He hasn't hurt Mom or Jude, so why else would he care about being quiet? Unwilling to provoke the man into following through, I nod at his words. I climb off my bed and follow him out of the room, glancing at the other doors but they’re shut. Praying for my family’s safety, I follow the masked man out of my apartment.
Ghost’s car is exactly where he parked it earlier, directly outside my building. I suck in a sharp breath even as my heart drops to my stomach when I notice the driver's door opens and a pair of legs dangling from the seat.
Ghost. Is he dead?
Oh God!
I start for him when I feel the cold press of metal in my back, stopping me in my tracks. “Keep walking,” the voice says coldly from behind me. I want to defy him, walk to check up on Ghost but I won't do any of us favors if I'm shot and left bleeding on the cold pavement so with my body trembling, I let the kidnapper shove me toward a black sedan parked a few spots away from Ghost. I find myself shoved into the back as the man climbs in the front then he yanks the mask off his face.
I immediately recognize that face.
It’s a face I have seen around Elysium. Someone he’s told me he trusts and my heart breaks for him. For Pope. For the hurt he’ll feel when he finds out who in his camp just betrayed him.
“Ryder,” I murmur, but he hears me as his head whips to me and I am struck by the chill in those brown eyes. So much hatred for a man I’ve only met a handful of times that I find myself backing up in my seat but there is nowhere left to run. “Pope trusts you!”
In the past month or so, I’ve been introduced to members of the Steel Sinners and met all kinds of characters but Ryder was introduced to me as one of the oldest members. This man was Deacon Cassidy’s best friend and now he’s…wait. My eyes light up with realization. “It was you!”
The accident. The dress. All those vendor cancellations. I figured it was someone with access to the casino that caused all this but I didn’t want to tell Pope and create distrust for his men. I am, after all, an outsider and don't understand their relationships well enough to come between them, but this…he makes sense.
“I helped build that fucking club!” Ryder spits, those dark eyes sending a shiver down my spine. “Poured blood and sweat to help Deacon Cassidy build the wealth he has today and what does he do?” The man turns around and starts the car, muttering something inaudible under his breath. “He thinks he can just leave me a stupid letter and a fucking check to buy me off what I deserve, then leave everything to that brat? Fuck if I'll let him shortchange me. Motherfucker!"
I grab the seatbelt and strap myself in as he pulls out of the lot and into the empty road. “W-where are you taking me?” I ask, fear gripping my throat.
"I'm going to take what's owed to me!" he growls, punching the steering wheel. “That fucking junkie should have done the job I paid him to do but he just had to go fuck it up. No matter. I’ll take care of it. Once they find you dead in some ditch, Pope will believe his brother did this and while the twins are ripping at each other’s throats, I’ll finally take what’s rightfully mine.”
Some part of me knew the man wasn’t taking me out for ice cream, but the thought of ending up dead in the desert hasme whimpering with fear. I clutch my stomach in panic, tears welling in my eyes as I think of mine and Pope's child. And this man is about to take them from us.
As we cross an intersection, I start to beg the man for my life—my child’s life—when, in some divine intervention, a car going in the cross direction hits the back-quarter panel of our car, sending us in a wild spin. I scream, holding tight to my seatbelt as we spin around the road with a grating noise. Ryder, who’s not wearing a seat belt, slams his head against his window even as he tries to gain control of the car. The car has barely come to a stop when the driver’s car door is yanked open and I watch, horrified and trembling from the accident, as someone grabs Ryder by the collar of his shirt and then pulls him outside.
In the daze, my first thought reverts to Pope but then dark blue eyes peer into the car and I realize it’s not him but his twin, Bishop. They have the same eyes but…different.
“Are you okay?” he asks, voice flat. I nod, uncertain whether to trust him or not but that’s all he seems to need as he turns to the man sprawled on the road, bleeding from a cut on his forehead. “Pope is not going to be happy with you kidnapping his bride the night before their wedding.”
“Fuck you!” Ryder spits out, his eyes moving to the gun Bishop is pointing at his chest.
“You know how this is going to end, don’t you?”
“I said, fuck–!”
I see it happen, knew how it would end when Ryder drew out a gun from his belt holster but still, seeing it and hearing it sends me screaming. I close my eyes and cover my ears as two gun shots ring out. I keep my eyes tightly closed, willing the moment away. Hoping it's just a bad dream that will go away.Maybe I fell asleep on my mother’s lap and any moment now, she’s going to wake me up.
Please wake up.
I jump up when someone touches my arm and when I open my eyes, it’s to see eyes so similar to Pope’s peering down at me. I clutch my stomach as fear doubles, tripling when I see the gun in his hand, afraid to look at Ryder and see the damage that gun left on the man.
Bishop's eyes drop to the hand holding my stomach and I see realization flicker in his eyes before his expression goes blank. “Are you okay? Do you need help getting out?”
No, not really. I want to stay in this car until someone else comes. Preferably Pope.
I need Pope.
Still, I tug off the seatbelt and take his hand when Bishop offers it, let him help me out of the car. We pass by Ryder's still body, and I try not to look down as he takes me to his car, smashed up where he hit Ryder’s, but thankfully still usable. I wait until I’m seated and strapped in to turn to the man.
“Where are we going?” I ask, half terrified he too will mention a ditch.
“To Elysium,” he says, starting the car and pulling away without one look at the man he just killed. “I’m taking you to Pope."
Chapter Nine
