Chapter 2 Ryker
RYKER
“Goddamn it.” Axel folded his hand and slumped back in his chair.
I smirked, pulling the chips toward me with deliberate slowness, stacking them in perfectly neat columns in the way I knew would annoy him.
Annoying Axel was always a plus.
“That’s your fifth win in a row,” Blake accused.
“What can I say?” I shrugged, shuffling the deck. “I’m having a lucky night.”
Lucky didn’t begin to cover it. These nights at the mansion with the men I considered brothers were the highlight of my week.
We’d formed this bond back in college, just five guys who clicked over shared late-night study sessions and terrible cafeteria food.
But that friendship became something deeper, something unbreakable, when our friend Knox was dragged away from our fraternity house in handcuffs and charged with murder.
While everyone else in our college turned their backs on Knox and demanded we cut ties without even understanding what happened, we made a vow. We’d stick together no matter what.
That loyalty had shaped all of us. Made us who we were: a group of found family, self-named the Sinners and Saints Club.
“So, how’s the new firm going?” Blake asked. “Land any new clients this week?”
“Actually, yeah. Three consultations lined up for Monday.”
“Three whole clients?” Axel arranged his new cards. “Slow down there, hotshot. Leave some innocent people for the rest of us.”
I flipped him off, but I was grinning. This was how Axel showed support—through relentless mockery.
“Hey, three consultations—it’s three more than Patterson thought you’d get,” Jace pointed out, tossing chips into the pot.
“You should’ve seen that asshole when I left Preston I probably should’ve thought about that before becoming a criminal defense lawyer. But when one of your closest college friends gets sentenced for murder, that leaves a mark on a young, impressionable mind.
So, yeah, when Knox had been arrested, I’d changed majors. Went to law school. Vowed to make sure everyone got a real defense.
And it worked that way for a while. Until it didn’t.
I learned the hard way what happens when you fight for the wrong person. Innocent blood spilled because I believed a lie.
Never. Again.
After that one devastating case, I couldn’t go back. Couldn’t defend people who might …
I swallowed down the pain.
You’d think someone in my shoes might not want to hang out with these morally gray men.
And sure, I was morally gray, too, if you considered how I’d wanted to beat the man who assaulted my sister or how I’d stood by friends who had taken lives.
But they had been protecting loved ones, and that entire journey had only solidified something about myself: that I lived by a strict moral code.
I didn’t steal. Didn’t cheat. And that violence my friends displayed was only justified when they were protecting someone.
Even then, I’d never take a life myself.
Ever.
Beat my sister, Tessa’s, assailant with a bat? Sure. But murder? No.
Point was, I started my own firm for all the right reasons.
“I don’t defend killers. Period. Only the innocent.” I took a swig of my scotch.
“Look, you’re doing what most lawyers won’t,” Blake said. “That counts for something.”
“Tell that to my accountant,” I muttered.
“Screw the accountant,” Jace said. “You need capital, we’re here. You know that.”
“I know.” I did know. They’d all offered to invest, multiple times. “But I need to prove I can do this myself.”
“You don’t have to prove anything to anyone,” Blake said quietly.
“Yeah, I do.” I set down my cards. “To every asshole who laughed. To Patterson and his country club buddies who think I’m playing pretend lawyer. Hell, to myself.”
“The guy who only defends innocent people,” Jace said with a grin. “It’s actually brilliant marketing when you think about it. Everyone says they’re innocent, but when a lawyer stakes his entire reputation on it? That means something.”
I felt that familiar fire in my chest. The one that kept me going when the phone didn’t ring for days. When bills piled up. When former colleagues sent passive-aggressive LinkedIn messages about “interesting career pivots.”
“You’re going to prove them all wrong,” Blake said, raising his glass. “Those Preston & Associates pricks are going to be reading about you in the paper one day.”
“Damn straight,” Axel agreed, raising his own drink. “To Ryker and his bleeding-heart practice.”
“To actually giving a damn,” Jace added, with just enough edge to show he meant it.
I raised my glass, grateful for these idiots who never once questioned my sanity. “To having friends who don’t think I’m completely insane.”
“Bold of you to assume we don’t think you’re insane.” Axel laughed. “We’re just too invested in this disaster to bail now.”
We settled into the familiar rhythm of betting and bluffing. The tension gradually bled from my muscles, replaced by the pleasant buzz of expensive whiskey and even more expensive company.
A few hands later, Axel leaned back with that expression that warned me he was about to stir the pot. “So, exactly how long have you been interested in Faith?”
Blake’s eyes snapped to me. “What?”
I couldn’t help the smile tugging at my lips. Blake’s sister, Faith, had started coming around our group recently, and she was …
God, where did I even start? Faith was unlike any woman I’d ever met.
Blake folded his hand with deliberate slowness, like a predator preparing to strike. “Dude, that’s my sister.”
I couldn’t help my smirk. “How does it feel?”
“This is different,” Blake insisted.
“You’re married to my sister,” I reminded him. “You really don’t have the moral high ground here.”
Blake opened his mouth, then snapped it shut.
“Besides,” I said, studying my cards, “I haven’t asked her out yet.”
Technically, we weren’t dating. But calling what we’d been doing “hooking up” felt wrong, too shallow for what was happening between us.
Those stolen moments belonged to just us, wrapped in secrecy because she wasn’t ready to name it, acknowledge it, or risk making it real, only to watch it shatter.
I got it. I could wait. Because what I felt for Faith went deeper than anything I’d ever experienced, and I was pretty damn sure she felt it too.
She just needed time to catch up to what I already knew in my heart was inevitable. That we were meant to be.
“But I do find her … intriguing.”
“Intriguing,” Axel repeated with an exaggerated eyebrow wiggle. “Is that what the kids are calling it these days?”
“Out of all the women in the world, we’re seriously going to what, swap sisters?” Blake groaned. “Go find someone else and leave my sister alone.”
“Sucks having the shoe on the other foot, doesn’t it?” I challenged instead of answering directly.
Blake rolled his eyes. “That’s completely different.”
“Really? Because I seem to remember you falling for my sister against my explicit wishes.” I raised an eyebrow. “And if I recall correctly, I told you to stay away from Tessa multiple times.”
“You eventually came around,” Blake muttered.
“After you nearly got yourself killed, saving her life.” I leaned back, enjoying watching him squirm. “The guy who fell in love with my sister has no right to look like I shit in his Cheerios for being intrigued by his.”
“Leave her alone, Ryker,” Blake snarled. “She’s been through hell. The last thing she needs is someone showing her affection, just to rip it away.”
There it was again, those hints about Faith’s mysterious past. I knew the basics.
She and Blake had lost their parents in a car accident when they were young.
They’d been thrown into the foster system.
After Blake killed a foster father in self-defense, they got separated.
But there were shadows in her eyes that suggested the story went much deeper than that.
Sometimes, I wondered if Blake even knew all of it.
“Why would I rip it away?”
He glared at me. “Relationships end for all kinds of reasons. She’s not in any position to have her heart broken. She’s still healing.” With one final glower, he demanded, “Stay away from her.”
Yeah, about that …
Keeping what was happening between Faith and me under wraps was getting harder.
Especially around Blake. Every time her name came up, I had to school my expression, measure my words, pretend my pulse didn’t kick up at the mere mention of her.
The sneaking around had been thrilling at first, but now?
Now it was starting to feel like a weight pressing against my chest, making it harder to breathe.
We already had moments together that I’d replay over and over in my mind. I hadn’t planned on keeping my growing feelings a secret from Blake forever. But I wasn’t going to say anything until I figured out what the hell was happening between Faith and me.
Something that started before I’d even met her.