I don’t trust her not to make a break for it, and there is no way I can catch her in that car. “Leo is going to drive my car home, and I’ll drive yours.” I stick my hand out for her key fob, and it surprises the shit out of me when she slaps it into my hand.
Point one for Gage, bitches.
“You trust me in your car?” Leo asks with a raised eyebrow.
I shrug and grin. “Make a break for it, and I’ll send Dex after you.”
Leo visibly shudders. “I’m good. Thanks.”
“Scared of Dex?” Les snorts.
“He’s the size of a fucking building!” Leo argues, stretching his arms, trying to encompass how big Dex is.
Les giggles, and it’s such a relieving sound. “Fair point. I would say he’s harmless.” She shrugs. “But he’s not”
“That’s really reassuring, Baby,” Leo remarks, but I can see the relief in his eyes.
Something is going on, and I don’t think it has everything to do with us. I’m sure this is playing a part, but there’s something bigger.
I pull the door open, ushering her with my arm around her shoulders. She stops dead in her tracks when she sees Ryder sitting in Micah’s living room, head buried in his hands. He looks up, and I can see the pain in his eyes from hurting her. I want to be mad at him, and I am for making her cry, but I know what it feels like to want her and not have her. The only difference is I figured it out sooner that Les isn’t a one-guy kind of girl; she needs all of us, whether she wants to admit to that or not. But we need her too. She’s the glue holding us all together, keeping us from losing our shit and falling over the edge.
She shrugs my arm off and marches over to him. He stares herdead in the eyes, showing her everything written on his face without the mask he usually wears. He opens his mouth, and she holds her hand up, halting whatever he’s going to say; he snaps it closed. That always makes me want to laugh.
Not the right time.
“I’ll talk; you’re going to listen,” she says, and he nods. “Never in my life have I felt like I did when I left your dad’s house, and I willnotfeel like that again.” She stops, and he nods again. “You want to be a part of my life? You do not get to judge how I choose to live it. If you want to be with me, you need to accept I’m with them too. You need to decide, Ryder, because I can’t mentally handle thinking you don’t want to be in my life.” She wipes angrily at the tears sliding down her face again.
He stands up and takes her face in his hands. “I want to be with you, and I’m willing to accept that in whatever way I can.” He looks over at Leo, and I see his resolve harden, making some mental decision. Then he looks back to Les. “Inwhateverway I can,Il mio sole,” he says again. Something about what he just said causes her to start crying again, and he crushes her to his chest. She wraps her arms around him, burying her face in his shirt.
“What doesil mio solemean?” Leo whispers, and I shrug. I was shit when Les tried to teach me Italian.
“It means my sun,” Micah answers quietly, walking up behind us. He sees the scene in the living room and grins. “Good. I really didn’t want to kill him,” he remarks before turning on his heel and disappearing up the stairs.
Scary bastard.
Ryder places a gentle kiss on Les’ lips before deepening it, and I look at Leo out of the corner of my eye, gauging his reaction. Ryder has been a dick to Leo, so this would have been the hardest to accept. He’s watching them intently but not in a turned-on way; it’s like he’s testing his reaction. I’ll have to ask him about it later.
Ryder pulls back from the kiss before whispering something in her ear, and she nods. She pecks his lips again before walking toward Leo and me. I sling my arm around her shoulders and lead heroutside. She shrugs off my arm again and walks over to my Range Rover. What the hell?
She turns back. “No way in hell I’m riding with you in that car.”
My mouth pops open. “Why not?”
“Because you’re a maniac, that’s why.” She shudders, probably remembering the last time I was behind the wheel of this car and almost ran us over a cliff. In my defense, the cliff jumped out in front of me, and I stopped in time.
I huff. “Fine.” I toss my key fob to Leo, and he catches it one-handed. “Precious cargo,” I remind him before sliding the seat back and getting comfortable behind the wheel. God, I love this car.
I look in the rear-view mirror as Leo opens Les’ door for her before jogging around the other side. He flips me off with a grin before getting in and shutting the door.
I grin to myself and fire the car up. I glide the car around the circle in Micah’s driveway and hit dial on my phone. I have someone to thank, even though I’d rather eat dog shit than talk to him. But he did me a solid by giving me the heads up.
“Yeah?” Zane answers.
“Thanks,” I say curtly.
“She good?”
“Yep,” I say and hang up. That’s all he needs to know because I don’t trust him. Not only is he on the same task force as the one who’s been trying foryearsto bring the Poletti’s down, but I also see how he looks at Les whenever they have any run-ins with each other. I hated their little fling as much as Ryder did. He had no fucking business with her when she was only eighteen.
