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“Yeah, beautiful. I want to have a family with you, a big one.” He kisses her again. “And I’d love to work on starting it a while longer, but we have places to be.” He lifts himself off her. Ruby shifts to sit up, too. He can’t keep from looking over her naked form. Ruby blushes at his appraisal. “You’re gorgeous.” He kisses both breasts but then forces himself to slide out of bed.
“Wh-where are we going?” Tank reaches down to take Ruby’s hand helping her up. He takes her hand in his as he leads her to the bathroom.
“We’ll have to be quick,” Tank tells her as he turns on the water for the shower. “We are going to Hack’s place. The men who were hunting you yesterday are in his basement.” Ruby sucks in a breath. Her face paling in fear.
“Oh, God! What have you done?” Ruby demands. Tank can feel her fear. She’s shaking from head to toes.
“Calm down, beautiful. It’s fine. I promise. We have everything under control,” Tank assures her, but she doesn’t look convinced.
“Tucker, you don’t understand.” Ruby’s voice is high pitched with anxiety. “These are powerful, evil men. They have the police on the take, even higher levels of government. They will be after you, Hack, Straw, the whole team. Oh, Tucker!” Ruby begins to hyperventilate. Her fear taking control. Tank takes her by the shoulders and gives her a gentle shake.
“Stop!” he commands, loudly, bending down to look into her eyes. “I promise you; we have this in hand. Now calm down and let’s get a shower and get dressed. Hawk and the team are waiting.” Ruby mindlessly nods and allows him to guide her into the shower stall. He washes her hair and body much as he’d done last night, enjoying the feel of her in his hands. Ruby remains quiet, lost in her thoughts and fears. He can’t do anything to dampen her fears, so he just makes sure to take care of her body. When she’s clean, he quickly washes himself, rinsing them both before shutting off the water. He grabs a couple of towels from the rack and dries them off, wrapping a towel around Ruby’s body then one around his waist. He herds her into the bedroom, grabbing her backpack from where he’d dropped it the night before. He hands it to her. She looks up at him startled but then nods and begins to get clothes out. A knock at his door has her eyes flying to the door then to his gaze.
“It’s probably Straw.” Tank attempts to relieve the fear he can see in her. “Get dressed in the bathroom while I talk to him.” Ruby nods. She enters the bathroom. Her eyes meet his before she shuts the door. A louder knock at the door draws his attention.
“Tank!” Straw’s voice booms through the closed door. “You up?” Tank jerks the door open. Straw looks him up and down, taking in his state of undress. A huge grin spreads across his face. “I would ask if you’re good, but I can tell by looking you are more than good.” Tank flips him the bird but returns the smile. He glances over his shoulder toward the bathroom door. As he looks back, Straw’s expression turns serious. “How’s Ruby? She okay after yesterday?” Tank nods.
“Yeah, she’s physically okay, but she’s scared as hell.” Tank’s hands curl into fists involuntarily. “Hawk wants us to meet at Hack’s to deal with those assholes.”
“I know,” Straw responds. “I was going to see if you’re planning on leaving Ruby here with Abigail? I can have Charlotte and the rest of the women come sit with them while we take care of the threat. You don’t think she’ll run again, do you?” Tank doesn’t get the chance to answer Straw’s question. Ruby’s voice draws both men’s gaze in her direction.
“I’m not staying here.” Ruby’s voice is no longer filled with the anxiety it had been before. It is ringing with determination. “I’m going with you.” Tank wants to argue, but he can see from her demeanor she’s made up her mind.
“Um, well, I’m glad to see you’re okay, Ruby,” Straw begins. “I’ll see you two downstairs.” Straw looks over at Tank. “Good luck, my friend.” Straw chuckles as he starts to turn away. Tank flips him off again before closing his bedroom door. Tank turns to Ruby. She lifts her chin defiantly. Let the battle begin.
42
RUBY
As Tank turns to look at her, Ruby steels her spine. She knows she’s in for one more argument with the man. He doesn’t want her to be exposed to the men who tried to take her yesterday, but she isn’t going to let him go there without her. She needs to be a part of ending the men who’ve stalked her for years, to finally be free to love Tucker without fear of him being murdered for his association with her.
“I’m not staying here,” Ruby says again. Tank stares at her a beat before moving in her direction. Ruby feels the urge to retreat, but she stands her ground. She has to show him she can handle whatever is thrown their way. He reaches her still holding her gaze. His expression unreadable. Ruby swallows and licks her lips prepared to argue with him.
“You’re right, beautiful,” Tucker says, surprising her. “You’re not staying here. I don’t really want you to go, but I know this is something you need to do.” He reaches up to place his hand on the side of her face. “Just promise me you’ll do as I say. If I ask you to leave, then you leave. If I tell you to run, get in my truck and come back here, then that’s what you’ll do. Agreed?”
“Tucker,” Ruby begins to protest. “Please don’t ask me to leave you if things get dangerous. You would never leave me to deal with a threat alone, so how can you expect me to leave you?”
“Because I’m a trained, skilled fighter, Ruby,” Tucker argues. “I love that you would want to protect me if shit goes sideways, but I would be better able to focus on the fight if I know you are safe. You are the most important person in the world to me, beautiful. Keeping you safe is the most important task I have.”
“I feel the same, Tucker.” Ruby holds his gaze, unwilling to back down. Suddenly a grin spread across his face. He takes her in his arms and kisses the hell out of her before pulling back to look down at her.
“You are going to keep me on my toes, aren’t you?” Tucker asks, smiling at her. He sighs. “I wouldn’t have you any other way. Let me get dressed, and we’ll go. He drops a quick kiss to her lips before releasing her. He whips off the towel around his waist as he strolls across the room to his chest of drawers. Ruby gets an excellent view of his fine, tight ass. She swallows hard remembering just how good his ass felt in her hands when he was fucking her senseless last night and this morning. A shiver runs through her body at the memories of their love making. Tucker makes quick work of getting dressed while Ruby enjoys the show. She could watch him move all day long and never be bored. The way his muscles ripple with the slightest of actions. Once he’s dressed, he comes back to her side.
“We better get going,” Tucker takes her by the hand heading for the door. “Hawk will rib me and embarrass you if we’re late. Luckily Hack’s place isn’t far from here.” Ruby follows him out of his bedroom down the short hall to the staircase. Once they have reached the ground floor, Straw and Abigail appear coming out of the living room.
“Let’s roll,” Straw says as they clear the last step. He turns to Abigail, kissing her gently. “We’ll be back soon, sweetheart. Take it easy, today, doctor’s orders.” She nods in response.
“Be careful,” Abigail whispers softly, “and come back to me.”
“Always,” Straw replies and kisses her again. Ruby wonders how Abigail is doing but knows they don’t have the time to get into it right now. Once this nightmare is over, Ruby wants to have a sit down with the woman. Abigail has been so kind to her, and Ruby wants to return the favor. Poor Abigail has been through so much with her ex trying to take their daughter, their car accident, and her subsequent hospital stay. She’s still recovering from her injuries. Ruby admires Abigail so much after learning about her past. Ruby can’t imagine how much harder her life would have been to have a child along while on the run all these years. Abigail had managed to take care of not only herself but her infant daughter, too. Tank, pulling on her hand, draws Ruby out of her thoughts.
They exit the house through the garage. Tucker, Ruby, and Straw climb into Tucker’s truck and make the short drive to Hack’s home. They pull into the driveway and circle around to the back of the house. Several vehicles are already parked in the back yard. Tucker walks around to help Ruby down from the large truck. Straw leads the way as they take some concrete stairs downward to a basement door. Straw knocks firmly on the door. It opens in no time.
“About time y’all showed up,” Virus says as he opens the door. The man looks over the three of them. His eyes zeroing in on Tucker’s hand clasped in Ruby’s. His eyes widen, then a knowing smirk spreads across his face. “I figured it was Straw holding things up with Abigail, but I see another man’s down. Oh, how the hard the mighty does fall.” Virus laughs at his joke.
“Fuck you,” Tucker says as he flips the man off. “You’re just jealous you didn’t have anyone to make you late. Are you just going stand there blocking the door or get the hell out of the way so we can come in?” Virus laughs even harder but moves out of the way, sweeps his hand out and bows as they pass. Ruby looks around as they enter expecting to see a dark, dank space, but the place is completely finished with dry wall and laminate flooring. They walk through a room with a bar along one wall, the shelf behind it loaded with various bottles of alcohol. It’s a shelf that could clearly rival any local bar or tavern. The remainder of the room is decked out with couches, chairs, a coffee table, and a huge state of the art viewing screen. The thing is entirely too large to be call a television. Ruby is mesmerized by the room as she allows Tucker to lead her through the room and into the next.
The next room is tech lovers wet dream. Computer monitors, hard drives, modems, and many other gadgets, Ruby has no idea what they are called, are set up in an organized chaos on a large table in the middle of the room. She notices one particularly large monitor has a multi-split screen with video feeds in each window. Hack has some serious security cameras. One window shows all the vehicles parked in Hack’s backyard. Another is showing a view of the front of his home. Another window catches Ruby’s eye, and she sucks in a breath.Tony!
