by Lexi Cross
“When I started tracking Pia’s attackers, we had some false info. The guy who was caught gave up some intel, but then he got away and had time to move before we could go after them.”
“Before that,” Matteo said.
“Before?”
“What were you doing before you started tracking them?”
“You assigned me to guard Pia personally.”
“And you did that?” Matteo pressed his pointer fingers together and they all watched him.
“Yes.”
“Did anything happen while you were guarding her?”
“Her attacker did not show up and neither did anyone else. She was perfectly safe the entire time.” Ryder tried like hell to stay cool. Something in the way Matteo asked about Pia had him on alert.
“Did anything else happen to her while you were with her?”
He laughed to ease the tension. “Sure. She broke a nail opening her car door, I think there was one bad hair day, she got ink on her pants at the shop, and the worst was when she ordered a skinny latte and they put whipped cream on top by accident.”
A few of the guys chuckled, but Matteo glared. “You seem to know her pretty well.”
“You get to know someone pretty good after following them around for eight weeks. I also know that red heels are all the rage this season.” Ryder sat back in his chair and picked his nails.
“And during the time that you were tracking down her attackers, did you see her?”
“Only in passing. Once, she was walking out to her car when I pulled up here. Once I drove by the shop when I was in the area. Did that a few times, actually, just to make sure no one showed back up without us hearing about it first.” Best to give him something to go on, he thought. Clearly, he had some piece of info he was trying to trick Ryder into saying. As much truth as possible, lie only where necessary. Worked most of the time.
“And last night you killed her attacker?”
“Yes. The man who tried to kidnap her and one other man working with him. Both are dead.”
“And how many times did you talk to Pia between the time you were sent after her attackers and last night?”
“Not once.” Technically, that wasn’t even a lie. So long as “between” didn’t include last night.
Matteo stared at him for a long time.
“Any other questions?” He looked around the room.
So, all the info he needed originally, he now no longer needed? This was bizarre. He had to know something was up with him and Pia. Why else bring him here and ask him those types of questions. He didn’t even have him give a full report, which was why he was supposedly there in the first place.
“You may go,” Matteo said. “Johnny will walk you out.”
That, too, was highly odd. Ryder kept his eyes on Johnny the whole time. But surely, if they were going to kill him, they wouldn’t do it right at the house. No, he’d tried to get him in the car and take him somewhere.
Ryder walked far enough away from Johnny that he’d be able to see when he made his move. But Johnny stopped at the front door and let him walk through it.
“Good work,” Johnny called after him.
Ryder turned and gave him a nod of his head. Johnny smirked back at him.
He got into his car, still waiting for something to go down. A bomb in his car? No, again, not at the house. He kept his eyes peeled as he drove home, slowly. He made several turns that were not part of his usual route. He circled back around a few times, but there was definitely no one following him.
Were they waiting at his house, then? They planned to ambush him? Ryder went to his house and parked across the street. He sat and watched for a full half hour, but nothing happened. No one was there unless they were very, very good at hiding.
He went inside without incident. Then he started to think he was going crazy. Had he imagined the whole thing? Was it just his guilt making him think the situation was strange? Either way, his paranoia was on overdrive. He checked all the windows, the lock and the deadbolt, and the back door. He slid a chair in front of it, tipped it under the knob so he’d hear it fall if someone came in.
He rigged the front door, too, with a string of jingle bells he’d stuffed in a drawer at Christmas time. No one would come through a door without him knowing. Most of the windows were painted shut in this old house and the ones that weren’t stuck so bad, you’d have to make a racket opening it. He wasn’t worried about someone coming in through a window.
But he was worried about Pia. He had to tell her to be more careful. She should be at the shop today. It would be safer than texting her phone or calling. Matteo paid her bill, so he had to have access to her phone records. He wouldn’t dare go to the shop, out in public, where someone could see him. He’d need to get her a prepaid phone.
He waited until around lunchtime, when it was usually busy in the shop and she often answered the phone. The first time he called, it was one of her sales people who answered. He asked what time they closed. The next time, it was a different sales person. He was starting to think she hadn’t gone in today.
But the third time, she answered. He sighed in relief.
“Don’t say my name.”
“Okay,” she said slowly.
“We have to be extra careful. I think your father may be onto something.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well,” he said, “he’s been acting strange and asking a lot of questions. He may know something.”
“How could that happen?”
“I don’t know. But don’t call or text me from your phone. Can you buy a prepaid phone today? With cash?”
“Sure.” She sounded worried.
“Hopefully it’s nothing. I’d rather be safe than sorry until we can figure out what we’re going to do.”
“Right, no, I understand.”
“Are you feeling okay?” he asked.
“Yeah. Tired, but that’s usual these days.”
“Right. Get the phone today and call me on your way home, okay?”
“I will.”
Chapter 11
Pia did what Ryder said. She stopped at a convenience store, going out of her way to the next town over just to be safe. In her car, she opened the package and looked up his number on her real phone.
“Hey, it’s me,” she said.
“Oh, good. Hi, Pia.”
“When can I see you again?”
He sighed. “I don’t know. We shouldn’t see each other right now to be safe.”
“Are you kidding me? I won’t get to see you at all?”
“Just for right now. I need to make sure you’re safe.”
“But if I’m with you, I will be safe.” She tried not to let her voice get hysterical, but after their night together and all that had happened, the last thing she wanted to do was spend more time away from him. She already missed him so desperately.
“Believe me, I want to see you, too, but—”
“We can go somewhere far. Get a hotel or something?”
“We’ll see. I’m hoping it won’t take that long until we can get on the run.”
“Is that what we’re doing?” She hadn’t been sure what the final plan was going to be.
“I don’t know for sure yet. But whatever is going to happen needs to happen quickly. I don’t want you in a stressful situation, and I want to be there for you.”
“And I want you here.”
“Soon. I promise.”
“Okay.” She let out a breath, her heart heavy.
“I’ll talk to you soon. But keep the phone on silent, okay? We don’t want to give away the fact that you have this phone.”
“I will.”
***
By the next day, she didn’t think she could make it. She felt so tried and had been crying all morning. She knew it was the emotions of the pregnancy and the stress of the situation, but still. All she wanted was him.
She decided to call out sick from work, but left the house at the same time
that she usually did so her father wouldn’t think anything was up. She drove away, then picked up the prepaid phone and called him.
“Hey.”
“So, I called out sick today.”
“Why? Are you okay?”
“Kind of.”
“What’s wrong?” He sounded so concerned. She liked that.
“I feel like I’m going to die if I don’t see you soon.”
He sighed. “Is that all?”
“Isn’t that enough? I called out sick, but I left the house at my usual time. When can we meet? I have all day.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I need to see you.”
“Okay.” He gave her the address of a hotel about an hour away.
“I’ll see you soon.” She hung up and a grin stretched across her face. She turned up the music and sang along, feeling happier than she had since the last time she saw him.
When she pulled into the parking lot, she texted him. I’m here.
Room 205.
She hurried to the room and knocked softly on the door. He pulled it open and took her into his arms. They kissed desperately, like they hadn’t seen each other in years. He pressed her against the wall, just beside the door.
She hopped up to wrap her legs around his waist. His hands were all over her. He didn’t bother being careful today. He was slightly too rough in groping her breasts, but she didn’t say anything. She didn’t want him to go back to being too gentle.
He reached to her back and yanked down her pants, still holding her up in the air, against the wall. She kicked her shoes off, then her pants hit the floor.
“I want to devour you,” Ryder said, growling in her ear.
“Yes. Do it, then.” She tugged at his earlobe with her teeth and ran her nails along his back.
He hoisted her higher so that he could unzip his jeans and shove them to the ground. In seconds, he pushed inside her.
She wasn’t quite wet yet and the feeling of him shoving in deeper stung, but she liked it. Just like she got pleasure off him pounding her hard and fast, she liked the tinge of pain.
“Yes!” she cried out, for the first time not having to be quiet.
He pounded her against the wall, gripping her hips and moving her up and down on his cock.
She cried out again as she came. He moaned and thrust several more times, coming himself.
They panted for a moment, until he set her down on the ground.
“Damn, woman,” he said. “You do crazy things to me.”
She went over to the bed and flopped down, half naked, still throbbing with the after effects of their sex.
He crawled in beside her and held her close to him.
“What is it about your cock that’s so amazing?” she asked, curling against his chest.
“It’s not the tool, it’s how you use it,” he said.
“Well, you use it good.”
He kissed the top of her head. “You don’t do too bad yourself.”
They lay there for a long while in each other’s arms. She dozed off, safe and warm. She awoke with a start a short time later. Someone was banging on the door.
She sat up and Ryder looked at her, then held a finger to his lips. He was up and dressed in seconds.
He bent down to get his gun and the door slammed open. Pia let out a shriek and snatched the covers up to cover herself. She’d never bothered to get dressed after they had sex.
Five men burst into the room, shouting at them and pointing guns.
“Get down on the ground,” one screamed at Ryder.
Ryder kicked him and hit the guy in the knee. He buckled, but didn’t fall. Before he could turn, though, another guy had punched Ryder in the jaw.
Ryder stumbled back, and was kicked by the third guy. He landed on the ground and scrambled to his feet, trying to get closer to her.
As Pia watched in horror, the last man came to her and barked, “Get dressed unless you want the whole world to see your skanky twat.”
Her face reddened as his crude language, but she didn’t want to go anywhere half naked, and she didn’t want anyone in the room to see, either. She hurried to yank her pants on.
She stood to zip them—they were snug already—and looked back over her shoulder to see Ryder on the ground, being kicked and beaten.
“No!” she screamed.
She dove forward, intending to jump in the middle of the fight. She hadn’t even stopped to think about it. She only knew she couldn’t lose him. But when the man’s arm came around her hard, knocking the wind out of her, she remembered that she should have been protecting her stomach.
Tears sprang to her eyes. Both from the pain and not being able to breathe, but also from worrying that he may have just hurt the baby.
Her father knew. Somehow he’d found out. She hadn’t been careful enough or something. He knew. And now that he knew, all three of them were in danger. Maybe he still didn’t know about the baby. That would have to make things easier. Would have to make it a little better.
For all he knew, maybe they’d only slept together. That was bad enough, clearly, but not nearly as bad as her being pregnant and making plans to run away with him. Would that happen now? Would they get to go off alone and be together and have a family like they wanted to? Or would he be dead before the night was over? Would she be dead?
Maybe there would be some poetry in that. They would all be dead together on the same day. At least they’d be together, right? Or maybe Ryder’s crimes wouldn’t let him go to heaven. Well, fine. Wherever he was, she would go, too. She would be with him somehow, no matter what it took.
The man grabbed her arm and shoved her toward the door.
“Ryder!” she shouted as he yanked her forward.
He looked up and raised his hand toward her, but then was punched again and fell back to the ground.
She screamed one last time before the man covered her mouth and picked her up, carrying her while she kicked and flailed. Outside, another man waited in a car. He opened the door when he saw them approach.
Pia was thrown into the backseat, the door slammed shut behind her. Both men jumped into the car and they sped off. She sat up to look out the back window, but didn’t see any sign of him.
“Who are you?” she yelled at them through tears. She could barely breathe she was crying so hard.
“All you need to know is we work for your father and he’s not too happy that you’ve been out whoring around.”
She spat on him. “Shut up! You don’t know anything.”
He held up a Taser and turned toward her. “I will use this if you don’t sit your little ass down and shut the hell up.”
She didn’t care so much about herself, but she worried what it might do to the baby. She sat down, looked behind her again, but stayed quiet. What were they going to do with Ryder? Kill him? Take him somewhere? How badly would they beat him?
And what would her father do now? If he sent five men after them, he had to be extremely pissed. How in the world had he even found out? What tipped him off?
She thought she’d been careful. But apparently not careful enough. She felt wretched in more ways than one. She didn’t know how, but it had to have been her who’d given them away. Ryder was much too careful to mess up like that. Just minutes ago, she’d felt so safe and happy. Now the worst had happened. And it wasn’t over yet.
They arrived back at her house some time later. It felt like it took hours, but that was likely just because she was so upset and her mind was racing. They pulled into the garage and she tried to open her door.
“Nice try.” The man opened her door from the outside and each of them had a hand on her.
“Let go of me. This is my house!”
“We have orders.”
“What orders? Let me go!”
They dragged her through the house and to the stairs. They took her up to her room. For a moment, she thought they were just going to toss her in and leave. But they entered the room. One of the
m took out handcuffs and tightened one circle around her wrist, then the other one around the wooden leg of her headboard. She sat on the bed, somewhat awkwardly, twisting to face the door.
“Just get some rest, now,” the man said. “Your father will be in to see you soon enough. I’m sure he has plenty to say.”
