by K. M. Scott
My father shot me a glance but returned his focus to Ryder. “All the better. I wasn’t looking forward to explaining that to her anyway. I should have guessed there’d be no secrets between you two.”
Neither of us said a word. I felt Ryder take hold of my hand and a sense of calm came over me. Nothing my father could do could hurt us.
He stood from behind his desk and walked over to the bar to make himself a drink. With his back turned to us, he said, “I’m glad we can be so open about everything now, and Serena, I think you knowing about my business with Ryder will make what I have to say go much smoother.”
“Oh? Why?” I asked, suddenly concerned about this announcement of his.
Turning around, he smiled at me and returned to his seat. Unlike usual when he spoke to me, it felt like he was hesitating, as if he wanted to take his time to find the right words for what he had to say.
With every second that passed, my anxiety ratcheted up another notch until my hands became drenched with sweat. I squeezed Ryder’s as if to remind myself that no matter what words came out of my father’s mouth, I wasn’t alone.
No matter what he did, Ryder would protect me.
He placed his glass down on his desk and when he spoke again, he sounded almost chipper. “So that little ugliness between us got me thinking, and I think your talents are being wasted on merely convincing people to pay their debts, Ryder. Don’t you?”
“My talents? What would those be?”
“What got my attention in the first place. Fighting. So it’s time we start utilizing those talents again so we both benefit.”
Leaning forward, Ryder let go of my hand and stared in shock at my father. After a few moments, he asked, “You want me to fight again?”
“You have no money to speak of, and if you’re going to be with my daughter, you need to bring something to the table other than the fact that she likes you,” my father said with a sneer.
“Loves him,” I said, correcting his mistake in characterizing how I felt about Ryder. “I love him.”
Without even looking at me, my father continued, “Which makes it even more important that you have something to offer her. So you’ll be fighting from now on. I’ve contacted Floyd, and he’s setting up a fight in three weeks.”
I had no idea what to think about what my father was proposing, but as I watched Ryder’s mouth drop open in shock, I knew it wasn’t good.
Leaning back, he shook his head. “I haven’t fought in over two years. Three weeks won’t be enough time, and you know it. You’re setting me up to get my head crushed in again.”
I waited to hear my father say he’d give him more time, but instead he said, “You can either fight in three weeks or you can leave this house tonight. Your choice.”
Ryder stared straight ahead, and if my father’s ultimatum rattled him, he didn’t show it. Barely loud enough for me to hear, he said, “Three weeks then.”
Clapping his hands, my father smiled. “Good! I look forward to seeing you fight again.”
I couldn’t believe my ears. None of this was good. He just blackmailed the man I loved to get his way and send Ryder back to fighting, even though he damn well knew he wasn’t ready to face anyone in three weeks.
“No! Ryder and I won’t be held hostage by you anymore,” I said as I jumped up out of my seat. “You’re practically making sure he gets hurt, and you promised me you wouldn’t do that again.”
My father narrowed his eyes to slits and sternly corrected me. “I promised I wouldn’t have him beaten again, and I won’t. He has three weeks to get in shape. What he does in that time is up to him.”
Ryder stood up and grabbed my arm to stop me, but I continued to protest my father’s cruelty. “Why are you doing this to him? He’s done nothing but do your bidding ever since he returned to work.”
“Don’t, Serena. Let’s go,” Ryder said, pushing me toward the door.
Looking back at my father, I saw him smirk like acting this way toward Ryder pleased him to no end. “Listen to your boyfriend, sweetheart. He knows I’m not bluffing.”
I slipped out of Ryder’s hold and stormed back to stand next to my father’s desk. Glaring down at him, I said, “You think you can just send him away and I won’t leave with him? You’re crazy. I wouldn’t stay here for one damn second if he wasn’t here. In fact, you should thank him because he’s the only reason I’m still here.”
My father stared up at me the whole time I said what was on my mind, never even blinking once as he listened to the truth of how I felt about being there in that house and around him. When I finished, he slowly lifted his glass to his mouth and took a sip of that damn bourbon and branch shit he liked to drink, all the while smirking like he had all the power.
That he did for the moment didn’t matter to me. Someday he wouldn’t. And on that day, he’d see what his hatefulness and cruelty had created.
Swirling the ice in his glass, he grinned. “That’s always been your Achilles’ heel, Serena. You care about others. Maybe you’d rather I threaten your mother instead of having Ryder fight? Okay. How about we make it your choice? Ryder fights or your mother suffers. It’s up to you.”
My emotions threatened to explode out of me in a mixture of rage and hurt from how powerless I felt standing there as he smiled up at me waiting for my choice of which person I loved would be hurt. I hated him, and as I forced back the tears so he wouldn’t be able to enjoy how miserable he made me, I silently swore I’d never forget this moment.
“Serena, don’t,” Ryder said behind me as he gently tugged my arm so I’d join him.
I looked back and saw him standing there, his eyes full of the same hate I knew mine held, and I knew he’d never let me choose to have my mother hurt. I loved him all the more for that, but I’d never forgive myself if he suffered for me once again.
Without even bothering to look at my father, I turned and followed Ryder out of the office. He took my hand in his and squeezed it as we silently walked toward the hallway to the south wing and his apartment. Once again, my father had found a way to make me see that only a fool would believe they could find happiness in his world.
I’d been that fool for weeks, blissfully trusting he would let Ryder and me live in peace. Now, as my hate for him threatened to choke me, I tried to remember it was only a matter of time before the private detective gave me some information on my mother and I’d be able to see her again.
And once she and I were reunited, he could threaten all he wanted. I’ll have beaten him at his own game.
Chapter Fifteen
Ryder
Serena had no idea what her father had just done. I’d been out of the game for over two years. Working as his muscle had often required me to get physical with guys, but nothing like fighting on the circuit. He knew that. He knew even though I worked out daily, it wasn’t anywhere near enough for me to be ready to face any guy in a fight in just three weeks.
And still the fucker did it.
I sat down on the couch and tried to pretend everything would be okay. I’d told her so little about my time fighting that maybe she’d believe that I could get in shape to fight whatever behemoth Robert found for me in less than a month.
She leaned her head on my shoulder and whispered, “I’m sorry, Ryder. I don’t know why he’s doing this. I thought maybe he might have found out about me looking for my mother, but he didn’t seem to. I don’t know why he suddenly wants to punish us again now.”
Closing my eyes, I let myself enjoy the feel of her next to me. “Because that’s who he is. Who knows? Maybe he’s still punishing me for what I did to Oliver. Maybe this is because I went behind his back with you. I don’t know. All I know is that this is who he is.”
“We. What we did.”
I turned to look at her and saw those dark eyes so gentle and sweet staring up at me. “You know what? I can’t wait to meet your mother because I have to know how someone so good could come from someone so evil. It must have been bec
ause of her.”
Serena beamed at my mention of her mother. “I can’t wait either. I just know when I get to talk to her, she’s going to say she’s wanted to know me and Janelle all these years. I have to believe my father’s been telling the truth when he says I’m like her. He thinks it’s a bad thing, but I don’t.”
I kissed her on the forehead. “You’re gentle and kind and nothing like him. He doesn’t understand someone like you. All he knows is how to be vicious. It’s all he is.”
Her smile faded as a look of concern crossed her face. “So about this fight? You’ll be able to handle it, right? You work out every day and you still look as good as you did when you came to the house back then.”
Forcing myself to appear like none of it worried me, I nodded. “I’ll be fine. I’m not too rusty, and I’m a couple years older now. I’m like wine. I get better with age.”
She studied my expression for a moment and then innocently asked, “Is that really how it works?”
“Sure. I definitely wouldn’t have wanted to go up against someone my age when I was eighteen. I would have gotten my ass handed to me.”
I’d never lied like that to her. When I first came to the estate, I’d avoided telling Serena what I did for her father, but never in all the time I’d known her had I lied so completely about anything until that moment. I just couldn’t be the reason she spent the next three weeks worried sick about this.
But I knew better than to think the past two years had given me any advantage in a fight. I may have been in good shape, but I wasn’t in fighting shape, and that would mean the difference between holding my own in the ring and getting beaten worse than Robert’s guys had done to me.
“So what do you have to do to be ready for this fight?” Serena asked, her eyes full of curiosity. “Is it like when you first came here?”
I smiled at her mention of that time. She’d followed me around for days back then, spying on me around corners as I worked out, her dark eyes wide as she watched me do what I had to so I didn’t get my ass handed to me in the next fight. The memory of her so curious about me seemed so innocent for all we’d gone through since then.
Pulling her close, I kissed the top of her head and held her to me. I didn’t want to face her when I lied again. “Yeah, pretty much. Training is basically the same no matter what, so it’ll be fine.”
The uncertainty in my voice came through loud and clear to me, but I didn’t know if Serena heard it. I waited for her to say something, my brain scrambling to come up with a lie she wouldn’t be able to see through.
Serena looked up at me and smiled. “Is there anything I can do to help? If you want, I can stand next to you while you work out and say encouraging things. You know, sort of like a cheerleader.”
I shook my head and laughed at how cute she could be. “You don’t have to do that. I don’t think anyone has ever offered to do that for me.”
“Well, I saw it in the Rocky movies when that old guy helps Rocky train, but I don’t really want to yell nasty things at you, so I figured maybe I could be more of a cheerleader than like the old man.”
“To be honest, I think you’d be more of a distraction than anything if you were standing next to me while I train,” I said before dipping my head to kiss her on the lips. “But thank you.”
“I could get a cheerleader uniform. You know the kind. A little skirt that barely covers my ass,” she joked. “And an even tinier t-shirt that says Team Ryder. What do you think?”
The image of Serena dressed in that settled into my mind, and I smiled. “I think the other guy is going to have an easy time caving my head in if you do that because I’m not going to be getting any training done if you’re anywhere nearby in an outfit like you described.”
She slowly dragged the tip of her tongue across her bottom lip as she looked up at me. “Well, we wouldn’t want that to happen, so I guess no cheerleader outfit.”
“There will be time for that after the fight,” I said, winking at her.
Looking down, she traced her fingernail over my chest and quietly said, “It’s going to be okay, right?”
“Yeah. Don’t worry. I’ve got this handled.”
Serena nodded and smiled up at me, but I knew it was forced. “Good. I know you’ll do great and then we can go back to our life.”
Everything inside me pushed me to tell her this was going to be our life from this point on. Robert wasn’t going to just let me fight once and then be done with me. Win or lose, I was back in it again.
I didn’t say those words, though. I just hoped Serena found her mother soon and then we could both leave this place.
For three weeks, I trained harder than I’d ever done before. Floyd agreed to help me get back into fighting shape, even though he risked the wrath of his boss for doing it. I saw the fear in his eyes every time I stood to fight the sparring partners he brought in. He knew what I knew.
That two years away wasn’t going to be made up by some training in three weeks, no matter how hard I pushed myself. He could throw every guy he found at me and I could practice twenty hours a day, and it still wasn’t going to be enough.
The day before the fight, he sat down next to me as we waited for the next fighter to get to the warehouse. I sat on that same rusted metal chair I’d been sitting on when Robert Erickson walked into my room and announced he’d bought me like some used car he wanted to fix up. In those two years, I’d faced everything he pushed on me like I’d faced everything life had dealt me since that night my parents died.
But this felt different. This felt like something I might not be able to handle.
I knew that doubt could be my downfall in the fight that would happen in that very building just twenty-four hours from then. I’d never doubted myself when it was just me fighting for my life.
That’s how I’d seen it.
Fighting for my life. For the chance to have more than just the pain and suffering that The Pit offered if I could only make enough to pay Floyd off and get away from this shithole.
And now, after seeing what having money could do for someone, I was right back there like the stray that I truly was.
Floyd pulled up a chair and sat down next to me, kicking a broken piece of concrete out of the way with his foot. Never close, we usually had very little to say to one another, but in the past few weeks, I’d seen a side of him I’d never known existed back when I worked for him. Back then, he’d been more like that old guy Serena described from the Rocky movie, but now he seemed pensive whenever we were alone, like he had something on his mind he wanted to share.
Clearing his throat, he said, “I really believed I’d never see you back here again, kid. I figured after that fight with that gorilla Mr. Erickson had me go find, you’d be done. Then I found out you went to work for him and I thought to myself, ‘Well, he’s got to do what’s right for him,’ you know? But I figured you’d find your way around that world and do just fine.”
I turned my head to look over at him as I sat hunched over resting for my next sparring partner. “I thought I did just that. I guess I was wrong.”
He hesitated for a few seconds and shook his head. “What happened? Why does he want you back here fighting after two years away?”
Shrugging, I tried to pretend like I didn’t know what this whole thing was for Robert. I knew, though. This was his way of showing me how unworthy I was to have Serena. He wanted her to see I was nothing but that stray he brought home two years ago, and no matter how well I cleaned up or how well I seemed to fit in with his world, I was still less than an Erickson.
Even though he insisted on referring to me as his adopted son from time to time.
“Maybe he thinks I get better with age,” I said with a fake smile and hoped to convince Floyd I wasn’t scared half out of my fucking mind at what I’d face in tomorrow night’s fight.
“Yeah. Maybe,” Floyd said with the same forced joking tone in his voice.
Our conversation over, I hung my head
and closed my eyes as I focused on the hope I’d seen in Serena’s eyes every time I told her everything would be fine. She asked at least once a day, and each time I pulled her close to me and kissed the top of her head so I wouldn’t have to face her when I lied.
Everything wasn’t going to be fine. Far from it. If I was lucky, I might make it out of this fight as badly hurt as when Robert had me beaten that day in his office. If I wasn’t, I’d be looking at a nice stay in the hospital or worse.
Shaking my head, I tried to clear my mind of the worse.
“You know, Ryder, I didn’t want to find that guy for him,” Floyd said in a low voice. “I didn’t have a choice.”
His words came out slowly, like he didn’t want to say them. I didn’t blame him or anyone but Robert for that fight. Floyd wasn’t lying when he said he didn’t have a choice.
None of us did in Robert Erickson’s world.
Looking over at Floyd, I saw what he had to do still bothered him after all this time. “You were just doing your job, man. We all have our roles to play, and that was yours. No hard feelings. Hell, I went to work for the guy after that, so I guess I must have been okay with things with him too.”
A look of confusion settled into Floyd’s face. “Yeah, why did you? Did you still owe him something?”
I thought back to that day when the doctor said I could leave the hospital and remembered thinking I had nowhere to go. I couldn’t come back here to the warehouse since Robert owned that, so where could I go and what would I do for money? I doubted he’d be willing to let me fight for anyone else.
Those realities didn’t leave me with many options. I could go back onto the streets and deal with the addicts and homeless I’d be stuck living with in the shadows. I’d done that before Floyd helped me out with the room in the warehouse, so I could have chosen that.
But I’d had a taste of a better life, and I didn’t want to return to living in those piss stinking alleyways where every minute was a struggle to exist.
