CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
RYAT
SHE STIFFENS, HER screaming stops, but she’s breathing heavily.
“It’s me, Blake,” I say again. Then I reach over and flip on the light. She blinks several times before her pretty blue eyes meet mine.
I run my hand down the side of her bloody and duct-taped face. “I’m going to take this off, okay? But you have to stay quiet.”
She nods, blinking, and tears run down her face.
I rip it off all four layers as quick as I can.
“Oh, my God! Ryat, what … how …?”
I slap my hand over my mouth. “We have to be quiet,” I tell her.
She nods once again, and I remove my hand. She sucks in a deep breath, but does as I say. “That’s my good girl.”
She whimpers, and I pull her from the wall. Digging my hand into her front shorts pocket, I pull out a handcuff key and spin her around, undoing them.
“Ryat …” She sobs softly, her shaking hands coming up to her mouth to try to quiet it. “I don’t …”
“I’ll explain it later, okay?” Before she can explain I kiss her forehead. Her hands come up and dig into the material of my shirt. “Fuck, I’ve missed you, Blake,” I whisper and pull her into me, hugging her tightly.
“I love you,” she sobs, digging her face into my chest.
“I love you too.” I pull away, grabbing her tear-streaked face. “I need you to stay here.”
“What? No!” Her eyes widen as panic takes over her features. “Ryat … no.”
“I need you to stay here. In the dark. I’ll be back, okay?”
“Please.” She chokes out, her knees give out. Before she can fall, I grab her, gritting my teeth at the pain it causes in my side to help her to the floor. I popped several pain pills on the plane ride here, but they’re not really doing any good.
“I promise, Blake. Look at me!” I order, roughly gripping her face. I wait for her eyes to focus on mine. “I promise we’ll be going home soon. But I have to get Matt.”
“But Tyson—”
“He came with me, Blake. He’s here to help us.”
I lay in my hospital bed waiting for Phil to return with my pain pills so we can get the fuck out of here, and I hold my cell to my ear. “Hello?”
“Hey Ty, I ….”
“Fuck, Ryat! It’s good to hear your voice.”
“I need a favor,” I say getting to the point of this call. I don’t have the luxury of time right now.
“Name it,” he comments without hesitation.
I’ve been unfair to him. None of what happened to Blake that night at Blackout was his fault. Plus, he was the one I got the tracker idea from after she ran from me. Let’s just hope I don’t find what he found when I get to her.
She sniffs and nods quickly. I turn off the light and lock the door before shutting it behind me so Matt can’t enter without kicking the damn thing down.
“Here we come. Ready or not.” I hear Matt call out with excitement.
I pull the Glock out from behind my waistband and grip it tightly in both of my hands. It’s going to take everything in me not to shoot him between the fucking eyes, considering what he’s done with Blake. I almost want to say fuck the confessional and just get rid of him right here and now. But that would be the easy way out for him.
“Hey Ty?” Matt’s voice carries down the hall.
“Yeah?” He asks.
“How’d you get in?” Matt questions and my teeth grind. Fuck! I thought we’d have more time. We were planning on Matt being more into the chase than wonder how Tyson got into the home.
“Tunnels.” Comes his clipped answer.
I come to the end of the hall and see Matt still standing in the living room, hands on his hips. “When did you get the chance to be alone with Blakely that you were able to put a tracker in her, without her knowing?” He wonders.
“Really, Matt?” He barks, standing behind the couch, pulling a collar and leash out of his bag. “We going to play a hundred questions or are we going to play with the bitch?”
My teeth grind at Ty mentioning touching my wife, but I understood this was going to be needed. Doesn’t mean I like it though.
“Oh, we’ll play.” Matt assures him. “But you won’t be touching her.”
What the fuck?my eyes widen when I see someone enter the room behind Tyson. Rushing out into the living room, I lift my gun and point it at the man. “Don’t fucking move.”
Matt spins around to face me, shock covering his features. “Ryat.” He growls.
“Get the fuck back.” I order the man who holds a gun to the back of Ty’s head.
“Jesus!” The man hisses but stays where he’s at. “You can’t do one fucking job, Matt.”
Matt’s jaw tightens. “He was dead when I left him, Dad.”
“Dad?” Ty chuckles, his body softening, no longer finding the man behind him a threat. “You were in on this too?”
“Of course, he was.” Matt snorts. “She was going to kill him.”
My brows pull together. “What does that mean?” I bark. “Why would Blake …”
“Her initiation.” Ty interrupts me, spinning around to face Jake Winston. “You were the one supposed to be at Blackout. You’re the reason Matt was even there in the first place.”
He presses the gun into Ty’s chest and shoves him backward into the couch. “That bitch has become more of a problem than pussy should be.” Jake snaps.
Blake had only ever received her first text the night before initiation. I had checked her cell in the hospital and never saw where she got another one with her assignment details the night of the attack. Now I know why. That’s why Matt didn’t kill her, or take her, it was a diversion. He was just trying to save his father.
“Why would the Lords want you dead, Jake?” I demand. “What have you done?”
He gives me a chilling smile. “it’s what I’m going to do.” Lifting the gun, he places it between Ty’s eyes.
I pull the trigger, the sound of my gun firing, rings out in the room, shooting his hand. Jake cries out, the gun falls from his hands and Ty knocks a fist into his face.
Matt turns and charges me. I pull the trigger again, but he’s already on me, the gun firing off into the ceiling as he picks my feet up off the floor. He slams my back into the coffee table, and it takes my breath away. Pain shoots up my side and a burning sensation follows that makes me see dots floating around.
Fuuuccckkkk!
“Don’t worry, Ryat.” He laughs in my face. “I’m going to make your wife my whore.”
No! “Over my dead body.” I grind out.
Laughing he ignores that and adds. “I won’t be stingy like you. I’ll make sure that everyone else gets a taste as well.” Getting up off me, I start coughing, sucking in a ragged breath. I feel wetness on my back and know that the impact has done something to my already injured body. I’m bleeding out. Probably ripped open my stitches. I might die right here and now, but I will take Matt with me.
Gritting my teeth, I land a punch in his face, knocking him back, knowing I’m running out of time to do what I came to get done.
BLAKELY
I EXIT THEbathroom at the sound of gunshots. Ryat told me to stay here but I can’t. He’s alive! He came for me. I have to help him. In any way that I can.
Running down the hall, I hear people struggling—men grunting. Coming to a stop, I see Tyson kicking a man huddled on the living room floor by the couch. He stops and the man rolls onto his back, moaning in pain, face covered in blood and cradling a bloody hand to his chest.
Tyson leans down, retrieving a gun from the floor and straightens, pointing it down at who I now recognize is Mr. Winston—Matt’s dad. “If the Lords want you dead, then you already are.” Tyson fires the gun at him, shooting Jake in the face.
I yelp, jumping back and my ears now ringing.
“DAD!” Matt yells, running over to him.