Zorro (Reapers MC Book 16)

by Elizabeth Knox

  “It is.”

  “You have no problem admitting that?”

  Zorro blankly blinks at me. “Why would I hide shit from you? Ruby, you know this life isn’t easy. I’m not gonna pussyfoot around shit. I’m not gonna lay here and tell you everything is gonna be fine, but what I will say is I’m gonna try to make sure it is. Boomer and the Corrupt Kings attacked the club, and now it’s our time to retaliate. We’ll find out what we can from Gears, and then sooner or later we’re going after them.”

  “Why can’t you leave them alone? Don’t you think they’ll just leave us alone if we leave them alone?”

  Zorro reaches out to grab my hand. “Oh, sweet girl. You’re adorably naïve. They will keep coming after us until we’re all dead if they can. People like us . . . we rarely give up.”

  Why does this guy care so much about his sister being with the Reapers? They’re good people. They aren’t bad. They protect her. “Is he jealous or something?”

  “I wish I knew for certain, but yeah, kinda sounds like that to me. If Cheyenne won’t work with him and his club, why should she work with anyone else?”

  He brings up a good point, but she isn’t a slave to her brother. “It’s her decision to make, not his.”

  “I agree, but some people don’t see it that way. Some people aren’t as kind as we’d like them to be.”

  “Yeah, you can say that again,” I mutter, running my fingers through my hair.

  Zorro tugs me down onto the mattress with him and pulls me against his side. Wrapping an arm around me we just lay here wrapped up in each other. He presses soft kisses to my forehead and our room is so quiet I can hear both of us breathe.

  “I know you were terrified when I left you, and I’m so sorry, but I had to get work done.”

  As much as I know why, it doesn’t make me feel any better. “I hated it.”

  “I know, and I’m going to do better. I promise. Unless I absolutely have to leave you again, I won’t.”

  Peering up through thick lashes, I look into his eyes. “You don’t have to go anywhere else for a while, right?”

  He shakes his head once. “The only thing I know for sure is I’ll be taking a week or two trip in a few weeks for the club. Need to go out to the East Coast to handle some stuff with another club. I’m pretty sure Zane is sending one of the prospects out with me.”

  “Oh, what do you do out there exactly?”

  “Nothing fun, just political shit. I’ll be checking in with Boss from the Iron Vex MC and seeing how things are going on her end. Zane’s been making it a point to say every few months one or two people from the club should be ridin’ out to our allies’ clubs, make some sort of presence or whatever.”

  “Ah, I see.” Even though I tell him I understand, I don’t. Now, I understand a lot more than I did when I first came into this lifestyle, but I’m by no means a professional. Though, I hope over time I’ll begin to understand more and more.

  “You hungry?” Zorro questions, cocking a brow.

  Almost as if on cue, my stomach growls. “I’m going to say that’s a yes. What’re you thinking?”

  “I’m thinkin’ I get your ass out of here and we go grab some grub.”

  Chapter Twelve

  You’ll know just in the way they’re looking at you, but in how they’re not looking anywhere else

  ~ Butterflies Rising

  Zorro

  “You want to go out, like outside of the club gates?” The way her eyes widen at first is adorable. She’s surely running through what happened in the last twenty-four hours and is wondering if it’s a good idea.

  “Yeah.”

  She blinks rapidly. “I-uh. I don’t know if that’s a great idea. I mean, should we be leaving right now, with the Corrupt Kings on our back or whatever?” Ruby has no idea what’s coming out of her mouth but I know what she’s trying to say. She’s trying and failing to tell me that she’s worried about leaving the safety of the club, but she doesn’t need to be worried. I’ll handle any Corrupt King who steps in our way if given the chance.

  “Sweet girl, I’m hungry, I know you’re hungry. And as much as I love the shit Nat’ prepares for the club, I really need an excuse to stretch my legs and get out of here.”

  “I—”

  “Do you not want to be seen out in public with me, is that it?” I’m totally fucking with her, but she doesn’t realize it. She rises off the bed and glares at me. Shit, I figured this would be funny, not a reason for me to get bitched at.

  “If you really think that you’re dumber than you look!” I’m taken aback by her words, caught blinking at her even somewhat stating I’m dumb, or dumber than I look. How dumb do I look? I’m not sure, but I’ll have to ask her.

  “Well I don’t know how—” I’m not even partially through my sentence before she walks out of the bedroom and slams the door behind her.

  Fuck.

  Taking in a deep breath, I push myself off the bed and follow her. By the time I’m able to catch up with her she’s already downstairs talking to Shiloh. Somehow these two women have become pretty good friends, which is weird as fuck, but don’t even get me started on that. I wonder if she’d be such good friends with her if she knew I used to fuck Shiloh. I know it sounds rude, but it’s a little too close for comfort. She could be friends with anyone in the club, but why does it have to be Shiloh?

  As I approach them, I about shit myself when Shiloh smiles and nods. “Yeah, that would be nice. I need to get some fresh air too. Where are you guys going to eat?”

  “We haven’t decided yet,” Ruby answers her coolly as I come up from behind her.

  “Ruby here invited me out to eat with you guys. Said she needed to get some fresh air, and honestly, I need some too. Is that cool?” As much as I want to tell her no, I know I’ll be the world’s biggest asshole if I do. And if I tell her no, I’ll be forced to explain to Ruby why I’m saying no, and then I’ll have to go into the fact we’re out with the girl I used to fuck. The woman I thought might one day have my kids. God, I don’t wanna go down that rabbit hole. There’s not any point in doing it anyway. The past is the past and now I’m with Ruby. Happily, with Ruby I should say. Our relationship is new, but I’m not gonna let anything get in our way. I care about the woman too much.

  I nod, not wanting to have to get into the other bullshit. “Sure. Where did you wanna eat?” I speak at first to Shiloh and then look over to Ruby.

  She shrugs once. “I’m not sure. Ashley did tell me about that place in town, what’s it called, Cupcake?”

  “No, you’re thinking of Tart. It’s a dessert place and they do café style food,” Shiloh tells her.

  “Do you want sweet food, or do you want dinner? I know this bomb steak joint on the main street in town,” I suggest, figuring she doesn’t want to slam sugar down her throat. I don’t know the last time she’s eaten, but I want some protein. Honestly, I could go for a nice piece of filet, or a blackened salmon.

  Ruby glares at me, showing yet again how annoyed she is and huffs out her response, “We’re going to Tart.”

  “Alrighty then. You two ready to go?” I ask the girls. Ruby immediately nods while Shiloh looks off to the other side of the room.

  “Do you mind if Hammer tags along? I’m sure he’d like to get out too.” Hammer . . . of course I fuckin’ mind. He’s part of the reason Shiloh started suddenly being unhappy with the arrangement I had with her, Axel, and Grim. Needless to say, Hammer and I only communicate when it’s absolutely necessary.

  “It’s cool with me. You two gonna meet us there?”

  Shiloh lightly smiles, but I’m guessing she expected me to put up some sort of fight, say no or something. “Yeah, that would be cool. We’ll see you there in a bit.” Shiloh walks off to go get Hammer and I walk alongside Ruby toward the club door.

  “Why was she asking you if she could bring Hammer?”

  “Out of respect I guess.”

  “Didn’t sound like a respectful thing to me.
Sounded like you guys have some sort of beef,” Ruby comments while I open the door for her. She walks on through and heads over to my SUV. I open the passenger side door for her, slam it shut after she’s gotten inside, and get in the driver’s seat. Within a matter of minutes, we’re on our way out through the clubhouse gates which is now being manned by Stiletto and Bama. Zane has the prospects rotating on eight-hour shifts, two at a time.

  Ruby keeps to herself in the passenger seat, not saying a word the entire ride. After a few minutes of letting it go, I clear my throat. “I was only screwing with you about what I said.”

  Immediately she crosses her arms over her chest. “I know you were and I don’t like it. I don’t think it’s funny to joke about shit like that, Santiago. It pisses me off. I fucking care about you and when you say shit like that to me it’s like being punched in the gut. It’s hard enough knowing my brothers already have a problem accepting my relationship with you, and what I don’t need is for you to act like I have a problem telling everyone that we’re together, or . . . are we together? I mean, what is our label? God dammit, it doesn’t even matter what our label is! I’m with you, so don’t say shit like . . . just please don’t say stuff like that again.” Ruby’s voice cracks quite a bit through her words and I turn my head the moment I hear a sniffle.

  She’s wiping her hand under her eyes, brushing away stray tears.

  Fuck. I’ve really done it now. I reach my hand over and grab onto hers, giving it a squeeze. If I wasn’t driving right now, I’d pull her into my fucking arms and grovel like the bastard I am. Hell, I’ll grovel regardless. “I’m sorry I upset you, it wasn’t my intention.”

  “Promise you won’t do it ever again, please.”

  I glance over to her for a split second and make the promise she’s requesting. “I won’t say something remotely similar to that ever again. I promise.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  I want to be with you till my very last page

  ~ A.R. Ascher

  Ruby

  Zorro pulled his SUV behind Tart a couple minutes ago. We were going to wait for Hammer and Shiloh to get here, but my stomach growling again was a sure sign we needed to get inside and place some sort of order. He doesn’t know this yet, but when I’m hungry I’m a dangerous woman. Now we’re inside and I’m staring at the L-shaped glass display that takes up most of the space in the shop. The café isn’t overly large, but it’s not anything too small either. There are white subway tiles with black grout lining the exposed walls in here and the floor is a beautiful honey color. It makes me feel like I’m back in Albany at a bakery they have just outside of campus. The floors are almost black in that shop, and instead of subway tile they have bold wallpaper, but I get the same sort of vibes here.

  I look up at the black menu with the chalk written on it going over their wide variety of coffees, cappuccinos, macchiatos, and more. The next board beside it goes over teas, lemonades, and fruit infused waters. The board beside that goes over their soups and sandwiches, while the following boards go over their cakes, pastries, tarts, donuts, and every other dessert they have to offer.

  “Welcome to Tart. Can I help you?” A woman with a brown balayage comes over to the counter from what I assume must be the kitchen area. She’s wearing a hot pink apron and the name Kelsey is written on her name tag.

  “I’d love a caramel macchiato and . . .” I wait a few moments while I look over the menu “Your chicken cordon bleu sandwich duo with the turkey chili.”

  “You got it. And you?” Kelsey asks Zorro.

  “A black iced coffee, no ice. Reuben with fries if you have it.”

  “Perfect, and any dessert?”

  “We’ll come back and order dessert after we stuff our faces,” I’m immediately answering. If I have to take part of my entrée back to the club I will, because those treats look too scrumptious to leave anything behind.

  “Okay, sounds good. Feel free to take a seat at any one of the tables or booths and I’ll bring your stuff out when it’s ready. I’m the only one here tonight, so if we get a little busy please let me apologize in advance.”

  “No need to worry. We’re meeting friends here tonight so we’ll make sure to be patient and not pains,” Zorro tells her with a smile while he slides his hand around my hip, he leads me over to a booth in the far corner.

  The door rings as we sit down and I lean over to see it’s Shiloh and Hammer. Shiloh waves at me while Hammer has a stoic expression on his face, almost like he’s annoyed to be here. Weird. Figuring he’s just tired after everything that’s happened, I don’t push my luck.

  Kelsey greets them and points over in our direction, then a second later they’re both coming our way. Hammer slides in the booth first so he’s sitting across from me, and Shiloh slides in beside him.

  “God, it feels nice to get out of the club. I thought we were gonna be down there forever,” Shiloh groans, and I understand her frustrations completely. Sitting down there with all the other women and children, besides my brother, Grim, and Hammer, I found myself counting the small specks in the ceiling to pass the time because my mind was so preoccupied with worrying about Zorro. Most of the ladies seemed to be worrying too, but Shiloh didn’t have a care in the world. Hammer was down there with us so she was sticking around him. The nature of their relationship confuses me, but these two have been getting cozy for a while now according to everyone else.

  “Yeah, the time went so slow,” I add, unable to miss how awkward it’s been since Hammer and Shiloh sat down at the table.

  “Here’s your coffee, and here’s your macchiato. Did you guys want an app or something while you wait for your food?”

  “I won’t ever say no to more food,” Zorro laughs from beside me as he scans his eyes over to the black board. “That cheesy pita bread sounds good.”

  “God, it’s my favorite. The best thing you’ll order off the app menu for sure. Okay, so what would you guys like today?” Kelsey finishes speaking to Zorro and looks to Shiloh and Hammer.

  “I’d love a white chocolate mocha, and honestly I’m totally eyeing your desserts. I’ll probably order two slices of cake and eat that for dinner.” Shiloh laughs while Kelsey smiles.

  “Hey, I don’t blame you there. It’s a good thing I’m gluten intolerant, otherwise I’d be so chunky.” Kelsey giggles lightly, writing down things on a notepad. “So, we have loads of cakes. You take a look up under the glass and let me know what you want, alright?”

  “Sure.” Shiloh is eager to get out of the booth and go look at her dinner, so she goes right over.

  “What’re you feelin’ tonight, darlin’?” Kelsey asks Hammer.

  “That Mediterranean ham sandwich I got last time was bangin’. Mind if I get that?”

  “Sure thing! Anything else?”

  “No, that’ll be all for me,” Hammer replies with a smile.

  “Perfect. I’ll go get everything prepped for you guys and I’ll wait for the young lady to tell me what she wants for her cake slices up at the counter.” Kelsey walks away and disappears behind the L-shaped glass.

  Moments of awkward silence pass us by and I find it impossible to avoid. Seriously, I don’t know why these two aren’t saying a word but it’s making me feel super uncomfortable. “Are you two okay?” I ask Hammer and Zorro.

  “Yeah, why wouldn’t we be?” Zorro asks with a cocked brow.

  “You aren’t saying a word to each other,” I mutter lowly, finding this super odd. The only guys at the club I thought he wasn’t really getting along with were Grim and Axel.

  “Zorro and I don’t see eye-to-eye about some shit,” Hammer comments, looking from me to Zorro.

  Instantly I’m narrowing my eyes and looking between the two men. “Really? Why would that be?”

  Hammer cackles lightly, “I’m sure him bein’ with Shiloh in the past is part of it.”

  I’m caught processing what Hammer’s said for a few moments after. “Sorry, what?” I’ve never known that Shiloh an
d Zorro had a history. Neither of them have ever mentioned it to me, not once.

  “You know, Shiloh had a thing when she was a clubwhore with Zorro and your brothers. They shared her or some shit, before she quit being a clubwhore,” Hammer adds.

  “Dude, enough. She doesn’t need to know about shit that’s been over for years now,” Zorro comments in an aggravated tone. The way he’s speaking to Hammer is telling me everything I need to know. Hammer isn’t kidding, and Zorro did have some sort of relationship with Shiloh in the past. I’m only sitting here wondering why he didn’t feel the need to tell me about it.

  The past is in the past . . . yet my stomach is turning knowing he chose not to tell me.

  Why would he keep something like this from me?

  Chapter Fourteen

  One of the most important lessons you can learn is that a healthy love does not hurt

  ~ L.E. Bowman

  Zorro

  Ruby’s hands ball into fists on her lap as a blindsided look crosses her face. She blinks a few times before looking to Hammer, and then to me. “I . . . I had no idea you t-two were . . .” Her words trail off and I notice the way her eyes glisten, knowing the woman is barely keeping her emotions in check.

  God dammit! Why did Hammer have to bring up shit that doesn’t matter? Shit from the past? Fuckin’ idiot.

  “It isn’t important. A few years ago, at least,” I tell her, but the glare she gives me proves what I’ve said has just dug myself deeper in the dog pound.

  “Whoa. Ruby didn’t know?” Hammer draws his brows together and I don’t even bother looking at the asshole. I didn’t need to tell her I fucked Shiloh in the past. It would literally have done no good. If our roles were reversed, he wouldn’t have told Shiloh he screwed another chick. Women focus in on that shit, especially if the other woman is still around. Shiloh will never be romantic with me ever again, but I don’t even know if it matters to Ruby. She wanted a fucking relationship, an ol’ man. My times were fun with her back in the day but she wasn’t the type of ol’ lady I wanted.