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Warm hands come to my cheeks and it is then that I realize I’m crying. I turn my eyes back to hers. “Mama, I can’t do this. I am not him. I can’t—”
“Ruby!” Her hard tone shakes me. A wake-up, if you will. I knew my obligations and agreed to them a long time ago, but it doesn’t mean that I’m not scared. I’m allowed to be scared around Mama, right? That’s what she’s here for. To allow me to be able to be scared.
I’m not so sure anymore.
Her blue eyes soften as her hands fall to either side of her. “Pack what you both need and meet me downstairs.”
Before she reaches the door to my bedroom, I stop her. “And what about Wolf?”
“Your father wanted everything for that child, Ruby. It was you who took him away from us, so remember that as you move into your new position.” The door slams closed and a single tear falls from my eyes. I can hear him rolling around in his crib.Leaning over the edge, I smile down at him, picking his little body up from the mattress.
“Little wild one…” I press a gentle kiss on his forehead. “Sorry in advance for the family lineage you have and for the things I’m going to have to do to keep us safe.” I know as I whisper those words into his little bed of hair, that I’m not talking about Papa.
Iwatch the ice melt into the golden liquid in my glass. I don’t often think about my life leading up to the point where I was patched into Wolf Pack MC. Do I feel like a traitor? Fucking definitely, but my life before K Diamond doesn’t mean shit going forward. That everything in my life needs to be superficial because having anything of value only means people can take it.
“Wicked!” Royce calls out from behind me. “We need you down here—now.”
“What?” I turn in my seat at the bar. “Me sitting bitch on a fucking submarine isn’t enough?” Royce and I have been inseparable since he picked me up that night. He’s my brother. The only weakness I now have, and good fucking luck trying to take that big motherfucker away from me. He’d slit your throat before you even breathe near him.
“Shut the fuck up. Come on…” I push off the chair and swallow the rest of my whiskey. All the fucking drama with himand his old lady, who just happened to be the fucking bunny girl in my den all those years ago. All for this moment right here. The moment they’ve all been waiting for with K Diamond. Must be nice to extract your revenge on someone and know that he’s about to die. I need that one day, but unfortunately, this motherfucker still hasn’t fulfilled his word about Skully.
Taking the steps two at a time, I watch as everyone from the MC filters in. Lion, our president and the man who took not only Royce in, but me too, stands back in the corner, watching the whole fucking thing.
When she steps aside, my anger dissolves. Wide, doe eyes and a small pixie face. Her hair is shorter now, cut around her jaw.
“Poppy?” I stammer backward, confused.
“Hey, big brother…” Reaching for her arm, I shove her into my chest and lay a single kiss on top of her head, breathing in her scent. “I thought you were fucking dead. Twice.”
Her arms wrap around my torso, but not enough to reach either side. “I know. I’m sorry.”
I step back, my eyes flying around the small confinement of the space. “What the fuck is going on?” There’s a woman standing beside Lion, dressed in a black suit set. Poppy is beside Jade, and behind them are the rest of the brothers. Fury, Khaos, Roo.
“We all need to talk.” Jade runs her hands down her pants, her eyes going to Poppy. “The girls who I managed to free while being under K Diamond’s control have all banded together. We started an operation to help human trafficking victims and children who are caught in the trade. Over the years, my mother—” She pauses and looks at the woman by Lion. Lion, whom we’ve just found out is Jade’s father. “Has helped pull survivors. We’ve gathered a group and continue to do the work for as long as we need to. Poppy.” Jade points to my sister and I squeeze her under my arm. “Has been with us. I met her with K Diamond,Wicked, I’m sorry. I got her out, that’s why you never saw her again. I’m guessing K didn’t want you to know that because it would show weakness.” She isn’t wrong, and if there’s anything that K Diamond didn’t want, it was to look weak.
“I don’t give a fuck.” I tuck Poppy under my arm. “You’re not going anywhere now.”
Royce looks up at me from a smirk. “Good luck, Poppy.”
We pull up to the compound, and the prospects on the gates open them up wide for us. Pulling in, I park the SUV to the right, where the bikes are all lined. It’s a quiet night tonight. After all the drama with Jade, the clubhouse has been dead.
I cut off the car and watch as everyone piles out in the rearview mirror, Jade smiling up at Royce, and the rest of the brothers following them up the stairs that lead into the house. Our clubhouse is actually an old house that’s right in the center of an industrial-sized piece of land.
“This what you’ve been doing?” Poppy asks, and the silence around us is tight because I know what she wants to ask. “Len, you can’t live this life. You have—”
I turn to face her, narrowing my eyes. “You don’t get to come back into my life and tell me what I need to and can’t do. Icando this andfuckthat side of my life, Pop. It’s done nothing for me, for us. This? This is where my loyalties are and always will be.”
She sighs, and I unclench my fist when I realize how hard I’m being on her. “Look, I only say this because one day, Len, they’re going to come back for you. You know this.”
“Good.” I raise my brows at her. “I’ll be fucking waiting for when they do—now, I’ll show you where you’re staying.” Her words stick to the back of my brain like a bad taste. I already knew this, but Poppy saying it out loud only intensifies my fear. Now that I have her back again, I once again have something to lose.
“Wicked.” Her hand rests on mine and I flinch. Her brows cross together but she removes her touch. “I have a home.”
“Nowhere safe!”
She widens her eyes at me, the corner of her mouth twitching. “Actually, yes! But I’ll stay with you for a few days before I head back.”
“Back where?” I ask, pushing open the driver’s door. I slam it closed as she rounds the back of the car.
