Chapter 13
RYDER
Pacing the living room floor, my hands remain interlaced behind my neck to keep from beating the shit out of Hayden.
What the fuck was he thinking?
The second they walked through that door, I saw red.
Kelsey was covered in blood and embedded glass.
Jessie rushed her upstairs to clean her up.
If Kelsey had needed stitches, Hayden would be in the ground.
He’s my brother, but he allowed my Little Bird to get hurt, and that’s not something I can brush off.
“Ryder, man—” My head whips toward him, and my glare could burn holes through his head. He could have gotten my girl killed. I don’t give a fuck what happened between me and my Little Bird. That girl is mine!
“Save it!” I hiss.
“Just listen.” He pleads, arms held out wide in surrender.
“I trusted you to keep her safe!” I bite out, my hands now fisting at my sides.
“Not take her somewhere they could reach her and become distracted!” He flinches at my bitterness.
I’ve always had damn good control over my temper, but not when it comes to her.
Nothing about me is in control when she’s around. She’s my mind spiral.
Kelsey stands next to him, head down, chewing her lip like a kid in trouble waiting for their turn to be yelled at.
None of this is her fault.
Hayden knew the risk the second they walked into that bar. He should’ve brought her straight back here—not down a dead-end road like a damn idiot.
“I’m going out to clear my head. Don’t come looking for me.” I don’t bother looking at them. If I stay, I’ll do something I’d regret. Yanking my keys from the hook, I remote-start my Noire in the garage and have the door open and ready.
“Ryder!” Here the fuck we go. “Where in the hell do you think you’re going? Those guys could still be out there!”
“I’ve got it,” I say, sighing heavily as I crunch forward, sliding into the seat of my car. I reach for my door to close it, but a small hand holds it open. “Jessie—” I growl in warning.
Popping out her hip, she crosses her arms and steps into the door, further preventing me from shutting it. “It’s either I leave and clear my head, or I bash Hayden’s head into the wall,” I run my hands down my face. “Which, I really don’t want to do to my brother.”
My sister’s face softens, and I can tell she wants to hug me, but refrains, knowing I’m not a touchy person.
You could blame the severe lack of affection I experienced growing up.
I’ve always said that if I were to have kids, I would spend every waking moment with them and make sure they know what love feels like, but children aren’t in the cards for me. Not in this life.
“I’ve made a call. There’s extra security around the property.” Right after I received Hayden’s text, I called Teegan and had him assign more men to the house for the night.
Biting the inside of her lip, she hesitates before stepping out of the way. “Don’t do anything stupid.” She eyes me pointedly. She knows me too well. My answering smirk only made her glower at me harder.
There’s one place I always go when I need to get out of my head. It’s about a forty-minute drive from here, but it always does the trick—the speedway. Something about driving top speed frees all the built-up frustration.
I sit idle at the starting line and peer out at the track. Streetlights illuminate the dark asphalt, just the way I like it. There’s something about the darkness that eases my mind.
The smell of hot summer asphalt and burnt rubber from tonight’s race still lingers in the air.
It’s my favorite smell in the world—the smell of freedom and peace.
Exactly what I need tonight. My second favorite is Kelsey’s cherry vanilla perfume.
I shake my head to rid myself of the thoughts of her.
Shifting the car into gear, the engine roars as I speed off down the track.
Forty, sixty, eighty, one hundred. I track my speed as it jumps higher and higher with each passing second. Four seconds pass, and I’ve already surpassed a hundred and twenty miles per hour. The max speed is two hundred and eighty, but I don’t know if I’ll push that tonight.
I take the turns sharply, drifting around them until the oval track turns into nothing but a blur, and I’ve lost count of the laps I’ve made. Deciding this is enough, I slam the brakes, and my tires come to a screeching halt, sideways.
Although the car is stopped, I remain white-knuckling the steering wheel, while air punches in and out, burning my lungs.
Smoke billows from the pavement when I exit the Noire.
Propping my back against the side of the car, I gaze up at the star-filled sky.
Wondering what it’d be like to be a star just floating aimlessly in space.
No worries or responsibilities. Nobody hunting you and your family for doing what you need to do to survive.
Flipping open my pack of cigarettes, I pull one between my lips and light it up, inhaling the bitter smoke.
I make it my mission to kill every Viper myself.
Slit their throats and leave them to choke on their own blood.
They have no idea the war they’ve just started.
They call me Shadow for a reason. They’ll never see me coming, but they’d be fools not to expect me.
I park in the lower-level garages and head inside to the basement gym, shutting the door quietly behind me.
My eyes scan the room, hoping nobody is down here except me, and sure enough, all I find is my own reflection in the floor-to-ceiling wall mirror across the room.
It’s wild how quickly our cleaning staff can transform this room for parties and have all the equipment exactly where it was an hour later.
“How long ya been down here, man?”
My head snaps over my shoulder in his direction, staring at him as he casually shoves his hands in his front pockets and leans against the entryway.
My jaw pops as I fight myself from speaking shit I might regret later.
I grab the dumbbell beside my foot and break eye contact to resume lifting.
It would be better for me to ignore Hayden than to attempt a conversation.
I’m far too pissed to do that right now.
I sense him moving in closer, but I keep my eyes shut while I count each curl.
“Talk to me.” He urges.
Slowly lowering the weights to the padded flooring, I turn and straddle the bench. Facing him, my expression remains bored as I say, “Talk about what exactly?”
Tread lightly, Hayden. My outing tonight didn’t help as much as I had hoped it would, but I haven’t bashed his head into the brick wall yet, so I guess it did a little something.
“Whatever’s on your chest. You can’t walk around here pissed off forever. If you need to beat the shit out of me to make yourself feel better, do it. But you need to pull it together. It’s not fair to Kelsey, and you know it.”
“You no longer get to talk to me about Kelsey,” I growl, my pulse skyrocketing. It takes everything in me not to do what he invited me to. Hurt flashes across his hard face, but he quickly replaces his mask.
“You hurt her, Ryder, and then you think a cute little email is supposed to win her back?”
Ah, so this is what tonight was about. Ol’ Hayden had to swoop in to the rescue.
Saw his chance and took advantage of her.
He isn’t a relationship type of guy, and he admits to that.
He uses women for one-night stands, then it’s on to the next, so why the fuck is he suddenly hung up on Kelsey?
If he knows what’s good for him, he’ll keep his dick in his pants.
Kelsey is mine.
Hayden continues, drawing me from my thoughts. “Nah, fuck that part. Before that, you made sure she would see you with Lexie, because you were a jealous piece of shit!”
“Jealous.” I huff the word on a dry laugh.
“Oh, I’m not done. Then you decided to humiliate her in front of the entire society and cornered me into recording her, which I didn’t do by the way.
” He stands up, towering over me. Solid move, trying to make me feel smaller by forcing me to look up at him.
“I only pretended so you could get your little dose of arrogance for the night. So, as far as I’m concerned, Kelsey’s free game unless you grow the fuck up and acknowledge the storm you’ve brewed and fix it.
” Every word he speaks is sharper than the last, until he’s damn near spitting down on me.
“You should leave.”
“Yeah, and maybe I’ll ask Kelsey to join me.”
Standing, I prowl towards Hayden, the tips of my shoes pressed firmly against his, and I lean into his face.
“You fucking speak one more word to her and I’ll rip your tongue out, shoving it so far down your throat and watch you choke to death on it.
Don’t fuck with me.” He glares at me with pure hatred, but I can’t gather enough fucks to give.
I allowed him to speak what he needed to, but he’s pushed me too far.
“Fuck you, Ryder.” He snarls, backing away and leaving me in the silent basement.
Rubbing my fingers over my eyes, I squint at the morning sun peaking through the curtains.
Flicking my wrist, I light up the watch on my wrist and growl, smashing the pillow into my face as I throw myself backwards.
I wasn’t able to fall asleep until after three in the morning.
Not that you could even call that sleep.
Me and Hayden’s argument flashed through my mind, making me restless until I was more pissed than before I came to bed.
I can’t lie here all day avoiding my problems, so I grab a pair of grey sweats and pull them on before exiting my room. The sound of Kelsey’s giggle from downstairs has my feet pausing in the doorway. White-hot anger pulses through my veins when I hear his voice speaking next.
“What’ll we get into today, baby girl?”
My eye twitches.
Taking the steps two at a time, I slap a nonchalant smirk on my face and try to play it cool. “Sup, man.” I nod, firmly patting his shoulder as I walk past. His body stiffens under my touch, probably confused about my mood this morning.
Side-stepping Kelsey at the counter, I grab a water from the fridge and damn near sprint to get my running shoes on and out the door before she can spark up a conversation. My hand braces the doorknob when my phone rings in my pocket. I pull it out to find Jessie’s name lighting up the screen.
“What’s up?” I answer.
“What’s the soonest you can get here?” She asks right off the bat.
“Is something wrong?”
“Well, when I got to the office this morning, I found our hostage had woken up.”
“Okay,” I ask slowly.
“He’s quite the struggler. I guess he thought he could saw his hands and feet off with the chains.” She explains. I’d be irritated with his actions if it were me who had to clean it, but this is all Jessie.
“How’d that work out for ya big guy?” Her voice is muffled as she speaks, taunting Noelle in the background.
“I’m on my morning run, but I will be there as soon as I can. See what you can get out of him before I get there.”
“Okay.”
The morning sun beats down on my exposed back, and sweat drips from the hair hanging over my forehead as I run. I run until the only thing I can think about is how heavy my breaths come and how hard my heart pounds against my chest.
Early this morning, I sent my added security home since the Vipers didn’t make any attempts on my property. Later this evening, I’ll need to call in a meeting with Jess and Hayden to discuss when and how we are going to introduce Kelsey to the society.
A blacked-out Escalade slows, almost to a stop as they pass me by.
My eyes squint, trying to get a look inside, but the windows are too tinted.
My feet stomp the sidewalk as I come to a stop, staring at the suspicious vehicle while they creep past. I can feel the heat of somebody else’s stare from the tinted glass.
I’ve never seen this Escalade around here before, and the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
Not even a second later, tires screech, and they speed off down the road.