My phone blares off in my pocket as I make my way back downstairs where I hear men talking. No doubt with Wicked.

“What?” I snap down the phone.

“I know it’s late, and I know that you don’t work weekends, but you need to come back to the clubhouse. Victor needs to finish his conversation, and there has been a new development.”

Sighing, I end the call, when I see Ma standing near Wicked, her arms crossed. They look deep in conversation. Ma is even doing that thing where her eyes are watering and the wrinkle between them is prominent. Wicked softens for Ma. He always has.

“I have to go,” I say to both of them. “They need me back at the clubhouse.”

“Ruby!” Wicked barks, and I stop just short of the front door, my feet cemented to the floor. “You are not going back to my fucking clubhouse flashing your ass around a bunch of horny fucking bikers.”

I turn slowly, my arms crossing in front of my chest. “I don’t take orders from you, Wicked. I’m not one of your little club sluts.” Snatching my jacket hanging on the hooks near the front door, I shove it over my shoulders and take the steps two at a time.

“Come on, Menace.” Val opens the driver’s door to the G-Wagon. I pause, tilting my head to the side before sidestepping and walking down the side, toward the garage. “Oh, come on! Please don’t make my job hard!” Jogging down the steps, I ignore the creeping feeling of someone chasing me trickling down my spine as I beep the garage door with the keys in my pocket and slide beneath the glass before it’s completely open. Grabbing the keys to my pastel orange Aston Martin DB 11, a rush of adrenaline rushes through me and I squeal as I lift the door up and slam it closed, locking it just as Wicked slams his palms onto the passenger window.

He points. “Open this fucking door, Ruby!”

I flip him off. “No.” The dash lights come to life and I rev her purring engine a few times before tapping the gear into drive and zipping out of the show garage and past the waiting Mercedes that Val had idling for me.

The wired gates are already open as I floor it onto the road, my Bluetooth hooked to the radio.

Letting out a sigh of relief as my heartbeat levels out in my chest, I look into the rearview mirror to see not just the Mercedes, but single headlights not far from behind him. I don’t know what I expected with Wicked coming back into my life. Did I think it would be hard? Sure. He is a hard man to be around, and I’m not an easy woman, but not like this.