“The Servants won’t like this,” Shawn piped up from behind Ryder. “They were waiting for Nico. They want to make a move on the Cannelli territory. They were set for a takeover today. It’s what we promised them.”
Drake shrugged, like he didn’t care. “I’m in charge now and they can barter with me. I think they’ll find that I’m a much fairer man than my brother was, but then again, that wouldn’t be hard to be better than he was, considering he was a fucking sack of shit. I’m actually going to need a few friends in the future, since my sister was promised to Marcello and he’s going to be pissed when he finds out what happened here today. In fact, I know of more than a few people who aren’t going to like that I took Nico out.”
“I bet you know of more than a few who are going to be happy as fuck about it too,” Shawn yelled down, completely obnoxious.
Ryder wanted to elbow the fucker in the stomach, but he didn’t move. He kept his guns trained on Drake. One wrong move and the kid would be riddled with bullets himself. Not that he was a kid anymore.
“Where’s Laura?” Ryder asked. She was all he cared about. He knew she was still alive and it looked like he had Drake to thank for saving her. That alone stayed his hand.
“She’s safe,” Drake promised. His face gave nothing away, but Ryder could also see he was sincere. “She fainted and hasn’t come round yet. I took her up to her room and tucked her into her bed. You’re actually not far from it. It’s just down the hall.”
“What the fuck?” Shawn muttered under his breath.
“Nico beat her up pretty good before he sent his man on her. Don’t worry. Nothing happened. I’d never let that piece of shit touch my sister. Nico was pissed. He knew about you and Laura. He has eyes and ears everywhere. Odd thing was, it was enough of a distraction. He didn’t know about the plan with the Servants. He would have walked right into it if I’d let them live.”
Ryder tensed as Drake made a move towards the stairs. He kept his hands raised.
“I’d stay down there if I was you,” Shawn advised. He had his own gun trained right on Drake’s forehead.
“I’m just coming up to help you get my sister. I want you to take her away from all of this. I never thought she’d actually have the balls to find someone who would take care of her, knowing who she was. Never thought she’d defy Nico like that. She’s lived her whole life in this fucking house, in this family, in this shit lifestyle. I want something better for her. I meant what I said. I want her to be free of this. I can’t. I can’t be free. I’ll never be free. I’m a man, so it’s different. I’ve killed my own brother. This house, this family, the Cannelli men and supplies are mine. I never wanted it, but I always knew Nico wouldn’t last and that one day, I’d have to step in and get involved. I didn’t think it would come so soon.”
“I’m sure,” Shawn muttered under his breath.
“Just- just tell me which room is Laura’s.” Ryder indicated Drake. “Keep your gun on him.”
“Will do.” Shawn whistled a low, happy tune. “With pleasure.”
“First door on the left.” Drake pointed slowly in the other direction. “Take her and leave Philly. Don’t fucking come back. Take her as far from here as you can. Change her name. Change her fucking hair color. Just go away and disappear. It will break her heart, but tell her it’s the way it has to be. Tell her that she can never, under any circumstance, have any contact with me again.”
“I’ll protect her,” Ryder promised. “With my fucking life.”
“I know.” Drake nodded. His face still gave nothing away. It was fucking creepy. He had the same control that Nico probably had over his features. Ryder might be tough, but he couldn’t quite manage to keep his features entirely emotionless like the Cannelli men had mastered. “It’s the only reason I let you come in here alive. I knew you’d come for her when Nico didn’t show. I knew you’d come to take her away. You don’t even know her and she has no idea who you really are, but I know that for some reason she trusts you and that she deserves to be happy. She deserves to know love. You give her that, or I’ll come for you. Don’t doubt my reach.”
“I wouldn’t doubt it for a second.” Ryder had no idea if he was capable of love. He’d had a fucked up childhood. He’d never really known a day of proper love in his life, but if it was possible with anyone, it was Laura. He did know that he’d never hurt her. He’d treasure her, cherish her, give his life for her in a heartbeat.
Fuck. Is that love?
He had no fucking idea. He moved off before he could think about it any further.
He kicked open the door, though it wasn’t locked. The room was illuminated with the bright afternoon sunshine. The garish bruises and dried blood, the swelling on Laura’s face, took him aback. He let out a roar of pain. She was so still in that bed, so quiet, so lifeless.
Ryder didn’t hold back. He ran over to the bed. Holstering his weapons under his jacket, he picked Laura up with infinite care. He let out a hard exhale when he felt her breath, steady and strong, against the skin of his neck when he lifted her to his chest.
No wonder Drake had killed his brother. Fucking Nico. How could her own brother have done this to her? He was a monster whose death had been far too easy and not nearly violent enough.
Ryder wasn’t sure what Drake planned to do with the body, but he hoped that it was desecrated and thrown into an unmarked grave somewhere. Nico was a piece of shit who didn’t deserve an honorable burial. He didn’t deserve to be remembered at all.
Shawn’s brow lifted when Ryder appeared at his side, Laura cradled in his arms. She was so limp, but even as a dead-weight, she was light, far, far too light. She was so delicate, so fragile, yet so, so strong. She had no idea how strong she was.
“Did she see it?” Ryder asked as he started down the steps. Drake kept his hands were he and Shawn could both see them.
His brow finally creased into a frown. “No. I don’t think so. I think she was already blacked out when I shot Nico’s man. She was slumped over the desk, but no. I don’t think she saw it.”
“Good.” Ryder nodded once. He slows his downward descent, Shawn at his side, weapons still at the ready, when he reached Drake.
Laura’s brother reached out with a trembling hand. It hovered over her bruised forehead, but then he retracted it, tucking it back to his side like he couldn’t bear to soil it with the blood on his hands. Ryder knew he was no better. He had nothing to offer Laura. Up until the time he met her, he didn’t even think he had anything left of a heart or a soul. He had just as much blood on his hands as Drake did. He wasn’t the right man for the job, but he had to be. He’d learn. Change. Become something better. Be better. For Laura.
Because she deserved it. She deserved it more than anything or anyone.
“Take care of her,” Drake said softly and this time, his voice carried all the pain and heaviness in the world.
“I will. I swear it.”
Drake nodded slowly. He turned to the side and let them pass.
Ryder stormed down the stairs, eager to be out of the house, out of that place of death and nightmares. The place that had been Laura’s prison for so very long.
When he burst through the front door and into the sunshine, he filled his lungs with air. Shawn followed at his back, his gun still trained on the house. He slammed the front door shut with a bang behind them.
“You going to ride with her?”
“Yeah.” Ryder nodded. “She’s not heavy. I’ll seat her and lean her up against my chest. I’ll have my arms around her the whole time.” There was no way he was ever taking them from her. He’d shield her, protect her, hold her, keep her safe with everything he had.
For the rest of his fucking life.
He was hers and she was his.
And that was the end of it.
He leaned down and even though Laura wasn’t awake, he brushed a strand of hair away from her bruised, bloodied face. The rage that he felt dissipated just a fraction. That was the past.
What was done to her, that was over. He’d protect her now. Keep her safe. Try his damned best to be the kind of man that she deserved, if she wanted him.
“You’re safe now. I’m not going to let anyone hurt you. Ever. Again.”
Maybe it was his imagination that her eyelids fluttered. Ryder didn’t know. He wrapped one arm around Laura, secured her right where she belonged, started his bike and roared off. Heading towards a better life and a future that neither of them had ever known before.
Epilogue
LAURA
“So this is what being a regular person feels like.” Laura gave Ryder a soft, private smile. She’d had plenty of months to perfect it while they came up with a game plan for the start of the rest of their lives.
After fleeing Philly, they went South, down to California. They hid out in San Jose for a few months, until Jim took care of the shelter. He passed on ownership to a non-profit group who would keep it running in his absence. He joined them a month later with another special addition to their lives.
Ryder’s mother.
The facility Ryder had placed her in specialized in trauma. Through months of intense therapy, almost as a miracle, she’d finally come out of her trauma induced shell.
The day she’d walked through the front door of the tiny little condo they were renting, Jim at her side, was one of the happiest Laura could remember. It made her heart swell with love and pride to watch the amazement, astonishment, joy, and love in Ryder’s eyes when he saw his brother and mother again.
They were finally together, a real family.
A real family for the first time in their lives. Not one of them had a regular life. Their lives were riddled with fear and trauma, with destruction and death, heartache, sorrow, and pain, yet they’d come through the other side.
They were alive. They were healthy. They’d survived. The demons were still there, memories that haunted them, hovered on the fringes and in the background, in the blackest parts of their hearts, but they were strong enough to beat them. The passing of time really did heal all wounds.
When Laura woke up, she was in the shelter, Jim’s shelter, with almost no memory of what happened. She remembered Nico being in a rage, him hurting her, and that was it. Ryder told her everything. It broke her heart to learn what her brother had done. For her. For him. Even for Ryder. She was shattered to learn that she’d likely never see her brother again and could only hope that he’d somehow find happiness in the future, or at least, find a semblance of the peace they’d never known.
She was just as shocked when Ryder opened up his heart to her right after that and told her about his childhood. About how he’d been forced to kill his father to save him and his mother. About how Jim escaped early on. About everything.
Learning those things about him didn’t drive her away like he obviously feared. It didn’t make her afraid or disgusted and it didn’t make her love him any less. If anything, it made her love him more. He was the one person in the entire world that she felt could understand her. Could understand the world she’d come from and how she was raised. Could understand her pain and the lingering fear, the nightmares that still hadn’t been completely banished. He walked with her, hand in hand, through it all. He was her rock. He was her everything.
“Like living in the basement while your mom and brother take the better part of the condo?” Ryder smiled wryly. As he opened up and time went on, his smiles were freer, brighter, granted more and more often. Laura loved his smiles.
“That’s alright. I was happy to give up the top floor. It’s only going to be for a week anyway.”
“You think you’ll like Mexico?”
“Yes. Of course. We literally could go anywhere and we both decided that’s our paradise. Your mom will love it. Jim will love it. He’s already got his work lined up down there.”
“My brother really is a saint. I used to bug him about that, after how my dad was and all, thinking he was god, enacting justice and divine punishment on us, being a real prick about his god complex or whatever, but it’s true. Somehow all that shit he went through turned him into a good person. He lives to help others.”
“Yes. The shelter down there was happy to take him on.”
“My mom will be happy down there too. She looks so good.” Ryder’s smile turned wistful and his eyes shone. “Better than I’ve seen her in a long time. There’s life and light back in her eyes. She’ll love the ocean and the beaches and the warm weather. Detroit was always so fucking cold.”
“Mexico will feel like the other side of the world. That’s part of the reason we wanted to go there.”
“That and I can stretch what money I have a little further.”
“Don’t worry.” Laura ran a hand soothingly down his chest. “We have lots of money.”
“That’s your money,” Ryder protested.
Shortly after they’d arrived in San Jose, Laura received a package couriered to the house. It was just a brown envelope with the details of a bank account set up under her name. With two million dollars in it. She’d collapsed right there in the front yard, sobbing. Ryder came flying out of the house, murder in his eyes, ready to put a bullet in whatever threat was out there. She had to explain to him that it wasn’t a threat at all. Drake had given her the ability to have a fresh start and a new life.
“It’s our money,” she corrected softly. “You and me. It’s always going to be you and me.”
He raised a brow. Overhead, the condo was silent. It was late. Past one in the morning and Ryder’s mother and brother had gone to bed hours ago. The basement of the condo was finished, though the builder hadn’t spent a lot of time on the finer details. Laura didn’t mind. Any place she shared with Ryder was home. Their tiny condo with the marks on the walls from previous renters, the stains on the carpet that hadn’t washed out, the noisy neighbor to the right, it was more of a home, more prettier and safer and more wonderful than the Cannelli house had ever been.
Ryder glanced towards the only piece of furniture in the basement, the blow up air mattress. Their duffels, the few things they owned, were already packed. They were leaving in the morning. Ryder bought a truck shortly after arriving in San Jose. They were going to trailer his bike down to Mexico with them.
“You can open your own shop. Or find work. It’s up to you. We can literally do anything. The only thing that matters is that we’re all together now. Your mom and brother’s house is literally right beside ours. They might be small, but they’re perfect. We’re a family. A real family who cares about each other and loves each other. I’m so excited. I never, ever thought that I’d have this chance. Ever. We are both so, so blessed.”
“I know.” Ryder stepped behind her. “I never thought I’d be here. I was lost until I met you. You saved me, Laura.”
Her body flushed with excitement as Ryder’s hands dropped to her waist and he pulled her in against his chest. “That’s up for debate,” she whispered. She felt her face heat up. “As to who saved who.”
“I’m happy,” Ryder said softly right next to her ear. His breath tickled the nape of her neck and she shivered at the thrill of it. “Very, very happy. I never knew there could be actual, real happiness until you. You’ve given me everything. A world. A life. A way to start over and leave the past behind. My mom and Jim too. You brought us all together.”
“I can’t claim credit for all of it,” Laura laughed softly. Her body warmed at Ryder’s words. “They have their own paths. They chose to be with us, to come with us, to be a family. That was incredibly brave of them.”
“We’re all strong,” Ryder said, wonderment tinging his words. “I told you that once and you didn’t believe me, but you have to see it now.”
Her hands clasped his. “Of course.” She turned, angling in to him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and looked up into his handsome face. He looked so different now. His features hadn’t changed, but his eyes had. Those eyes that were once soulless dark voids were now overflowing with life and love
. He was radiant and it completely transformed him. “If you don’t find work or want to start your own shop or do something with bikes, whatever you want, you can always work at my flower shop.”
“Flowers,” Ryder scoffed. “Of all the things to pick.”
“Hey!” Laura feigned indignation. “We both know the world could use a little more beauty. There’s no shame in making bouquets all day. It’s in the middle of the town square. I’m sure people will buy them. And I’ll do potted things too. To make people’s yards pretty.”
“I love it,” Ryder confessed. “I’d do anything for you. Plant trees or shrubs or even make bouquets, if that’s what you want.”
“Your mom is excited to be a part of it. She told me this afternoon that she couldn’t think of a better idea.”
“I still can’t believe how well she’s doing. She’s speaking again. She’s- she’s like a brand new person.”
“She’s as strong as you.” Laura reached up and caressed Ryder’s cheek. She let her hand linger on his jaw and she turned his face down to her. “She survived for you and Jim. We’re going to be okay. All of us. This, this is the start of everything.”
Ryder tilted his face down. His smile was private, smoldering, filled with heat, just for her. Laura’s body responded, hard, instantly. She glanced over to the huge air mattress.
“You better be gentle,” she whispered. “I don’t think that bed will survive anything else and if it pops, it’s going to scare the hell out of Jim and your mom upstairs.”
Ryder grinned down at her. “Don’t worry. I wasn’t planning on using the damn air thing.”
He kissed her, hard, searching, scorching, filling her with heat and starting the fire that was never, ever going to burn out for him. Laura wrapped her arms around Ryder’s neck as his hands dug into her hips and he lifted her easily, steering her towards the wall.
Lonely Rider - The Box Set: A Motorcycle Club Romance - The Complete Series Page 76
