“Who says you can’t take two under your wing till the time comes? No one needs to know what you really want, just what you say when it comes to it.”
“And if I don’t get to make the call? If I go out before I can pass it on?”
I lean back and raise my shoulders once. “Like you said about Ruby and the possibility of her getting taken or worse. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”
“What if I say no? That I’m not interested in this trade of services or whatever you want to call it? I could kick your ass out right now. Hell, one yell to the brothers and every single one would gun you down if I wanted it.”
I nod at his words and then shake my head. “Do what you’ve got to do. You’re the one who called me in. You have your pick of the brothers. You know me, and you know them. I don’t do things for shits and giggles, which you also know. You expected me to ask for something. Maybe not this, butbe honest with yourself. It was on the table. Half the reason you said Ruby doesn’t come with the deal is because you already thought I would ask that, and it was your line in the sand.” I wait a beat and square off with him as I hold his stare. “For now. Depending on how deep this shit goes, she might also be on the table. You willing to risk that?”
One beat before he nods. “For her safety, I’d risk almost anything. Even death.”
I stand and hold out my hand. “Then we have a deal.”
He looks at me, then at my hand before offering his up, but not standing to match my height. When we lock hands, he pulls me down just a bit so the power dynamic is clear. I might have come up with this, but he has everythinginthis. I’m just one man. He’stheHound. He made this club what it is today. I can’t overlook that. I respect the man too much not to.
But I’ve also got to think about me. And my end goal. Dad always said, “The only person looking out for you is yourself.” Something I’ve lived by every day. Still do. Law could have told me to stuff it and fuck off. Or hell, he could have told me I was babysitting his little girl and there was nothing in it for me at all. But he didn’t. And now the cards have been dealt. Who the fuck knows where they’ll land once life starts dealing too.
“Keep her alive and I’ll do my part to get you the chair. That’s my guarantee.”
Another thing my dad taught me: There are no guarantees in life.
Chapter 2—Ruby
“You free after class to do some more apartment hunting?” I ask Natalie as I take the seat next to her. We rarely have classes together, but we were both either dumb or smart and signed up for summer classes. I still say dumb because we chose more school over going to the beach. Of course, the beach is like a zillion miles away from us since we live in mid-central USA, but we could have done the drive in a day or two. Then we could have lived on the beach as tent bums for a month.
Okay, that sounds worse than summer school. Maybe smartisthe better term.
“Yeah. I was just planning on going to the Coffee Shack to study. Probably better if we find a place to live rather than eat my weight in pastries.”
I snort at that. Nat weighs less than a buck fifty on a day after binge eating. She’s one of those types that has a crazy metabolism. If she were into bulking up and going into weightlifting competitions, I think it would be the only way she’d actually gain some weight. But while she has no issues eating—or not eating, depending on her mood—working out is almost against her religion. Or that’s what I assume. Anytime I offer her the chance to be my running buddy, she turns me down. Her loss. I’m a fantastic workout friend. Sure, I yell the whole time that it’s stupid we’re doing it, sort of like school in the summer, but we get through it. And I fullybelieve that if you yell, you burn more calories than if you just silently do the workouts.
Nat got stuck with me—and I do mean stuck—in freshman year. We were both slotted to live on campus, and while my dad footed the bill to get me a nice dorm, I still had to share it. Part of the campus rules. And there were only four options available. One had no AC, two were coed, and the last was girls only. Want to guess what my dad made sure I had?
Yeah, all girls. Scary Stary is what we called Stary Hall. That much PMS in one building is never a good idea. Nat opted for the cheapest and chose the no-AC unit. We would have never met if it weren’t for the dean deciding no-AC buildings were from the 1700s and shut them down. And they did it one week before school started. They’ve only got half a brain, in my opinion. Saw the lack of air-conditioning as wrong but couldn’t figure out what to do till the last minute. So they just moved everyone into rooms that were already booked, changing occupancies from two to three. Not sure how that passed the building codes, but someone approved it.
That’s how Nat and I became roommates on day one. We had another girl—I don’t even remember her name—who came in, saw us, and walked out. I heard later that her parents just bought her a condo so she wouldn’t have to live with “strangers.” Which totally defeats the whole “get to know people” aspect of college, but whatever.
Oh, and I’m sure me saying, “Hi, bitch,” when she showed up was also another point against me. Nat didn’t seem to have an issue with it, but that’s why she’s still around and the other one isn’t.
We quickly found out that we had no connection in classes, other than a few basic courses, but what we did have was the need not to pry. I had a few of the brothers drop things off, and other than a smile here and a wave there, she didn’t even look at them twice. Which gave her major points in my eyes. Back in high school, I had to run off more wannabe friends than not just because they wanted to be close to one of the guys and thought I was their meal ticket to get there.
Nat has never been like that. She’s quiet. Not shy, but not one to fill the space. Sometimes I feel like she’s hiding parts of herself, but then again, so am I. Dad wasn’t keen on my going to college so far away, but he was better knowing I was living on campus, with everything within walking distance and a no-boys-after-ten dormitory rule. Now that we’re both about to be juniors, our time is up. School rules. And Dad is taking it the hardest.
Whatever. Dads are weird. Nat just gives me a smile every time I complain about it. I try not to do much of it around her. She has no one. She was in foster care till she aged out. Lucky for her, her grades were good enough that she got a full ride here from Florida. Not sure why you would want to leave the beaches for this place, but she always says it’s peaceful around here.
I think she’s nuts. But I still like her. Which is why I love college so much. The two of us? Never would our worlds have crossed if it weren’t for college. We come from completely different backgrounds. I have a giant family, even if it’s not all by blood, and she’s all alone. I’m going into physical therapy, and she’s undecided. Hell, we don’t even dress the same.
Her style is conservative to modest on a good day. Jeans are a key aspect of her wardrobe, plus a knitted sweater most of the time or just a plain T-shirt with some saying on it. Her most unique feature is her hair. Midnight black and down to her ass. If she were on the back of a bike, I wonder if it would get wrapped up in the exhaust or tire. Hell, it could whip around and blind the biker, and they’d end up bloody and in a ditch.
As for me? I might look like a badass biker bitch with the leather, tight clothes, and even my hair gets looks sometimes, but I’m nice-ish. Well, I’m nice when they’re nice back. But I know why I get the looks and lip curls from those who don’t know me. Black hair mixed with pink-and-red braids ain’t a look for everyone, but I like it. And fuck you to whoever thinks they can tell me what I do and don’t like.
Night and day is what we are, and about to be homeless as well. I open the school paper and take a gander through it just as the professor shuts the door. And from the stack of papers he’s holding, I know today is going to be a long-ass class.
I don’t even control my groan when he pulls up the PowerPoint and I see he’s slotted seventy-eight slides for today’s lecture. Looks like I won’t be secretly checking out homes in the back row like I planned. I could slump it and take Nat’s notes, but I swore I would never do that. I’m not the cheating kind. And yeah, I think taking notes from someone else in class is cheating. If you’re there, your notes are on you. You ain’t there? Well, you only get the notes if you’re sick or for family emergencies. Having a hangover from the night before doesn’t count either.
Something I was mad about a few months back when I was very tempted to break my rule. But I didn’t.Despite what people think, I’ve got my rules. Dad instilled some, but mostly it’s me. And rule number one is don’t flunk out of college. One, because I’m not the repeat type of girl when I flunk a class. Don’t want to do that. And two, I owe it to Mom in heaven to give it my all. She might not be here to see me graduate, but I will damn well make her proud as she watches over me. And I know she is. Who else is telling me I need to buy more shoes? She always had a closet shoe addiction. And if it’s not her, that means I’ve got a problem, and I refuse to admit it.
“That place should come with a hazmat suit if you sign a lease with them,” Nat says with a shudder, and I agree.
