8. Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

Sel listened to the negotiations and didn't chime in again. Dante laughed easily and was much more relaxed when discussing normal business compared to cagey business.

Not that anyone would have known he wasn't completely relaxed during the other meeting. Dante had a casualness about him that few could see past. He was one of the few. Dante wanted to be legit, have a fairly run business where everyone could profit nicely. That freed him to be with his husband and future kids.

Ruben was excited to be at the meeting. From what he'd heard, he was almost a victim of the killer that had stalked the ranch in the previous fall and winter. How anyone could hurt him, Sel didn't know. He smiled readily, deferred to his men only enough to let them think they were in charge.

Marius was a King and knew all the business on both sides of the legal line. He got up and gave a speech that took a lot of pressure off Dante.

"Now, the security here that Tango is in charge of, he's got the entire ranch covered as best we can, but there are always holes in that, as he could attest to."

Tango was without his partners, who were both helping in other areas of the ranch that day, but they weren't needed. He shined as he spoke. "We are doing great with the added personnel. The bikers, especially. They're great for the perimeter. The ranch hands look out while they're working, doing double duty."

Marius took back the floor. "Tango has cameras all over, and the only problem I see with those is when the guests come. Sneaking off to…well, have a nice natural experience, they won't want to think about cameras possibly capturing them."

Dante chuckled at that. "I second that."

Tango added, "No one wants that. It's for now until we either are sure Alex Brooks is captured or long gone from here."

Nathan Lee said, "I want a camera at my office. I'll have drugs there, being there won't be a pharmacy close. I can get the needed permits and licenses for that pretty easily. That means anyone with a taste for opioids, or benzos, will think my office an easy mark."

"I've already discussed this with Dante when he brought up the need for a clinic." Tango told him. "Floor safe that will only open once an hour, and only with one person in that room, you. There is great technology now to assure that. The room will also be a panic room. We, unfortunately, got the idea for that from Alex Brooks and his father's panic room. Go inside, lock the door, and be the only person in it to open the safe. In that room will be a panic button so we can send our security team if needed. You'll be perfectly safe. They'll be caught."

Nathan was impressed. "That's great. That's exactly what is needed."

Lonnie Walton spoke next. "Tango, you have done an amazing job. For a place this size, that can't have been easy."

"We've all done it. I've worked nowhere like this, where everyone works together for a common goal. It's been encouraging."

Sel saw something in that meeting. The easy way all the men had with one another, though some had never met before that day.

There was laughter, agreement, pats on the back, and when it disbanded, most were meeting after for drinks and more conversation.

Marius and Ruben stayed in their home with Sel after Sel sent Dante away with Bruno. Bennie stayed outside on the porch at Dante's insistence. Ruben commented on that with a little laughter, "He's your babysitter?"

"Unfortunately, yeah," Sel groaned. "At least until that guy is caught, and probably after."

Ruben whispered to him while he pointed his thumb behind him, "I've got one, too."

"At least yours is hot," he whispered back.

"True. Sorry."

Marius came to them and pressed a hand on each of their shoulders. "You two will get used to the security. It's done out of love."

Sel brushed off the hand and quipped, "Oh, I know. I came here for more freedom, not less."

"You came to a place that just hosted a serial killer. What did you expect, Selestino?"

"That name is so cool," Ruben said, and Sel knew it was more of a way to change the subject than a compliment. He appreciated it more. "Where did you get it?"

As Ruben started for the kitchen, they both followed him, and Ruben started pulling out hamburger and vegetables.

"Well, my dad's name is Antonio, and my mom is Selena. I became Selestino, kind of like a junior for my mom and my sister is Antonia, for my dad. My youngest brother is Cesar, after my grandfather."

"Family names. What is it with Italians and Hispanics?" Ruben asked, before pointing to himself, "My great grandfather, Ruben Ortiz. My middle name is Running Bear, after my other grandfather. His Creek name anyway."

Marius chuckled and added, "Marius, for my favorite uncle, who is Barry's father. Barry's name comes from Dex's dad, and Dex came from his mother's brother."

Sel laughed and pulled the vegetables over to him with the knife and cutting board. "I'll help, if you'll let me eat here. I need a break from the family stuff, if you don't mind."

"Already?"

"It's not them, per se," Sel started, searching for the right way to phrase it. "I'm just always with family when I'm not at school."

Marius laughed and empathized. "I have so many cousins, uncles, distant cousins, and aunties. I felt like that in Ohio."

Ruben chided them both as he started making hamburger patties. "All I really have is Bonita. My sis and me always had each other, even when we didn't have anyone else. I guess I'm jealous of you guys."

"You have a grandfather in New Mexico. I hear you chattering away with him."

"He's been in a wheelchair for like thirty years, so he couldn't ever take custody of us. My parents were in and out of our lives. I love my mom, but she had issues, you know."

"I know, baby," Marius said.

The way they gazed at one another left Sel wanting. He'd wanted a guy for as long as he could remember, and had plenty, of course. But not one that ever looked at him like Marius looked at Ruben in that moment.

"You eat meat, right?" Ruben asked Sel.

"With my family? I think I'd be disinherited if I stopped eating meat."

"Mine too," Marius agreed.

"Where's your other guy, and don't you have, like fifty people staying here with you?"

Ruben growled, "I'm so sick of it. I don't mind the guys, but some are such slobs."

Sel could imagine. He'd gone to safe houses with his father after they'd been abandoned, and the stench was amazingly horrible. "Who all do you guys have here?"

"Three in the basement on cots, two each in the two spare bedrooms and two or three that crash either here in the living room or at the bunkhouse. It's mostly the bikers now. Some are really nice," Ruben said as Sel cut the last bit of tomato.

"Broil them, Ruben. They're better that way."

"I thought you were going to grill," Ruben said with his lashes fluttering.

"I never said that."

"But you will, right? Because you are so good at the grill."

Marius laughed and got up, taking the plate of raw burgers from him. "If you wanted to get rid of me, you could have just said so."

"I'm trying to get rid of you and not to have to turn on the oven. It's hot enough in here."

After the backdoor closed, Sel watched Ruben lean over the counter. "Okay, now that he's gone, what is it with you and Indio?"

"What do you mean? The guy hates me."

"I don't think he does. He was asking Marius about you last night. I…may have overheard this, so don't snitch on me."

Sel promised, "Never. In my family, a rat is a terrible thing."

Ruben giggled. It was pretty adorable. "So…do you like him?"

"Is this junior high? I just told you I think he hates me."

Ruben groaned, "God, why don't men ever know when they're being hit on?"

"Hit on? That is hitting on me? He barely speaks to me, and when he does, it's with as much total disdain as he can manage."

"Oh, please. You should have seen Dallas and Marius when they first met. You'd have thought they were going to kill each other. They were fighting over me until I had to…suggest that we'd all be better together."

"You schemer. You got them to stop fighting?"

"Sure! It wasn't hard once, you know, they got hard."

Sel laughed with him. "I like the way you think, but I also think you're way off with Indio."

"He's fire, Sel. Totally and completely hot."

"I haven't noticed," he lied.

Ruben didn't believe it. "If Marius and Dallas wouldn't have my ass in a sling for a month, literally, I'd drool over him right in front of everyone."

Knowing he'd noticed, he shook his head, admitting a small bit of it. "He's not ugly, no, but for all I know, he's straight."

"He's not straight. He's got a tattoo with a guy's name on it in a heart. When I asked him about it, he said it was a very old tattoo for a very old mistake."

That made a lot of difference, and Ruben knew it, judging by the sly smile that had curved his full, lovely lips.

Admitting he had an attraction was one thing. "He's hot, fine, but he's also a prick."

"A big prick. At least he has one."

Sel's jaw dropped even as his mind ran wild with implications. "How do you know?"

"He lives here! He's one of those that like to walk around naked, or almost naked when he wakes up. I've seen more cock here at my house than I'll likely see in that club when it opens!"

Cringing a little at the thought of seeing some of those guys naked, Sel said, "Ew."

"It's not all bad, but Dallas sure gets all squirrely about it. If he catches me looking, I get…well, never mind."

Sel knew then that Ruben was for sure submissive to the two men, which didn't fit his personality at all. "You like that stuff?"

"Stuff?" he asked innocently, but Sel saw the gleam in his eyes.

"Don't make me beg."

"Okay," he sighed, then went to the back door to check on Marius. "Good, he just started putting the burgers on." When he sat on the stool next to Sel, he whispered hurriedly, "I played rough in the past, but with Dallas and Marius, it's…different. Dallas is all Dom, Marius too, but he's actually submissive to Dallas sometimes, and…it's all so sexy. I can't ride a horse three days out of every damn week, but it's so worth it."

Sel could imagine. "I haven't gotten to explore much like that. I can't get into most of the clubs, and then there's the huge bodyguards that are hanging around me all the time. They keep the more serious guys away. Can you imagine Bennie coming in because I was getting spanked and screaming?"

"You? You're a submissive? Wow."

"Why?"

"I guess it makes sense. You aren't sure of your place in a lifestyle like that. You might figure out you're a Dom later on, maybe, or not."

"I could, sure."

"He's, uh, hot for you. I'd bet my left nut and my guys like me with both my nuts."

That made him laugh, sure, but it also had him thinking. "Ruben, even if you're right, do you think my uncle would let me be with some biker? My family? Man, I can't even imagine that. Not at all."

"You're, what? Twenty?"

"In less than a month I'll be twenty-two."

"God, you're so young. Still, though, you seem more mature than most guys I know."

Sel's memory sang through his mind. Selestino is older than his years…

"Where'd you go?"

"Just something my family always says about me. I'm the oldest kid, I'm smart, I never was into playing all crazy like my siblings."

"Well, maybe it's time you play, Sel. Maybe it's time you play."