Chapter 19

If you don’t want to be with me because I’m loud and speak my mind, fine. Go be with that boring bitch who’ll probably only give you missionary and never suck you off. You deserve the bitch and her Hamburger Helper.

-Ruthie’s secret thoughts

Ruthie

My eyes were wide as saucers as they stared at the man that had been partially responsible for me marrying Bender.

“What…why…how?” I asked Bender’s father, aghast that he was even standing in front of me.

Well…sitting. He was currently being held in a sort of cell type thing that was at the Dixie Warden clubhouse.

His hands were in cuffs on the table in front of him, and he was really not happy to see me.

I hadn’t seen him in years upon years, and he was all of a sudden here? Why?

John, Bender’s father, glared at me.

“Why should you be happy when my boy is dead and in the cold ground? I never should’ve listened to Reena,” he growled.

“What are you talking about?” I asked, startled.

“But no, I did, because I loved her. Then look where it got us. Bender dead. Our grandkid dead. All because you couldn’t keep your fucking legs closed,” he hissed.

My spine straightened. “What are you talking about?”

“I couldn’t believe it when I got the letter saying you were let out,” he hissed. “You were supposed to be in there for another year before I had to worry about you getting out. Then there was the letter, and Reena started to freak out about it all. She wouldn’t leave well enough alone. Things would have worked out. I would have had you taken care of but she just had to get me involved right now. So I had to come take care of it…of you…before you could make this world even worse than it already is. But those stupid neighbors of yours…fucked everything up. Bunch of imbeciles. So here I am, sitting in a jail cell when I should’ve been at home with my wife.”

I looked over to the man that was to become my husband and raised a questioning brow at him.

He gestured to the other room, and I turned on my heel and left, leaving John where he sat in his chair, fuming at being manhandled by a bunch of ‘biker scum.’

“How’d he get here?” I asked in confusion. “And why’s he here instead of at the police station?”

Sterling turned and gestured to the far side of the room, and my eyebrows probably lined up with my hairline as I saw who was leaning against the wall.

“What are you doing here?” I asked Able.

“That was an apology,” Able said sincerely to Sterling.

Sterling’s face was once again blank.

“What do you mean, it was an apology?” I asked in confusion.

“Came home, saw my wife looking at a baby picture of Sterling again, and realized that I’d fucked up. Knew that I should’ve fixed it years ago, but it was seeing you with my girl that made me realize that I would’ve given anything for time with her, and I’d purposefully kept you from her all these years,” he said sincerely.

My eyes watered.

So much time was lost, for both Sterling and me, with our respective parent.

How would our life be had we known each other from the moment we were younger?

Definitely not about to be married, that’s what.

“So you what…just found the guy that The Dixie Wardens MC couldn’t find? How is that possible? I thought you were an oil man. What kind of skills does an oil man have that can find a man who even trained professionals can’t find?” I asked.

Able’s face continued to stay blank, but his eyes were saying something completely different.

“That’s because he’s not just an oil tycoon. He’s a fucking hit man,” Silas said from behind us.

I turned in surprise.

“What?” I gasped.

Silas nodded. “Took me a while. Had my hands full or we would’ve found out about John Wait before…but my resources were split trying to find out about you, too. So it took longer than I would’ve liked. Ended up that we found him at the same time, but I wanted to see Able’s skills, just what he was capable of, so we let him bring John in.”

“You’re a freakin’ hit man?” I asked, spinning around to stare at my ‘father.’

He winced. “Was, yes.”

“What…how…why?” I asked. “And why come back? What are you hoping to accomplish?”

“I was hoping to accomplish a relationship with my daughter that I’ve done nothing but think about for the last fifteen years. I was hoping that, one day, I’d be able to see her smile again like I had when she was just a girl. And I’m not a ‘hit man’ per se. I was a contract agent for the United States Government. Bit of a difference,” he said defensively.

I shook my head, the beginnings of a headache forming at the base of my neck.

“This is all so fucked up. So completely fucked up,” I said, shaking my head, rubbing my neck with my hand as I closed my eyes.

Firm, warm hands captured my head, and I was pulled firmly into Sterling’s arms.

“You wanna go home?” He asked softly.

“Yeah,” I answered. “I do.”

“Then let’s do it.”

So we left everyone behind.

Things were far from over with both John and Able.

But I really, really just wanted to lay in Sterling’s arms right then, and forget the world around us.

Tomorrow we’d deal with the rest.

Tomorrow we’d face what I didn’t want to face today.