Page 163 of Preacher Man

This family. Ruby watched them in awe. This was a normal family ribbing each other, the child neglect aside, it didn’t show to have done Tyler any harm anyway not if he was top of his class.

She felt Preacher kiss the shell of her ear, and her face heated, the others didn’t seem to notice their PDA, a few times she’d seen Maxwell give Birdie the same kind of hug from behind as she hustled around the kitchen.

“Time to eat.” Birdie declared grabbing the huge bowl of peach salad. “Ruby, sweetie, can you bring the bread rolls? And the jug of OJ out of the fridge. Tyler, you’re on cake duty.”

“Cake, whoop!” The young lanky boy bound across the long L-shaped kitchen in two steps, the kid was almost as tall as Preacher, give him a few years to fill out into his body he’d just be as devastating to women.

Her eyes forever strayed to her husband. And found his eyes on her already.

“Doing alright?” He asked quietly, catching her around the waist before they could step out into the backyard to eat on the deck. His hand felt large, possessive, warm, skimming around her to stop on her belly, using her shoulder she leaned a little into him. “I am. I like them,” she told him just as quietly. She could see herself loving the Priests as much as she did their son. That was one of Ruby’s biggest defects, she was a sucker for tenderness if she was given a speck of kindness and care she clung onto it like a bee on pollen. She was already falling for the Priest family, hook line, and booze.

“Good, baby. I’m glad, they like you, too.”

“So, no divorce then? ... I mean, not right this second.” She tried to laugh off her slip.

Preacher’s hand stilled on her belly almost has if he’d turned to stone, she smiled up at him, embarrassed for her error, marriages of convenience end, Ruby, she had to retain that.

“Yeah, not this second, beautiful,” he answered simply, the depths of green boring into her, he took a second just staring at her as if he had a million things he wanted to say and was holding them all back, before he reached down and pressed a soft kiss to her lips. His voice was back to normal when he added. “Time for grub.” She wanted to press and to ask what he was thinking about.

Priest grub she could do. Figuring out the man she was married to and what went on inside his head was a whole other issue.

******

Ruby hadn’t been napping thirty minutes when her phone on the table chimed.

And chimed. And chimed.

Her nimble body curled up on the couch in the living room, recovering from the booze session with his father, like she’d always belonged there in his living room under the throw blanket his mom had brought over months ago and he’d never used until now. His forehead wrinkled looking over at the damn phone, he stopped mid-step, a box of her shit she wanted placing in the kitchen clutched under an arm, a continuously chiming phone didn’t sound good, he checked on her, still out, and he scooped up her cell. The lock screen showing three messages from that fuckwit Dwayne.

Asshole was evading the cops because the likelihood was him being the one to start that bedroom fire and the one to have given Rita the amount of heroin to fell an elephant, not even a junkie would have taken that much smack found in her system, was becoming all too apparent, and yet the dipshit was texting Ruby. Unbelievable. Someone fell out of the idiot tree and hit every branch on his way down.

Smashing his teeth together, he strolled into the kitchen, dumped the box of whatever-the-crap knickknacks she’d said was inside on top of the counter, unlocked her phone.

“Get the fuck out.” He hissed reading the badly spelled messages. And here Preacher thought he was shit with the writing. “The fucking balls on this dickhead.” Anger swirled through his clenching forearms, but he had to keep it together, play the smart game because if he did this guy could be in lock-up by the end of the day.

Dwayne: 5:10 - I have the kid. If u want him I want 50 grand 2DAY! Dnt call cops or u never C him again.

Stand-up guy. Father of the fucking year. Preacher’s jaw clenched.

Dwayne: 5:11 - Meet me 1 hr. Main street. No fuking cops!

Dwayne: - Bring the money bitch.

He had Sebastian? How was that even possible? The boy who was supposed to be in a secure foster home? The fuck was going on? This was looking shadier by the second. On one hand, if it was true and they alerted the authorities Dwayne could take off and the boy with him, that would devastate Ruby, plus, the club always handled their business themselves, this was Preacher's business, therefore, making it the club business.

With his mind racing he put a call through to the clubhouse office first, his boy was around, the first time in days, so he asked him and Snake to come over to the house.

Next, he had to wake Ruby and tell her.

As expected she didn’t take this new shitstorm well at all, after calming her down and watching her wrestle into a pair of tennis shoes he was sure she was going to rip at the seams if the laces didn’t cooperate he heard the distinct roar of two bikes pull out outside his house. “Baby, won’t be a minute, I’ll be outside at the truck when you're ready.” He kissed her forehead. “Don’t worry, okay?” Her eyes were rimmed red.

“What’s going on, Preach? Sounded urgent, we hunting rabbits?” Asked a cool Snake, leaning against the tank of his bike. Preacher didn’t say a word until he’d come down the walkway and joined his two brothers. Briefing them quickly.

Grinder and Snake were going to be backup only, not knowing what kind of situation they’d walk into with that junkie piece-of-shit, he wanted minimal trouble, what with Ruby insisting on coming along and the boy being there, there was no persuading her to stay home. All three pairs of eyes turned as he heard the door close, she hurried down the steps.

“Are we leaving?”

“Yeah, the boys are gonna go on ahead.” She looked at the both but only nodded before climbing up into his black SUV, better to go with four wheels than two if they were collecting the kid. By the book, Archie had warned, this was so far from the book they’d skipped over chapters, but fuck it, his old lady was terrified, he wasn’t putting this in the cop’s hands, if the officials were anything decent how did scum like Dwayne get hold of Sebastian in the first place? Best case scenario he was talking out of his ass hoping to fleece money out of Ruby and he didn’t have Sebastian after all, worse case, he did and Preacher was about to, as Snake declared, hunt fucking rabbits.

---