51. Ryker
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
RYKER
NOW
My siren has been quiet since her argument with Damon, and I don’t fucking like it.
I’ve never been particularly in tune with the emotions of others, but I feel Chloe’s in surround sound. It’s like when her heart hurts, mine aches right alongside it.
It was confusing at first, but I’ve learned not to question my own quirks.
Like the fact I can cut someone’s dick off without flinching.
Maybe I should cut Damon’s dick off and gift it to Chloe.
“Dude, why did your face get so murdery just now?” Ronan asks. He’s sitting across from me with Chloe’s head in his lap.
She curled up with him when they returned and promptly fell asleep as he brushed his fingers through her hair.
“I was thinking about maiming your brother,” I admit. “How do you think our girl would feel about receiving a dick in a box?”
His eyes widen for a moment before a deep laugh fills the warm cabin.
It’s just us in the living room, with the man in question sulking in his bedroom and Kingston making phone calls outside where the reception is better.
“You’re seriously unhinged, you know that right?”
I nod. “I like to think it’s one of the things that Chloe finds endearing.”
He chuckles as his eyes drop back to her sleeping face.
She’s so pretty when she’s asleep. Not that she’s not pretty all the time, because she absolutely is.
But when she’s asleep, she’s at peace. The weight of the world isn’t on her shoulders, and the danger that stalks us isn’t lingering at the back of her mind.
All her worries melt away and allow her to rest.
“What are we going to do if he is here to betray us?” Ronan asks, and I can’t help but smirk at the use of the word “us.”
He’s beginning to see at least the three of us as a unit.
“I have no issues killing him.” I shrug.
“She will, though. Even through everything he’s done to her, every cruel thing he’s said, she never stopped caring for him.”
I sigh. That’s just who Chloe is, though. She cares deeply for people, even the ones that hurt her. The two men not in this room are prime fucking examples of that.
Kingston abandoned her during the hardest time in her life and then kidnapped her when she was vulnerable, keeping her hostage and refusing to allow anyone to speak to or see her until she married him.
And Damon is Damon. He’s an asshole who has been responsible for far too many of her tears as far as I’m concerned.
I wonder if I could carve out the eyeballs of every person that’s ever made her cry. That would be a nice gift…right?
“There it is again,” Ronan comments, dragging my attention back to him. “The unhinged look like you’re plotting someone’s death.”
“I am.”
“Life is never going to be boring, that’s for damn sure.”
There it is again. His acceptance of at least the three of us.
It allows the part of me that’s terrified of losing Chloe to settle. She wants all four of us, that’s something I am absolutely certain of.
But if the other two won’t come to the party, I think the younger Lombardi and I can make her happy.