by Lexie Davis
“Are you okay?” He stood and reached out to her.
“Don’t touch me.” Ella jerked away from him. She glanced up at the cameras and walked out the door with Ryker following her.
“Tell me what happened.” Ryker followed her out to the parking lot.
He sat on his bike, and she avoided looking at him. Frustrated, he started the engine and held out his hand for her. After she finally took it, he backed out of his spot and left the parking lot. The last thing he’d ever expected was for Ella to be arrested. It was bullshit and they knew it. Everyone knew it. She was the kindest, most gentle person he knew.
When they got home, Ella walked to their apartment, still not saying a word. Ryker unlocked the door and flipped the light on. Ella barely made it over the threshold before she doubled over, clutching her stomach as she cried.
Ryker wrapped his arms around her.
“Don’t.” She jerked away from him, her cries painful to hear. “Don’t touch me.”
“Ella,” he pleaded. He sat in the floor with her, watching as she sobbed. “Please tell me what is wrong. Did something happen? Did someone hurt you?”
She ignored him. Everything about her provoked the worst scenarios to run through his mind. It pissed him off. He wanted to hold her. To comfort her and kiss her. To make it all better even though he didn’t know the problem.
“I love you, Ella. Please tell me what is making you cry.” He reached out to her again.
“Leave me alone!” she screamed at him, jerking away. She backed up to the couch and pulled her legs to her chest.
“No.” He moved toward her. “Stop fighting me.”
He pulled her to him, battling her flailing arms and legs until he got her to calm down enough to sit on his lap. Kissing her cheeks and temple, he felt some of the tension leave her body. He didn’t know what happened, but if someone had hurt her, they’d sure as hell pay for it.
“I’ve got you,” he whispered. “I’m not going to let anyone hurt you.”
She squeezed her eyes closed. “You can’t stop him.”
“Who?”
“Razor.”
He stared at her. “What? Razor was in jail with you?”
She opened her eyes. “He has police in his pocket. They brought up the fentanyl I stole for him. They have photos of me on the hospital security system and some pictures from a club member’s phone. He also paid them off to make up bogus charges against me in an effort to keep us apart. He wouldn’t give up anything against the club, but he’d find a way to get me arrested and keep me in jail for a long time.”
Ryker held her to him. “What did he threaten you with?”
“Drug trafficking. They forced me to have a so-called psych exam and the guy told me that if I didn’t leave you and the Roaming Devi’s Motorcycle Club alone, that it was only going to get worse. They would make me look crazy. They would ruin my job. My reputation. My life. They said they’d make me wish I was dead and laugh because I wasn’t. He has photos that allude to me with the fentanyl. That alone could get me serious charges. I could lose my job. My license. I could go to jail. He fabricated a video of me and it looks like I’m stabbing you. They threatened to ruin my dad’s career by making him an accomplice. Told me that the gangs he put behind bars would love to room with him.” She glanced around. “He has people watching us. I wouldn’t doubt it if he had our apartment bugged. They took me in to prove how much power they had, and it’s a lot. You can’t go up against them, Ryker.”
Ryker didn’t say anything as he held her. He thought about how he’d handled the situation with his father. Rizzo’s crew had taken him as a prisoner and promised to give him the fucking life he deserved inside a one-room, dilapidated basement. Maybe letting him live wasn’t good enough. Maybe the sick son of a bitch needed to die. Ryker realized that now, and he hoped it wasn’t too late.
“They had a statement with your signature. It said I stabbed you. It made me out to be as sick and twisted as him.”
He pressed his lips to her temple. “Please tell me you didn’t believe that came from me.”
“I don’t know. What did you say in your statement?”
“I took the blame. I said that I accidentally stabbed myself when one of the Roaming Devils members left an exposed knife on the bar top. I said I tripped over a box of liquor and drove it into my side. I also said that you were there and you saved me.”
She dropped her head to her hands. Ryker smoothed his hand along her back. “Look at me.” She shook her head. He leaned forward and kissed her hand. “Something I learned over the years is that people will try to get in your head to get you to do what they want. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
“I was arrested.” She finally looked at him. “My contract with the hospital says that is grounds for immediate termination. I don’t have a job. I don’t have anything. They fabricated all this nonsense, and it looks real. It’d probably hold up in court if Razor has the right people on his side. Where does that leave me? In a jail cell. He wants me away from you and he’ll do anything to get it. Don’t you see that? You said he was dead. Did you kill him?”
He rubbed her arm. “No.”
She moved off his lap. “You mean he’s still out there? He’s still roaming free so he can fuck up our lives? What’s it going to take, Ryker? Me in jail? He doesn’t deserve your mercy. He’s not going to stop. He wants to ruin us and he’ll do it.”
Ryker reached for her. She jerked away from him. “Don’t touch me.”
He blew out a breath. She left him sitting there contemplating his next move. They’d threatened to throw her in jail. It pissed him off and it sucked. He needed to find someone who could get whatever nonsense they had on her out of the department. The only person he knew who had that kind of power was her father.
When Ella came back, she had an overnight bag.
“Where are you going?”
“As part of my bail conditions, I cannot associate with my victim. You are my victim, Ryker. Coming to the police station could get me in trouble too, but I didn’t have another choice.” She shook her head. “I can’t do this. He wants me away from you and now I have to legally comply. He couldn’t win with criminal measures so he’s using the legal system against me. I can’t lose my freedom because of this. I broke a few rules, but I’m not a bad person. He’s evil. He’s horrible and he’s mean.” Tears filled her eyes. “You told me you handled it, but you didn’t. Now I have to go to my parents because I can’t legally be around you. We were just fucking married yesterday!”
She brought her hand to her lips on a sob. When Ryker walked toward her, she moved past him, heading toward the door. Ryker watched as she jerked the door open and left. His heart ripped in two. He had no fucking idea how to reassure her. The curveball his father had thrown was unexpected, even for Razor. He pulled out his phone and dialed Pat’s number.
“I thought you and my daughter didn’t want to be disturbed today.”
“I need your help.”
“Great. What did you do now?”
“I need you to do something that’s technically illegal yet the right thing to do.”
“No.”
“Wait.” Ryker rubbed a hand over his face. “Ella was arrested.”
“For what?”
“She said drug trafficking.” He huffed a breath. “Can we meet somewhere? Talk?”
“Did you bail her out?”
“Come on, Pat. I’d never leave her to rot in a jail cell. A condition of her bail was that she has no contact with her victim and that would be me. She’s moving into your house as we speak.”
Pat didn’t say anything for a minute. “Meet me at the café across the street from the department.”
He hung up. Ryker stuffed his phone in his pocket and headed toward the door. It didn’t take him long to get to the café, and he ordered an iced café latte. He remembered how much Ella loved the drink and hated like hell that he probably wouldn’t be able to give it t
o her.
Pat walked in and sat at the opposite side of the table. “What happened?”
“They have some photos of her that make it look like she stole fentanyl from the hospital to give to Razor.”
“Did she?”
Ryker didn’t say anything. “They also threatened her with false information. She said they had a fake statement from me blaming her for the stabbing. She said they had a fabricated video that had her and me in it. It looks like she’s stabbing me. I need you to find what they have and get rid of it. I gave my statement that Ella was the hero because that was the truth. You know as well as I do that she doesn’t have a violent bone in her body.”
“Your dad is behind this?”
“Yeah. He’s got some cop in his pocket.” He licked his lips. “He’s always wanted me away from her and instead of going after me, he continues to go after her.”
“What are you going to do about it?”
Ryker sat back in his chair. He didn’t say anything. He wasn’t that stupid. Pat may have come around some, but they weren’t friends. He didn’t trust the bastard even if he was his new father-in-law.
“My daughter has been through hell with you.” Pat folded his arms over his beefy chest. “And I’d love nothing more than to see you rot in a jail cell, but she loves you. There’s absolutely nothing I can do about that.”
He rubbed the side of the cup. “Just get the false information out of the system. She doesn’t need the arrest record. She said her contract with the hospital stipulated that an arrest was grounds for termination. She’s worried about her job.”
“You know I’ll take care of my daughter.” Pat pushed away from the table. “I’m just wondering what you’re going to do.”
Ryker watched as the cop left. The longer he sat there by himself, the more he realized his father was toying with him. He was making him choose. He’d been a pussy the first time. Maybe the second time too. He’d stared into Razor’s eyes and tried to remember all the good instead of the bad. Killing wasn’t personal, and he’d made it personal with his father. Not anymore. If Ryker had fucked up to the point where Razor ended up in trouble, he didn’t doubt one second that his father would throw him to the curb and make him fend for himself. Ryker wanted love where love wasn’t given. He wanted to believe that somewhere deep inside the man who was responsible for his creation had a heart.
Razor felt nothing.
Ryker grabbed the coffee and headed out the door. Maybe this was what being a leader was about. It had crossed his mind a time or two that his father had killed his grandfather. That he’d set the fire and made sure his grandfather was in the blaze. Ryker had no proof, but instinct was usually right. Maybe that was what the club was about. He didn’t care how legitimate he wanted the club to be: he had to get rid of the trash first, and it started and ended with his father.
Chapter Two
Ryker called an emergency club meeting. While the voting members filed in the room, he sat at the head of the table staring at the tattoo on his left ring finger. He didn’t know what Pat would pull off, but he hoped like hell he’d come through for him. For Ella.
“Why you so grim, Newlywed?” Vampire asked.
Ryker glanced up to face his brothers. “It was brought to my attention—at my wedding no less—that the club wants a permanent solution to the issues we’ve had with Razor.”
Nobody said anything but their expressions gave him all the affirmation he needed. Ryker glanced over at Superman.
“Ella was arrested.”
“What?” Superman met his gaze.
“Drug trafficking, she says. They have some kind of photos of her stealing fentanyl at the hospital. They also brought up the stabbing, blaming her for that. Fabricated evidence or something.”
Ryker didn’t know what charges she could actually have. Even if they had a photo of her at the hospital, they couldn’t prove she actually stole the fentanyl. She wasn’t a stupid person. It bothered him more that there were photos of her handing it to Razor. That meant someone in the club took it. Chances were good it was one of Razor’s fiends that did his bidding for him. Insurance, as his father liked to call it. But he needed to know that the men sitting before him were loyal to him, not his father.
“I’m only going to ask it once. Did any of you take photos of Ella giving Razor fentanyl?”
Nobody said anything. Ryker really didn’t suspect anyone, but given the amount of dislike they had for her in the beginning, he wanted to be sure. Ryker sat back in the chair and thought about how he wanted to proceed. From Vampire’s and Superman’s take, they already had the mayhem vote. Razor wasn’t anyone’s favorite person. The only people who truly supported him were those directly affected by something he promised them.
“So we’re taking a vote.” Ryker knew he didn’t even have to ask the roomful of men. There wasn’t one sitting before him he thought would ever say no. “Should the club give a permanent solution to Razor’s trouble?”
He glanced over at Superman. Any lingering feelings of care for Razor dissipated the longer he stared at his friend. Superman wanted him gone nearly the moment Ryker took the position of President. Ryker always protested.
“Yea,” Ryker commented.
Superman nodded. “Yea.”
They went around the table with each voting member saying “yea.” When they finally got to Vampire, Ryker looked at his best friend. The club structure was one that wasn’t easily understood. Superman was his friend, but Vampire was his best friend. While he was close to both, he considered his Sergeant at Arms the one he confided in the most.
A true brother.
“Yea,” Vampire said.
Ryker licked his lips. “Unanimous.”
“How do you want to do this?” Vampire asked.
“I can take care of it.” Ryker glanced around the room. “We’ll have Rizzo bring him to Atlanta and put him in the coke warehouse.”
Vampire shook his head. “I don’t think you taking care of it is a good idea.”
“I second that,” Superman commented.
“You don’t think I will?”
Superman held his gaze. “It’s not about will you or wont you. Any one of us would gladly take care of the problem.”
“Me included.” Ryker kept his attention on him.
“What Superman is trying to say—and doing a poor job at it—is you don’t have to,” Vampire cut in. “I’m the Sergeant at Arms. I’ll do it.”
Ryker stared at his club. Even they thought he’d wimp out. Hell, what kind of leader did that make him? They had club business to attend to and part of that was having enough balls to actually do what needed to be done.
“Vampire should do it,” Superman commented. “It makes things easier.”
“No.” Ryker pushed away from the table. “I’ll do it.”
Ryker lifted the gavel and banged it on the table in front of him in finale. The men cleared out of the room with Superman and Vampire staying behind. Ryker knew what they thought. He wasn’t a pussy. He could handle it.
“It’s too personal for you.” Superman shook his head. “Let Vampire do it.”
“It’s not too personal.”
“He’s your fucking father. He’s tried to kill your wife twice. He doped you up, tortured you, and tried to force you to kill your wife, which ended in a bloody mess. It is personal. Too fucking personal. Club business should never be personal.” Superman’s voice raised a bit. “Let Vampire take the shot.”
Vampire breathed a sigh. “You can do it. But if for any reason there is a moment where you know you can’t, I’ll do it. Will you at least agree to that?”
Ryker glanced between the two of them. He was far from being an innocent man. The first time he participated in a vote for anything other than charter members positions, his father handed him the gun and told him to do it. He’d been eighteen and freshly patched into the club. Afterward, he celebrated by snorting lines of coke off some girl’s ass while another sucked his
dick. He’d come a long way from that night.
“I’ll agree to that.” Ryker commented, pushing away from the table. “Don’t expect to pull the trigger though.”
When he got outside, he took a deep breath. He’d never wanted a line of coke so bad in his life. He closed his eyes. Few words could describe how magical it felt as it entered his body. Years and years of drug abuse led to him finally quitting the habit when Ella came into his life. God, when he was with her, he never thought about the stuff. No matter how shitty life got, he always had her.
Now life spun out of control and he didn’t know how to stop it. Ella was gone. He didn’t know about the legalities of the situation, but she could do time. She’d never forgive him for it either.
“You okay?” Vampire asked.
Ryker glanced over at him. “I’m fine.”
“Go home to your wife.”
“I’m not supposed to be around her.” Ryker took a deep breath. “Some bullshit about me being the victim.”
“Like legal bullshit has ever stopped you before.”
Ryker snorted. “Maybe not. But it stops Ella. She’s not too happy with me right now. She’ll never forgive me if she has to do time. The sorry bastard knew she could lose her job. When all else fails, hit her where it hurts.”
Vampire squeezed his shoulder. “You talked to Pat, right?”
“Yep.”
“He’ll fix it on the legal end. He’s not going to let her go to jail. Especially because of Razor.”
“I hope you’re right, but I don’t know what he can really do.” Ryker moved away from the club and walked toward his bike. “Once Rizzo is in Atlanta, let me know.”
“Will do.”
Ryker had to get his mind off everything or he would officially drive himself insane.
****
Ella stared at her diamond ring. She should have predicted it. Razor would stop at nothing to get what he wanted, and if that meant that he made everyone around him miserable, so be it. Why did Razor care who Ryker spent his life with? She knew the original issue was her being a detective’s daughter. She was fairly certain Ryker had been warned to keep her in the dark about their business. But he was the President of the club now. It was probably a blow to Razor’s ego when Ryker refused to be with Beth. She wasn’t entirely sure how the dynamics of child rearing went in the club. Ryker said something about being expected to raise the kid himself. She knew he had been raised by Razor and Razor’s father. What exactly had been the plan? What happened to Ryker’s mother?
