“She’s doing great, hon.”
“I’d like to see her.”
“Maybe you should wait a bit,” Ryder said.
“No, I want to see her,” Scottie insisted.
Ryder stiffened. “You’re still healing, Scottie. I think you should wait.”
I squeezed his hand and got a scowl for my efforts, but I didn’t back down. Scottie had been through trauma and she needed to make sure Molly was okay. “Ryder,” I whispered.
“I want to see her,” Scottie insisted, ignoring her brother.
Andi smiled, patting her arm. “I’ll bring her down in a little bit.”
Scottie relaxed against the pillows again. “Thank you.”
“I’m just going to borrow your brother for a minute,” I said as I stood.
Ryder shook his head. “I don’t want to leave her.”
“We’ll be right outside,” I insisted, and tugged on his hand.
He reluctantly followed me into the hall, scowling as I faced him. “Wipe it,” I demanded.
“What?”
“That churlish look off your face. Wipe it.”
“Sadie,” he snapped, dragging a hand over his beard.
“No. You’re being a jerk. Stop it. Your sister has endured horrific trauma and—”
“One she brought on herself,” he said, ungraciously.
I let out a quiet hiss. “Wow.”
“Shit! Saying it out loud makes me sound like a dick.”
“Well, you’re right about that.”
“I don’t know how to do this,” he rasped. “I don’t know how to watch her tiny, beaten, and bruised body lie in a bed two sizes too big while people poke and prod her. I don’t know how to help her with the inevitable emotional pain that’s gonna come because she lost a baby, especially when I’m happy about it. God, Sadie, she was raped repeatedly and got fuckin’ pregnant! How the hell do you come back from that?”
“You love her.”
He shook his head. “If she’d just listened to me—”
“Okay,” I interrupted, laying my palms against his chest and dropping my head back to catch his eye. “You need to start by stopping the blame game. You both made mistakes, but you need to learn from yours and move forward. She’ll have to do the same, but you have to love her now. Unconditionally. She needs you to support her, not judge her, and she will eventually need you to loosen the reins so she can be an adult, but for now, let’s start small.”
He slid his arms around my waist. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” I said. “You get to be you whenever you’re with me. That’s the deal. I don’t want the you that’s holding back. I want all of you, so never feel like you have to filter. I might be small, but I have strong shoulders and if it means Scottie gets the filtered you for now, I’m all in.”
Ryder grimaced. “I don’t know if I can do this alone.”
“Um, you’re not doing it alone.” I patted his chest. “I’m here.”
He relaxed, pulling me closer. “I forget that sometimes.”
I hugged him tightly. “When you do, I’ll remind you.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” I smiled up at him. “Now, let’s get back in there.”
He kissed me gently and then led me back into the room.
Sadie
THREE DAYS LATER, Scottie was up and moving around. She was on crutches, but for the most part, she was able to hobble a few feet at a time, which was what the doctors wanted her to do.
I spent much of my time talking Ryder down off ledges, but as Scottie improved, he relaxed a bit more. As much as Ryder could relax, that is. Cameron had “men” posted outside Scottie’s room twenty-four-seven, and the rest of the girls were on lockdown as well.
Molly was a bit of a worry. She had no family and had been in the foster care system for three years before she was taken from her bus stop. At least, that’s what her foster family said happened. Cameron had done some investigation and suspected her foster father had something to do with her kidnapping, so she was now back in the care of the state and Scottie was not happy with that fact... which instigated the current argument.
“You have to do something, Ryder,” she said.
“What can I do?” Ryder asked. “She’s not my kid.”
“Figure it out. She can’t go back into the system.”
“She’s already in the system,” he’d snapped.
“Then find out how to get her out,” she countered.
“Pain in the ass.”
“Okay,” I interjected. “This isn’t getting us anywhere.”
“I’m really tired,” Scottie whispered. “I’m going to sleep for a while. A long while.”
I squeezed her hand. “We’ll get out of your hair for a bit, huh?”
“I think we should stay,” Ryder countered. “Visiting hours aren’t over.”
“Sadie,” Scottie begged. “Take him away, please. For at least four hours. Make him take a nap.”
Ryder crossed his arms. “I don’t nap.”
“Yeah, he failed that part of kindergarten,” Scottie droned.
I smiled. “Four hours... we’ll be back at the beginning of the next visiting hour timeslot.”
“Thank you,” she whispered as she gave me a grateful smile.
I dragged Ryder out of her room and to the rental car.
“I don’t know what she expects me to do,” Ryder snapped as we drove to the hotel. “I’m supposed to be protecting her and she wants me gone. And then there’s the Molly situation. What the hell am I supposed to do about her?”
“I have an idea.” I pulled out my phone and called my aunt. Within minutes, Auntie had agreed to see if she could get permission to bring Molly across state lines. I hung up and grinned at Ryder as we sat in the parking lot of the hotel.
“What made you think of that?” he asked.
“She’s a licensed foster parent. If they want to try to find Molly’s relatives, Auntie could offer her a safe place to land for a while at least. Then Scottie would be close.”
“You’re a genius.” He stroked my cheek, tugging me forward to kiss me.
I grinned against his lips. “You’re easy to please.”
He rolled his eyes. “You’re the only one on the planet who thinks so.”
I couldn’t stop a giggle. “Maybe so.”
“You hungry or tired?”
“Honestly? Both.”
“Food then nap.”
“Food then swim then nap?” I countered.
“I can work with that.”
“See?” I said. “Easy.”
He chuckled and led me up to our rooms. Savannah was experiencing record temperatures and there were strict visiting hours at the hospital, leaving us pockets of time with nothing to do. Since the hotel had a great pool and hot tub, we bought swimsuits the day after we arrived.
Much to his objection, I’d chosen a tame, but very cute black one-piece. I tried on one bikini (because he’d picked it out and begged me to at least try it) and his eyes nearly bugged out of his head, so I figured that was just borrowing trouble. It’s not that he didn’t push me into the dressing room and kiss me senseless after showing him the one piece, but the bikini elicited a different expression from him and it not only turned me on, but made me a little nervous as well.
I wanted him with a desire I’d never experienced, and I knew that if we didn’t both exercise some self-control, it would be very easy one night to forget everything I believed in.
“You ready?” he asked, knocking on the connecting door of my room.
I pulled it open with a grin. “Yep.”
I swallowed, taking in all of his beauty. He wore a pair of what he called board shorts. They were black with a cargo pocket on the right leg, and they sat low on his hips and skimmed his knees, but his bare chest was something remarkable to behold. Obviously, God took a little extra time when carving him out of stone.
“Babe?”
I
blinked up at him... hard to do when I wanted to continue to stare at his body... and maybe lick him.
Holy mother of—yes, failed nun indeed.
“You keep staring at me like that and we’re gonna skip the pool,” he warned.
“Sorry,” I said with a groan. “I knew you’d be gorgeous, but I wasn’t expecting perfect.”
His mouth slammed against mine and I was guided back onto the bed and stretched out on the mattress. His lips never left mine as he pulled me close, the only material between us very thin lycra.
“Shit!” he hissed, breaking the kiss and falling onto his back. I bit my lip and slid off the bed, standing next to it as Ryder pulled himself together.
He sat up and ran his hands down his face. “I’m sorry, Sadie.”
“Why?”
“Because I just accosted you, which I promised I wouldn’t do.”
“You didn’t really accost me,” I countered. “I was kind of a willing participant.”
“Yeah, I picked up on that.” He gave a defeated chuckle. “Let’s get down to the pool. I obviously need to cool down.”
“Not just you.”
He climbed off the bed and kissed me again, this time a lot tamer than before. “You might kill me, you know.”
“Please don’t be mad.”
“I’m not mad, baby.” He ran his thumb along my lower lip. “Just want more and that’s frustrating. But I’m not going anywhere, yeah?”
I nodded. “Me neither.”
“Good.”
“And, FYI, I want more too.”
“I know, baby.” He smiled, took my hand, and led me down to the pool.
* * *
One week later, Scottie was cleared to travel home. She, however, refused to leave without Molly, but Auntie hadn’t gotten approval from the foster system to take her, so I was doing my best to keep Ryder from blowing his stack while Scottie dug her heels in.
“I’m going to kill her,” Ryder said as he paced his hotel room. Visiting hours were over and we were back at the hotel packing and sorting out flights. “She is the most stubborn—”
“Okay, I think maybe you need to take a minute,” I suggested.
“I don’t have time for this shit.”
“I get it, but Scottie’s worried about her friend. If the tables were turned, you’d do the same thing.”
“I really don’t need you to point out the similarities between myself and my sister right now, Sadie.”
I stifled a smile and went back to my sorting.
“What did your aunt say?” he asked.
“She hasn’t called back.” I checked my phone. Still nothing. “It takes time, honey, you know this. It’s the government, after all.”
He swore, dragging his hands down his face. “I’m done. She’s getting on the plane tomorrow, even if I have to drug her and drag her on unconscious.”
I closed the distance between us, linking our fingers together (mostly to keep him from punching a wall), and smiled up at him. “I understand you’re frustrated, and I totally get that this is because you love your sister and want her close so you can protect her, but—” He scoffed, but I wouldn’t be deterred. “But she’s been through a trauma... one that hasn’t fully hit her yet, but it will, and when it does, you are going to have to be patient and sweet, and let her freak out without reacting... at least not in front of her. So, until she can get into some intensive counseling, you need to speak your patience out loud. Fake it ’til you make it, if you have to.”
“Sadie,” he said with a groan.
“She’s smart, Ryder. Like you. So, she’s picking up on your irritation, and she’s pushing back because she needs to be in control of something. She’s spent the last couple of months being raped—”
His hiss was almost as violent as a fist slamming into a wall.
“You need to hear the word, Ryder, because she needs you to wrap her in your big strong arms and hold her like a child... not threaten to drug her in order to get her to do your bidding.”
“I wasn’t going to let her hear it, Sadie.”
“But she’s picking up on it and whether she’s willing to admit it or not, it’s scaring her.”
“I have to get back to the bar or I’ll have nowhere to take her home to.”
I rolled my eyes. “Business is so bad you can’t take a week off without it crashing to the ground enough to lose your home and everything else?”
“Damn it, Sadie, I’d rather you not be logical right now.”
“Everything’s going to work out the way it’s supposed to work out, Ryder, so relax a bit, okay?” I rose up on my tiptoes and kissed him gently. “We’ll be home before you know it and you can get to the business of getting Scottie happy and healthy.”
“What about you?”
“What about me?”
“I want to make you happy too,” he said.
“It’s not your job to make me happy, but you do, almost without trying.” I smiled. “Focus on your sister. I’m good.”
He stroked his beard. “So, you’re saying I don’t have to try?”
I giggled. “That’s what you took from that?”
“I may have inferred a bit.”
“Hm-mmm, just a bit.”
Ryder’s phone sounded from his room and he left me to answer it. When he didn’t come back for several minutes, I went looking for him. He sat on his bed his head dropped in one hand, his body rigid. “When? Yeah? Shit, Reese, you check the video? Damn it! Yeah, okay. We should be back tomorrow. I’ll talk to Cameron and see if he can figure somethin’ out. Yeah. Okay. I’ll text you the flight number when I have it. ’Bye.” He hung up and shook his head.
“You okay?” I asked, trying to giving him space, but concerned enough not to give him too much.
“No, baby, I’m not.”
I stepped into his room and over to him, sliding between his legs. “Tell me.”
He sighed and wrapped his arms around me. “Girls are goin’ missin’ from the club and FBI’s pokin’ around.”
“Missing how?”
“Last seen at the Frog,” he said. “Missing persons filed on almost all of them... a couple though... no one’s lookin’ for ’em. Reese checked the video footage and they were all there.”
“How many?”
“Six so far.”
I gasped. “All last seen at your bar?”
He nodded. “Another one disappeared Friday night. Also last seen at the Frog.”
“That’s awful.”
“FBI thought I knew something. At least, they did until I came here, and two have gone missing since I left.”
“Ryder,” I said with a groan, stroking the back of his neck. “How could they possibly think you’d know anything?”
“They’re coverin’ all their bases, baby. I don’t blame ’em for that. They have a job to do.”
“I suppose I get it.” I frowned. “I just can’t imagine anyone looking at you, especially knowing what’s going on with your sister.”
He shrugged. “Well, they are.”
“If you have to get back, I can stay here until we find out about Molly.”
“No.” He squeezed my hips.
“Why not?”
“Because you’re with me. Period.”
Before I could argue, my phone sounded, and I pulled away to rush to my room. “Hello?”
“Hi, sweetheart.”
“Auntie. Hi. Do you have news?” I glanced up when Ryder walked into the room.
“Yes. Molly’s approved to come.”
I let out a sigh of relief. “I’m so glad. Thank you. For everything.”
“It’s no problem, sweetheart. Just let me know your flight information and we’ll go from there.”
“We’ll get the next available flight out,” I promised.
“Sounds good. I’ll talk to you soon.”
“Thank you.” She hung up and I smiled at Ryder. “It’s all set.”
He finally relaxed (somewhat) and gav
e me what I thought was a valiant effort at a smile. “Thanks, baby.”
“We’ll get home and Scottie and Molly will both be safe.”
He nodded.
“It’s going to be okay,” I promised.
“God, I hope so.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, He’s on it, honey.”
“Smartass.”
“Darn tootin’,” I retorted.
He kissed me and we spent the rest of the day prepping to take everyone home. By the time I fell into bed, I knew four a.m. would come entirely too early.
Sadie
RYDER, SCOTTIE, AND I had been home for about a week before Ryder finally started to act like a human being again. Molly had settled in beautifully and my aunt was hoping she could make the situation permanent. I was dying to cook in Ryder’s kitchen, so we planned a dinner party which would include my aunt, Molly, Scottie, Reese, and the two of us. I was learning quickly that whenever Ryder planned anything that didn’t include just the two of us, Reese attended. I didn’t know how I felt about it, but it wasn’t like I could tell Ryder who to be friends with.
The Saturday of our planned banquet, Scottie napped while I cooked, the house alarm engaged and a “guy” posted outside. I wasn’t entirely sure what that meant, but since I rarely saw him (his name was Marc, I think), I didn’t feel like he was intruding.
I had discovered a kindred spirit in Scottie. She was sweet and somewhat naive, despite her recent experiences, and she idolized her brother even when giving him grief. (Grief was my word; Ryder’s was something far more dramatic and not repeatable).
I was staring out Ryder’s large kitchen window, thinking about the events of late, when my phone rang, interrupting my task of peeling potatoes. It was Ryder. I answered and put it on speaker. “Hey, honey.”
“Hey, how’s the cooking coming?”
“Good. We’ll be ready to eat around six.”
“Room for one more?”
I glanced at the bag of potatoes. “Ah, sure.”
“Thanks, baby.”
I wiped the back of my hand over my forehead. “You are still going to be home in an hour, right?”
“About that...”
My heart sank as I swept my gaze around the disaster previously resembling a gourmet kitchen. “Oh my word, Ryder.” I dropped a potato into the bucket. “You promised.”
Ryder (Sinners and Saints, #1) Page 12
