Slider cackles and my Father sneers. “Your girls still think this is about the church?” he asks. Slider looks down at us. “Your father happens to have two virgin brides I can sell for a pretty penny down in Mexico. Though, when I convinced him to give me Lydia, I realized I wanted her for myself. Lucky me.”
Horror snakes through me. “What is he saying?”
Father must know he’s lost our respect — not that he has ever had it. “He’ll give me plenty for each of you. I can’t pass that up. Not when there are so many good folks here in Dixieville who could use the leg up.”
Slider laughs. Looking at my father like he is a fool. “Let’s not forget the thousands you owe me.”
My father’s eyes fall to the ground, and my stomach turns. My father isn’t a man of God… he has been doing things under the cover of the church… things I don’t want to think about.
“Let’s go, then,” he says. Lionel and Jordy have duct tape and burlap sacks in hand. “Give them the sleeping pills and we can get to the airport. Soon enough, we will be on a private jet headed to Punta Cana.”
Lydia and I lock eyes. If their plan works, we might be flying across international waters within a few hours. Never to be seen again.
I can’t go.
I close my eyes, terrified of being separated from my sister, terrified of being sold as a sex slave, terrified of never seeing Ranger again.
I’m tossed over Jordy’s shoulder and the other man lifts Lydia from the ground. They carry us toward the farmhouse. We’re both kicking and screaming. Scared. Tears fall down my face as they carelessly cross the field. The morning sun is just rising and I wish I could go back to sleep, pretend this wasn’t happening. But I can’t rewrite history — I can only move forward, praying that this isn’t how my story ends.
And then, it starts pouring. Rain ripping through the sky, thunder clapping, lightning striking, and through it all is a wild, reckless noise.
I look up, and coming toward us is the Heartlands MC. Riding as one, a brotherhood. A family. The cavalry riding in tight formation, the heavy throb of their engines coming over the hill.
Tears flood my eyes and my heart holds out hope. Ranger came for me. For us.
Lydia and I are not going down without a fight.
13
Ranger
It took hours to figure out where Ruby’s father lived. Finally, we figured it out from one photo Joe Slidinsky posted on Facebook. A Google search later, a fee paid to access a record of Ruby’s birth certificate, and we knew exactly where her father lived. In Dixieville.
Took us seven hours to ride here, all through the night. The whole time I rode, my heart pounded as fear gripped my chest. Not wanting the worst to be true.
I try not to be pissed at anyone besides myself that Slider got away. I’d have killed him if he’d stuck around and I don’t want blood on my hands, even if I do want him to pay.
When the white farmhouse comes into view, Heartlands MC rallies. The men come together in formation as we ride toward the woman I love.
I saw love happen before my very eyes. Because it happened to me. I know what is possible. And I know love like that is worth the fight. Ruby is worth fighting for, even if she doesn’t think so.
And now, as we ride up to the farmhouse, I know trouble is afoot. There is shouting in the distance. I see two women slung over the shoulders of two men, and there’s at least one gun raised.
Signaling with my hands, I tell Killian to call the local cops. We ride closer, but with caution. We came here for the girls, not for a goddamn bloodbath.
The men on the porch turn to us as we get off our bikes. We approach them with righteous anger brewing in our hearts.
There she is.
Ruby.
Right there.
And Slider has a gun pointed straight at me.
“Who the hell is this?” a man shouts. I’m guessing it’s Ruby’s dad.
“Are you fucking with me?” Slider shouts my way as the men I rode with stand beside me.
“They aren’t your property, Slider,” I shout. “Let the women go.”
“Or what?”
I reach behind my back, ready to draw, but hold off. Ruby is too close to start shooting. “I’m not fucking around. This ends now.”
“You never liked killing. No way are you going to kill an old Army buddy,” Slider hisses.
“You were in the Army together?” Ruby asks, still in the arms of a strange man.
I walk closer, not scared of these fuckers. “Yes. That is how I know Joe Slidinsky. Apparently, he goes as Slider now. Hadn’t seen him in years… and damn, has he changed.”
“But I thought… I…” Her eyes fill with tears, but there is no time for a reunion. Not when Slider’s guys are looking for a fight. Heartlands joins me and together, we push off the threat. Killian pushes a man against the front door, trying to get him away from the younger girl. Chain charges at the other man, who holds Ruby hostage.
But Slider doesn’t like us messing with his plan. Slider’s gun is tucked in his belt, and I rush him, hoping to knock him off his feet so whatever he is planning on shooting is off target.
Before I can, he pulls the trigger, a bullet flying, finding its way to my chest.
It happens so damn fast. One minute I have my eyes on the prize, the next minute I am falling on the ground, blood seeping from the bullet hole, my life flashing before my eyes.
“No!” Ruby screams, her terror reverberating through us all, hitting me square in the heart. She falls to the ground at my side as Killian uses the opportunity to grab Slider from behind, pushing him off the porch and onto the ground.
Sirens blare from a distance. Ruby leans over me, her father bellowing like the mad man he is. Her fingers tracing my face.
“I can’t lose you,” she cries. “Not when I just realized I love you.”
“You love me, baby?” I ask, my voice shaky. My vision is fading. It’s dark out here, in the wide wilderness of the great unknown. Damn, I didn’t want to die so soon.
“I love you, Ridge,” she says, kissing me. “I love you so much.”
And then my eyes close.
And they don’t open up again.
* * *
The room is bright white and smells like cleaning supplies. I jerk up, trying to remember what got me here — riding all night, a fight, a bullet. I love you.
“Ranger?” Ruby’s sweet voice pulls me back to the land of the living. “Thank God, you’re awake. Oh, I thought I lost you.”
“I’m right here, baby,” I say, my mouth tasting like cotton, my body aching head to toe. A nurse comes in, followed by a doctor. They check my vitals, discuss my condition, but I can’t concentrate on them. I only have eyes for her. Ruby. The love of my fucking life.
“You love me, huh?” I look her over. She looks like she’s been crying for hours. I hate that I might have caused some of those tears.
“So much,” she says, wiping her eyes. “I shouldn’t have left. I thought you and Slider were in on something… I thought the worst when I should have assumed the best. Forgive me, Ranger. Please.”
“I’ll take a bullet for you any day.”
“Don’t say that,” she says tearfully. “I’ve been so scared. I thought I lost you.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
The doctor coughs. “Sorry to interrupt this reunion, but I wanted to update you, Ridge.”
I nod. “Give it to me straight.”
“You were in surgery for three hours. The bullet entered the right side of your chest. You had broken ribs and a punctured lung. And had it been a few inches to the left, well, that would have been the end of it. But thankfully, here you are. Surgery was a success and it looks like your intervention just helped the state round up the criminals they have been after for the last year. The cops are waiting to have a word with you when you’re up for it.”
I look to Ruby. She nods. “Slider and his crew have been operating a drug ring an
d a sex trafficking operation. More than one girl’s life has been saved.”
The doctor shakes my hand and tells me he’ll be back in a few hours. The nurse leaves after finishing my vitals and giving me some pain medication in my IV.
“Slider always seemed a little off in the Army, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt, knowing the situation was stressful.” I shake my head. “Damn, I hate that you thought he and I… Ruby, you gotta know I’m not that sort of man.”
She sits on the edge of my hospital bed. “I know that now. I was already in a bad place, uncertain of what you wanted… what we were… and I knew I needed to get Lydia… so I pulled back emotionally. When I saw you with him, it felt like the confirmation of my worst fears.”
“I told you I love you. You must know what I want.”
She shakes her head. “Ranger, I’m not like you. I don’t have the same faith that you have. I’ve been living in a state of fear. So, the idea that someone — you — are willing to stick up for me, choose me… truly love me… it is hard to believe.”
Her words make sense, even if they are difficult to process. We’ve both been through hell — her entire life, and my time in the military. I wish none of this had happened — but I hope that now she knows the truth. The MC isn’t a bunch of bad guys — we’re the ones willing to fight for the people we love. And so am I.
“Do you believe it now? Believe in us?”
She nods, running her hand gently over the bandages on my chest. “I do, Ranger,” she whispers, tears falling down her porcelain cheeks. “I thought I lost you, my one true thing. But here we are, a second chance… and I won’t waste it.”
I clear my throat, not wanting to waste one minute more. “So you’ll marry me?”
She laughs lightly. “I think the nurse gave you too high a dose of those meds.”
I shake my head, taking her hand. “I know exactly what I’m asking. Be my wife. My partner. My everything. Marry me, Ruby.”
Tears splash down her cheeks, her face that of an angel. And when she leans over and kisses me, my heart heals.
“I will marry you, Ridge. I will be your wife. But…”
My heart stops, which isn’t a good thing when I’m lying in a hospital bed after being shot to within an inch of my life. “But what?”
“But my sister, Lydia… she needs me. My father will likely face prison time, and she is still a minor. I am responsible for her.”
“Of course, you are. We’ll get a house big enough for all of us. Don’t worry. She is family now. We are family now.”
“Thank you, Ranger. Thank you so much.” She kisses me again, and I feel the weight lifted off her shoulders.
“So what do you think, a wedding as soon as we get out of here?”
“Why the hurry?” she says with a laugh.
“Life is fucking precious, Ruby.”
She nods, her eyes on my bullet wound. “You’re right. No time like the present.”
I smile. “God, how did a hard ass like me end up with a sweet thing like you?”
She bites her bottom lip. “Oh Ranger, you must be delirious.” She slides her hand under my bedsheets, running her fingers over my thick cock. “I’m not as sweet as some might think.”
I groan, wishing like hell I wasn’t so banged up. But thanking my lucky stars it’s Ruby who is here, nursing me back to health.
14
Ruby
Six weeks later…
The sun shines brightly, and I look to my sister, Lydia, who is beside herself with happiness. “Do I look okay?” I ask, smoothing the bodice of my gown.
She is kneeling and fluffing the skirt of my wedding dress, and she beams up at me. “You look like a Bohemian princess.”
I laugh, looking at myself in the floor length mirror in Ranger’s apartment. I am wearing a flower crown of pale pink roses and Queen Anne’s lace, and a vintage dress that has a long lace train. This is a wedding day I never dreamed of for myself, and yet, it’s here. I keep pinching myself to make sure this isn’t all a dream.
“I can’t believe this is really happening,” I say, my heart so full.
“I can. Gosh, the way Ranger looks at you…” Lydia shakes her head, her long hair in waves down her back. “It’s so romantic.” She stands and smooths out her own soft pink, knee length dress.
“You sure you’ll be okay here without me?” I ask. “It will only be three days but if you need me back sooner, just call.”
Lydia hands me my bouquet of wildflowers. “Stop, I’ll be fine. Do you see how overprotective all these bikers are? Besides, Roxanne is staying here at the apartment with me, and she isn’t going to let anything happen.”
“That’s true, she’s like a mama bear. The fiercest and most protective twenty-three-year-old I’ve ever met.” After I left to return to my father’s farm, Roxanne felt terrible for letting me go after she realized what I was walking into. But she wasn’t to blame for any of it. I chose to go on my own and it was certainly not her fault. That was all on me.
But now she is extra cautious of Lydia, which makes me feel a heck of a lot better while going on my honeymoon.
“You ladies ready?” Bulldog, the bouncer, sticks his head into the apartment. “The show’s about to start.”
I smile, feeling peace blossom in my heart. Never having been so happy in my entire life.
“I’m ready,” I tell him, and Lydia and I follow him out of the apartment, past the bar, through the parking lot, into the meadow behind the garage. There are nearly a hundred bikes on their kickstands, and my eyes widen in surprise. “Wow, so many people are here.”
“The brotherhood sticks together,” Bulldog says. “You’ll always be safe now, so long as you let the men of the Heartlands protect you.”
Tears fill my eyes and Lydia squeezes my hand. She understands, just like I do, how much that promise means. After a lifetime of being treated so poorly by our own father, the idea of men who stick up for what is right is a true treasure. Slider was locked away, but our father wasn’t charged. Still, Lydia and I made a vow to never speak to him again. We’re safe now because we have the Heartlands on our side.
“It’s go time,” Bulldog says as we round the corner to the field where the ceremony is taking place. There are white chairs lined up in rows and a white aisle runner leading the way. An archway at the front is covered in flowers and greenery and there is a bluegrass band playing songs.
There’s not a rain cloud in sight.
Lydia walks down the aisle toward the biker marrying us, and standing up there, front and center, is Ranger, my Ridge. The love of my life.
Tears fill my eyes as the wedding march begins, everyone standing and turning to face me. It’s the wedding of my dreams, my fantasies, and here it is, my real life.
I didn’t have faith in real love, but Ranger changed all that. He changed me.
I walk toward him with eyes as bright as the blue, cloudless sky. I walk toward him with a heart full of promise. I walk toward him knowing I will keep walking toward this man for the rest of my life.
He is my heart, my soul, my whole wide world. And I’m lucky enough to be his wife.
* * *
We check into the hotel on Hollow Lake eagerly. I’ve been on the back of my husband’s bike for the last few hours and I’m so ready to have something besides a vibrating hog between my legs. I want him.
So badly.
He slides the key into the lock and opens the door for us, then he picks me up, and carries me over the threshold. I laugh as he gallantly kicks the door shut, leaving us alone for the first time as husband and wife.
He lowers my feet to the ground, kissing me as he does. I’m in a white tank top and white jeans — having changed after out reception at Ride or Die. The bar is probably in full-on party mode by now, but we left at dusk, wanting to ride off into the sunset.
Now, here we are, husband and wife.
“Today was perfect,” I tell him as my feet touch the ground. “And I w
ant tonight to be perfect too.”
“It will be,” he tells me, his voice low and gruff. Intense. His eyes lock on mine and his hands cup my cheeks. “God, I love you, Ruby. I am so damn proud to be your man.”
“Don’t make me cry,” I whisper, the moment hushed and sacred. Ours.
“I won’t let you down. I mean it. I vow to be the man you need.”
A tear falls from my eyes and Ranger brushes it with his calloused thumb. “I know what I need from you now,” I tell him with bated breath. “I need you against me.”
He runs his hands over my back, lifting my tank top off, and I shimmy out of my jeans. I stand before him in a white lace bra and a thong that barely covers my freshly waxed pussy.
“God, you are gorgeous,” he growls in my ear, pulling me close. “Your tits look fucking perfect in this.”
I smile, reaching for his belt. He helps me out, undressing quickly. I shake my head. “The boxers too.”
He grins, lifting his eyebrows. “Bossy.”
I smile. “Happy wife, happy life.”
He steps toward me, his thick cock at attention. “That better?”
I drop to my knees and run my fingers over his thick shaft. “I love how big you are, Ranger. How you feel in my mouth.”
I open wide for him, taking his still rod in my parted lips, sucking off the man who makes my pussy drip with pleasure. I want to make him drip with pleasure too. Want him to come in my mouth and I want to swallow every last drop of his seed. As one of my first acts as his wife, I want to get him off on my knees. Begging for more.
“Oh God,” he groans as I suck him the way he likes. Slowly, bopping my head up and down as his cock hits my throat, I run my fingers over his balls. They are tight and hot, and I move my mouth over them, sucking them one at a time. His hard, veiny cock is dripping with precome and I lick it off with my tongue, swirling his pink tip in my mouth, savoring the drop.
RANGER: Heartlands MC Page 6