“Life doesn’t always turn out how we want it.” His gaze lands on the picture of him and Mom. “Trust me when I say if you love someone, you will do whatever you can for them.” He turns back to me, and his eyes are sad. “Go find that girl and beg her to forgive you. Then man up and do what you have to do to keep her.”
“I don’t know if I can, Dad.” I drop my head into my hands and hear him stand up.
He sits beside me on the bed. “Do you love her?”
I swallow the lump in my throat. “Yes.”
“Good,” he says, and I can hear the smile in his voice. He always was the biggest supporter of Les and me, mainly because he was the only one I ever told how I felt. “Girls like Alessa are rare.” He reaches over and squeezes my shoulder. “I won’t tell you what to do, but I hope you make the right choice.”
He squeezes my shoulder again and walks silently out of the room, shutting the door softly behind him.
I lay back on the bed, throwing an arm over my eyes. I’m pissed at myself for spilling all that hateful bullshit, but I’m also pissed at her and have no right to be, which just pisses me off even more.
Can I do what dad said? Can I do what I need to keep her, or would I fuck it up even more when it all comes crashing down because I’m a jealous bastard? I remember how I felt when she kissed Gage in front of me, and I hated that feeling. I wanted to beat the shit out of him for eventhinkingabout touching her, and that was just a kiss. What about when he was inside of her, and I was there? If it wasn’t Gage, what about Dex? Holden? Leo?
My anger immediately flares when I think about Leo. I wish Les would have just let me fucking shoot him like I wanted. But that wouldn’t have mattered. I still have three other guys as competition.
Did it have to be competition, though? There is no doubt Les deserves the world laid at her feet. Would there be any harm in having other guys help with that? Help me worship at her feet like the queen she is? I could probably handle the other guys; the real issue is Leo. Could I watch Leo touch her, or would I put a bullet between his eyes?
I reach for my phone and try Les again, but it goes straight to voicemail. I suck it up and dial Gage.
“What?” he answers on the third ring.
“Where’s Les?”
“I don’t know,” he answers shortly, probably still pissed about the other day.
“What the fuck do you mean you don’t know?” I say, standing up from the bed. Didn’t she go home?
“What I fucking mean is, I sent her to come to get you, but instead, I get a call from Zane saying he saw her hauling ass down the highway, nearly killing herself. What the fuck happened?” He sent her to me? Zane called him? I grind my teeth over that name.
“I fucked up, Gage,” I tell him honestly.
“You’re damn right you did because now I’m standing on the side of the highway with a smashed cell phone and a missing Les.”
He must have tried to call her and had Holden find it when it went to voicemail. Even turned off, he could still track it to the last place it was when it was powered on. Then it hits me what he said. “What do you mean missing?”
“Missing as in, we can’t fucking find her now!” he yells. I hear him slam his car door and then hear several blowing horns. “You better pray to everything that we fucking find her in one piece, Ryder.”
I ignore that because I believe he will follow up with whatever threat he was about to throw out. “Her car has tracking,” I point out.
“No shit,” he says harshly. “Holden is trying to pin it down now.”
“Where are you? I’ll come to you,” I say, already heading down the steps.
“No. I don’t want to see your fucking face. You’ve done enough.”
The line goes dead, but I’m already jamming my feet in my boots. I grab the key to my bike and run back to the garage door. As soon as I swing my leg over my motorcycle, my phone rings, the display reading Micah.
“Hello?”
“You want to tell me why my niece is here crying her fucking eyes out, and the only word she can say is Ryder?” he grinds out.Shit.
“We fought earlier.”Understatement of the fucking century, Ryder.He is going to fucking kill me. “I’m on my way,” I tell him, firing my bike up.
“You better be coming here to fix her because if not, I’ll rip your intestines out through your throat and strangle you with them.”
I wince when the line goes dead, then dial Gage.
