Heated Ride: Hellions Motorcycle Club (The Hellions Ride Series Book 7) Read online

  From the first kiss, I was lost to him. I knew, from the time I was a little girl, Ruben Castillo was the man for me. The moment he realized we were meant to be, my life finally began. From the moment Julio gave his blessing, Ruben hasn’t been able to keep his hands or eyes off me.

  He has this way of making me feel wanted, loved, and protected. One glance and my heart beats faster. My body is drawn to him like metal to a magnet.

  It hasn’t been easy, but we have built a life together.

  After working the fields, Julio got Ruben tied up in some bad business.

  A quick buck is always far from simple and money never comes easy.

  When Julio took the fall to keep Ruben safe and, in turn, my life here, as well, Ruben vowed to be on the straight and narrow. One problem with that is, being in a country illegally is not exactly being on the straight and narrow.

  Pregnant with our first child, living in a trailer with another Mexican family on the back side of a farmer’s field, I was grief-stricken to know my brother was caught. And after serving his time for drug possession with intent to distribute, he was sent back to Mexico with no hope to return. Things were not good.

  A chance meeting on the side of the road with Blaine ‘Roundman’ Reklinger changed our lives forever. Roundman was stuck with a blow out on his bike in the pouring rain. At the time, we didn’t know he had help on the way. We just saw a man in a leather vest on the side of the road, getting soaked. Pulling over, Ruby got out and offered the stranger a ride.

  “You fuckin’ crazy?” Roundman asks Ruben as I crack the car window to our beat up Toyota Tercel to hear them.

  “No. Just see a bike on the road that is obviously immobile and figure you might not want to drown.”

  “Good Samaritan’s are a dying breed.” Roundman extends his hand to Ruby. “Got brothers coming to tow my bike. Thanks for stopping, man.”

  Ruby shakes his hand and nods his head.

  “What’s your name?” Roundman asks as Ruby steps back toward the car.

  Ruby raises an eyebrow at the stranger and walks away.

  That rainy day changed everything.

  Memorizing our license plate as we pulled away, Roundman tracked down the car to the farmer Ruby worked for, which led him to us. Almost ten years later, he’s a fully patched member of the Hellions; we’re legal citizens with education and jobs for us both; and we are so much better than where we came from.

  Julio’s sacrifice paid off. We send money home to him.

  I miss him terribly, but I have this life thanks to Ruby and everything my brother gave up for us. At twenty-eight, I have three beautiful children: Maritza, Mariella, and Ruben Junior. We own our own home. Even if it is a double-wide in a community of what they call modular homes, it’s ours, and I am proud of it. I have a job I enjoy and a man I love.

  Why he’s being an asshole tonight is beyond me. Then again, when was the last time we had sex?

  Since I took over at the mini storage office for Doll, things have been busy. My days were once spent passing the hours by cleaning, cooking, and caring for my man and my babies. Now I just can’t seem to keep up. When my head hits the pillow every night, it’s heaven sent.

  As I think of how I have been neglecting my husband, guilt washes over me. He is my first priority, and I haven’t been the best at taking care of his needs.

  Swallowing the lump in my throat, I finish making dinner for our family.

  The sound of the door shutting has my chest beating wildly as I continue setting plates on the table for my children. Tears fall when I hear the familiar thunder of his Harley cranking and then revving as he pulls away. Then my mind goes back to the moment we finally came to be.

  “I’m never gonna be without you again,” he whispers as he holds me close, breathing against my hair.

  Safe in his arms with my brother in the living room, I feel like everything that has been so wrong in my life is suddenly so right.

  “Ruby,” I whisper back and lean into him.

  “I hated leaving you. I thought about things, Jenna. You being gone, us worrying about you, it gave me a lot of time to think. You’re mine, Jenna. All this is for you. I know how you’ve been looking at me for years.”

  I gasp in embarrassment.

  “You weren’t ready—hell, you probably aren’t now—but you’ve gotta know, Jenna, I’m not blind. I had to put space between us so I wouldn’t take advantage of your innocence.”

  “Ruby, you know”—I swallow, fighting my nerves—“it’s always been you.”

  “I know.” He turns me to face him.

  My heart beat races as my palms get sweaty. I can’t focus beyond the thundering in my ears.

  His head tilts, his eyes never leaving mine as his lips slowly find my own. Tenderly, he brushes his mouth against mine. I want to moan. I want to explode in pleasure from his simple touch. It feels like I have waited my whole life for this moment.

  I open in a sigh, and he takes my bottom lip into his mouth with his teeth. He doesn’t bite, but his hold has me tingling all over. When I open my mouth farther, his teeth release my lip, and his tongue explores my mouth.

  Dancing, claiming, our tongues and teeth collide as the world spins around in my mind. Ruben Castillo, my every fantasy, my one love is kissing me.

  If I died right now, I would die the happiest woman in the world. If this was my very last breath, I would take it completely fulfilled.

  What just happened here? How did we go from not being able to exist without one another to not being able to be in the same house? I know things aren’t perfect, but surely, they aren’t so bad he needs to leave, right?

  Ride It Out

  I take a pull from my third beer and lean against the bar. The clubhouse area is relatively empty. Then again, it’s a weeknight, and there are no visitors from out of town or a party being held, so it should be.

  “At the rate you’re going, it looks like you’re planning to stay tonight,” Frisco states from his stool beside me.

  I look at the bottle in my hand. Yeah, I guess I should plan to crash in one of the duplexes out back that Roundman has set up. Rules to the club: no drinking and driving. Roundman doesn’t mess around with our lives like that.

  I take another pull. My ass needs to be home with my woman. I have to find a way to make things right. Leaving was the wrong thing to do, but in the moment, I needed to breathe.

  The open road soothes the soul: the feel of my bike under me, the power, the need to control, and the freedom of simply being. One mile after another, the air, the speed, and the drive give me the time to think. There are no bills, no babies, no wife, no house, nothing but me and my bike.

  As usual, the ride led me to the Hellions’ compound, the one place that has been home outside of Vida.

  “I had an ol’ lady once,” Frisco says, turning to me. “She couldn’t handle the life.”

  “Vida can handle anything I give her,” I state truthfully. She will stand by me through it all.

  The problem is, what if that’s not enough anymore?

  He slaps me on the back of my shoulder and grips firmly. “Brother, I can see that.” He releases me. “Been here from the beginning.”

  I smirk at him and tip my beer to his patch. “You’re an original, man, so I know you’ve been here from the jump.”

  “Don’t be a smartass, Ruby. I’ve seen a lot of women come and go. Few have the heart of stone it takes to ride out the unknowns. Vida, she’s got that.”

  “Never said she didn’t.” I shake my head. “What makes you think my being here has a damn thing to do with my ol’ lady?”

  “A man like you wouldn’t be away from a woman like that, otherwise.” He smiles behind the gray-haired goatee he sports. “You can’t keep your hands off her. She eats that shit up, brother. So tell me, why is your ass here, tossing back beer, when your kids are in bed and your woman is, too?”

  “Things change.”

  “I never had a love like that, Rub
y. I never had a woman by my side who looks at me like I am the only man in the world.”

  Anger builds inside me. “Looks can be deceiving.”

  “Ahhh, so there is trouble in paradise.”

  I huff. “I don’t know of any marriage that’s paradise.”

  Frisco pauses and looks to the wall in front of us. “That’s where you’re wrong, brother. Having a woman to ride or die with you for the good and the bad is paradise. There’s no better feeling than knowing, day in and day out, you’ve got brothers; you’ve got family; and when you lay your head down at night, you do it beside the soft, warm, sweet love of a woman who doesn’t question when you gotta get lost in her, when you gotta confide in her, and when you gotta shut her out.”

  I raise an eyebrow at him. He makes it sound so easy. Day in and day out, it’s far from easy.

  “I didn’t say it wouldn’t take work. Loyalty like what you have at home is rare. A woman who is with you because she wants you as you are … Ruby, you’ve gotta know that shit just doesn’t happen. They always think they can change you, tie you down with kids and life with them. Vida does her thing. She holds it down for you at home so you can be a Hellion, and she doesn’t ask a damn thing from the club. All she wants from you is love and respect. What’s not paradise about a woman who gives so much and asks for so little in return?”

  I laugh out loud. He doesn’t see. He doesn’t live it—every day, the same thing on repeat. Sure, Vida loves me. She takes me as I am, the club, too. Lately, though, it’s the babies this and the babies that, and they aren’t even fucking babies anymore!

  We crossed over from Mexico. We left our lives behind to be wild and free. There is nothing wild or free about our double-wide behind the picket fence. Paint it black, it’s still a damn picket fence. American dream, is that what I’ve sold out to? The next thing I know, I will be wearing a fucking suit or some crazy shit.

  “Fuck that,” I mutter.

  “Come on, Ruby, dig deep. You know you’ve got a good woman.”

  He’s right. I have the best woman. Still, it just doesn’t feel like enough. What the hell is wrong with me?

  I take a long pull, finishing my beer and tapping the bar for the prospect to give me another. “Never said I didn’t.”

  “Don’t lose sight of what’s right in front of you, brother.”

  “I know what I’ve got,” I bark as I pop the top off my drink.

  “Don’t get disconnected from it.”

  “I have respect for you, Frisco. You have my loyalty. But, brother, you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”

  He looks to the floor, the concrete beneath us, and says nothing. As I take another pull of my beer, we sit side by side in silence.

  “Having an ol’ lady is like concrete,” he breaks the silence. There is a heaviness in the air, adding weight to his words. “The smallest cracks begin in the easiest of ways. A simple slip of a glass nicks the foundation. Whatever you’ve got going on at home, Ruby”—he looks up, and his eyes meet mine—“don’t let the crack spread until it divides. Let me take you home; get lost in your wife tonight. Tomorrow, do the same. Whatever you’re feeling, don’t let it become a divide, brother.”

  I take in what he says. Get lost in my wife. That’s what I wanted to do earlier today. She didn’t want it. We have a nick, a breakdown between us. By being here, am I letting a crack become a divide?

  Setting my beer on the bar, I nod to Frisco. Without a word, he grabs his truck keys from his pocket and we leave.

  That’s brotherhood: understanding what your brother needs, even when he can’t see it.

  Thank goodness the kids went to bed without a fight. I don’t have any fight left in me.

  In all the years we have been together, Ruby has missed more than one dinner, yet never ever has he come home and then left angry. We have spent time apart when he has been on a run for the club, but he has never avoided home out of anger. Although we have had our moments where we haven’t gotten along, he has never left me. We also don’t leave without saying good-bye. It’s the biggest slap in the face he can give me without actually touching me.

  Making my way through my bedroom and into my bathroom, I try to keep my emotions at bay. I have to be strong for my kids, for our family. Whatever is bothering Ruby, I have to let him sort that out and be the rock.

  Washing my face, I look in the mirror. The lines on my eyes are from laughter, something I didn’t have growing up. It’s something my kids do without a second thought. We give them that. My babies have everything Ruby and I didn’t.

  I brush my teeth and think about the kids being due for their teeth cleanings. It’s always something: yearly physical for school, sports, shots, or whatever. We get their teeth cleaned so we don’t have to have major dental work ahead. One of them or all of them constantly have growth spurts. I’m pretty sure RJ needs new shoes right now.

  Ugh, I will take care of that on my lunch break tomorrow. All day, every day, my mind is filled with so many tasks, needs, and something or someone needing my attention.

  Spitting and rinsing, I wipe the excess off and put my toothbrush away. As I take my hair out of its braid, I look in the mirror. The vibrancy of my youth is long gone.

  I brush out my long locks and hit my boob. I don’t have large breasts except when I’m pregnant. The babies come and they swell. Then the children eat, and when the time comes, my breasts dry up, and they shrink back down. I have more than I did in my younger days, but the ever-changing size from one kid to the next has taken its toll, leaving them misshapen and sagging.

  I tug at a knot in the end of my hair, the brush hitting my stomach, the very stomach that has grown with each pregnancy. I run my hand down the T-shirt and pinch my side. The extra skin I can’t shed hangs as a reminder of the months of change my body endured to bring life into the world.

  My babies, my Vida—life. They are my life. I was born to be a mom, their mom.

  Looking up at the mirror, I study myself. What else do I have? What makes me … me?

  The more I think about it, the more lost I feel. Outside of being Ruby’s wife and the mother of his children, who am I?

  I climb into our queen-size bed, the very bed that, night in and night out, Ruby has held me close. It’s the bed we have made love in, the bed we have made babies in, and the bed we have shared everything in. Tonight, I climb in alone, wondering if I will wake up in the morning the same way.

  Unable to sleep, I lie there, staring at the wall.

  When I hear a truck pull up and stop in front of our house, my heart rate picks up. Ruby left on his bike. Please don’t let there have been an accident. I was so rude to him. I shouldn’t have pushed him away. I shouldn’t have given up precious time with him. I should have turned off dinner and made time for my husband.

  As the worst possible scenarios run through my head, I jump up and rush to the front door. I turn the knob just as someone is putting in a key and turning the knob from the other side. I pull as he pushes, and as the door moves, I see his cut and rush into his arms.

  I pat his chest and cup his chin, feeling him. He’s okay. Ruby is here in my arms, and he’s okay.

  Without letting him talk, I roll up to my tiptoes and kiss him. I need to feel him. I need to know that all the bad thoughts of motorcycle accidents and death that just ran through my head aren’t real. I need to erase tonight from my brain.

  I did wrong. He did wrong. Now, together, we make it right.

  His kiss is fierce and his taste is a mixture of Ruby and beer. Now the truck dropping him off makes sense. I don’t like when he drinks, but I’m thankful to Roundman and the club that no man drinks and drives.

  As our tongues dance together, I don’t care about earlier or even what tomorrow brings. My man is home safely.

  His hands come around and firmly grip my ass, rocking me into him as he guides us backward. We hit the couch, and his hand comes up my shirt, cupping my breasts. The sensation of him touching me
lights the same fire in me it has for what seems like my entire life. This is where I belong: under him, with him. Everything is me and Ruben.

  “Vida,” his whispers into my ear before he bites down on the sweet spot of my neck. “I’m an ass.”

  I stifle my laugh. He’s right; he is an ass.

  He pulls at the hem of my shirt, and I stop him.

  “The babies.” I pat at his chest in an attempt to move him. “Let’s go to the bedroom.”

  Even in the dark of our living room, I can see the frustration in his features.

  “Do you ever let loose?”

  “We have kids; the time for letting loose left years ago,” I defend as my mood changes from wanting to make love to my husband to wanting to crawl in a hole and cry.

  Without another word, he pushes up off the couch before reaching out for my hand. Relief washes over me that he wants to help me up.

  Hand in hand, we make our way to our bedroom.

  Am I too uptight about the kids hearing us? How can I turn my mom brain off and give my husband my attention?

  We get to our room, and I fully expect Ruby to pick up where we left off in the living room … Only, he doesn’t. Helplessly, I see the entire mood has changed.

  He pulls off his cut and shirt as he walks into our bathroom. He will hang his cut on the back of the door and strip the rest of his clothes off, somehow managing to miss the dirty clothes basket and letting them land on the floor in front of it.

  I sigh to myself. I don’t know who is worse: my children or my man.

  Climbing into bed, I ignore the ache in my chest of today’s frustrations. I wish Ruben and I could be on the same page, but lately, I feel like we are so disconnected we don’t even read the same book, and I don’t know why.

  Silently, my husband, my lover, my man slides into bed beside me. Just like every other night, he pulls me to him. When he tucks me into his side, he takes my knee and lays my leg over him before kissing the top of my head.