Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 102335 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 512(@200wpm)___ 409(@250wpm)___ 341(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102335 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 512(@200wpm)___ 409(@250wpm)___ 341(@300wpm)
“We stayed at Papa’s while he was gone, but I always kept a room here for him as a—”
“—vault house. I get it.” A vault house is what we basically call a safe house. It’s a getaway house if you need one.
“We spent a lot of time here, though. Sometimes, I’d pretend that I didn’t have a whole mafioso to run. Here, I’d be able to just be Ruby La Rosa, Wolf’s mama. But out there? As soon as I left this house.”
His arm rests over my body and he pulls me into his chest. “You were Lala La Rosa, the devil in black.”
“Yes,” I whisper, shuffling farther into him. I duck my mouth behind his arm just enough to breathe the smell of his skin. Soap, nicotine, and clean detergent. “Can I ask you something?”
“You’re going to anyway,” he growls into my hair.
My eyelids turn to lead as my mouth opens. “Why did you put me in that maze?”
Sleep takes hold and sweeps me up into the darkness.
I roll onto the side to squeeze farther into Wicked, and my arm lands on a cool spot. I push up off the mattress and reach for my phone that’s already charging on the bedside table. He must have put it on there before he went to bed last night.
Last night.
Pain radiates through my heart once again, and any time I think of Mama’s face, it’s as though a knife digs deeper and deeper into my chest.
“Morning,” Wicked says from behind me, and I turn to face him.
Wolf’s little hands reach out for me and I curl my finger toward them both. Wicked lays him down on my bed and he crawls his little body over to my side, slipping beneath the blanket. “Mama sad…”
I kiss his little head, looking up at Wicked. I don’t know if it’s because so much has happened since he and I have seen each other again and he feels too guilty to grind me about keeping Wolf from him, or it’s an impending storm that he’s holding from me, but I decide not to poke the bear.
“Morning.” I smile down at Wolf. His dark eyes so much like Wicked’s, only brighter. “Hungry?”
He nods before sliding out from my blanket and over the bed. He runs his little body down the corridor. “Untle! Untle!”
“Hey, buddy…” Royce’s voice drifts through my room, and my smile falls.
“Shit—” Wicked steps in farther, closing the door behind him. “Don’t be like that.” He raises his brows at me. “You, of all people, understand the importance of family, Ruby.”
I sigh, inching up the bed and running my fingers through my dark hair, pushing it to the side. “I know. And I know how bikers are, but right now?”
“He’s family. The most family I’ve ever had that isn’t Poppy or you.”
Chewing on my bottom lip, I slide out from beneath the bed covers. “Okay. Look, I need to go see Papa—” I spin around and instantly feel paralyzed by the way he’s glaring at me. I look down at what I’m wearing, the same bra and panties from last night. “What? Don’t act like you haven’t seen me naked.”
“I have—and that’s precisely the fucking problem.”
I dip into the bathroom and scrub through a shower. Once I’m dressed, in yoga pants and a tight V-neck shirt, I find Wicked and Wolf downstairs, watching TV. Royce is opposite with Khaos next to him. The room is filled with leather, and usually that would probably annoy me, but for right now, I need to be with Papa.
Lowering myself onto the floor, I tie the laces to my Converse, watching every few seconds as Wolf keeps his eyes glued on the TV.
My phone starts vibrating on the carpet, and I see Mikhail’s name flash over the screen. I look up at Wicked, making sure he didn’t notice. How is it that I feel like I’m cheating on Wicked with my damn fiancé?
Swiping to answer, I bring the phone to my ear. “Hi.”
“I just heard,” he says coldly through the phone. “We’re heading to meet your father.”
My blood turns cold. “No. Not without me.”
“Last I checked, I don’t need to answer to you or oblige to your demands, Lala.” He pauses and hope tingles my fingertips.
“You’re right, maybe we should—”
“—but, we both made a blood oath and promise to our families. I intend to keep it.” Those tingles fizzle out. “I’ll call you once I finish with the meeting but, Ruby, you will need to start deciding what you are bringing to my house after the wedding.” My phone slips from my ear and I hit the end call button.
“What?” Wicked asks, but I push myself up from the floor and move into the kitchen, opening the cupboards to find my coffee pods. I need coffee. Now.
The elevator doors part open just as I’m closing the lid and pushing the button. Val enters, his hands shoved into his pockets and his eyes dipped in with concern.