Burning Truths (Consume Me #2)

5. Ryker

Chapter Five

RYKER

Blood splatters on my face, feeding the rage boiling beneath my skin, urging me forward.

Blow for blow.

Flesh on flesh.

Red liquid mixes with sweat. I ignore the ache in my arms, I push through the bone crunching under my fist. Screams and roars fade from around me until there is nothing. The pile of flesh and bone under me fades away. Smokey grey eyes stare back at me in the void. Eye’s that have been vacant.

Killer .

My muscles tremble. Suddenly arms are wrapped around me, the scent of overpriced cologne filling my nose, swirling with the aftershave from the other set of hands. G and West fight for control, but my frustration and anger explode from the bottle I’ve shoved it into. Kenna Kingston dug her way into my bones, tattooing herself on my soul and now she’s vanished in the wind. No one will sleep in Del Mar until I have her back. I’ll show them what it means to touch one of us. She’s always been one of us and she’s fought her way back in, even when I’ve done everything in my power to drive her into the dirt. Turn her to ash.

Instead, she lit my world on fire. The little phoenix.

“Ryker, that's enough!”

“He’s had e-fucking-nough !”

Both voices blend into each other. Blinking once. Twice. Again. Grey eyes fade into crimson until the mess on the mat of The Basement comes into view.

“Ryker Lee Stone!”

G and West freeze on both sides of me. The color must drain from my face because my legs wobble under me. If it weren’t for the two beside me holding me, I might have dropped to my knees. That voice. My full name. My chest shutters when the crowd parts. Everyone slips to the back wall letting her through. No one lives here without knowing her face. That’s why no one speaks a fucking word. The only sound heard through the buzzing of the lights above us is the click clack of her heels. Red Bottoms of course. The powerful woman wearing them bends to step between the ropes and comes to stand at the head of the man under me.

Recognition flashes in her eyes and for a moment I think I see a slight smile before her deep brown eyes meet mine. Cold. Dead. Eyes. Ever since my father, she’s been a shell of herself, but that’s not to be taken lightly. She’s still the savage bitch she’s always been, the same savage that made my family what it is, the head of the table. Most people think my father built our empire with his bare hands, but my mother, Juliana Stone, is the mastermind. She molded my father into the King he was before his death. The women of Del Mar are the head of the families. The ones who come from money. The foundation may breed billionaires, but they also marry into them. It’s the whole purpose of this fucking school and it never disgusted me until Kenna Kingston was added to the list.

“Mom?”

West drops my arms to move in front of me. I know my brother and he isn’t scared of what I’ll do to her, but more afraid of what she might do to me. Staining her name with senseless violence? It’s easy enough to cover up with the town in our pockets, but it’s not the way we work, and that’s enough for her.

“Move.” She says, her voice like velvet ice.

Looking over his shoulder West moves to the side in one step still partially blocking me, but that does nothing to refrain her from causally moving in front of me. G tenses when her hard gaze falls to him and the disdain in them reflecting back at him. A stone settles behind my ribcage with the move of her hands knowing the itch is there. When her eyes fly back to me, her red polished fingers lash out and strike me across the face. Shoes screeching across the concrete floor signal the crowd dissipating behind us. She doesn’t spare them a glance, instead tossing out a threat as if she were saying goodbye to a long lost friend.

“Speak of this and your tongues will be cut from your mouths.” Her words are venom.

West spins with the threat and comes to her side with a wide toothed smile, but I see the strain. I don’t have time for this shit.

“I don’t know what you’re doing here, but we don’t need you.” I state.

Moving to the edge of the ring to grab my bag, I hear her trying to follow, but West must stop her because the person stepping into my back is my size.

“G, don’t. I don’t want to fucking hear it. Until you have her back where she belongs, I don’t want a goddamn word falling from your mouth.” Slinging my bag over my shoulder I turn, “I left her to you and you lost her. Cole’s- “ I stop shaking my head.

I swallow past the lump in my throat. It takes monumental effort not to punch him in the face, driving his lip rings into his skin, making him hurt like I do. Clenching my fist I pull in a breath through my nose and squeeze my eyes close.

“Rye, I'll find her. I’ve already-” He cuts himself off.

Moving back a step, his eyes drop to the floor then move up to meet my hard stare.

“You what?”

His tongue slips out to play with the metal ring hooped through his lip.

Stepping forward I push into his chest, “Spit it the fuck out.”

“I called for a little help. They’ll be here tomorrow. I promised I’d find her and this is the only way I know how.” He leans into me, the fight coming back into his eyes, “She’s like a sister to me and I’m going to get her back. For you, for us. She’s a Stone through and through, no matter what her last name is. It may have taken you way too long to see it, but I’ve known from the first moment.”

I nod, letting his words sink in. “You’ve known huh?” I question, eyebrows raised.

“You can’t build the loyalty that girl was born with.”

He clasps my shoulder before moving past me to climb down from the ring. I follow suit and head for the stairs when West calls out to me.

“You know what today is Ryker. You can’t push it away any longer. Now that mom’s here, it’s time.”

I don’t turn, “Time for what?”

Rolling my shoulder to loosen up my muscles, it's the velvet voice that answers.

“You have three hours to clean up. We’ll take care of the disaster here, but son-” She pauses, waiting for me to turn, but I don’t. She lets out a heavy sigh, “Don’t let this mediocre shit happen again over a fling with a has been Kingston fallen princess. I’ve taught you better. This school has the best of the best in bloodline and you can have your pick. It’s time to step into your father’s shoes and I won’t allow the Kingston trash to tarnish this family’s name for a second time.”

I don’t give her the response she was pushing for, instead, I climb the stairs two at a time. It takes everything in me to hold back a retort, but I know she thrives on the bullshit, so I keep moving. G’s pacing on the phone outside when I step through the front door out into the bright sun. It’s barely five in the morning and the sun is out in full force. It takes a few beats for my eyes to fully adjust to the brightness, but once it does I take stock of the scene in front of me. The yard is marked with tire thread and torn up grass, the house and yard is littered with trash, and no one is in sight.

“I don’t fucking care. Handle it or I’ll do it for you, got it?” He snaps into the line.

Gio has never been one to refrain from speaking up and handling business. It’s why he’s been with us from the start. He’s loyal and strong. A fucking force. One that can and has matched my own when pushed. It’s the reason I hold so much respect for him. His hand runs through his black hair. He passes the SUV two more times before he stops at the hood and spins to meet me.

“No one can locate that bitch Jax. Little Savage seems to have lost her little pet and is now intent on passing the bullshit onto us so she can play detective for Kenna.” He spits.

I can see the weight he’s holding, the guilt eating at him, and it’s my fault he’s feeling it at all. Looking away, unable to look him in the face through my next words.

“This isn’t on you. It’s all on me. I’m the head of the family. It’s Stone business and she was my one blind spot. Cole, Kenna, dad. It’s all on me, brother.” The words taste like acid on my tongue.

Slipping my hands in my pockets, I feel the pack of cigarettes in my left one and pull them out. I place it between my lips, but come up short on a lighter. Patting my back pockets, I look to G, but see he’s already heading to me with a small metal lighter in hand. For a second, a flash of scarred skin and red blisters flash in my head.

My Killer.

Striking the flame, I puff until the end burns bright red.

“When is the funeral?” He asks, letting what I said go. He knows better than to push me too far right now.

“Three hours.”

Shaking his head, he drops the lighter into my hand and walks towards his car.

“Where are you headed?”

Opening the silver car door of the Audi, “To find our girl.”

I almost growl out mine, but he slams the door before the word can fall from my mouth. Climbing into the SUV, I head to the one place that I can feel my girl the most. I use the next three hours to prepare myself to do the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. Lay my little brother to rest while my girl is out there being put through god knows what kind of nightmares. The way she disappeared into thin air and no one has reached out for ransom or leverage means one thing. They wanted her for her, not for monetary gain. If they used her to get to us, she’d be plastered all over media sites and our phones would be ringing. It’s been silent. That means they took my girl to make her theirs.

The first mistake they made was underestimating the strength and fight she has running through her blood. The second is thinking I wouldn’t set the world on fire to find her, even if we both die in the process. Because even after the flames fade, our souls are singed together in the ashes.