I took a deep breath. “Yeah. It’s just you’re the first person that’s been in here with me since Chase. Not counting the other day.” I shrugged.
“We could always move you into the clubhouse, Ruby. That option is still open. I can assure you that the Celestial Sons aren’t like the Hell’s Artillery.”
I was already shaking my head before he even finished his suggestion. There was no way in hell I was going near the clubhouse. My mind wasn’t even made up about Cap yet, much less the rest of his club. There was no way I was putting myself in that situation. I had a chance at fighting off one man, but I couldn’t fight off a whole MC if they had nefarious intentions for me like the Hell’s Artillery did.
“No.” My voice was hoarse and coming out breathy. Memories of my husband’s brief time with the club flooded me. I hated the way the men treated the women in that club from the start, but I figured it was the women who chose to stay in that environment and they liked to be treated like crap. I loved Chase, but if he ever treated me like that, I would’ve walked away.
He made some bad decisions, like drinking too much at a party and driving, but he also made the decision to leave the club the second they used me as a cum catcher. I know he did his best to protect me that night, and even though he failed miserably, we both crawled away when it was necessary, releasing us from that ungodly place before it was too late, and he got patched in permanently. ‘Once a member of the Hell’s Artillery… always a member of the Hell’s Artillery.’That was their motto.‘If you wear our patch, you leave when you’re six feet under.’If it wasn’t for their prospect escape clause, I don’t know if our marriage would have survived. I saw how the sweet butts looked at Chase. They stared at him like he was a slab of beef, and they were hungry lionesses looking for their next meal. It would’veonly been a matter of time before one of those whores sunk their teeth into him, and severed the bond we shared.
That’s one thing about Chase I always loved. He was faithfully devoted to me, and I never doubted his love for me.
In all our years together, that doubt never once crossed my mind, but being in the Hell’s Artillery clubhouse for those few months did make me start to question what road our relationship would’ve gone down, had he stayed any longer. It caused a lot of unnecessary arguments between us. Arguments we never had before he started prospecting that club. But leaving had its own repercussions. He started drinking more after he left… and I wondered if it was because he was suffering in his own mental anguish over what happened to me? Chase wasn’t one to talk about his feelings, and he usually kept them pretty close to his chest. Deep down, I know he blamed himself for what happened to me, even though I told him it was never his fault.
Cap’s voice invaded my thoughts, bringing me back to existence. “Okay.” He paused, setting his stuff down by the front door. “I’m here to help you, Ruby. I’d never lay a finger on you without permission to do so. I’m not a monster. I know you were around the Hell’s Artillery, and I don’t know how long your husband was around the club, but I can’t even imagine the shit you saw while you were there. They are the worst of the worst, and give all MCs a bad name, but sometimes MCs are just a group of men who are close friends, have each other's backs, and try their damnedest to survive the day to day.” He shrugged. “We all have our crosses to bear. Having a group to help carry the burden makes your load a little lighter. That’s what the Celestial Sons are for me.”
“You make it sound like a support group.” I smirked a little at the thought, picturing a bunch of big burly bikers sitting in acircle talking about their feelings and shit. Yeah, I’d pay money to see that.
“In a way it is.” He grinned. “I support them, and they support me. We pooled our money together to open the strip club. It’s been a successful business for all of us. Getting a steady monthly income and taking turns working at the club, gives us a lot of free time. Most of the guys have other side hustles or businesses they run. We are more than just a club, Ruby, we’re family.”
Family. Chase was the only family I had. Now, I was on my own. I swallowed hard just thinking about everything I had lost.
“Let’s have a seat so we can talk about how this is going to work.”
Cap’s hand hovered over my lower back as I turned toward the small living room. Our house wasn’t big or grand. It was quite small. The kitchen had a tiny peninsula that had two stools at it, and it opened up into the living room where there was barely enough room for the couch and recliner. The TV was mounted to the wall, and a skinny lamp was in the corner. It was simple, but this house had brought Chase and I so much happiness. The two-bedroom one bath house was ours. We’d both worked for it, and the years we had here were happy.
I sat on the couch, and Cap chose to sit on the recliner so we could talk. “The doctor set you up with a psychiatrist in Brownwood. We’ll have to go there twice a week so he can check in on you. That is part of the stipulations for you leaving the hospital.”
“Y’all told me that before I left the hospital.”
Cap nodded. “Your boss said that your job would be waiting for you when you were ready to go back.”
“You talked to Mr. Whittingham?”
“Yeah. He was perturbed by the inconvenience.”
I laughed sarcastically. “That’s Mr. Whittingham for you.”
“What do you do for him? He didn’t tell me.”
“He’s an attorney, the only one this town really had until recently. I was his secretary.”
“You don’t seem happy about that.”
“It’s a job. A shitty one, but it helped pay the bills. Chase wanted me to quit because he didn’t care much for Mr. Whittingham, but we needed the money.”
“Whittingham? That name sounds familiar.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if it did. He was trying to sue the town for wrongful termination of the few officers that were fired when Sheriff Rooker took over.”
“Ah, yeah. He represented those scumbag dirty cops.”
“Yeah.”
“Your husband sounds like he was a good judge of character. It’s crazy that he got tangled up with the Artillery to begin with.”
“Chase was a great judge of character as long as it was a first impression. His friend that got him involved with the Artillery had been friends with him before he joined the club. So, it took him a minute to see that the friend wasn’t the same person he had grown up with. He was loyal to a fault sometimes, holding onto shit when it would have been easier, better, and safer to let go.”
“He did let it go, though?”
