Red Rider (Little Ruby Red Book 2), page 1
Red Rider
Charly J.M / Charly James-Matthews
Copyright © 2023 Charly J.M / Charly James-Matthews
All rights reserved
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
ISBN: 9798388928689
No matter what life throws at you, you will always have the unconditional love of your dog.
Trigger warning : Sexual content, abuse (brief), grief (I’m sorry!).
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four – Epilogue
Chapter One
A month had gone by as I threw myself back into my work, my club was all signed for and it was now officially mine. I couldn’t believe it, I had my own club! Sure we had to get a loan to buy it, but it was still mine.
I’d been so busy with it that I still hadn’t managed to start my new tattoo yet and I was getting antsy to do it. Even Cain was looking forward to doing it.
“No! Tables are going to the right, not the left,” I call out as the new booths were being brought inside.
“Sorry Miss,” the delivery man says before shifting them to their correct spots.
“Drinks delivery is here Ruby!” Tess shouts as she’s cleaning the new bar worktop, a gorgeous mix of black, red, white and gold epoxy resin that had just been put in.
“Shit, ALEX can you grab the delivery?!” I shout as I’m trying to take the plastic off of the new chairs.
“What am I? Your servant?” he says playfully walking down the stairs.
“You’re my employee, so kind of,” I laugh as he flips me off and goes to deal with the delivery anyway.
“I heard you lot were busy, thought we’d come to give you a hand,” Cameron and Hayley walk in.
“Oh, you beautiful people! The new guys are coming in soon for an interview and I really need to get these booths sorted out, think you can help with that?” I grin cheekily.
“Of course we can, go on, hop to it,” Cameron chuckle as I hug them both before running up the stairs to grab some of the paperwork for the meeting.
So many people had applied for both the clubs, Shaun and I would be interviewing them for both at the same time, using our teams between the clubs, though we would each have a main team that stuck in each club unless they wanted a change of pace.
“Not late am I?” Shaun runs in, breathing a sigh of relief as he sees the long desk is empty.
“Luckily for you, they shouldn’t be here for another few minutes,” I shake my head at him with a smirk.
“Sorry, I uh… had to do something with Callie,” he says with a huge grin on his face, I turn to him trying to work out what was going on, why was he so happy?
“You going to tell me why that huge grin is on your face?” I ask.
“Nothing,” he tries to hide it as I fold my arms in front of him, standing there until he spilt what was going on.
“You won’t last long without telling me,” I snigger.
“God damn it Ruby… If you tell Callie you know, she will skin me alive!” He groans before shutting the door.
“So…” I signal him to go on with a smirk.
“Callie’s pregnant and I asked her to marry me! She said yes!” He grins broadly as I squeal, jumping into his arms.
“Oh my god! I am so happy for you guys! I’m going to have a cousin… I’m going to spoil them rotten,” I grin.
“Don’t tell Callie!” He says sternly, but he can’t help but smile.
“I won’t, promise, but I can’t believe it! I wondered how long it would be until you two finally tied the knot and had a kid,” I smile sitting on the desk.
“We’ve been a little focused on other things, it was just time for it now,” he says.
“I feel like that’s my fault,” I bite my lip nervously.
“Don’t do that, it isn’t nor will it ever be your fault. Plus, before you even suggest it, you don’t need to move out still, we love having you in the house, we have plenty of room,” he replies.
“Actually… I’m going to need to stay a little longer, but I AM moving out, I decided I was going to start putting money away to get a place, just haven’t decided whether to rent or buy yet,” I reply.
“You don’t need to do that Ruby,” he sighs.
“I do, I need my own space and so do you guys, especially now. Patch is a handful as it is and when a baby comes in you won’t want him all over the baby.”
“Ruby! Shaun!” Tess calls from the stairs.
“We’ll talk more about this later, we have people to interview,” I grin as he nods, squeezing my shoulder, opening the door to see several people waiting outside.
“Welcome guys, come in, take a seat!” Shaun grins letting them in. Some look a little nervous, we would need to change that.
“I am going to go get some drinks for us all,” I smile as Shaun nods as he begins talking to some of them.
“As if by magic,” Tess grins holding a tray of various non-alcoholic drinks.
“You are a lifesaver,” I smile.
“Well, the bar IS my main focus now as bar manager,” she winks giggling.
“And what a fantastic job you’re doing, oh! More people! Hi guys! If you’re here for the interview I will lead you right up,” I smile.
I recognised one of the guys from the track, one who always blasted his music, he was an amazing DJ and I had managed to find him at a race last week and it seemed to be the right timing as he was looking for a new job.
He was huge, hard muscles visible under his tight shirt, he was a show-off, that was for sure, but he was a nice enough guy. His chocolatey skin made his white shirt even brighter, his dreadlocks tied up tidily as he grinned at me broadly.
“Well, look who it is… You look different out of your leathers Red,” he says with his deep husky voice.
“Why did he call her red?” one of the girls whispers to the other.
“I do look a little different Zuri, but it’s not THAT different. And to answer your question. It’s my nickname,” I smile towards her, a tall skinny girl, the darkest of black hair tied in a neat bun on the back of her head.
“Oh, ok,” she nods nervously as I lead them upstairs.
“Oh! Look more people, how many have we got?” Shaun grins as he begins counting heads.
“I think this is it,” I smile.
“Seems like it, take a seat guys, have a drink, looks like we’ve been spoilt with our new non-alcoholic drinks we’re trying out, these are great,” Shaun grins grabbing one himself.
The whole room was silent as they grabbed drinks, I look at Shaun raising a brow, we needed to get them louder, their personalities wouldn’t shine otherwise.
“Ok, guys, I’m going to say something, you lot are so quiet, stop it, this isn’t your normal interview, we work as a team and we are a huge family, you can be yourself, I need to know how you guys REALLY are, I need to know if you guys can have fun while working hard, not this tidied up version of yourselves, so for god’s sake unbutton your top buttons, take your jackets off and relax,” I say but they all only slightly relax.
“Ok, let’s loosen up a little guys, how about we all introduce ourselves, I know a lot of people hate it, but it will get you started. First of all, I am Shaun and I will be running Knights and taking on at least six of you as I need pretty much a whole new team as madam here has stolen them all except one,” Shaun winks pointing his thumb at me as they chuckle.
“I think you’ll find you did that yourself, though anyone here who wants to swap at any time that’s fine, we will still be working together and some of the others will be going between the two, such as our security team,” I smile.
“And as she forgot to say it, this is Ruby,” Shaun smirks at me.
“Oops, sorry,” I laugh.
“Ruby! When the fuck are we sorting out your fucking tattoo woman?!” Cain bursts into the room, stiffening when he realises what he’s done.
“Well guys, I’ll introduce you to one of our members of security, Cain,” I giggle.
“Look who it is!
What up Cain?!” Zuri stands giving Cain a bro-shake and slap on the back before sitting back down.
“I am so sorry Ruby,” Cain says sheepishly.
“It’s fine, we were just doing introductions and trying to loosen this lot up,” I smirk as some of the girls giggle, eyeing him up.
“What part of they are busy didn’t you get?” Luke storms up the stairs.
“Well, this interview is going well,” I slap a palm to my face as they all chuckle behind me.
“You’re a close group then?” One of the girls says, she was a pretty girl, curvy in all the right places, her hair dyed a deep purple, tattoos peeking from under her long-sleeved top.
“Yeah, we’re all friends here, Shaun is my uncle too,” I reply.
“I’m Brooklyn,” she grins introducing herself.
“Good luck guys! Ruby, I’ll message you later!” Cain grins sheepishly once more before leaving as Shaun chuckles shutting the door.
“One thing you will find out is something is always going on, never a dull day with this lot,” Shaun says before we get back to work.
We kept being interrupted by various people as work was still going on downstairs, but it seemed to lighten them all up as they were introduced to the members of the team that already existed, one by one we got to know them all a little better.
As it stood they were the best of the bunch after going over at least fifty applications. Now seeing them in person we were beginning to work out who would be better in which club, I had my eye on a couple of them especially.
“So, I am going to go grab… Someone… Whoever I can get, to give you a tour while Shaun and I have a little chat, Zuri make sure you’re taken up to the DJ booth, let me know if there is anything that would be missing for you, excuse me a second guys,” I smile as they were all chatting happily now.
Walking downstairs I peer around looking for someone to give them a tour before seeing Alex leaning against the bar doing nothing. Great, he can do it. I smirk as I knew he would complain but do it anyway.
“Allleeexxx,” I call out with a smile.
“What now?” he groans.
“Can you give that lot a tour for me? Just so we can talk over who wants to take on who, please,” I say with a cheeky smile.
“I just finished the drinks display… Ruby, why you gotta do me like this?” he whines.
“Please Alex, they are a good bunch,” I reply.
“Fine,” he sighs as I grin taking his hand and leading him upstairs.
“Guys, this grumpy git is Alex, he will show you all around while we have a quick chat,” I say chirpily as Alex rolls his eyes at me before taking them all out, shutting the door behind them.
“I like this lot, they seem like good people,” Shaun smiles grabbing their files.
“They are great once they loosen up, now, we need to decide who wants who and I already want to choose one,” I grin taking Brooklyn's folder.
“I thought you would, she seems more like you so that will do the club some good, Max seconds as a DJ which will help between Zuri and Nigel, he might be a cross between, though I would like him at mine on the bar too,” Shaun says.
“Fine by me, who else do you want? I already have Alex, Tess, Luke and Adam, plus I now have Brooklyn and Zuri,” I ask.
“I’ll take Tony and George on security, you can have Cain and Tyrone, with Colin and John between us. Which leaves Camden, Rhys, Emerson, Remy and Ethan,” he says going through the files.
“I think Emerson will do better in a smaller club, she seems a little shy at times and she’s tiny, she’d get lost in here,” I say giving him her folder as he nods.
“Sounds good to me, I think Camden and Rhys would work quite well together here, they seemed to get on and seemed rather active once out of their shells,” he says passing me theirs.
“Which leaves Ethan and Remy for you, obviously you have Yasmin too,” I smile.
“Fantastic,” Shaun grins.
We were lucky that most of those who applied weren’t too fussy on hours too, so we could separate them easily.
“We did that quicker than I thought we would,” I smile.
“Shall we go see how the tour is going or let them all have a minute?” he asks.
“Let’s go see them, we can give them the news too,” I smile as we head downstairs, finding them all by the DJ booth as Zuri looks at the kit we had happily.
“Red, this shit is crazy man, the best bit of kit I’ve seen, I could make some crazy beats on this,” Zuri booms with a bright smile.
“Good thing you’ll be using it then, welcome to the Red Rider team,” I smile as he goes to shake my hand but then pulls me in for a small hug.
“Thanks, you have no idea what this means to me and my family,” he says.
“Anything you need, let us know, we’re all friends here,” I smile before jumping off the podium as he begins playing with the deck.
“So… We’ve made a decision guys, all of you will be getting a place with us, we have separated you between the clubs but I will remind you, if you don’t want to be in one of them, for whatever reason, please let us know, or if you want to go in between too, please let us know,” Shaun claps his hands getting their attention.
“So, those of you staying here are… Brooklyn, Zuri, Camden, Rhys and Tyrone, the rest of you will be Shaun’s new team, so Remy, Ethan, Max, Emerson, George and Tony you will work in Knights when it has finished being rebuilt,” I smile.
“Well, I certainly didn’t think we’d be told today that we got the job,” Tyrone chuckles.
“Is everyone ok with all of that?” I ask.
“Perfect,” Brooklyn grins happily as the others all nod in agreement.
“Ok, so, for now, that’s all, we will be in contact with you all as to when you’ll come in for training, I know some of you are between finishing job contracts so we will work on that so you aren’t without any income,” Shaun says to them.
“That’s it, congratulations to all of you and I can’t wait to work with you all. You are all very welcome to stick around if you want, get to know some of our team a bit better, we’re all here, for the most part, some will be turning up shortly, but other than that you are welcome to come and go as you please, our phone numbers and emails are in your paperwork, we will finish up the official contracts and get them sent to you as soon as possible, any questions?” I ask.
“Can I try some music out?” Zuri booms behind me.
“Yes, but can we not do it to club levels as the doors are all open and we don’t want to piss off any of our neighbours yet,” I smile nodding.
“Nice,” he nods rubbing his hands together.
“Are the decks at Knights the same?” Max asks.
“Yes, they will be,” Shaun nods.
“Mind if I come check it out mate?” Max asks Zuri.
