by Susan Stoker
You need to speed this up or Father is going to get involved.
Nodding to himself, Joseph started the engine and pulled away from the downtown area. He had some more work to do before he could end this. It would mean not being able to leave Megan with any gifts for the next couple of days, but hopefully she’d let down her guard while he was gone. And when he got back, the game would be back on.
Chapter Sixteen
Felicity stomped her foot like a fifth grader. “Ryder, you have to go.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Dammit. Yes, you do.”
“I’m not leaving you and the twins here by yourselves.”
“We’re fine,” Felicity insisted. “Nothing’s happened in days.”
“That doesn’t mean that Joseph is gone,” Ryder said.
“I know that, but I’m not an idiot. I’m not going to step foot outside of this apartment while you’re gone. The babies are asleep in their cribs. It’s been a long day and I’m exhausted. I’m going to sit right here on the couch and watch TV until you get back.”
Ryder leaned in, caging her body between his and the counter behind her. “I don’t like this.”
She laughed a humorless laugh. “Neither do I. But Blake texted that he needs you, and now he won’t answer his phone, and I can’t get Alexis to answer hers either. Logan and Grace are up in Denver at that play, and Nathan and Bailey haven’t heard anything. You can’t ignore this.”
She looked up at Ryder. He was stressed. It was clear as day on his face. It was obvious he didn’t want to leave her alone in the apartment, but it was just as obvious he wanted to get to his brother.
They’d been watching television and relaxing when he’d received the text. It had been short and sweet.
I need you. My house. ASAP.
That’s all it said.
It could be a trick. But what if it wasn’t?
“I don’t trust Joseph. This feels like a setup.”
“Me neither,” Felicity said. “But what choice do you have? And the text came from Blake’s phone. Let’s say it wasn’t him and Joseph was fucking with you. He had to have gotten Blake’s cell somehow. What if he’s in the house and has both him and Alexis hostage right now? You can’t risk it.”
“I can’t risk you,” Ryder returned immediately. “I can wait until Nathan gets there and calls me to tell me what’s up. What if Joseph decides to burn the gym down with you inside?”
“At the first smell of smoke, I’ll grab the babies and get out.”
“And if he’s waiting for you?”
“Then I’ll fight him,” Felicity insisted. “But that’s not his style. You know that as well as I do. He isn’t going to kill me that easily.”
Ryder’s jaw worked in frustration. They’d talked about this exact thing the other night. Joseph wouldn’t just come right out and shoot her. He’d take her somewhere and torture her first. Which would suck. Huge elephant balls. But it would give Ryder, his brothers, and even the Mountain Mercenaries time to find her. Felicity wasn’t exactly looking forward to being tortured, but knowing her man and his friends would be coming for her would make things easier.
“Go check on your brother,” Felicity insisted. “I’ll be right here waiting for you to get back. It’s late, I won’t go out, no one is in the gym downstairs. I’ll check more houses online and see if I can find one we both like. Tomorrow we can call the real estate agent and make an appointment to go see the ones on our list so far.”
“Don’t open the door to anyone. No one, love, I mean it,” Ryder ordered.
“I won’t.”
His jaw flexed as he ground his teeth together. “And at the first sign of trouble, you text me, and I’ll come back.”
“I will.”
He sighed. “I don’t like this. But I need to check on Blake.”
“Go, Ryder. So you can hurry up and come back and we can go to bed.”
“Okay.”
“Okay,” she echoed.
But neither moved. Finally, Felicity stood on her tiptoes and kissed Ryder lightly, then moved her lips to his ear and whispered, “I still owe you that blow job from last night. I didn’t mean to fall asleep, but when you ate me to those two orgasms, I couldn’t stay awake. If you’re up to it, I’ll make good on my debt when you get home.”
She could feel him smiling.
But when he took her head in his hands and tilted her eyes up to his, the smile was gone. “You don’t owe me anything, love. I’ll take whatever you want to give, but you will never owe me a fucking thing.”
“Okay.”
“With that said, as long as my brother is okay, when I get back, I want you on your knees in front of me taking my cock.”
She shivered at the carnality of his words and the image that immediately sprang to her mind, of her naked at his feet, Ryder fucking her face as she looked up at his beautiful body. “Deal.”
“I love you.”
“And I love you,” she returned.
Ryder kissed her on the forehead, then let go, turning to grab a glass out of the cupboard. They had been out all day, and Felicity hadn’t had nearly as much water as she usually did. He filled it with water from the dispenser and handed it to her.
She smiled at him and took a large swallow. “What is it with you and my water ritual?” she asked.
“I like caring for you. You started drinking water every night to keep you healthy, and I want to make sure you live a nice long life.” He shrugged. “So, you want it, and it keeps you around longer, so I’ll make sure you have a big glass of water every night for the rest of our life.”
She smiled and chugged the entire glass. She handed it back to him with a smile.
“More?”
“Yes, please. I want to stay hydrated for what’s to come later on tonight.”
He filled the glass once more and handed it to her. She took a sip, then pushed at his belly. “Go. See what Blake wants. I’m gonna check on the babies, then check out houses until you get home.”
He nodded, kissed her on the forehead once more, then turned and left.
Felicity locked the door after him and then went to check on Nate and Ace. They were sleeping soundly. She stood at the door to the guest room, watching them sleep for a long moment. Logan and Grace had gone up to Denver for the evening to see a performance of Cats and hadn’t hesitated to leave the twins with Felicity and Ryder. It made her feel good to know, even with the shit going on with Joseph, that they trusted her to take care of their children. And she would.
Felicity would guard those two little humans with her life. Nothing would happen to them on her watch. Nothing. She’d gladly go with Joseph before letting Nate and Ace get sucked into his drama.
Satisfied the babies were sleeping soundly, Felicity went back into the living area. She made sure the baby monitor was turned on high and grabbed her water on her way to the couch. She sipped at the water, her thirst slackened from the glass she’d chugged earlier. Feeling mellow and a tad sleepy, she held the glass in her lap and settled against the cushions to finish the forensic show she and Ryder had been watching before he’d received the text from his brother. When it was over, she’d pull out her computer and look at houses.
Ryder couldn’t shake the feeling of dread that had settled on his shoulders like a death shroud ever since he’d received the text from his brother. Something was wrong. But he didn’t know what.
He pulled into Blake’s driveway and climbed out, striding up to the front door of the house with large steps. At first he thought it was weird that his brother lived in the house he’d grown up in, where he’d been so horribly abused by his mother, but the more he got to know Blake, and Alexis, the more he realized that it was cathartic for him. That living there and creating new, good memories helped Blake get over the hurts of his past.
Besides, he and Alexis had done so many upgrades to the house, apparently it was hard to even recognize it as the same place. An addition on the back, update
d landscaping, completely new kitchen and bathrooms. Grace told him it was like a moth turning into a butterfly.
Ryder pulled out a pistol and knocked on the door before stepping to the side so as not to make himself a target for Joseph or anyone else who might be aiming at him through the door. The bad feeling he had might be because his brother was in trouble. He wasn’t going to take any chances.
He tensed when he heard the locks on the door unlatching, and then it was cracked open.
“Who’s there?”
It was Blake.
Ryder lowered the gun, but didn’t put it away. “It’s me, Ryder. What’s up?”
“Hang on,” Blake ordered, then shut the door. It opened immediately after he removed the chain. “Hey, Ryder.”
Ryder waited impatiently for his brother to tell him why he’d summoned him, but when the other man just stared at him as if he was waiting for Ryder to explain why he was there, Ryder swore. Long and inventively.
He reached for his phone and dialed Felicity’s number. It rang four times, then went to voice mail. He swore again.
“What the fuck?” Blake asked. “Ryder?”
Ryder looked up at his half brother and saw the man was on alert. “You text me about twenty minutes ago?”
“No.” Blake’s answer was short and to the point.
“You sure? Maybe Alexis did?”
“I’m sure. We’ve been . . . er . . . busy for the last half hour or so. We just came downstairs to make something to eat when I heard your knock on the door. Neither of us sent you a text.”
“Fuck,” Ryder swore. “I need to get back to Felicity, but can I see your phone first?”
Blake immediately turned and disappeared inside his house. Ryder stepped into the entryway, but went no farther. This wasn’t a social call. He needed to get back to the gym. Now. But first he needed to check his brother’s phone.
Blake came back to the door with Alexis following behind him. She was almost a foot shorter than Blake, but Ryder knew how tough she was. Remembered all she’d been through, and seeing for himself how happy she and his brother were made him have hope that whatever Joseph had planned for him and Felicity would end the same way.
“Here it is,” Blake said, holding out his phone to Ryder.
He took it and quickly pulled up the text history. The last text Blake had sent to him had been two days ago when they’d had a short conversation about the paperwork to add him to the Ace Security business.
Ryder clicked on his name on Blake’s phone and sent himself a test message. Within seconds his phone dinged with an incoming text. Ryder compared that one to the one he’d received earlier. Both said they were from his brother, and both had the same phone number.
Shaking his head, he turned the screen and showed Blake and Alexis what had brought him over to their house.
Alexis reached for the phone, then hesitated. “Can I see it?” she belatedly asked.
Ryder handed it over impatiently. He needed to get back to the other side of the city. To Felicity. He felt it in his gut.
Alexis clicked a few buttons, then as if realizing that Ryder was on the verge of bolting, handed it back. “If I had more time, I could probably track down the sender. At least what cell towers the message came from. But honestly, if someone knows what they’re doing, it wouldn’t be hard to use a burner phone and manipulate the number.”
Ryder shook his head. He knew that, but hadn’t even considered it in his worry for his brother.
“Go,” Blake ordered. “I’m right behind you.”
“We’re right behind you,” Alexis countered. “I’ll call the cops and have them meet us there.”
Ryder didn’t stay to listen to his brother argue with his woman. He didn’t exactly want Alexis in the middle of whatever was happening back at the gym, but he didn’t really want her staying at the house by herself either. If this was the beginning of whatever Joseph had planned, he wouldn’t put it past the man to hurt all of Felicity’s friends, knowing it would ultimately hurt her.
He hadn’t hesitated to use her mother to get to her, so it was an obvious conclusion that he would use her friends in much the same way. Felicity knew it, and that was why she’d wanted to run in the first place, but for some reason Ryder hadn’t been thinking that way tonight when he’d gotten the text that was supposedly from Blake. He shook his head in regret. He was an idiot, and Rex would’ve kicked his ass if he’d done something as stupid as that on one of his missions.
Ryder raced back to the gym. Blake’s house wasn’t far, but it was way too far for his peace of mind. He calculated that he probably hadn’t been gone more than thirty minutes, but all it would take was a minute or two for Joseph to snatch Felicity.
He didn’t bother pulling into the parking lot at the back of the gym. Ryder parked right in front of Rock Hard Gym. He was relieved when everything seemed exactly like it had been when he’d left earlier, but the hair on the back of his neck was still standing straight up.
He was unlocking the front door of the gym when Blake pulled up behind his car. Cole had given Ryder a key to the gym with a smirk and a smack on the back the other week. Had told him that he owed him the world after he’d convinced Felicity to stick around. It had made Ryder feel good that he’d been so easily welcomed by Felicity’s friend, but now he was even more thankful because it meant he didn’t need to wait for Cole to arrive to unlock the door.
He’d tried to call Felicity once more on his way back to her, but once again the phone just rang and eventually went to voice mail.
His heart in his throat, Ryder ran through the deserted reception area to the hallway at the back of the space. He took the stairs two at a time and burst into the hallway at the top. He fumbled with the key for an uncomfortable amount of time before he finally got the door to Felicity’s apartment open. He ran in and stopped short at the sight that greeted him.
Everything looked normal.
Felicity was on the couch. Sleeping.
He gulped. He hoped she was sleeping.
Ryder strode over to her, and, as if watching someone else’s hand move toward her throat, he checked for a pulse.
It was there. Slow and steady.
He let out a breath. Thank fuck.
He heard Blake and Alexis enter the apartment, but he ignored them. Reaching a hand down, he shook Felicity’s shoulder lightly. “Wake up, love.”
She didn’t even flinch.
Ryder frowned. He knew Felicity was tired from their day, but she’d always been somewhat of a light sleeper. She’d spent the last decade on the run—of course she was.
He shook her again, harder. “Felicity,” he said, louder this time.
She slept on, oblivious to everything going on around her.
“Stay here,” Blake ordered.
Ryder looked up to see he’d been talking to Alexis. He had a gun out and was creeping down the hallway to the bedrooms. Ryder put his hand back on Felicity’s throat, her pulse reassuring him that she really was just sleeping soundly and not dead.
Blake returned after less than a minute carrying baby Ace.
Ryder frowned. “Where’s Nate?”
Blake stopped in his tracks. “Nate?”
“Yeah. Felicity was babysitting both kids while Grace and Logan went up to Denver to that show she’s been wanting to see.”
“He wasn’t there,” Blake said softly.
And there it was.
Ryder’s stomach flipped, and he pressed his lips together to keep from throwing up.
He looked back down to Felicity and frowned.
“The cops are on their way,” Blake said.
But Ryder wasn’t hearing him. His eyes were roving around the room, looking for whatever had been used to knock Felicity out. Because she was definitely out. There was no way she would’ve slept through Joseph coming into the apartment and kidnapping Nate otherwise.
Ryder knew he hadn’t been gone that long. Maybe Joseph had conned his way into the apartmen
t somehow and used chloroform to disable Felicity. He mentally shook his head. No, she wouldn’t have opened the door to anyone.
His eyes landed on the pictures he’d encouraged Felicity to display out here in the living area. She’d put up a few pictures of Grace and her. Grace with the babies. A group picture of Alexis, Bailey, Grace, and herself. Every single picture was lying facedown on the shelves they’d been sitting on.
Then he noticed something he hadn’t seen before. Her giraffe. Her beloved stuffed giraffe was lying in the middle of the floor, its head ripped from its body. Ryder couldn’t take his eyes away from it for a long moment.
“He’s been in here,” Ryder whispered.
“How did he drug her?” Blake asked, coming up next to the sofa. He’d passed Ace off to Alexis, who was now standing at the door to the apartment waiting on the police officers to show up. “Could he have gassed the place? Put a hose through the air-conditioning duct or through a window somehow?”
“Ace is fine,” Ryder said through clenched teeth, indicating the now-awake baby babbling in Alexis’s arms.
“Could he have drugged something then? I mean, you’re fine. What did she eat that you didn’t?”
Ryder’s eyes went to the glass on the coffee table. The empty glass. The one he’d filled with water for her. Twice. “Fuck. The water. It’s her ritual. She drinks a full glass every night. Every night. It’s her thing.”
“And you don’t?” Blake asked, eyeing the water dispenser.
Ryder shook his head. “No.”
“How’d he know?”
Ryder shook his head once more, even as his eyes swept the room once more. He didn’t know what he was looking for. “I have no idea. Cameras? Watching through the windows? I have no fucking idea.”
The brothers looked at each other for a long second before Blake said, “We need to call Logan. Tell him about his son.”
Ryder took a deep breath and looked down at Felicity. Not only had he failed her, but he’d failed his brother and sister-in-law too. He felt the hate well up inside him. He’d hated before, but not like this. Never like this.
