| 015 | Ruby |

"Give me a chance," he asked me.

I froze, "What?"

"I'm asking for a chance, Ruby, a serious one."

I blinked, "You're not... talking about... romance, right?"

He paused, "Are you dating someone?"

"What? No. I'm a single mum, Rhyot, I don't date. I have a kid to raise, and a career, and responsabilities, I don't have time for dating!" I snapped.

"Good, then give me a chance," he grinned shamelessly.

My jaw dropped, "I'm not getting involved with you again."

"You never got involved with me, though."

What? "We have son, I didn't make him with my fingers, Rhyot."

His grin widened, "Yes, but you didn't know it was me."

"Had I, I wouldn't have a son right now," I mocked.

"Yes, you would. That last time, I fucked you wanting to knock you up, Ruby. I had no idea it worked though, I thought it didn't, but that's what was going though my mind when I got you in that room," I felt my heart flutter and I hated it. "It wasn't accidental, by any means, not from my part. I wanted to mark you, to mark us permanently. Again, I didn't think it would work, but it did."

"I was 15!"

"And I was 17, we were both underaged, doesn't change a thing."

"You're despicable," I gasped.

"Being despicable as I am, got you pregnant, Ruby."

My jaw dropped, "You're insane."

"Aren't we both?" He tilted his head. "You have to be a little insane to murder three people with no remorse or second thoughts like you just did, Ruby. I'm very surprised with you, in a good way. Savage. I always knew you had it in you."

"They threatened my son, I'll wipe out humanity to keep him safe, Rhyot."

"And that's even more attractive, but it's not normal according to my therapist. Apparently, a normal person wouldn't kill another human being, even if their own life or the life of someone they loved was on the line. I cannot relate, but I can related with what you did, had you not killed Jameson, I would've done it."

"What happened to him even?" I frowned.

"He drugged and raped Hayes, so, I murdered his entire family," he hissed.

"He did what?" Dread spread down my spine.

"We may not be in good terms or like each other, but he's my baby brother. So, after I murdered his entire family, making him watch it happen, I tortured him for five months, until he escaped by killing twelve of my people. He's been out of my reach ever since November," he held my face softly with both hands, pushing Jameson's blood away with his thumbs. "I'm sorry he got to you. He first called me when he was in your house, I guess, he called me from a residential number, I tracked it down and saw that the property was under the name Ruby Vaughan. I went there, afraid that he would have done something to you, but the house was empty, you mom called after you, I took the liberty to pick it up and tell her that you weren't home."

"You... were in my house?" A nod. "The bike. Was the motorbike yours?"

"Big, fancy, and black one?" When I nodded, he denied. "It was Jameson's. It's parked in front of this abandoned building. Did you the bike?"

"I dropped by my place, the doors of the bedrooms were open, and there this bike park on the other side of the street," I swallowed. "He was probably in my home in that moment, wasn't he?"

"No, I think he was outside, pampering with your car to drug you as soon as you turned the A/C on. Isn't that what happened?"

My eyes widened, "How do you know that?"

"Your car is also parked in front of this place, it's the Lamborghini, no?"

"Shite, that's right. I blacked out after I inhaled whatever was coming out of the A/C, when I woke up, I was here. The jerk had my gun and my phone, and," I looked around, "where are my heels and my handbag?"

The east-Asian men popped up next to us, "Those, Princess?" He asked, holding my handbag and my phone that I had thrown on the ground in his right hand, my heels and the key of my car in the left.

I snatched them from his hand, "Are you Niklaus?"

Both him and Rhyot frowned, "How do you know that?"

"Leah Morgan," I rolled my shoulders, bending down to put my heels on, but Rhyot took them from me, then sat me on the chair I had been tied up to, and fell to his knees. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?"

"Giving you the Princess treatment?" He purred.

I cringed, "I'm not Cinderella, I'm Elsa, I don't need this. I can do it on my,"

"I know you can, but I want to do it," he stopped me, then began to put my heels on my feet delicately, painfully so.

"I'm not going to fall for you, Rhyot," I snapped at him. "Don't even try."

But he looked at me as if I had just challenged him, "Oh, but I want to try."

"You're going to fail," I hissed stressed. "I don't do dating."

"Well, I don't mind marriage, we do have son."

I gasped, "I am not marrying you. What is wrong with you?"

"So, little old Leah is the mom of our son's best friend?" He asked instead.

This bastard, "Yes. One look at him and she know he was yours, I didn't."

His eyes darkened, "He looks like me?"

"Unfortunately," I snapped. "He has my nose though, and my brain."

Rhyot dared to caress my ankles, sending shivers up my legs and through my body, and I held the urge to curse, "He's safe, right? At Leah's?"

Sigh, "Yes, he's safe. It's his first sleepover, Lloyd is his first friend."

He blinked, "He's introverted?"

"Well, we both are, that's not surprising," I snorted. "He's a troublemaker."

"Like me?" He grinned.

I glared at him, "Like both of us."

"I don't remember you causing trouble like I did."

"That's because you've always been shamelessly aggressive, while I, contained it because not doing so could taint my record and make it harder for me to get to Oxford. You're impulsive, Rhyot, extremely, despite being introverted. I'm not, not always, I am a thinker, but I have an edge, push me from it, and this," I pointed to Jameson, "happens. I don't snap just screaming, I snap acting on it."

"Have you killed before, Princess?" Niklaus asked amused.

I clenched my jaw, cleaning the blood from my phone, "Just thrice, I didn't get charges because mum helped me clean up. I have bottled up feminine rage, it's worse than anger issues, and I go blind when I lose my shite, mum says I got it from her and her dad. I tend to bottled it up for as long as possible, and that's prejudicial to me, or whatever. The people I killed were... poking on things they should not, and I couldn't control myself, but thankfully, we were alone when it happened, so, no charges."

"It's up to six now," Niklaus purred. "You don't feel guilty?"

"No," I rolled my shoulders, pushing myself to my feet and glaring down at the stupid idiot who was still kneeling at my feet. "Get up, Rhyot, you won't get me to be into you again, by kneeling, you should know better than that. Besides, kneeling is a sign of weakness to someone like you, innit?"

"You are my weakness, Ruby, haven't you noticed that yet?" He said, standing.

"That's not fluttering, that put me and my son in danger, Rhyot."

"Our son. You haven't told me his name yet."

I clenched my jaw, "You didn't ask."

"Then tell me," he took a step closer to me and when I was going to take one back, I almost fell back on the chair, but the overwhelming arsehole passed that damned arm of his around my waist, grounding me. "What's his name?"

"Before you have any stupid ideas, I had always wanted to name a boy that."

He blinked and narrowed his eyes, "What's his name?"

Sigh, "Rhett. R-H-E-T-T. Rhett Vaughan."

"Well, it's very similar to my name," he purred.

"It wasn't intentional."