Chapter 25
Penny
Ryder is giving me whiplash with his mood swings and multiple personalities. One minute, he is swooping in to save me, and the next, he is keeping me locked in a room.
In one breath, he tells me, I like taking care of you. The next, he tells me, you owe me, I take payment in the form of fucking. That’s it.
Which one is it? Am I really that desperate I’m imagining there is something else between us?
There are these moments when I’m positive there is more. The way he kissed me back and held me to keep me warm. The way he washed me in the shower and then let me wash him in return.
It’s been three days, and I feel like I’m going crazy. Being locked in a windowless room doesn’t help. At least I have something to do now.
The first two days I spent going over the bookkeeping Maddox had given me. Tucker had been skimming money since he started running the numbers, but in the past, it was not a lot. Only recently, he has been getting greedy, taking more and more cash that didn’t belong to him.
Yesterday, Ryder made good on his words and brought me a laptop. I’ve been on it non-stop, using this time to fill out college and grant applications.
Ryder gets me breakfast each morning but leaves me here throughout the day. I wait for him to come back. Each day, I wait with anticipation for the door to open and for him to walk in. Today is no different.
Checking the time in the corner of the computer screen, I realize he’s been gone for a long time. It’s Saturday night, and the music from the bar is louder than usual. I try not to think about Ryder being there, drinking with his friends, and the naked women.
Jealousy wraps around my chest, making it feel tight and hard to breathe. I don’t want to imagine Ryder with another woman, but I’m not stupid. I have no claim on him.
When I hear the rattling of the key and the lock turn, I close my laptop and set it next to me on the bed. Expecting Ryder, I watch the door swing open, and a large body fills the frame. I suck in a sharp breath when I realize it’s not Ryder stepping in the room.
“Hello, Penny,” Maddox’s voice is clipped as he closes the door behind him.
I instinctively scoot back on the bed until my back is pressed firmly against the headboard. Maddox steps closer, a mischievous grin tucking on his lips.
“W-where is Ryder?” I ask, failing miserably to keep my voice even. His grin widens. He knows I’m scared of him, and he enjoys that thought. Men like him feed on it.
“Getting drunk. Having fun.” He sits down on the edge of the bed, and I pull my legs to my chest as much as I can.
“Why are you here?” I ask, knowing damn well that I won’t like the answer.
“Just wanted to ask you some questions. Ever since you walked into my bar, Ryder has been different. Distracted. You’re a weakness, and I can’t have that.”
“I’m sorry,” I say on autopilot. I’m not sure what I’m apologizing for exactly, but he clearly thinks this is my fault.
“You are the girl who got him sent to jail, aren’t you?”
I swallow hard, an enormous lump forming in my throat. “Y-yes.”
“I don’t know what game you are playing, but it’s going to stop now.”
“I’m not… I mean I don’t–”
“Shut up,” he growls, the raw anger in his voice making me flinch. “Let’s go. You’re coming with me.”
“Where are we going?”
Grabbing my arm, he gets to his feet and pulls me up with him. “You’re going to pay off your debt tonight, so you can be gone by the morning.”
“Please…” I beg, digging my heels into the floor as he drags me out of the room. “Please, don’t!” I say a little louder, but my pleading falls on deaf ears.
“You’re going to walk into that bar and give everyone a little show. Then you’re going to suck off whoever wants your lips wrapped around their dick, and when you’re done with that, you are going to walk out the front door and never come back. Are we clear?”
No, no, no! I shake my head profusely. Ryder said no one would touch me. He promised. My head tells me to believe him, to trust what he said, but my body isn’t convinced.
By the time we enter the bar, I’m in full on panic mode. My heart is racing, and I feel like I can’t breathe. I scan the room for Ryder, hoping, praying he is here, but all I see are unknown faces.
Maddox drags me through the bar area by my arm, and I’m reminded of the very first time I was here. The same fear I felt then is coursing through my veins now.
We get to the back of the bar, and that’s when I finally see him. Ryder is sitting at one of the tables, his hand wrapped around a beer bottle in front of him. He looks up, and his eyes find mine immediately.
“Ryder has finally agreed to share,” Maddox announces. “This is going to be her last night here, so make it count, boys.”
Appreciative cheers erupt around us while Ryder sits still like a stone statue.
For a split second, I think he is going to jump up and rip me away from his friend. I think he’ll save me, protect me like he promised, but he doesn’t move. His face giving nothing away. His glassy eyes void of emotions.
Hopelessness washes over me, threatening to pull me into the darkest waters to drown.
Maddox shoves me into the crowd, and hands I don’t know grope me. I try to get away, fight them off, but that only makes them grab me harder.
“There she is! I’ve been waiting for you, sweets,” someone slurs. I squeeze my eyes shut when he presses his face into the crook of my neck, licking my skin there.
I recoil, bile rising in my throat, making the man only laugh louder. Someone else comes up behind me and grinds himself against my ass. Another hand grabs my breast, kneading it painfully. A sob rips from my throat, and tears spring from my eyes.
“Cry for us,” someone whispers in my ear. “Makes my cock hard.”
A hand shoves into my pants, cruel fingers running over my panties, digging painfully into my sensitive flesh. I want to keep fighting, want to be strong and brave, but I know there is no use. That will only make it worse.
So, I do the only thing I can. I stop fighting, stop thinking, stop being present in this room. I let my mind go blank, letting darkness surround me. The voices get further away, their touch less painful. I’m about to be gone, in the place I visit during my darkest hours.
Just before I close myself off completely, something happens around me. The fingers between my legs disappear, the hands groping my breasts vanish, and I’m moved around the room forcefully.
I’m slammed against a brick wall, hard enough to knock the air out of me. Before I have the chance to regain my bearings, a large hand wraps around my throat, holding me in place.
My hands come up, pressing against the chest of my attacker, but he moves as much as the wall behind me would.
My eyes fly open, but I can’t see anything besides the dark fabric covering the shoulder right in front of me. I suck in a breath, taking in a familiar male scent. Ryder.
“Calm the fuck down,” he growls. His lips so close, I can feel his breath against the shell of my ear.
As soon as I hear his voice, my fingers curl into his shirt, pulling him closer instead of shoving him away.
His grip around my neck is firm, but not enough to make it hard to breathe. Instead of me panicking more, it calms me.
His body is pressed up against mine, and only then do I realize what he is doing. With the wall behind me, there is only him. He surrounds me, and no one can touch me—no one but him.
To everyone else, it might look like he is scaring me, choking me, crowding my space. But Ryder knows how to use his body to soothe my fears, and that’s exactly what he is doing.
I relax into his hold, trusting him with my body, believing that he is going to protect me from everything bad.
I don’t fight him when he pulls me away, and I don’t fight him when he picks me up and throws me over his shoulder.
Wherever he is taking me, whatever he is going to do, I know I’ll be safe.