A bunch of chanting and painful ooo’ing gets my attention. Looking through the crowd, I find Jessie. I point her out to Hayden, and he grabs my hand, pulling me along as he shoulders his way through the sea of people. Jessie turns around when I tap her shoulder, smiling widely once she realizes it’s me.
She wraps her arms around my neck in a hug. “Where have you been?” She asks, while her hands remain on my shoulders. She looks over to Hayden beside me and shoots daggers at him.
“He apologized, right?” She speaks to me, but her angry eyes remain on his.
“Umm, yeah, I guess you could say that.” I bite my lip, fighting back the grin. Jessie is the last person I worry about judging me, not that I really care what anyone has to say about me anyway. I’ve just always kept things to myself.
I guess it stems from my childhood. My parents were very reserved. They didn’t even show affection for oneanother in front of others, at home, or in privacy. Jessie, on the other hand, can tell you every intimate detail of her life if you give her enough time. I love her for it. It keeps my life more interesting. It’s like I live my life vicariously through her.
Jessie yanks me through the crowd with Hayden in tow, weaving through standing bodies. We come to a halt when we approach a table with men standing on either side of it. It’s the same guys Ryder sat with at the fire. I think their names are Liam and Theo. The table is set up for beer pong, but it looks like it’s starting to turn into more of a brawl than a game. Both men are entirely wasted.
Liam, the guy facing us, points his finger at his opponent, Theo. “Y-you mother-” He hiccups. “Fucker! I want a-a rematch.” He’s stumbling back and forth as if the ground is quaking under his feet. I don’t know how he expects to do a rematch when he can’t even hold his own after what I assume is the first match. Theo is equally intoxicated.
Next thing I know, Liam stumbles over, trying to grab hold of the table for support, but ends up smashing his face into it instead and hits the tile floor with a fleshy smack. Two guys rush over, lifting him from under his arms to a sitting position. His head lolls to the side as his nose spews blood, dripping onto the floor, and his lip is split. They drag his unconscious body away, and Theo staggers off to a sectional sitting in front of a theatre-sized TV playing music videos.
I watch as he walks up to a man sitting on the couch, shakes his hand, pulling him in for a man hug. The guystands up, faces the crowd, and stretches his arms above his head. I gasp.
“What?” Jessie asks, turning to face me. I don’t answer. My mind is too focused on the man in front of me.
Jessie follows my line of sight. Ryder’s arms stretch high above his head, causing his shirt to lift, revealing his sculpted abs and the intricate artwork of his tattoos that wrap his torso. Jessie looks at me again with a knowing smirk, and I snap my gawking mouth shut. I don’t know what scares me more, him being down here or Jessie possibly figuring out whohehis. I have got to get my shit together and control my reactions. I’ve always wanted to be one of those mysterious girls, but no, I wear my emotions on my sleeve. I’m an open book.
Ryder
Beckett and Tucker drag an unconscious Liam up the stairs to the main floor.
“Call Dr. Howard to check him out,” I order Hayden, who happened to show up at the perfect time.
“On it.” He pulls out his phone from his pocket and begins typing out the message. I hired Dr. Beckett three years ago, after we performed a hyste and seven of my men were injured. It was successful, nonetheless, but Dr. Howard was driving through an alley in uptown Charlotte when he jumped out and offered his help. I was hesitant at first, but I promised a bullet through his skull if he turned us in. I held my Glock to his head the entire drive to his house. I didn’t ask any questions when he took us down to his basement, where he had his own operating room and private patient rooms.
I offered him a job under a non-disclosure agreement for substantial pay, and he accepted. From there, I allowed him to hire his own nursing team as long as they were cleared by me and signed the same agreement. Too much is at risk not to have the agreement that also states any information leaked will result in their imminent death. We had our dirty judge sign them off, making them legally binding contracts.
When you pay the government enough, you can get away with a lot. The only problem is, somebody’s been onmy ass hot and heavy recently. Finding that son of bitch has proven to be a pain in my ass, but I’ll find them, and when I do, they’ll beg for death to take them. I’ve created my own version of Hell that would make Satan cry.
“He’s headed over,” Hayden confirms.
“Thanks.” I go to walk away, but Hayden goes to speak. He stops whatever he was about to say, shaking his head. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. It’s nothing.” He points toward the beer pong table, “I think they’re waiting for you, man.”
I nod slowly and resume my path over to the table while Hayden takes my seat on the couch. Motion gets my attention from the basement steps. I look over, finding Beckett returning from escorting Liam. He comes up to my side, “What’d I miss?” He asks, sounding winded.
“Just getting started.”
My heart skips a beat when I look out into the crowd and find a pair of bright green eyes staring right at me. Fuck! She didn’t leave. I stare back into those terrified eyes, watching as she works to swallow, and I smirk.
Beckett hands me an empty Solo cup, making me break eye contact with my birdy. “Let’s get it started, then.” He says, and I take the cup to fill it just as “Stuck In My Head,” by Sleep Theory, begins to fill the room.
7
KELSEY
Iwatch Ryder walk up to the table and start filling up cups for the next game. Knowing he seen me has me feeling overheated. He saw the fear in my eyes, and he ate it up. It’s what he wants, but I refuse to run.
I indulge the view of his thick veins pulsing in his forearms as he holds the cups. My eyes trail up his arms, noting every tattoo from his knuckles up to the folded cuffs of his black button-up shirt. Black flames wrap his knuckles, spreading up to his wrists. My eyes trail up his body until I get to his sea glass green eyes and find them staring right back at me. Again. My lungs constrict, refusing me air, and I’m frozen where I stand. I don’t even hear the chatter around me as I stare back into the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen.
I’m jolted back to reality when Jessie shoves my shoulder, “You gonna stand there all day or come with me?”
I stutter over my words, “Y-yeah. Where are you going?”
