‘I don’t have any problems,’ Evan snapped, shoving himself away from the wall. ‘And you are way off base. You couldn’t be more wrong.’
This guy was the emotional sort and getting a reaction from him was almost too easy. That would mean he was easy to manipulate too, naïve maybe, and definitely not street smart. ‘Then enlighten me,’ Ryder said. ‘Tell me where I’m wrong? There are only two motivators for women, sex or money. Men, we’ll go to war over just about anything, pride, territory, on a bet, on a dare… but I guess that falls into the pride category.’
‘What’s your point?’ Evan asked with a snarl in his voice and a curl in his lip. Ryder was riling him, he was too easy, and that was just perfect for Ryder.
‘My point is that your mistress is only doing this for one of those two reasons. Now I doubt she wants to sleep with me, since, you know, I’m down here locked up and unless there was some super-potent Viagra in that water you just gave me, I’m not getting it up for anyone but my lady.’
‘How do you know she isn’t the one who orchestrated this? Maybe she and I are playing you,’ Evan said, elevating his chin and letting triumph contort his smile.
Ryder pushed his bottom lip out and shook his head. ‘Nah, this isn’t Lacie’s style. Besides, she wouldn’t have to do something like this to me.’
‘What does that mean?’ Evan asked, deflated, though he tried not to display it.
‘Because whatever Lacie wants from me, she gets. If this was about money, all she would have to do is ask for it. There’s no need for her to get revenge, unless she’s been secretly blaming me for what Jamie did to her all this time. If that was the case, all she would have to do was tell me to cut myself open and bleed for her and I’d do it.’
‘You’re pathetic,’ Evan said, disgust returned to his demeanour.
‘I’m in love,’ Ryder said without attempting to hide his smile. ‘Love, man, it’s freeing. I have a singular focus now. A partner in life. A companion. When you have love like Lace and I do… you never have to be afraid.’
‘Oh, she’s afraid, all right,’ Evan said, returning to his smugness. ‘You should have heard her scream when I spoke to her last night and gave her the instruction to share herself with Elijah.’
Clenching his jaw, Ryder tried not to react. He tried not to let Evan get him riled when it was supposed to be Ryder’s job. But he could imagine how Lacie would have reacted to that command, much as he would react if a similar one was given to him.
‘Me and my lady don’t need money, you see,’ Evan said, moving toward Ryder. ‘Between us, our families have enough money to buy a dozen islands.’
‘So it’s sex,’ Ryder said, though his own confidence was waning. Lacie needed him now. She needed him to save her from the thing she didn’t want to do. While he was stuck down here, he was powerless to save her from the fate she dreaded.
Evan opened his mouth with an inhale, but a voice from the corridor spoke before he could. ‘Didn’t I tell you not to engage with him?’ the female voice was cool as it echoed down the corridor. Ryder recognised the tone, but couldn’t quite put his finger on who the voice belonged to until she sashayed into the doorway and paused before letting herself smile.
‘Hello, Ryder.’
‘Sadie,’ he said, almost unable to believe that Sorcha’s sister could be responsible for this kind of a scheme.
‘How are you?’ she asked, sauntering into the room. ‘I suppose that’s a ridiculous question given the circumstances.’
‘Why would you do this?’ he asked more interested in her motivation than his own liberation at this point.
‘Why?’ she asked and glanced around at Evan before she spun on him. ‘Because of you, my sister, and her prissy little friend! Because all of you ruined my life and stole the only good thing I had!’
‘I don’t—‘
‘I tried to get your attention, but you never saw me,’ she said. ‘You were all business, just like Elijah. You come over and you talk to my father like he’s so important, but me? You all… you just ignored me! Well you can’t ignore me anymore, can you?’
‘You tried to get my attention?’ he asked.
When he’d worked security for the Reynolds, he was aware of the women of the family, but he would never have abused Lawrence Reynolds’ trust by taking advantage of them. Plus, Sorcha and Sadie were trust fund heiresses who would have more money than god when their father and mother passed. When a woman had that much money, she had a lot of choices, and a working grunt like him made pennies in comparison to their bank balances.
Sorcha had taken a while to recognise him after he got together with Lacie. She eventually did after she learned his last name and company name. With Sorcha paying him such little attention he’d have assumed Sadie would have as well.
‘Yes! First it was Elijah, I loved Elijah,’ she said in a dreamy way that made her pause and stare off into the distance for a second. Behind her Evan’s mouth pinched into a tight circle. He was a lesser specimen than his more charming brother. It had to hurt that even after doing all of this for her, Sadie still preferred his older brother. ‘But that bitch of yours was all he could see.’
‘My bitch?’ he asked, knowing that she meant Lacie. Sorcha, Elijah, Lacie and Sadie had known each other for years, probably since Lacie met Sorcha at college. Graden’s crush on her must have started early.
‘He always wanted Lacie and Sorcha always told him to stay away from her.’
‘Why?’
Sadie’s eyes scrunched like she couldn’t care less why. ‘I don’t know. My bitch of a sister has always cared more about her precious Lacie than about me.’
‘So while Sorcha was telling Elijah to stay away from Lacie, you were trying to get his attention?’ Ryder asked.
‘Not that it mattered, he was as blind as you.’
‘And this is supposed to teach us all a lesson?’ he asked, looking from his chains to her and Evan.
‘No, I’m over that, I don’t give a damn about any of you anymore,’ she said, turning her nose up for good measure.
‘You’ve got a really good way of showing it, honey.’
‘Don’t honey me,’ she snapped. ‘I am not your honey.’
‘Sadie, sweetheart, you’re not—‘
‘You took him from me!’
Ryder tried to get some sort of translation from Evan, but he was too busy examining his shoes to be of any use. ‘I took—‘
‘Jamie!’ she exclaimed. ‘He noticed me. He didn’t ignore me like all of the rest of you did! He cared!’
‘You were screwing Jamie,’ he muttered and brought his balled hands up to his forehead.
‘Not screwing him, we were in love! We were going to be together and then you and that bitch of a girlfriend screwed everything up for us!’
‘How many times have you seen Jamie since he’s been inside?’ Ryder asked, exhaling as he brought his hands down and his face up. ‘None.’
‘You don’t know that!’
‘I do,’ Ryder nodded. ‘I’ve been getting copies of his visitor logs, his phone records, I know what he has for his breakfast. Do you think I would take my eyes off him for a split second when he could be a danger to Lacie? The woman that I love? Jamie doesn’t care about you. He didn’t care about anyone except Jamie.’
‘No!’ she protested and inched nearer. ‘No, I’m going to save him and then we’re going to be together.’
‘You’re going to save him?’ Ryder asked, tipping his chin down to try and conceal the smile that wanted to meet his lips. ‘From a maximum-security prison? How are you going to do that? With your Prada clutch or—‘
‘Don’t belittle me,’ she sneered and scrunched her face again as she looked him up and down. ‘Look at where you are because of me.’
‘Well done,’ Ryder said. ‘The pair of you pulled off a convincing enough mugging to get me into an alleyway where you drugged me to drag me down here. Then what? What are you going to do with me now? Messing w
ith mine and Lacie’s relationship—‘
‘You don’t have a relationship now,’ Sadie said. ‘She does what I tell her to. She wrecked my sister’s marriage, turned her back on all of your friends so she’s no longer under their protection. She lost their respect. Now she’s screwing his big brother. She’s having sex with him, Ryder.’ Her mocking tone was meant to upset him and he hated that it was working. ‘All night long in his bed, sweaty bodies, creaking springs the lot. He’s a billionaire, Ryder. You can’t beat that! You won’t beat that.’
‘Why would—‘
‘Because wrecking her life, having her sleep around and act erratically… she’ll have no credibility, maybe we’ll get her to dabble in some drugs or have more casual sex… Hell, maybe we’ll just have her top herself and be done with it.’
‘If she’s screwing Elijah then I don’t give a fuck what you do to her,’ Ryder said, exuding nonchalance and propping his boot up on the wall again.
‘What?’ Sadie asked and her triumphant smile disappeared to flicker back then vanish again. ‘What are you—‘
‘Why would I want to be with a slut who’s going to mess around on me? If you’re right, if they’ve really had sex then fuck her.’
‘Really?’ Sadie asked, glancing over her shoulder at Evan who had perked up again. ‘You really don’t care?’
‘You think I like what happened to Jamie? Yeah, sure, I’m pissed about what he did to Lacie, she was my girl and we were supposed to be best friends… But the rest of the stuff? I wouldn’t have cared about him embezzling or selling drugs. I know that sometimes a man needs to do the unthinkable to get by.’
‘You really wouldn’t have cared about that?’ Sadie asked, taking another step in his direction.
‘I guess you want to discredit Lacie on the stand,’ Ryder said. ‘Is that how you’re planning on springing Jamie?’
‘Well, I…’
‘Eric will be a problem,’ Ryder said. ‘He’s in protective custody, but if you bribe the right guy then getting his address won’t be difficult.’
‘Elijah has friends at the State Department,’ Sadie said. ‘Evan can’t get him to spill, but I figure his precious Lacie will have better luck and now that they’re sleeping together and she’s doing our bidding… Lacie will find out Eric’s whereabouts for us.’
Widening his smile, Ryder made eye contact and nodded in admiration. ‘Very good, very good. I’m impressed, honey. Booth, now he’s the one who kept the paper trail and that could hang Jamie bad… Taking him out, well…’
Sadie’s gumption increased, his ego stroking had bolstered her. ‘Lacie just told Sorcha about his cheating. I mean it was so obvious. I slept with Bruce like two weeks after he and Sorcha met. Sorcha kicked him out. So now that he’s just lost his wife and Lulu, his baby daughter… His parents were already mad at him for the embarrassment he brought on their family and he can’t even find a job… his family will be mortified. Suicide’s not outside the realm of possibility.’
Still smiling, he drew her in. ‘How do you plan to do it?’ Giving them both a pointed look, he made it clear he expected to hear their plan. ‘Come on, you had to have spoken about it.’
‘Getting you all paranoid about Lacie and getting you here to manipulate her, those were the main things we focused on,’ Sadie said. ‘After Lacie gives us Eric’s location… Well, taking Eric and Bruce out was supposed to be his responsibility.’
Sadie backed away to bring Evan into the fold. He was intent on her but from the lack of colour on his face, he hadn’t gotten to the planning stage yet. Seeing his chance, Ryder laughed, startling both of them.
‘Him?’ Ryder said, no longer hiding his amusement. ‘Man, baby, you picked the wrong partner. How many men have you killed, Graden?’
‘Uh…’
‘How many have you killed?’ Sadie asked actually defending her colleague, which would be admirable if he wasn’t intent on punishing them both.
Drawing his features together, Ryder stopped laughing to portray offense. ‘You don’t do what I do and not learn how to take a fucker down.’
‘Great,’ she said, letting her arms fall to her sides. ‘Then all we have to do is bring them here and you’ll do the dirty work.’
‘Why would I do that?’ Ryder asked. ‘You’ve got balls, honey, I’ll admit that. But I have no reason to help you.’
‘How about if you don’t, we’ll get your lady to screw every one of your men.’
‘Do it,’ he shrugged. ‘Getting her together with Elijah was a dumb move. If she’s fucking him then she’s not my responsibility anymore, is she? Truth is, if it wasn’t for her, I’d probably be doing exactly what you are and trying to get my best friend out of jail.’
‘You don’t care what we do to Lacie?’ Evan asked.
Shaking his head slowly, Ryder scratched his chin with his bound hands. ‘Why should I? I’m not going near some slut looking for an excuse to bang another guy? I could see it the first time I saw them together. I knew he wanted her and she led him on, didn’t she? I’ll bet she wanted to do this all along.’
‘Why should we trust you?’ Sadie asked, peering closer. ‘How do we know you’re telling the truth?’
‘I don’t give a damn what you think,’ he said, rattling his chains. ‘You’ve got me chained up here like an animal. You better be worried about when I get free of here because there’s nothing stopping me ripping you both apart. Jamie is your only chance of survival.’
‘Jamie?’
‘Sure, he’s my best friend, isn’t he? If you get him out then you better hope he tells me to leave you alone.’
‘You would do that?’ Sadie asked, glancing between him and Evan like she wasn’t sure what to think and he couldn’t blame her. Here was her captive telling her that her plan was falling apart and there was no one to save it.
‘He’s my best friend and I just found out that I turned my back on him for a woman who’s a fucking bed hopper.’ Rattling his chains again, Ryder grit his teeth and called out his frustration. ‘Let me out of here!’
‘No!’ Sadie said, retreating a few steps. Her nervousness was understandable because he kept pulling and shaking at the chains letting his anger build.
‘You let me out of here and I’ll do it for you. I’ll take Eric out, that bastard was supposed to be my man too and he fucked me over. He fucked Jamie over! You never turn on a friend. Your men are your family and keeping their secrets is sacred. Now look at him, the prick is cowering in some secret location hanging out with cops! That bastard has it coming! I can do it for you… you don’t need that bastard!’ Nodding at Evan, he curled his lip in disgust. ‘He’s a prissy little bastard who’s more likely to cry for his momma than pull the trigger. I know what needs to be done. I’ve seen combat. I can take care of you.’
‘Of me?’ Sadie asked.
The glitter in her eye was intrigue and playing the beast apparently did it for her because she was looking at him with female interest. ‘Sure, you’re my friend’s girl, aren’t you? Looking after you is my job. We can work together. We’ll get Eric, we’ll get Booth, we can probably make both of them look like suicide and then no one will be looking for us, will they? Why would they? Everyone thinks that I’m with Lacie and you’ve been real smart about playing down your connection to Jamie.’
‘I only did that because I knew I could be of more use to him if people weren’t asking questions.’
‘I understand that, sweetheart,’ he said.
She might believe that, but the truth was, she was never going to stand up in front of her family and admit to being with a guy like Jamie, not when said guy was locked up behind bars and unable to take care of her, which was probably exactly why she hadn’t told anyone about their relationship.
Jamie always did like his women classy. Sure, most of them were down and outs, but he was old-fashioned about women, believed they should be taken care of and shouldn’t swear etc. Ryder was old-fashioned about taking care of his woman
too and he couldn’t do that here.
Convincing Sadie to let him out was a long shot, but the woman obviously wasn’t in her right mind. Teaming up with a wet blanket like Evan and believing that they could pull off this kind of op by themselves was a long shot too.
Women like Sadie were spoiled and didn’t have street smarts, one only had to look at Sorcha to realise that. They did what they wanted because they believed that they were entitled and their wants could change on a dime. Sorcha portrayed this too, the way she flipped from one guy to the other depending on her mood and what the man was providing for her.
‘Come on, Sadie, honey, you know that I can be of more use to you than this guy,’ Ryder said, softening his expression, he raised his chains toward her.
‘Don’t do it,’ Evan said. ‘He’s playing you!’
‘He has a point,’ Sadie said, turning her back on Ryder. ‘You’re not going to kill anyone, are you? If you were going to then you would’ve done it already. Every time we talk about it, you get this wimpy look on your face. I need a real man to help me.’
‘Let’s approach one of his men then, there must be someone else who can help us,’ Evan said.
‘He’s not even denying it,’ Ryder said. ‘See, honey, he’s not going to be strong for you. You need someone who can take care of business and protect you. I have as much invested in this as you. We can get Jamie out… I need to see him. I have to apologise, we have a friendship to fix. We’ll do this, get Jamie out and then the three of us can blow out of the state. I have plenty of money to see us right for a long time.’
Tapping a finger on her lower lip, she turned to look him in the eye. ‘All three of us?’
‘You’ll have me and Jamie, we’ll look after you. You know that we’d never let anyone harm you. We can do this, Sadie, you and me together… let’s go get Jamie.’
Sleight Mistake (Stone Investigations Book 2) Page 26
