Confessions
WARNING: There will be some discussions regarding sexual assault, especially involving a minor in this chapter. You've been warned.
"What are you doing here?" Ruby said.
"I've been looking all over for you," Jack said.
"Jack, I would love to catch up, but I'm meeting someone here," Ruby said.
"You're looking right at him," Jack said.
"What?" Ruby knew that she had been had. Although Wireboy was late in informing Jack of this meeting, Jack figured that the person who helped out was on their way out of there. Jack looked up and saw a man walk by and nod at him. All it took was Hector Cruz to inform Jack that Ruby was meeting someone at this bar. It could have gone better, but Jack had found her at last.
"You are about to be in some serious shit if you don't tell me what's going on," Jack said.
"That's my Jack, treating women to the finer things in life," Ruby said. The sarcasm in her voice threw Jack for a loop.
"This isn't a fucking game, Ruby," Jack said. "I don't want to talk about this here. Let's go somewhere to talk in private."
"Talk in private? Is that what you call it now?" Ruby said.
"I'm not kidding, Ruby, because from what I hear, you got involved with some shady people, and if you fuck them over, you're going to be in deeper shit than you are in now."
The expression on Ruby's altered at that moment, from a mild smirk to a look of concern. First she was sarcastic with Jack, but when he mentioned that other part, any attempt at lying to save face went to a screeching halt.
"Come on, get your ass up, follow me," Jack said.
Ruby said nothing. What Jack said hit her as hard as a punch to the stomach. Jack knew as well as Ruby that their past relationship was mainly for fun and based on sex. The two had engaged in sexual exploits often when they were seeing each other. Neither of them were serious about it, despite having some feelings for one another.
Eve was now long gone. It was now just Jack and Ruby. Jack went into the driver's seat, while Ruby went and got into the passenger's seat.
"What is it you really want, Jack?" Ruby said. "Didn't you read that note I left you after we fucked last time?"
"Yeah, I read it," Jack said with touch of anger in his voice.
"Look, Jack, just admit it, you want me back, but face it, it's not gonna happen," Ruby said. "You were sweet but you don't want me. I have been struggling my entire life. I can't find real work or have real skills to make it, you actually think I could live on a cop's salary, sitting by the phone every night waiting for that call from the captain telling me I'm on my own again? Please."
Jack wanted to laugh, but the seriousness of this situation stopped him from doing so.
"You think that this is what it's all about?" Jack said. "You think I want you back? You're wrong. In fact you're wrong about everything. I may not be a cop anymore, but I'm still 'cop enough' to know a setup when I see one, as well as things not being what they seem. Tell me something, when did you start getting involved in human-trafficking? I know you were involved in kidnapping Hildy for Fahook's white slavery trade."
Ruby's eyes widened. "Wait, what?"
If Ruby was better at lying and/or covering up things, she would deny it, but it was clear that she wasn't when Jack mentioned Fahook and Hildy.
Jack said, "Hildy told me everything, how you talked down to her and then suddenly you had a change of heart. That's some crazy shit, Ruby. Shit, you fuck over someone like Fahook, you better hope he doesn't find you."
Jack paused and then continued to speak. "I found a lot of things that proves you have been around. Something tells you weren't being straight with me when you told me about what happened with Boris Volkoff. I saw you with him, his brother, and Rafshoon Diggs at Dock 765 the other night. I found a message on John Sanderville's answering machine that said you were supposed to deliver something to him that same night. What are you really up to, Ruby? If you're going to try to feed me some bullshit, just remember that I busted your ass that one night I caught you robbing some place. That's how you became my informant, remember?"
Ruby glared at Jack. She knew he was right.
"You just don't get it, do you, Jack?" Ruby said. "I have struggled my entire life. Do you want to know why I have been doing all this shit? I never finished high school. I was labeled the school slut after some guy said he had sex with me, then some guys raped me in the boys locker room. The school didn't do shit as they swept it under the rug because one of those guys had powerful parents. My mom's asshole drunk boyfriend abused both of us. He beat my mom and then she got caught up in drinking and doing drugs. But me? The guy not only beat me as well, but then he started touching me, like I was a… piece of meat."
Ruby shook a bit when she said that. "As soon as I started developing more, he would…grope me. My ass, my tits, and… well you know what I mean. He also snuck into my room while I was sleeping…" She paused, but Jack knew where she was going with this. "I couldn't do anything. My mom didn't do shit because her boyfriend would beat her up and threatened to kill her if she tried calling the cops on him. He beat me up, too. That asshole that lied about fucking me, it only led to me actually becoming the school slut, but shit got worse that it led me to dropping out. I was only 16, Jack! Fucking 16! I couldn't take it anymore. So what did I do? Well, because Ruby Morgan was known for being easy, it was either fuck guys for money or do whatever it takes to survive, like stealing from people and shit."
"Hence, why you got caught up in this mess," Jack said.
"I didn't know what to do, Jack," Ruby said. "The only other option was to become a stripper, which I did. What was there out there for a high school dropout who was thought of as a piece of ass. There wasn't a lot for me to do out there."
Jack looked at Ruby with an expression of shock and concern. Everything started to make sense now about her life up to that point. Ruby dropped out of high school, and because she had no skills out there, she had no choice but to resort to a life of crime, as well as become a sex worker.
Ruby said, "Look, Jack, you were the only good guy I ever knew. You actually treated me well, unlike all the guys I've ever met, who only wanted to fuck me. The stuff in that note that I said, I didn't lie about it. You're probably the guy I ever actually loved, and I've never been in love before."
"Then why did you take part in trying to sell out Hildy?" Jack said. "She also told me you let her go."
"She told you about that?" Ruby said.
"I was getting dipped into cold water while Fahook and his crew, as well as you, had some women lined up to be sold," Jack said. "If I had known, I would have come for her. So tell me what happened."
"Okay," Ruby said and took a deep breath. "It wasn't my idea to kidnap her and to sell her out. It was Boris and Dimitri, along with Rafshoon. I had been trying to make some money from Fahook to help me get out of here. From what I had heard, Boris and Dimitri had been going by The Den of Iniquity, along with Rafshoon going to The Oar House, that restaurant Hildy works at, they thought she would be good for Fahook's business. Hector Cruz wanted her to be a part of his movies."
"Is that really all?" Jack said. "If Hildy was being kidnapped for Fahook's operation, it would be more than just being a part of some porno movies and shit. He would likely auction her off as a sex slave. Also, I saw you have quite a resume with Cruz. Yeah, I saw some posters with your face on them."
"Oh my god, you did?" Ruby said and put her head down and covered her face. "I know that Hildy didn't like me, but I couldn't let them do that to her. You want to know what I said to her before I let her go? I told her that she deserves you more than I ever will."
"So you didn't want to sell her out? Then why did she tell me that you talked shit to her before you let her go?" Jack said.
"I couldn't let Fahook or the others see that I thought that everything was wrong about selling out those poor women, especially that girl who was crying," Ruby said. "I can't believe one of the twins shot one of those women."
"Wait, did you just mention 'twins'?" Jack said.
"Yeah, these girls with really short hair and looked pale, like they haven't had much sun in a while," Ruby said. "I think one of them is called 'Mee-shaka' or something. They creep me out. One of them killed that poor woman in cold blood."
While Jack pitied Ruby at this moment, as well as wanted to help her, there was one other thing that contradicted the feeling he had.
"I would feel bad for you, if I didn't find a tape that suggested that you were going to give something to John Sanderville."
"Wait, what are you talking about?"
Jack had busted out a tape recorder and played the tape that had the message he left Sanderville a few nights ago.
"So what actually is your plan here, Ruby?" Jack said. "I appreciate that you didn't want to hurt Hildy or sell her out, and I pitied you for your terrible life, but if you're looking to fuck over Fahook, you better hope that your plan works and that he doesn't find you. Listen to me when I say this, because I am only going to say this once – I don't want you back, not even close, but that doesn't mean that I don't care. In fact, I don't want to see you get hurt. I understand you lived a terrible life. You're 23, it's not too late to change your life. You could try reaching out to your mother. She might not be with that abusive asshole anymore. "
Ruby sat there in the passenger's seat silently. She turned to look out the windshield and then to the floor. Ruby had not seen or talked to her mother in years. Despite what happened when she was a teenager, she and her mother didn't have a bad relationship, but things changed when she started dating that abusive man.
"Okay, I found that Fahook had been working with the mayor on some kind of operation involving gold. I don't know too much about it, but I had found out that one of Sanderville's guys was working with Fahook now. Sanderville wondered why he was kept out of the loop. He wanted a piece of the action, so I called him to show what had been going on. I volunteered to give him what he wanted and he said that he would pay me."
Jack had already known about Mayor Pinnacle's working relationship with Fahook, as well as known that Sanderville's operation was declining, but this was beyond anything Ruby had been involved in.
"Shit, Ruby, I don't know what to say. You tried to steal from Fahook?"
"I don't think he knows anything about this."
Perhaps, but you also let those other women go. I'm not sure where you will go from here, but it's not too late for you to turn your life around. You could get your G.E.D., make peace with everything that's happened, and also reunite with your mom."
Ruby sighed. "I guess so, but what about you?"
"What about me?" Jack said.
"I should have said something earlier, but why are you getting involved in all of this?" Ruby said. "I saw you at the docks the other night. Shadow was with you, and that one girl assassin was helping you out. Yeah, I recognized her from the other night. You look like you had been shot, like you needed to go to the hospital."
"That's none of your business," Jack said.
"Oh yeah? Then why did Fahook have his bodyguards torture you?" Ruby said. "What were you doing there the other night? You could have been killed, both times you were there!"
"It's a long story, but I'm just trying to finish what my dad had started before he was killed," Jack said.
"Well, whatever it is, Jack, and I'm saying this because even though we are wrong for one another, I still care about you. You could have been dead by now if you weren't so lucky. Are you really trying to finish what your dad started? Or do you just want to die?"
What Ruby had just said, Jack knew she was right. It was the same thing that Hildy had told him. Jack had told Hildy that he had nothing to lose, but Hildy told him otherwise. Even though Jack and Hildy weren't an item and hadn't been in about a decade, the mutual feelings from both parties were still there. Hildy also knew Jack's father, and Jack had remembered how he grieved that he shut himself out from everybody. But Hildy came to his apartment to check in with him, despite how he felt at that moment. What did Jack really want?
On top of that, had it not been for Eve, Jack would have been killed by Longshoreman X that one night. He also could have been killed when he was tortured by dipping him in the water, as well as could have been shot by Fahook's mercenaries.
"Let me help you, Ruby," Jack said.
"No," Ruby said.
"Listen, do you have any idea what could happen? Fahook could probably have some of his men find you," Jack said.
"I'll find a way, I have always found a way," Ruby said. "I've been on my own since I was 16. I have made it this far."
But Jack knew that this was something bigger.
"Besides," Ruby said. "I'm sure Hildy might be worried about you. You don't want to deal with someone like me. Go with Hildy or that killer girl." Ruby then opened the door and exited the car as Jack watched her leave.
If Ruby thinks that her surviving the past seven years is the key to surviving Fahook Ubduhl's wrath, then she really hasn't dealt with bigger criminals like Fahook. I couldn't let her become like a lamb left to slaughter if Fahook will find her. She will meet her final curtain soon enough. Jack thought.
Jack sat there. He thought about everything he had been told that night. What Eve had told him, what Ruby had told him, and from before, what Hildy had told him. He knew that deep down that maybe these suicide missions he had been on were a sign that maybe deep down he wanted to die. Both of his parents were dead. First his mother, Dolores Slate, and then later, his father, Frank Slate.
But his mission wasn't done yet. His main motivation was finding out who his father's killer was. He got caught up in more things than he ever thought. Jack remembered that it was William Pinnacle's construction company that worked on the subway project on the night of his father's death. He also knew that Pinnacle was corrupt as well, as he remembered the discussion with Gloria Exner. Could Pinnacle have had his father killed? It couldn't have been Fahook because why would he go after Frank, especially if Fahook kept himself private?
There were two people he needed to call. While one of them would like to hear from him, the other was someone who was his primary contact with the city. He went and called the one person he needed to call. The call went through and a male voice said, "Hello?"
"Chris, you're up, this is Jack. Tell me something, can you think of a way to reach the mayor? I need to have a word with him soon."
Author's note: This will be commentary, especially on the primary plot point for this chapter. And yes, this was mainly a dialogue chapter.
I had wanted to touch on Ruby's backstory for quite some time now, but I just needed to find the right moment to make it happen. Like many of the characters in this story, I'm trying to give some characterization and touch on their backstories a bit as the games didn't really do so. Ruby was no exception.
Ruby is one of the very few characters from Dead to Rights II who is actually playing a role in this story. Yes, I may have included others but she is more prominent in this story than the others like Hector Cruz and Steve Houstown. I know I had Blanjov appear but he doesn't have a big role. All that was said about Ruby was that she was Jack's girlfriend in Dead to Rights II, but not a lot was talked about with her. Also, considering the behind-the-scenes stuff regarding the second game how it went from a direct sequel to prequel is confusing that I am not sure if she was originally supposed to be in that game, despite her model in the stripper bikini was shown in screenshots. Not sure if that was supposed to be her, but the plot of the original version of the sequel was then used for Dead to Rights: Reckoning, the PSP game. I didn't use many elements from that one, except for maybe the stuff with the senator.
I had planned for her backstory to be a bit dark and tragic, how she had been assaulted, dropping out of high school, leading to her promiscuity and the life she led. Some of the dialogue that I used was similar to Hildy's dialogue from the original game when she betrayed Jack, which was one part of the game that I disliked. But Jack didn't act like some teenage boy trying to win over the girl here, far from it. Hell, you could say that he had some similarities to the Retribution version, except he doesn't have a short temper like that version. I wrote him my way. Ruby is not out of the story just yet, by the way.
Also, Hildy and Eve will be back soon. I have plans on what will happen with them.
Next up, Jack will find a way to speak to the mayor. Stay tuned.