and put pressure on it, bending it back toward Rufus.
“Stop. That hurts,” Rufus pleaded.
“It’s in your control to stop this,” Tack dryly noted.
“Aww, ouch, fuck, it was my mom. She saw someone hanging squirrels, then running away,” Rufus insisted.
Tack let the pressure off Rufus’ toe, staring at him.
“If you were coming to help her, why’d you call her names?” Tack questioned.
“Because she’s never grateful when someone helps. She thinks she’s Superwoman and needs to be in charge and fuck, you’ve seen her. Those tits flop to the side when she lies flat. I tried to get her to do something about them to make them perkier,” Rufus offered.
Tack grabbed one of Rufus’ toes, bent it sideways until he heard a break. Rufus screamed, wiggling on the ground, trying to get away.
“Tack,” Ruthy called from the darkness.
“Kind of busy, Mom,” he replied.
“I know, and he deserves it, but the screams are reaching the house. I brought a couple washcloths to stuff in his mouth. You don’t need anyone else hearing,” Ruthy suggested, handing the items to Tack and disappearing into the darkness.
“Dude, I bet you didn’t get away with anything in high school. Your mom is scary but amazing,” Shield breathed.
Tack handed the cloths to Shield and motioned for him to stuff them in Rufus’ mouth.
Had Rufus’ mom really seen the figure hanging the squirrels, or was that the cover story Rufus and Jolene had come up with?
Rufus had lied about where he had heard about it when he said “the scanner,” so maybe it had been him.
Was he wanting to play the hero after trying to scare her?
When they’d been hung, Sophia hadn’t been his.
Rufus was continuing to cry. Tack didn’t have enough information to ask much more.
“Shield, watch him. Stinger, come with me,” Tack directed, walking thirty feet away to keep his conversation with Stinger private. “I’m not sure questioning him any more will be any help. We need more information.”
“I agree. Maybe we should wait until either Cuffs or the others get us more information,” Stinger conceded, turning to stare out at the land.
“What?” Tack questioned.
“I know I’ve never met Sophia, but for some reason, this area of native grasses and that strange-looking tree over there look familiar,” Stinger mused.
Tack didn’t recognize anything, but then, he wasn’t a history buff like Stinger was.
“Maybe it will eventually come to you. Let’s go scare him enough he doesn’t go to the police, and then I’d like to get back to my woman,” Tack directed.