Slate (Rebel Wayfarers MC) (47 page)

“Hey, baby, good morning,” he whispered, softly kissing behind her ear, reaching up to sweep the hair from her face. He felt her face move against his arm, and knew she was smiling. “Are you hungry, Ruby?” he asked, sliding one hand up and across her side to her chin, tipping her face to meet his, and then covering her mouth in a fierce, possessive kiss.

She kissed him in return, twisting in his arms so she was on her back, threading her fingers through his hair and holding him tightly. Slate slanted his mouth across hers, hard and hungry, feeling her hips begin to move. He dragged his fingertips down her belly and cupped her mound, slipping his middle finger between the folds and into her, pushing in deep.

“Baby,” he said as she tried to cover a wince, “you’re sore.” It was a statement, not a question, but she still shook her head negatively. He smiled down at her. “No, Ruby, don’t do that. I won’t hurt you, not for my pleasure. We have a long time to get to know each other, and I won’t have pain in our bed.”

“Slate, it’s okay,” she said softly, reaching up to cup his cheek.

“Baby, no, it’s not,” he told her just as softly, sliding down in the bed. He covered her belly in kisses, making her giggle with his nibbling and licks. Settling between her legs, he stroked the sensitive skin with his thumbs, slowly parting her lips. “Oh baby, you are swollen,” he moaned apologetically, kissing her pussy softly. “That’s something you need to tell me in the future. Don’t try to make decisions for me, Ruby.” He kissed her again, gently licking alongside her clit. “Don’t assume what I want. You need to ask me.”

Ruby’s fingers twined in his hair again, and she tugged his face up, saying, “Slate, you don’t have to do this.”

He grinned up at her. “Baby, mmmm, I know I don’t
have
to. What you don’t get is that I
want
to. This is something I’m allowed to do now, because you are mine.” Running his nose along the skin between her thigh and labia, he kissed and licked his way across to her other leg, and then down.

“Mine,” he repeated, dragging a calloused fingertip across her clit, listening to the catch in her breath. “Mine,” he said once again, following that with a soft laving of his tongue. “Mine,” he told her with a soft kiss one last time, before he made it his mission to have her breathless and breaking
apart on his fingers and mouth.

About an hour later, strolling into the main room of the clubhouse with Ruby tucked underneath his arm and walking at his side, Slate was prepared for shit from his brothers. He knew they all held Ruby in high regard; she was precious, their Princess. He would simply have to make sure they knew this was Ruby’s decision. He’d given her all the power, and she’d picked him.

What he wasn’t prepared for was a room full of men all staring at them with hard eyes and bunched muscles. Ruby tensed and went to slide away, but he stopped her with his hand cupping her shoulder, keeping her at his side. She put a hand on his stomach, clutching at his shirt, and her other hand wound in the belt loops at the back of his jeans.

The two of them had stood there for a minute, two strides into the room, before the men broke into smiles, with applause and catcalls starting in the back of the crowd. “About fucking time,” PBJ said from beside him, reaching out to stroke Ruby’s cheek. Slate smiled and swatted his hand away, growling, “Mine,” at him as PBJ laughed aloud.

He looked down and saw Ruby’s face was bright red, her eyes cutting from one member to another as the clapping died down. “All right, fuckers, you’ve had your fun,” Slate called. “Stop embarrassing Ruby.” He pulled her along with him as he moved towards the bar. “Is there food, or y’all slackin’?”

***

Sitting in his office, Slate was going over the reports Myron had provided on the existing businesses the Rebels had in Fort Wayne. Everything had settled down over the past couple of months, and the financials showed it. Even Marie’s, the most recent acquisition for them, was turning a profit. At this rate, they’d be able to pay off the loan Chicago gave Bingo to start up the chapter.

That prompted him to remember the duffle sitting in a locker somewhere, and he opened a desk drawer, pulling out the envelope Estavez had given him days ago. Without looking up, he yelled for Deke, motioning him to close the door when he stepped inside.

“Who do we have that’s tight with LEO?” he asked. “I have a pickup that has potential for eyes, and I’d like someone who won’t get tagged in case FWPD is around.”

Deke grinned at him. “Probably your best bet is me then, Prez.”

“How so, Deke?” he asked, puzzled.

“My brother is on the force, man,” Deke said. “I’m as close to an inside guy as you’re going to find.”

“Fuck me…how did I not know this? Well, alrighty then, here’s the deal,” Slate said, and then explained about the locker and cash.

Deke swallowed and paled. “Holy fuck, Prez, you telling me you’ve left what could be a quarter-million dollars sitting in an unguarded locker for more than a week?” He shook his head. “Are you fucking insane?”

“Nah, man, just had more important things to take care of.” Slate grinned, thinking about the past several nights with Ruby in his bed.

Deke shook his head. “I’ll go now; call you when I’m out with the bag,” he muttered. “Fucking shit, man, you are crazy.”

Slate went back to the reports until there was a knock at the door. Looking up, he saw DeeDee standing in the doorway looking unsure of herself. “Hey, DeeDee,” he said pleasantly. “What’s up?”

“Hey, Prez, can I talk to you for a minute?” she asked nervously.

“Sure, anytime,” he smiled at her, and then the smile fell away as she came in and closed the door. “What’s up?” he repeated, wondering if this was about Jason, her suite in the clubhouse, or Ruby.

“I wanted to talk to you about Melanie. There’re things in her past I don’t know if she’ll be able to talk about, but I really think you need to know, Prez.” She smiled at him then. “I haven’t seen her this bright in a long, long time, and I want to make sure you have the knowledge you need to keep those smiles on her face,” she said, then asked, “Has she talked to you very much about Michigan?”

Settling back in his chair, Slate tipped his head. “Nada. What happened in Michigan?”

Taking a deep breath, DeeDee shook her head. “I was afraid of that.
Shit
.” She rubbed her forehead with her thumb and forefinger. “Shit. Shit. Shit. Okay.” She shook her hands out as if she was readying for a fight. “Right after the accident, Melanie went a little off the rails. She had always been a willful child, and when you put her and my Lockee together, the sparks could fill a room, but this was different, because she was hurting. I didn’t see it until too late, but there was so much going on then I don’t even know if I could have done anything differently if I’d known.”

She looked up at him. “You’ve heard of the Devil’s Sins, right? They are a Michigan MC from up past Mackinac; they’ve got a few chapters spread across the upper peninsula of Michigan, and over in Minnesota. One of their officers was down here for a sit down, and he saw her. When he left, she had gone with him on the back of his bike.

“It was willing, at least as far as we could tell. She was too old for me to tell her no, but something felt off. We didn’t see her for more than half a year, and when we got her back, she wasn’t the same, Slate. I only know what she’s shared with me, but he ruined her in ways that are still apparent.” She used her thumbs to wipe tears from her cheeks.

“How did you get her back?” Slate asked quietly, his eyes fixed on DeeDee’s face. He felt pain in his chest and couldn’t take in a breath; he’d known there was shit in Ruby’s past, but didn’t know what to expect. This was painful to listen to, but he suspected it was gonna get worse.

“She called me and asked if she could come home, if she could come back...and I begged Bingo. He took a half-dozen Rebels to Chicago and got Mason’s okay, and then they went through Wisconsin into the UP to get her. She was waiting at the gate of a compound there; they’d locked her out and left her. By the time he got there, she’d been standing in the snow for nearly three days,” she said, watching his reactions.

“Was she this officer’s old lady?” he asked tightly,
eyes down; this was shit he should have been learning from Ruby, not DeeDee.

“No, not at all. We think he took her to make a point with the Rebels, but then found out she wasn’t leverage. So then she was just...well, you know how devalued women are in some clubs.” She lowered her head.

“She told me she’d only ever had sex with two men,” Slate said. “Do you think that’s true?”

Her head came up. “Yes, Demon kept her for himself—that I know.”

Slate took in a deep, slow breath. “Demon? The Devil’s Sins’ president? That’s the fucker responsible for Ruby’s fear?”

DeeDee nodded. “For years now, I’ve watched her live with what he did to her. Slow to trust, quick to push away, she’s kept herself alone, even when surrounded by people who care about her. The brothers have tiptoed around her for a long time, and she was...
is
so fragile. I don’t know how you got close, but I’ve liked seeing the smile on her face over the past week. I like seeing how she looks at you, even when you can’t see her.”

“DeeDee, tell me what he did. I want to know; hell, I
have
to know. She’s...important to me, and I’ve made promises to her. I want to make sure I can keep those promises, but I have to know what happened,” he told her, leaning forward and laying his arms on the desk.

She nodded, gathering herself visibly, and Slate wondered how he could stand to hear this, if it was that bad. “He kept her in a closed room, no window. She said he’d feed her when he remembered, usually after fucking her. Sometimes he’d gag her; she told me he kept her gagged for nearly two weeks one time, only taking it off when he wanted her mouth, or sometimes to let her eat the food he threw on the floor.

“He kept her naked, and blindfolded her a lot. That way, she’d never know where the next hit or touch would come from. If she backed away, he’d beat her. If she flinched, he’d beat her. If she said anything, he’d beat her.

Taking a deep breath, she continued, “That was her life; he fucking broke her, Prez. She still has nightmares about it, and she is still so strongly affected by the experience that in some situations, her fear rolls off her in waves. You are the only one she’s let get close and...I love her like my own flesh and blood, Prez. I can’t bear to see her hurt again. I couldn’t stand it.”

As she talked, Slate’s jaw clenched tighter and tighter until he was surprised his teeth weren’t splintering under the pressure. The fucker had conditioned her in a low-sensory environment, where she was entirely dependent on him for her life. He’d taught her that fear was normal, touch was abhorrent, and pain was expected. Straining to keep his voice even, he asked, “Why did he turn her loose?”

DeeDee clasped her hands in her lap, looking down. “She got pregnant.”

Slate suddenly comprehended he was looking down at DeeDee, and she had a panicked look on her face. He was standing over her; he’d rounded the desk without even realizing it. She was saying something, apparently answering a question he’d asked. Unclenching his fists, he stepped back, put his shoulders to the wall, and took a deep breath. “Hold a minute, DeeDee. Sorry, honey, say that again.”

She covered her mouth with her hand to hold back a sob. Looking up at him, she tore his heart in two when she replied, “He’d given her something to make her miscarry before they locked her out of the clubhouse. It happened on the first day she was waiting. By the time Bingo got to her, it was done.”

“Fuck me. He turned her out and then took her child? Anything else I need to know, DeeDee? Fucking
shit.
” DeeDee shook her head. He rubbed his face with both hands, remembering Ruby’s flinch when he asked her about kids. “God, this is fucked up. I’ve met Demon, back in Chicago.” Running his hands through his hair, Slate felt like murdering the
motherfucker. “DeeDee, she’s got to be one of the strongest women I have ever met. I feel so...God, I cherish her, and she’s giving her trust to me. After he did that shit to her, she’s giving herself to me.
Fuck
.” He took in a breath. “Who else knows this, Dee?”

DeeDee stood, took a step closer to him, and laid a hand on his arm. “No one...I’ve told no one. There was no reason to before; she kept everyone at arm’s length. The members who rode to bring her back knew she was bloody and bruised, but no one knows the whole story. You are helping her heal though, and I think you are amazing, Prez.”

He pulled her into a hug, kissing the top of her head. “Call me Slate, would ya?” Pulling back, he moved back to the chair and sat down. “I have a question for you,” he started, and she tilted her head at him, raising one eyebrow quizzically. “Were you going to tell me Jason was in town?” He grinned at the surprised look on her face. “DeeDee,” he chastised her jokingly, “I saw the fucker slinking out of here a few mornings ago,” here his face and tone got serious, “but, honey, you know better than to bring him back to the clubhouse, even if this is where you live. You go to him, or find a neutral place; I don’t want to see him here without my invitation again.”

She nodded. “I didn’t mean for it to happen; he tracked me down here, and we went upstairs to talk. I didn’t invite him, Slate...Prez. I wouldn’t do that.” She took in a breath. “I’ve found an apartment. It’s nice, and it’s near Slinky’s, so I can keep on there if you want. I was going to tell you soon, and now seems like the right time.”