Chapter Twenty-Seven
Ellie
“How could you not tell me this?”
I knew Jessie would be mad when she found out. But she also would have been mad if I’d told her. When Jessie got mad, she did things she shouldn’t.
“I’m sorry, but I couldn’t have you being all Jessie and going off half-cocked.”
“What are you talking about? I don’t do that.”
I stared at my best friend. She knew I was right.
“Ok, ok. So maybe, occasionally, I have… sometimes done things without thinking,” she admitted. “But you should have told me. And you definitely should have told Ryder.”
“I know. I just… they haven’t found me in two years. I figured once they did, I would already be married, and it would be a non-issue. It’s still a non-issue. Sebbie is here, but my parents still don’t know where I am. I know Sebbie won’t tell them.”
“So, how awful is this guy they are trying to get you to marry?” Jessie asked.
I shuddered just thinking about Jeremy St. Matthews.
“That bad, huh?”
“Worse. He’s ten years older than me, but he looks like he is fifty. And not the hot fifty you see on TikTok.”
“There’s more, isn’t there?”
“Yea. He’s been engaged three times, but no one knows what happened to those women.”
“Oh, that’s not good.”
My phone rang, and I walked to the kitchen to answer it. Grabbing it off the counter, I once again neglected to look at the screen before answering.
“Hello.”
“Miss Livingston?” the voice said.
“Why do you keep calling me? I told you already you have the wrong number.”
I was about to disconnect the call when I heard the words that made my blood run cold.
“Ellie, wait. Danny gave me your number.”
“What?” I whispered.
I looked over at Jessie as she slowly stood from her place on the couch. Walking over to me, she mouthed, What’s wrong?
“I don’t want to frighten you, but I have been trying to reach you. Danny gave me your information to reach out.”
“Why didn’t he call me himself?” I asked, skeptical that he was telling the truth.
“He’s kind of tied up at the moment. He has his own shit to deal with. I’ve been trying to reach you for weeks. I found your brother. He’s in Diamond Creek, Nebraska. You need to get there fast because your parents and St. Matthews will do whatever they can to force this marriage.”
“My brother? Sebbie?”
This guy had been calling me for months to tell me where my brother was. I could have known months ago.
“Yea, now he is a member of a motorcycle club, but I don’t want that to scare you. He can keep you safe; you just have to get to him.”
A giggle escaped from me. That turned into a laugh, and before I knew it, I was bent over laughing so hard I had tears running down my face. Jessie looked at me like she wanted to have me committed.
I couldn’t stop though.
No matter how hard I tried.
“Ellie? Are you ok? ELLIE!”
“Sorry.” I coughed, trying to get my laughter under control. “I’m sorry. This is just too much. I am in Diamond Creek and have been for months. I found my brother yesterday.” I guffawed.
“Ok, good. Will he let you stay at the clubhouse?”
I looked at Jessie, who I could tell was impatient and wanted to know what was going on.
“Yes, I am sure staying at the clubhouse won’t be a problem. Thank you for calling me. What is your name?” I asked.
“It’s Dante.”
“Dante Sharp? Why didn’t you tell me that the first time you called?”
Dante? Jessie mouthed.
“Because you wouldn’t confirm it was you. Listen, Ellie, I have to go. If you need anything, call me at this number.”
“Thank you, Dante.”
I disconnected the call and slumped down on the stool. I looked up at Jessie and was at a loss for words.
“That was Dante? What the hell did he want?”
“He called to tell me he found my brother. Can you believe it? He’s been calling me for months, and I kept telling him he had the wrong number because he shouldn’t have been able to connect me to my pen name.”
“Some random person has been calling you for months and you didn’t tell me? Dammit, Ellie! You can’t keep things from me.”
“He wasn’t a random person. It was Dante.”
“You didn’t fucking know that!” she hollered.
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“Sorry isn’t fucking good enough, Ellie.”
I knew she was right. Jessie was my best friend. The one person I could always count on. I should have told her.
“You’re right, Jessie. All I can do is promise not to keep things from you again.”
“Ugh! Why are you so agreeable?” she shouted, throwing her hands in the air.
Now I was confused. First, she was mad because I kept things from her. Now, she was mad because I agreed I shouldn’t have kept things from her.
“Ellie, I love you. But you have got to grow a backbone.”
My mouth dropped open as I stared at her.
What the hell?
“Jessie, I have a backbone.”
“No, you have a spine, not a backbone. You need a stick shoved up your ass so you don’t fold so easily.”
“That’s not fair. I don’t fold easily.”
“Ellie, you are too nice. You let people walk all over you, including me.”
“I didn’t realize being nice was a bad thing. You said there should be more people like me,” I said, standing from my seat and walking to the couch.
I curled up in the corner and pulled the blanket over me. I didn’t want to talk about this anymore. Maybe I did fold too easily, but I didn’t like being mean. I didn’t like confrontation.
“Ellie—”
She closed her mouth when the door opened, and Ryder walked in. He looked between Jessie and me and asked, “Everything ok?”
“No,” Jessie said. “Not only was she keeping the forced marriage a secret, but someone has been calling her for months.”
“Jessie!”
“Who has been calling you?” Ryder asked.
“A friend. I had been ignoring the calls because I didn’t know what he wanted and thought it was someone connected to my parents. But he was calling to tell me he had found Sebbie. Joke’s on me ’cause I found him yesterday.”
“Ellie, we need to talk about that.”
“Where are the girls?” I asked, looking behind him.
“They’re still with my parents.”
Ryder came over and sat on the coffee table in front of me. I looked him over and noticed something was different.
I smiled widely at him.
“You’re wearing your cut,” I whispered.
He looked down at his chest.
“Yea.”
“You don’t look happy about it.”
He took a deep breath. “It isn’t that. King is an asshole and a control freak. He wants us at the clubhouse tonight. Some things have happened that I need to tell you.”
“I can go,” Jessie said.
“No. Stay, Jessie. You should hear this too.”
Ryder’s tone and his words worried me.
Jessie sat down next to me on the sofa. Reaching over, she took my hand and held it between hers, took a deep breath and said, “Ok, let’s have it.”
Ryder looked at me, reaching out and holding my other hand.
“Your parents know where you are.”
“What? How?”
They couldn’t know. How did they find me? I pulled my hands back from them both. I pulled my knees up and wrapped my arms around them.
“Someone took a video of you yelling at Jingles yesterday.”
I shot a glare at Jessie.
“See what happens when I don’t fold! If I had just been nice when I saw Sebbie instead of losing my temper, my parents wouldn’t know where I was.”
I threw the blanket off me and got up from the couch.
“I need to go. Where are my shoes? I need to hitch up my trailer and leave before they get here.”
“Ellie, remember what Dante said? You need to go to your brother.”
“Who the fuck is Dante?” Ryder yelled.
“The guy who called to tell her where Sebbie was. Someone we went to school with. He told her she needed to go to the clubhouse with her brother. That he could protect her.”
“No, I am not pulling Sebbie into this.”
“He is already in this, Ellie,” Ryder said.
“I can leave. I can move somewhere else and keep moving like I have for the last two years. I stayed here too long; that’s why they found me. I shouldn’t have come here until the book signing. I shouldn’t have gotten close to anyone. I would have been gone today if I had just stayed the course and done things like I always did.”
I moved around his apartment, looking for my shoes. I needed to gather my things and get back to my trailer.
“You promised you wouldn’t leave,” Ryder growled. “You promised me you would stay with me, with the girls.”
“I’m sorry. I can’t stay. I can’t let them find me until after I’m married.”
“Marry me.”
I stopped what I was doing and looked at him.
“What?” I whispered.
“Marry me,” he repeated.
“Ryder—”
“I told you we could go as fast or as slow as you wanted, but this was my plan as soon as I got my head out of my ass. To make you my wife. We’re just moving the timeline up.”
“We can’t get married before my parents get here,” I said, shaking my head.
“We can.” Ryder took my hands, pulling me back to the couch. “I told King and Jingles both I wanted to marry you. There is no waiting period in Nebraska. We can go to the clerk’s office first thing in the morning, get the license, and then go to the courthouse. That’s why King wants us to stay at the clubhouse. He wants us to have an escort to the clerk’s office. We aren’t taking any chances. Judge Markham can have us married by ten o’clock.”
“What if they get here before then? The’ll find a way to stop it,” I argued.
“They can’t. Nav checked the available flights. They can’t leave New York before ten a.m. their time, which is eight a.m. here. The flight, if they get on it, will take at least three hours. We have checked every possible scenario.”
“I don’t know.”
“There’s more,” he said, his eyes locked on mine. “Your parents called the sheriff’s office. They faxed a report to the sheriff from a doctor saying you were mentally unstable and a danger to yourself and others.”
“WHAT?”
My heart started beating faster and my breathing stuttered. I should have known they would stop at nothing to get their way. Money had a way of getting you what you wanted.
“Ellie, look at me,” Ryder said.
Ryder placed his hands on either side of my face, forcing me to focus on him.
“We will fix this. Trust me. We have already worked through everything. That is another reason King wants us at the clubhouse. One of the brothers is a doctor. King has called him to do a psych eval on you.”
“I’m not—”
“I know you aren’t. King knows you aren’t. We need this from a licensed doctor before we get married, so your parents can’t petition the courts to have it annulled. I told you, Ellie, we have thought of everything.”
I looked over at Jessie, who had been quiet.
“What do you think?” I asked her.
Jessie looked at me, then at Ryder.
“Do you love her? Or are you doing this to protect her?”
“I love her. I’ve already told her I loved her. But I am pushing up the timeline to protect her,” he said, never taking his eyes off me.
“What about you?” she asked, looking at me.
“What about me?”
Her shoulders slumped, her head tilted to the side, and the look she gave me said she knew I understood what she meant.
“I love him,” I admitted, my eyes on Ryder.
“Then, what’s the question?”
“Do you think I should do this?”
“That was rhetorical, Ellie. What I think doesn’t matter. You know I will support whatever decision you make.”
I looked back at Ryder. I loved him. I loved his girls. I wanted us to be a family.
But it was so fast.
Could this be considered duress? Was it wise to make a decision under these circumstances? Marriage should be about love, not safety. It should be about two people making a commitment to spend their lives together. Not to solve a problem.
“I need to talk to Sebbie,” I whispered, biting my lip.
Something flashed in Ryder’s eyes. Something that looked like disappointment, or maybe sadness. Whatever it was, it was there and gone before I could know for sure.
“Ok, let’s go to the clubhouse,” he said, standing as he held his hand out to me. I took it and got to my feet.
“Jessie, could you go to the trailer and pack Ellie a bag? Then meet us at the clubhouse. Do you know where it is?”
“I do. Give me an hour,” she said, then walked out the door without a word to me.
“Ryder.”
“Come on. Let’s go see your brother.”