by Taylor Lee
“Your woman, my liege, as requested. And may I add, that after handling that luscious bundle with the curviest ass I’ve ever had my hands on, you are one lucky son of a bitch!”
Amidst the shouts of laughter and applause from their friends, Noah pulled a blushing Ruby next to him.
“Thanks, Gray. I should punch you in the nose since you never could keep your hands off of her, but if it wasn’t for you and Ian, I’m not sure Ruby and I would be standing here today.”
Noah hesitated for a long moment then wrapped his arm tighter around Ruby and spoke to the group.
“Ian was the first one to confront me on this issue but it was Gray who grabbed me by short hairs and made me acknowledge something that I’ve known for a long time but was afraid to admit. As my brother in arms said to me in “Gray-speak”, “You need to yank the stick out of your butt, man and admit that you are ass over elbows in love with short stuff.’”
Noah waited until the laughter died down, and swallowed against the lump building in his throat then said with a smile. “As I almost always do, I listened to my intuitive partner.”
Turning Ruby to face him, Noah gazed into her shining emerald green eyes. He hesitated willing his husky voice to be strong.
“Knowing that Gray and Ian are the closest men you have to being a father, and that Jase had enough courage to do what I never thought I could, I took the liberty of asking for their permission to ask for your hand. You’ll be glad to know that all three of them said yes.”
Gray interrupted, “Don’t forget I had a qualification. That you get it over ASAP. Don’t know how much mooning around I can handle from either one of you. You need your own place, Noah. One with your woman in it.”
“Thanks, Bro, for kicking me out. You should have done it months ago. It would have made me face the fact that as Gray say I am ass over elbows in love with this beautiful woman. That said and with great awe, I ask you Ruby, fire woman, hellcat, short stuff, if you will give me the honor and privilege of becoming my wife.”
Ruby laughed through her tears. “I don’t know what to say, Noah. Here I am crying again. I promised myself when I was a little girl that I would never cry no matter what happened to me. But in this last week I’ve cried again and again. Always because of something you’ve done. That’s not an accusation, Noah. Because my tears seem to have washed away a lifetime of bitterness and fear. They also make me feel vulnerable—not as guarded as I have been. Which is a good thing.” She gazed up at him her eyes shining with a mix of tears and excitement. “As long as you are here to pick up the pieces. Oh and yes, Noah, I will marry you.” She laughed through her tears. “And here I go crying again.”
Noah wrapped her in his arms and tipped up her chin. Rubbing at the tears streaming down her cheeks, he grinned at her. “If you look around, Ruby, you’ll see there ain’t many dry eyes in this group.”
Senator Walker stepped forward and reached for Ruby’s hand. “I said earlier that far too often in my relationship with my son, I have been vocal about what I see as his wrong choices and even more vocal about my displeasure. But my son has made me eat those words again and again. Now that I’ve met you, my dear, you have my word. I will never question him again. Welcome to the family, Ruby.”
Noah pulled his father into his embrace with Ruby. “That does it, Pops, now you’ve got me crying too.”
Copyright Information
Ruby
Copyright, 2015 by Taylor Lee
idesire publications
All rights reserved
Topaz
Topaz
Book 3
Ladies of the Night Series
By
Taylor Lee
Praise for Topaz…
“USA Today best-selling author Taylor Lee soars with Topaz, the third book in Lee’s provocative new series, Ladies of the Night. The Ladies are covert agents in a secretive, off the grid security organization. Highly trained fighters, they’re as gorgeous as they are dangerous to the evil men they’re hired to bring to justice. The only thing these formidable women are NOT is “ladies.”
Prologue
Fifteen years earlier…
Mia fought not to cry. The rough cotton gag lodged hard against her throat made it impossible to breathe through her mouth—which left her nose. She knew that if she cried it would make her nose run and she would choke to death for sure. Fighting the panic rising in her chest, she tried to stay calm. She forced herself to take one slow breath after another. She was glad the horrible girls had blindfolded her. At least they wouldn’t see her tears or the terror she couldn’t hide.
Focusing on her breath helped a little. So did tugging against the tight ropes binding her hands behind her back. At least the pain shooting through her shoulder blades took her mind off her breath, gave her something else to concentrate on. Concetta and Isabel had laughed when they jerked her arms over the back of the chair and tied her bound hands to the wooden slats.
Yanking the ropes still tighter, Concetta chortled when Mia gave a muffled cry behind her gag. The hateful girl’s nasally voice was even crueler than usual.
“The stuck up little Princess doesn’t look so high and mighty now, does she, Izzy?”
Isabel guffawed. “Maybe we should tie a rope around her neck and hook it to the ceiling. Then she could stick her nose up even higher in the air.”
When Concetta jerked Maya’s head back, Daria intervened.
“You better be careful, Concetta. Remember, Dante told us not to hurt her.”
Isabel snorted, “Fuck Dante!”
Concetta hooted. “Yeah, Izzy, wouldn’t you love to? Too bad he likes the little Blaxican better than he does your ugly Spic ass. Or is she a Chinkaboo?”
“Who cares what the fuck she is?” Isabel said angrily. “Besides, she doesn’t look nearly as good as her usual. Fuck no. She looks like what she is. A skaggy little Ho. So much for her perfect hair and makeup.” The bitter girl snorted. “As for marking her, we can just tell Dante she fought back and we had to muss her up a bit. Besides, knowing Dante, she’s soon gonna have bruises where she’s never had ’em before.”
Daria intervened. “You can believe whatever you want, girlfriend, but I’m telling you if you get any more bruises on her, Dante’s gonna be pissed.”
“And, I’m tellin’ you, Bitch, I don’t give a flyin’ fuck what Dante thinks or does. He told us to tie her up and that’s what we’re doin’.”
Concetta was more cautious. “I dunno, Izzy. Daria’s right. Remember, Dante is gonna be showin’ her picture to those rich bitch parents of hers. Said, he don’t want her mussed up—yet.”
“Then maybe the fucker should stick around and tie up his own little coochie.”
Izzy laughed. It was an ugly sound. “Knowing Dante, he’ll be doin’ that soon enough. That man sure do likes his ropes!”
Mia didn’t know how many hours had passed when she finally heard the door open. Her arms and shoulders were so numb, she barely felt the calloused fingers untying her. When the numbness wore off and the blinding pain truly hit her, she cried out.
Dante’s deep voice was soothing as he rubbed her tingling arms.
“There, there, little China. You’re okay now. I’m here. Did those mean girls hurt you? If they did, I’m going to kick their asses!”
Mia leaned against Dante’s chest. She couldn’t hold back her sobs of relief. Hearing him call her his special name for her was reassuring. He pronounced it “Cheena.” He’d told her it was a Latino endearment for ‘little brat.’. She’d liked that he thought she was a brat. Her parents had always been pleased with how well-behaved she was. According to her proud father, she was a model child, the epitome of a good girl. When she first started meeting with Dante in the park, she liked that Dante saw something in her that her accomplished parents didn’t. Now huddling in his arms, cold and dirty, she wasn’t so sure. All she knew was that she wanted to go home. To see her parents. Be in her own room in her big soft bed.
Mia didn’t know how long she’d slept. She only knew that she was cold, and the thin blanket Dante had covered her with didn’t help. She couldn’t stop shivering and she was hungry. Dante had promised that he would get her another blanket and bring her some food. But that was a long time ago and he still wasn’t back. Hearing men’s voices, she pulled the threadbare blanket up over her face. She didn’t want Carlos to know she was awake. Carlos Valiz was older than Dante and the leader of the gang. He was at least twenty years old. Dante had told her some of the bad things Carlos had done. That he sold drugs and had a gun. Mia hated the way that Carlos looked at her. She was glad when she heard Dante tell him to “bug off.” That the Chinkaboo was his and that he would kill anyone who touched her. It was the first time that Mia knew that Dante also had a gun. It should have scared her. But it didn’t. She was glad. It meant Dante could protect her.
When Mia first met Dante, the stories he told her excited her. She had never known real gang members, only what she saw on television. And she’d never known anyone like Dante Torres. He was tall, handsome, strong. He looked like a movie star. He had beautiful brown skin and gorgeous eyes. When he smiled at her, she got tingles all over. He was the most exciting boy she’d ever known. And he liked her. He thought she was beautiful. No boy had ever liked her, especially not an older boy like Dante. He didn’t even go to school anymore. He said he was done with “shit.” When she heard the men’s voices, she realized it was Carlos and Dante and that they were talking about her.
“Look, Dante. I know her parents. Those rich bitch Nips think their money can buy anything. And this time the fuckin’ Chiggers are right. If they cooperate. And you can bet your ass they will. When they see pictures of their little Chinkaboo trussed up like a piggy ready for roasting they’ll be sending us money in ten gallon garbage bags. All we do is tie her up, make her cry, snap a few pictures and send them off to the big mansion on the hill.”
Dante’s voice was cautious. “I agree, Bro. But at least in the first pictures we send, she’s gotta look good. Scared, yeah, but not hurt. If they don’t come through pronto, then we’ll rough her up. Give ’em a taste of what’s gonna happen to their precious little angel if they as much as hesitate.”
Mia burrowed further under the blanket, shoving a ragged edge of the dirty material in her mouth to cover her sobs. She didn’t want them to know that she was awake and that she’d heard what they’d said. She couldn’t believe that Dante agreed with Carlos. She’d trusted him when he told her that she’d be going home soon, that he wouldn’t let Carlos or any of the horrible girls hurt her. He’d said that Carlos told him they were just going to scare her parents. Because he hated rich people. Shaking with fear, she buried herself further under the blanket. Now she knew that Dante had lied to her. The gang had kidnapped her. For money. And Dante was in on it.
Mia sat on the floor leaning against the wall trying to get comfortable. It was impossible but still she tried. She’d learned that if she changed her position every hour it didn’t hurt so much when she got free. The dirt floor was hard, cold. The last four days, Dante kept her chained to a hook on the floor. He also blindfolded her. He said it was for her own good. It was the only way he could protect her when he was gone. Mia believed him. She had to. He was her only friend. She corrected herself. He was more than her friend. He was her man.
The memory of the night he showed her what men did to their women was burned in her brain. She’d never been kissed before—except by her family. And she’d never had a boyfriend, certainly not a man friend. It was the third night that it happened. But, it wasn’t only the night that changed her life forever. The nightmare began that afternoon. At the time she thought it was the worst day of her life. Sometimes she remembered thinking that and wondered how she could have been so stupid.
The afternoon started out as it always did. The girls were horrible as usual. They called her dirty names, and they did dirty things to her. They watched her when she peed and wouldn’t give her toilet paper to wipe herself. They put dirt in her food and gave her dog food. They pretended it was by mistake. Mia had figured out that one of the reasons the girls and the men always sounded shrill and looked glassy-eyed was because they were on drugs. Mia had watched horrified as they smoked foul-smelling things in glass pipes and jabbed vile needles into their arms.
That awful afternoon, Izzy had chortled giddily when Mia asked if she could take a bath.
“Hear that, Gordita? The rich bitch wants to take a bath. Maybe she thinks she can wash our stink off of her. You know what? I think she smells worse than we do. How about it, Chula? Let’s find out!”
To Mia’s horror, Izzy grabbed her and started ripping off her clothes. Concetta jumped in to help and soon Mia was stark naked. Mortified and shivering from the cold, Mia crouched over trying to hide from the cackling girls, but Izzy and Concetta dragged her to her feet. They tied a rope around her hands then fastened them to a hook on the wall. When she was trussed upright unable to move, her tormentors called in the rest of the gang—the men as well as the girls.
The next several minutes seemed like a lifetime, a hideous nightmare. The gang crowded around her naked body, laughing and yelling. They poked at her and pinched her. They touched her body in places that no one had ever touched. They made jokes about her small breasts and the sparse hair between her legs. They called her ugly names and described horrible things that they were going to do to her, one at a time or all together. As the boisterous group circled her, their threats growing louder and more explicit, a loud crash broke through their drug enhanced merriment. Two gunshots shattered the ensuing silence when the chair that Dante threw against the wall broke into a dozen pieces.
Mia barely remembered Dante clearing the room or the curses he shouted at the now sniveling girls. All she knew was that even after he untied her and took her to his room she couldn’t stop shaking. It felt as though her skin wasn’t strong enough to hold her body together, that she might break apart. She didn’t know what Dante put in the hot water he made her drink, but whatever it was, she fell into a deeply blessed sleep. When she woke up he was sitting beside her bed. He looked angry. His eyes that were usually sparkling with laughter were dark, hard. She was frightened by the way that he was looking at her as if he blamed her for what had happened earlier.
“Are you angry with me for… what happened?”
He jumped to his feet and yelled at her.
“You idiot! Jesus Christ, are you really that stupid? That fucking innocent?”
Mia cowered in the corner of the bed while Dante paced across the floor. He reached for the whiskey bottle on the table beside the bed. He took several large gulps then threw the empty bottle against the wall. It shattered, sending shards skittering across the floor. Whirling on her, his expression hardened. He looked like Carlos did when he was angry. When Dante spoke, his voice was calm but mud-thick with anger.
“You should know, Mia, that your parents made a mistake. A big mistake. Your fucking cheap bastard father is refusing to pay the ransom.” Dante’s face flushed an ugly purplish color. He glared at her and her spit out, “The dirty Jap fucker thinks he can negotiate. Thinks that he’s the only smart one, that they will find you and when they do he will see us all dead, or in jail.”
Dante stopped pacing and knelt down in front of her. His eyes were glazed and the strong smell of whiskey stung her nose. Dante glared at her and sneered. “Your fucking father doesn’t know me, Mia. He can never beat me. He’s sealed your death warrant, China. The innocent little girl that was kidnapped dies tonight; in her place is born a woman. My woman. Understand me, Mia. From tonight on, you will be my woman. Always and forever.”
The next six nights were a blur. Dante kept her chained to the wall in his room during the day. At night, he took her into his bed. Mia was innocent, but she wasn’t stupid. She knew where babies came from. She’d even read a few racy books, but she’d never dreamed what men did to their women.
The firs
t night Maya cried for hours, not knowing how she would ever be able to face Dante in the morning. He’d been angry when he began to touch her and got angrier when she cried. The next morning she wasn’t surprised to see the blood on her legs or on the sheet. She put her head under her pillow and cried herself to sleep when she heard Dante and Carlos and the others celebrating his victory. To her shame, he kept the bloody sheet hanging on his door. He laughed at her embarrassment and told her men had done that for centuries when they claimed their virgin women.
As the days went on and it was clear that her father wouldn’t acquiesce, Dante and Carlos began girding for a raid. They brought in crates of rifles and ammunition. They bragged about what they were going to do to Mia’s mother and father. Every night after he’d made her do things to him and did awful things to her, Dante warned her. He told her that if her parents hadn’t paid by next week, he was going to share her with Carlos. And then he told her what would happen to her parents.
“If you ever tell anyone that I forced you to be my woman, as God is my witness, I swear on my whore mother’s grave, that I will kill every member of your family. I’ll start by butchering your mother after I’ve fucked her in front of your father. And then I’ll kill him after I castrate him.”
He yanked her up next to him ignoring her soft, pained cry, “Hear me, China? Do you understand?”
When Mia nodded in agreement, Dante smiled at her, his beautiful eyes gleaming the way they used to.
He grinned at her and said, “Good girl. Now get that sweet pussy of yours up here on my lap. Right here, China, where my woman is supposed to be.”
Chapter 1
Fifteen years later…
“Come in, Agent Webb. We’ve been waiting for you.”