Zorro (Reapers MC #16) - Elizabeth Knox Page 0,9
is a bit of seriousness behind it.
“The movie?” Ruby comments, but more as a question.
I shake my head, “No, the movie came years later. My mother, she was eh . . . a very dramatic woman. She loved her telenovelas, and her novels. She had original copies of almost every Johnston McCulley novel, the man who was the first to write about a bandit who dressed in all black and was infamous for slashing the letter ‘Z’ into things.”
“I had no idea it was based off of a novel.”
“The classics always are, and in saying that, the books are always better than the movies.”
“Mhm, Fifty Shades of Grey taught me that.” Ruby snickers, gnawing on the edge of her lip as she does so. It takes me a minute to catch her joke, but I give it to her.
“As a child my mother would call me her little fox, and thus it’s how my road name came to be. It seemed fitting, to honor her in such a way.”
Ruby’s brows furrow, “Honor?”
“My mother passed away when I was barely an adult. She was held at gunpoint and killed by a group of Narcos at her store back in Mexico. She was closing up for the night and they were being chased by the federales. They held her at gunpoint and tried to use her as a hostage, and my mother,” I shake my head, even now hating how she needed to act so foolishly, “she stabbed one of them with a box knife. He shot her on the spot as retaliation.”
“I’m so sorry,” Ruby speaks with genuineness in her tone and I spot her hand coming to my knee, trying to offer me a bit of comfort.
“It’s okay, sweet girl. My wounds have been cauterized for many years now. But, you haven’t told me about your mother. I only ever hear of your father.”
Immediately she rolls her eyes and leans her elbows back on the step behind us. “Because my brothers and I find the need to complain about the sly dog constantly. He’s a man who’s ‘going to change’, ‘going to make things right’, ‘will turn his life around’, but he never does. He only wants to convince himself of it. Our moms are tight though. They had to be when the man who knocked them all up could never be dependable for anything. It’s a weird idea, but I didn’t call my mom, just mom. I have four lovely ladies in my life and I won’t ever take them for granted. Hell, I know they love me just as much as my mom did.”
“It’s nice to hear about the unique family you have. I knew Axel and Grim were your half-brothers, but I assumed they shared the same mother.”
Ruby immediately shakes her head. “Nope, just the same daddy. But, thank you for introducing yourself to me, Santiago.” She tries to speak with an accent but butchers it completely. Yet here I sit, smirking at a woman I should be pushing away.
But I can’t.
I haven’t been able to stop lookin’ at her since last Christmas, which happened to be the very first time I ever laid my eyes on her.
“I figured it was about time, considering everything.”
“Everything?” she questions, raising a brow.
“I’ve slept with you. You sleep in my bed, or vice versa almost every night. It’s about time we get to know one another on a more personal level, don’t you think?”
Excitement flashes across her eyes as she nods curtly. “I’d . . . I’d really like that.”
I lean back against the step and take my hand to brush away a stray few hairs, but really, I’m only using it as a way to touch her. I take in every bit of her that I can, from her thin but long eyebrows, to the way she has the smallest kink in her nose. “Good, Ruby Braxton. I’m Santiago Medina.”
“It’s lovely to meet you, Santiago Medina.”
The slightest flush of pink crosses her cheeks, and I slide my thumb across her eyebrow, just needing the excuse to touch her again. Downing the rest of my drink, I set my glass on the other side of me. “What do you say we head upstairs? It’s getting pretty late anyway.”
She gives a curt nod and we both rise. Taking her hand in mine, I lead her up the stairwell and we head straight for my room. Once the door is shut behind us, I lock it and watch as she heads over