Roses for Layla (The Sweetheart Series Book 1)

by Ash Night

  I should have taken the risk.

  Chapter Twenty

  Ryder

  “Ryder! Ryder!” the crowd chanted. I walked out onto the stage, guitar in hand. Sitting on a stool placed in the center of the stage, I began to sing.

  “Shut it!” A hard kick to the ribs sent me back to reality. I coughed, tasting blood at the back of my throat. Shit, when had I fallen asleep? I still hadn’t successfully gotten Layla’s phone. Looking over at the table, I saw it was gone. Mine was probably in a river somewhere.

  “Rise and shine.” The man who had kicked me chuckled. He was a new guy. Phone guy was nowhere to be seen. He probably had to work.

  “Pleasant way to wake someone up. You should run a bed and breakfast,” I said with a wry smile. He didn’t seem amused. My shoulders, arms, and back were stiff from being in the position I was in all night.

  The man cracked a toothy smile. His teeth were yellow and discolored. A few looked grounded down. “Smartass. Now I know why Layla picked you.”

  “Picked me?” I asked. My mouth was dry. I didn’t exactly think asking for water was captive protocol so I kept my needs silent.

  “You poor bastard. Layla played you. That’s her specialty. She used to be one of Devin’s top sellers. She can get anyone hooked. She get you to try anything? Or did she just scam you out of a few free meals?”

  “Try anything? You mean drugs? Hell no, she didn’t!” The thought hadn’t even crossed my mind that she might try to push anything on me. She never did. “Can you at least tell me if…” I couldn’t say the words.

  He laughed. “She’s still kickin’. Good luck getting that bitch to die. She’s, what, one hundred and twenty pounds soaking wet? But I’ve seen her do enough ice to kill two men easy.”

  “Ice?” I asked, confused.

  “Coke,” he answered with a smirk.

  “C-cocaine?”

  He laughed. “You knew she was a drug user, right?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, but she said she used heroin.”

  He laughed again. “God, you are clueless.”

  I scoffed. “Sorry for being a law-abiding citizen of my community.”

  “What, you think we all weren’t at one point? Sure, most of us were still children, but still.”

  I sighed. At least she was alive. “So, about letting me go…”

  “You’re funny.” His blue eyes glinted with sick pleasure as he yanked on the chain and I was lifted off the ground once again.

  The pain was immediate. I grunted, determined not to cry out in pain again. It was embarrassing and I couldn’t be Layla’s hero if all I did was act like a cry baby. Of course, I was already caught. Some hero I was turning out to be.

  “Aw, you’re no fun,” he said as he yanked down further on the chain. My shoulders were screaming. I was surprised they were still attached and I wasn’t sure how long they were going to stay that way.

  Eventually, after he realized I wasn’t going to scream, he let my feet touch the ground again. I gratefully exhaled. He left the room when a disembodied voice called to him from the stairs. Breakfast was ready.

  My stomach growled. I hadn’t eaten anything since lunch the day before. I also really needed to use the bathroom. Dammit, why couldn’t they have tied me up near a toilet? But even that wouldn’t have been much help with my hands tied.

  As if hearing my thoughts, Kirsten’s blonde head popped out from around the corner. I hadn’t heard her come down the stairs. “Hey pretty boy,”

  I smirked. “What are you doing down here? Don’t you know breakfast is ready?”

  She carried a chair over and hopped up, untying my hands with nimble fingers. “Thought you could use a bathroom break. Hurry, there’s one over by the fridge.”

  “Thanks!” I said, jogging over to the small bathroom and using it quickly.

  Kristen chuckled. “Fly’s open.”

  I zipped up my jeans. “Sorry, was in kind of a hurry.” I raised an eyebrow. “You have a black eye and bruises on your shoulders. A-are those fingerprints?” I couldn’t stand seeing a woman hurt. Just looking at her made my blood boil. I wanted to beat the crap out of whoever hurt her.

  “It’s nothing. The usual.” Kristen looked at the floor for a second. The momentary sadness was replaced with indifference a second later. She met my eyes. “Sorry, it’s not like someone to notice. It’s not like it’s uncommon in this part of town, really.”

  “Well, I don’t see it too often. If I did, I’d be in jail. No man should ever put his hands on a woman. Ever.” I coughed. My throat was a desert.

  She tossed me a plastic water bottle. “You sound like you need a drink.”

  “When we get out of here, I’d be happy to buy you one. It’s really the least I could do.” I chugged the water and handed the now half-empty bottle back to her.

  “You and Layla get out of here,” she corrected. “After all, that’s who you came to save, right?”

  “Well, yeah, but now that I know you’re here, I can rescue one more. Are there any others? I can save them too.”

  A sad smile danced on her lips, almost like she thought I was a naive child. Layla had given me that look more than once. “Where do they make guys like you, Casanova? Cuz we could use a lot more of you.” She stood back up on the chair. “Now get over here.”

  My eyes widened. “You’re tying me up again?”

  She rolled her eyes. “They’re all in the kitchen eating breakfast. It’s not like I can hide you under my shirt and walk out the front door. I’ll come back when the boys leave. They usually leave around noon to go smoke their remaining brain cells away at Oliver’s every Friday so, if they’re sticking to their regular schedule, I’ll be down by one to let you out. No one but me knows you’re down here right now so the boys won’t be suspicious. I’ve been too loyal to Devin’s face for him to ever suspect I’d go behind his back, even though I’ve been doing it for years. I can play him like a fiddle. Don’t worry.”

  Stretching one final time, I lifted my arms above my head and allowed her to tie me up. She seemed more than a little surprised I was trusting her so easily. The rational part of my brain was too.

  “Thank you so much, Kristen.”

  She placed the chair back and smiled at me. “Layla really cares for you. That’s quite a feat. I’ve known her for two years and have never known her to say one nice thing about a boy. You’re the first. Hopefully I’m making the right choice by saving you. Layla is pretty much my only friend, and someone I’ve seen get screwed over by every guy she’s ever known.”

  “I won’t hurt her.” I said firmly. The words not intentionally hung invisible in the air. They were like twin daggers pressing against my heart. My illness was unpredictable. To top it off, I’d skipped two doses of meds. The first, my nightly dose, I’d skipped intentionally out of anger for what had happened at the bar. My morning dose, well, I somehow doubted my captors would have my exact prescription. But, then again, who knew? I was dealing with drug dealers.

  “Good. I don’t know why I trust you, but I do. Maybe because Layla does. Anyway, like I said, I’ll be down here the first chance I get. Everyone thinks I’m upstairs sleeping in my room. I should be. Wasn’t kidding when I said I was tired…”

  “Get some sleep. I’ll be right here,” I joked.

  She smiled. “Good to know, pretty boy.” She started walking in the direction of the stairs.

  “Kristen, I’ll get you all out. I promise.”

  She turned back with that sad smile on her face. “Be careful. Promises are heavy affairs in this house.”

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Layla

  Breakfast at the house was something I did not miss. There were no shirtless boys to make waffles, or even pancakes. No signature grins or dancing blue eyes. No songs softly hummed as we ate.

  No, in this house there was only the smell of greasy breakfast sandwiches and salty hashbrowns bought from the local fast food place around the corner. The small made my st
omach turn. Ryder didn’t make overly greasy food. He also genuinely enjoyed cooking. As I munched on my sausage and egg burrito, I could instantly tell the difference. This food, although the cook may have enjoyed making it, wasn’t the same. The meat wasn’t cooked slowly to ensure it was as delicious as it could be. It was cooked fast, for convenience. It was tasteless and dry, as if it had been sitting under a heat lamp.

  “Is it not good enough for you, Lay? Speak up.” Devin sat across from me, eyeing me suspiciously.

  I pasted on a fake smile. “Nah, it’s good. Last night just took a lot out of me. I’m tired, that’s all.” Shoving the last bit into my mouth, I chewed and swallowed, washing it down with some water. “May I be excused?”

  “You have five minutes,” he warned. I refrained from rolling my eyes and walked down the hall to the bathroom. Turning the corner, I saw Kristen sneaking back into the Room.

  “What were you doing?” I hissed, following her inside. She looked like a deer caught in the headlights until she realized it was me.

  “God, Lays, do not do that!”

  Closing the door behind me, I turned to her. “I have five minutes. Explain.”

  Kristen looked at me and rubbed her upper arm. She always did that when she was nervous. “Well, um, ya see…”

  “Five minutes,” I reminded her. “Spill it.”

  “Devin caught a certain blue-eyed knight in shining armor…name starts with an R…”

  My brain short-circuited for a minute. “Wha…what?” We froze for a few seconds, praying no one heard. I let out a sigh once we were sure it was okay.

  “He’s in the basement. I was gonna tell you, but I had to be sure,” she said quickly.

  “Sure? Sure of what?” I practically shouted. Kristen shushed me. I sighed again.

  “I wanted to make sure he wasn’t just another maniac dumbass who was just promising you a way out just to get into your pants,” she whispered harshly. “We’ve known each other a long time and I would actually like to see you happy. Well, know you were, at least.”

  Forcing back tears, I nodded. “Ryder isn’t like that. When I asked him if there was anything I could give him to pay for the room, he looked at me like he didn’t have a clue about what I was talking about. He probably didn’t. He’s very naïve.” I smiled at that. I loved my naïve, dumb boy.

  “Good.” Kristen hugged me tight. “I’m so glad. He told me he wouldn’t hurt you, and I believed him, but hearing you say that confirmed it.”

  “Layla, two-minute warning!” Devin yelled from the kitchen.

  “Shit. I really do need to use the bathroom.”

  Kristen chuckled. “Go, I’m still sleeping, okay?”

  “Okay, sweet dreams, girl.” With my hand on the knob, I turned back to her. “You will get to see me happy. We’re going to have weekly happiness parties when we get the hell out of here. And we are going to get out. I promise.”

  It hurt to walk after I left Devin’s bedroom that afternoon. The other girls were out running for him. He was getting ready to leave to go smoke weed, still grumbling about how I made him late. If he didn’t want sex all the time now that I owed him, maybe he wouldn’t be late. But he never saw it that way. His mistakes were everyone else’s fault.

  He got thrown in juvie at the age of nine? His dad was never around. He was kicked out of school at eleven for having pot in his backpack? Someone gave him drugs and now he was hooked. He dropped out of school at sixteen? The teachers were idiots. Boy, you sure learned a lot about a person when you spent more than one night in their bed.

  Apparently, I was easy to talk to. That’s what most of my boyfriends in high school said. Funny, because I thought I was just easy. I put out on the first date, if it was even a date in the first place.

  Sex felt good. I wasn’t going to deny my body something because it ‘wasn’t appropriate for a girl my age’. That was like denying yourself chocolate because it made you fat. It didn’t make sense to me. If there was one thing I learned in my years spent hopping from one drug dealer to another, it was that life was too short to deny yourself anything. You liked sex? Do it. As long as you were smart about it, of course. You wanted chocolate? Eat as much as you want. If it made you happy, do it.

  Drugs were another story. I wish I’d never danced with that devil. Escaping was damn near impossible. I’d give anything to take back the first time I did drugs. My whole life would be different. I could’ve met Ryder at the gas station, buying a pack of cigarettes. Or in the produce aisle of a grocery store. Or at a bar, hanging out with my friends. Not waking up in his house after he played hero for a broken girl he didn’t know.

  But I couldn’t change it, obviously. So, here I was, stuck with a douchebag who I owed money to while the first really good guy that walked into my life was locked up in said douchebag’s basement. Yeah, I was a real winner.

  Tiptoeing down the stairs even though no one was home except Kristen, I held my breath. What if he wasn’t there anymore? What if one of Devin’s boys had dragged him out of the house and shot him while I was in Devin’s room? What if this was all one terrible, beautiful drug dream, and I was back in the Room, never having met Ryder in the first place? That thought had crossed my mind more than once.

  “Ryder? Are you down here?” I whispered.

  Chains rattling. “Layla? Layla! Are you okay?”

  “Yes, yes, I’m fine. Are you okay?” I asked, hugging him tight.

  He chuckled. “Never known you to be the affectionate type.”

  I slapped his arm. “Be quiet, stupid.”

  “I’m glad you’re okay, Sweetheart. What the hell happened to your finger?”

  “Long story, Blue Eyes, now shut up.” Pulling a chair up to him, I hopped up and tried untying his chains. I couldn’t get them untangled with my derpy taped-up finger in the way. “Shit. Fuck. I can’t untie them.”

  He chuckled bitterly. “Great. I’ll just hang here forever.”

  “You didn’t happen to bring a chainsaw with you, did ya, Blue Eyes?”

  “I don’t think chainsaws can cut through actual chains, Sweetheart.”

  I laughed. “You think I’m in this situation because I’m smart? I didn’t even graduate high school, Mr. College Class.”

  “Would you go back?”

  I hopped off the chair before I fell from trying to yank on the chains. “What? I don’t think it’s possible to ‘go back’ to high school. I’d probably be arrested. And considering I just received heroin less than twenty-four hours ago, which I might add I did not ask for, getting arrested wouldn’t be good.” I was still pissed at Devin for getting me high without my consent. I gauged Ryder’s reaction carefully.

  He looked pissed.

  “I’m going to castrate him with a chainsaw if I ever get my hands on him.”

  Not the reaction I was expecting. I was expecting Ryder to be mad at me, at how I could let him do that to me. I would be mad at me. I was mad at me. How could I have let him do that to me?

  “Need some help, Lay-Lay?”

  My heart froze. He wasn’t supposed to be back yet. I still had a good two hours before he came home. He did everything like clockwork. Why the hell was he back? Maybe if I didn’t turn around, he wouldn’t appear. Maybe it was just an auditory hallucination brought on by years of drug abuse.

  “It’s not polite to keep your back turned to someone who is speaking to you, Layla.”

  My heart was pounding in my ears and I felt like passing out. I wanted to scratch his eyes out for hurting Ryder. I wanted to bash him over the head for every girl he’d ever put in the Room. I wanted to make sure he never hurt anyone again.

  Turning around, I glared at him. He didn’t even flinch, just looked at me with that irritating smirk. “That’s better. Something on your mind?”

  “You’re going to untie Ryder and let him walk away.”

  Devin laughed. “Now what makes you think I’m going to even consider doing that?”

  “Layla, please
don’t do anything stupid,” Ryder said. I could hear the fear in his voice.

  “I am done letting you control me! For years, all I’ve ever done is let guys use and abuse me as much as they wanted. But I’m done. Every girl you’ve ever fucked over is going to watch you fry in the chair.”

  “I highly doubt that. I have my ways of getting out of those types of situations. Who do you think the police will believe: a girl strung out on drugs or a respected citizen of the law?”

  My stomach turned at his words. “Your drug screen won’t come back clean.”

  “When’s the last time you’ve seen me put a needle in my arm?”

  I didn’t answer. I hadn’t seen him shoot up since I came back. He took my silence as confirmation.

  “Exactly. I’ve been clean for weeks, more than enough time to flush it out of my system. Rule number one of the trafficking biz, Layla. Don’t let the drugs control you. I’m what’s known as an on-and-off user. I can get high with the best of them, but I can stop if I need to. Admittedly, only for a short while. Detox was and always will be a bitch, but worth it if I don’t get caught.”

  “On and off?” I asked dumbly. My mind couldn’t comprehend that phrase connected to drugs. It was all or nothing with me. I was either on drugs or I was clean. An in-between state didn’t exist for me.

  He smirked. “That’s a foreign concept for you, isn’t it?”

  “Okay, even if you do pass the test, you still have five other girls willing to testify to all the fucked-up shit you did to us,” I said, refocusing on my point.

  “Simple solution too. I was looking for a fresh start. Have been for a while actually.”

  My jaw practically hit the floor. He was planning to kill us? How long had that idea been in his moth-eaten brain? There was no way he could cover up that many murders at once.

  “You’re bluffing.”

  Reaching behind him, he pointed his gun at me. The shiny black metal of the hand gun was all I saw as I looked straight down the barrel. My whole body froze. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t run. Black spots danced in front of my vision. I was going to pass out like I had at the park.