Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 117494 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 392(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117494 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 392(@300wpm)
But everyone else wanted the details on when or if the Red Demons were coming back.
Were they doing a charter here?
What would that mean for the community?
Probably bad, right?
How would they mix with the new bikers? Would they get along?
Even Otis came out of his office more than normal, hitching his pants up and pretending to ask about the weather, which was the worst segue into the motorcycle club. He tried, though. Ben’s eyes got bigger and bigger the more he heard. Noah seemed put off, and I didn’t know what that was all about.
I was at work stocking cereal when the next person came over.
I was used to it by now, so I waited, feeling whoever it was at my side.
People either finally asked what they wanted to know, or they left.
I waited, grabbing the next box and putting it on the shelf. The person still stood there, so I looked—could be a customer needing something... Nope.
“Ruby.”
It was my mom, and she’d been quiet as long as she had been because she was biting her lip. Her hair was pulled up in a frizzy bun, and I winced because I knew I had a mirrored look on my head, except darker hair. I’d been going the natural way lately, but I needed to get my usual products.
Her hands went to her hips. Her face was tight as she watched me stock the boxes.
“You’re doing this?” Her voice went high. “This?!”
I sighed. “Mom.”
“Mom.” She snorted. “Mama. I was Mama until you were thirteen. Then you hit the teens and fuck the mama shit. I’m all about Mom, and now you’re an adult and calling me Ruby. I know you don’t want me to make a scene in the Un-Friendly Grocery Store.” She raised her voice even higher, tilting her head up. “You hearing me, Otis? You hearing how pissed off you’re making me because you got my girl shelving goddamn cereal when she’s got a four-year nursing degree?”
I sighed and picked up the chocolate cereal box to shelf it. “Everyone’s hearing you, Mama.”
That got her.
She stopped, but let out a small growl with her mouth closed. Her fingers started tapping on her hip. “I’m pissed off, that’s what I am, and not just at you, but the other one too.”
I frowned. “Claudia?”
My mom went still, freezing in mid-glare at the Cheerios.
“Mom.”
It took effort, but she jerked her gaze away and blinked, refocusing on me. “I need you to go and get your sister. Bring her back.”
“What? Where’d she go? And no.”
She was so not looking at me.
Something had happened here that I didn’t understand. Ruby Hinton was not being Ruby Hinton. She was a stranger right now. “Where’d Claudia go?”
Her frown was seriously fierce. “I don’t want to—they’ve helped me. The bar, but… Screw it.” Her eyes snapped to mine, and they were so clear, so piercing. “You know your sister was with that Demon?”
Roadie. I nodded, not letting my mind follow my body to the other Red Demon… Nope. Not going to happen. “Yeah.”
“She followed him.”
I tilted my head. I needed that to digest a bit.
I had to repeat this. I needed to get it right. “She followed him?” There was no MC that would be okay with that—no MC ever.
“She called today, said she’s not coming back. But…” Her voice wobbled, and she stopped, her throat jerking before she could talk again. “She won’t come back for me. Won’t listen to me. I don’t want to involve Gloves. We all know he’s gotten involved enough with that club, but…” She faltered, her eyes flicking to mine.
I could read between the lines. Claudia might listen to me.
And fuck, because just fuck.
Nope.
If people couldn’t understand my mixed feelings about my mother and my sister, this was a classic example. Claudia went off, following a motorcycle club, and I was the one who would have to go and get her out? I didn’t even want to think about the damage that could entail.
“Mom.” I shook my head.
“She called, said she’s staying put and there’s nothing I can do to persuade her otherwise.” She gulped again. “Gloves is gone. I mean, he ain’t gone gone, but he ain’t here. I don’t see him for lunch or when he used to drop in for a beer, if he would’ve done that sort of thing. And you… You moved back and I thought, finally, I got both my girls here. I can make things right, can make her love me again, let me be her mama. But now…” She looked away.
Ruby Hinton was not like this.
She wasn’t uncertain, fearful. She didn’t stand with her bottom lip moving and her throat choking her up. I’d never seen my mother like this, not even the day Gloves was convicted and sentenced. I’d heard her in her bedroom those nights, but not in public, not where others could see her.