Page 39 of The Riders’ Reign

We've checked out the neighborhood and covered the rear as well as the front, so if he tries to run, he'll slam straight into one of our guys. I want him to be terrified. I want him to be fucking shitting his pants and regretting every choice he’s ever made when he realizes what's coming for him, and that I’m the one behind it.

At one point, after Ledger had taken us, I’d assumed I’d never see this place again. I'd truly believed we'd lost that day and I would die there. But here I am. And even though what I went through with Camile in that fucking outbuilding was hell, I'm glad to have been able to come back from it. I feel stronger now, a bigger man. Though what they made me do to her in there still haunts me, and it probably will to my dying day.

We don't waste any time. We park the bikes out front and march straight toward his house, with me taking the lead. I don't even bother to knock. I just lift my boot and kick the fucking door in. It flies open with a crash, smashing against the wall behind.

“Jarrod!” I yell as I storm through the house.

I find him sitting on the couch, a blonde in her early twenties, too skinny, and strung out by the looks of things, curled on his lap.

There's a bong at his feet, and the haze of smoke in the air tells me they're both stoned. He leaps up the minute he sees us, spilling the girl onto the floor.

“Hey,” she objects.

Jarrod ignores the angry cry and clearly doesn’t give two shits about her, as he darts left and right, but there's no way he's getting around the likes of us. Who said chivalry was dead? I roll my eyes at how pathetic he is.

It seems to take him a minute to realize who's come for him. His eyes widen at the sight of me, and he uses my real name.

“Ryan, what the fuck? I thought you were dead.”

“Yeah, I bet you did, asshole,” I say. “Maybe I'm a ghost and I've come back to haunt you.”

Jarrod takes a staggering step back, but there's nowhere he can go. We're blocking the only exit, and unless he's planning to merge through a solid wall or throw himself through a pane of glass, he's not going anywhere.

He seems to remember something and lunges for the coffee table.

“Watch out!" someone shouts.

Jarrod’s going for a gun perched on the lower shelf of the coffee table. We don't want anyone getting shot tonight. Aside from anything, it'll bring the cops here, and we could do without any more of their interference. But Phoenix is already on Jarrod, slamming him to the ground before he can get anywhere near the gun.

The girl, now curled into a ball, lets out a scream, and Jarrod gives an ‘ouf’ as all the air is expelled from his lungs.

He must realize this is hopeless. He’s completely outnumbered and he has nowhere else to go.

“Please,” he begs as Phoenix hauls him to his feet. “Please, you don’t need to do this. I’m sorry, Ryan, okay? I fucked up.”

“Yeah, you did,” I tell him.

“But it’s all right, isn’t it? We can be friends again. I mean, you’re okay. They didn’t hurt you too badly. You look fine!”

I growl. “You’ve got no fucking idea.”

I walk up to where Phoenix has hold of him, draw back my fist, and slam it as hard as I can in his guts. He’s only just recovered his breath, and now it punches out of him again, and he doubles over. Rage boils over inside me, and I fight the desire to break his fucking nose. I can’t, though. We need to gag this motherfucker so we can pass him off as Ledger, and he won’t be able to breathe with a gag and a broken nose.

“Tie his hands,” I tell the others.

Alarm sparks in Jarrod’s eyes. “Wait, what? What are you going to do with me?”

He must realize he’s not just going to walk away with a beating. He has far worse to come.

“You don’t get to ask questions, asshole. I came to you for help, and you fucking betrayed me.”

“You deserved it,” he spits back. “You barely did time, while everyone else is still rotting in there. Verona Falls Prison is a fucking hellhole, and you know it. No one gets to walk from that place unless you’ve turned into a rat. And then you turned your back on my brother, because you found some new friends, but when they didn’t do what you wanted, you came running back to us. You deserved everything you got.”

I can’t hold myself back this time. I take a swing, and my fist connects with his ear. He lets out a howl, his head rocking, though Phoenix holds him in place. Bright red blood appears from his ear. I must have burst his eardrum. Good. He won’t be needing to hear anything for much longer, anyway.

I assess his height and build. Yeah, I reckon with a bag over his head, he’ll pass as Ledger. We just have to make sure he doesn’t say anything, or Hector will know immediately that this isn’t his son.

“You didn’t see anything here,” Phoenix says to the girl, who’s still curled up on the floor, watching everything go down with horror in her eyes. “Go on, scoot, and keep your mouth shut or you’ll have the Riders after you.”