| 017 | Ruby |

"Definitely not the wheel of that damned Lamborghini, until I make sure there's not a particle of the drug Martens used, in it. You're also not in a state to drive, you shouldn't have even gotten in a car, you had alcohol in the dinner with Morgan, did you not? There's a hit of alcohol in your breath."

I sucked on my cheeks, annoyed that he came close enough to smell my breath at all, "I wasn't drunk, in the slightest, I have a good tolerance to it."

"It doesn't change the fucking face that you drank and got behind the wheel."

"Then what?" I glared up at him, arms crossed.

"I'll drive you home," he exclaimed, clearly annoyed.

"I'm not staying alone in a car with you, Rhyot," absolutely not.

"You don't trust yourself with me?" He purred.

I scowled, "I don't trust you with me, Rhyot, not the opposite."

"If I remember correctly, you jumped on me that time."

This bastard- "I didn't jump on you, and we didn't make him that night."

"Oh?" He grinned like a devil, "Is that why that day was your password?"

I clenched my jaw, "It doesn't matter, what matters is that you caused it."

"You didn't fight it," he countered, "at all," he added.

"Doesn't change the fact that you caused it," I hissed.

He side-glared his friend who was watching us with amusement, "Klaus can go with us, if you don't trust yourself alone with me. Can't you?"

"Of course," he beamed mischievously.

I gave him an up and down look, "Hm."

Rhyot pushed his friend out of my sight, stepping into my personal space, "I'll keep your car, we'll go in mine, I'll have my people make sure there's nothing threatening in it, when they are done, I'll bring it back to you. I'll also like to look into your house, make sure he didn't set anything up there in case his plan didn't work. Martens was smart enough to plan something like that."

The sheer possibility of that made me feel sick, "That cunt."

"Bring the others and take care of this mess," Niklaus told the other five people that came in with them. "I'll be out with Rhys, don't wait, just take care of it all. Make sure not an ash of those pieces of shite remain, nothing can be traced down to us, even less to the Princess, got it?" They all nodded. "Come on, Rhys, let's take the Princess home."

"Rhys?" I side-eyed him and he rolled his eyes. "As in R-E-E-S?"

"No, idiot, as in R-H-Y-S, though the way you spelled it is how it's pronounced, but not how it's written. It's a nickname. Those who are on my side call me Rhys, my enemies, who want me dead, mostly, call me Riot."

"As is R-I-O-T?" A nod. "Well, that kind of suits you," I mocked.

"You can call me Rhys, Ruby. No need to be formal with me," he then took me in his arms, bridal style, and began to leave the place after Niklaus.

I gasped, "I can walk."

"You're shaking," his voice was a whisper, only for me hear. "No need to put up a front to me, Ruby," his chartreuse green eyes came to me and I felt all air being sucked out of my lungs. "You could have fainted if you tried to walk."

"I'm not weak, arsehole," I muttered.

"I know you're not, but everyone has limits, even someone as strong as you."

As we exited the place, I realized we really had been in an abandoned place, far from the center of London, if we're still in London at all. My eyes scanned the grounds, and I let out a squeak when I saw my car, the front smashed, "My car." Rhys turned me away, not letting me see it, but my eyes followed, "Not the Urus, oh my God, what happened to my babe? Did I..." anxiety rose inside me, "did I really got in an accident?"

"You're unscathed, Ruby," he said instead, walking to the Rolls Royce Phantom with me in his arms. "You shouldn't have seen that damned car."

"Oh, no, Rhett is going to be sad, he loved that car," I groaned.

Niklaus opened the passenger door and Rhys sat me on the seat, then he leaned closer to tie the seatbelt around me, and my body instantly leaned back away from him, lips tightly shut, which got me a devilish grin from him, "I'll get him another one of that, if he loves it, don't worry."

Only when he left my side and closed the door was I able to breathe again, with a struggle, though. In the next moment he was getting on the driver's seat, closing his door and putting his seatbelt on, and from my back I noticed Niklaus hopping on the backseat. "He's a child, he doesn't drive."

"Yet, and it'll be yours too, so, you can do whatever you want, Ruby," he winked at me and I cringed, then he turned the engine of his car on.

"Why are you driving?" I asked, eyes on the window at my side.

"I told you, I would drive you home. No one drives my cars, not even Klaus!"

Hah, "Oh, so, you're that type," I muttered. "How did you even find us?"

"I tracked the phone he called from," he brushed it aside. "Your phone, no?"

I clenched my grip on my phone, "Yes. He took my phone and my gun."

"Sorry to butt in, Princess, but, why do you have a gun?" Niklaus asked.

"To make the birds dance in the sky," I mocked at his stupid question.

"What?" He gasped, actually believing it.

"To protect myself, why else would I have a gun?" I groaned and side-eyed Rhys who had an amused grin curling his lips. "Doesn't he understand sarcasm?"

"He's usually the sarcastic one," he licked his lips.

"You said it seriously, how would I know? I don't know you yet," he gasped.

"Yet?" I frowned, "Why would you get to know me at all?"

"Because, I'm Rhys' best friend?" He mocked as if it was obvious. "I go where he goes, we come in a package. I'll also be Rhett's godfather."

What? "The fuck you won't."

"Of course, I will," he groaned. "I'm his dad's best friend."

"Yes, and?" I side-glared the dumbarse.

"You said he wasn't baptized yet," he countered.

"He isn't, so what?"

"Then, I'll be his godfather. He needs godparents!"

"No, he doesn't," I groaned, "he only needs me and mum."

"Keep telling yourself that," Rhys purred.

I glared at him, "You can't be seriously thinking of moving to London!"

"I'm not leaving you here with our son, Ruby!" This time there was no joke, no mockery, no second guessing in his voice, he spoke it firmly and clearly. "If you really think, I'll ignore my son, and go back to Massachusetts, where my life is hell, you're in for a surprise, Ruby. I know you won't move to the US, so, I'll move here. I'm well-connected enough to keep things working there, while I live in here, besides, my father is still alive, I'll only take over everything when he dies, and he's very healthy, thankfully. There's nothing holding me back there."

What the hell? "No. You can't be here."

"That's not up for you to decide, Ruby."

I felt anxiety rising again, "You can't be serious."

"I am," he focused his eyes back on the road. "I am not going anywhere."

"Do you not understand that having you in here, is dangerous?" I groaned.

"Not having me in here, is even more dangerous. I'm not leaving you and our son unprotected, Ruby. Besides, if you haven't understood yet, I want to be a present father to him," the seriousness in his voice made me curl my toes and look away from him. "I'm also the son of a divorced couple, like you, if you don't remember, and I don't want our son to grow up like that."

Sucking on my bottom lip, I countered, "We've never been a couple. He never had a father, he can't miss what he never had. Our situation is different, we were both born from married couples, who divorced while we were kids."

"And whose fault in that?" He poked me.