Page 160 of No Good Fight

Preston’s smile falters.

“I need you,” I tell him.

For several seconds, Ryder doesn’t move. His hands stay twisted in Preston’s shirt, and I can see the fight happening in the way his fingers flex against the fabric. Preston tries to say something else, but Ryder doesn’t look at him now.

He’s looking at me and that’s all I need.

“Please, Ryder.”

His grip loosens.

Preston’s expression changes first. The satisfaction disappears from his face when he realizes what is happening, and for the first time since Ryder came through that door, Preston looks genuinely angry.

Ryder releases him.

Preston drops awkwardly against the wall and slides toward the floor, but Ryder doesn’t watch him fall. He turns his back on him completely and crosses the room toward me.

That is the moment Preston loses.

He crosses the distance between us so fast Josh barely has time to move out of the way before Ryder is on his knees beside me. His hands hover for a second because there are too many places I’m hurt and he doesn’t know where he can touch without making something worse.

I catch his wrist and put his palm against my cheek.

He makes a sound I have never heard from him before.

“I’m here,” I whisper. “I’m alive, and I’m here.”

His forehead drops carefully against mine.

Behind him, Remy orders Preston onto his stomach. Carter retrieves the gun near the wall while Logan moves in from the other side. Casey’s voice carries from the adjoining room, telling someone Mrs. Vance is conscious and needs medical help.

Preston laughs again.

Ryder stiffens beneath my hand, but he doesn’t turn around.

That matters.

Preston says something else, too low for me to understand, while Remy tells him to keep his hands where they can be seen. Ryder stays with me. His thumb moves carefully beneath my eye without touching the swelling there, and I feel the exact second he makes the choice to keep looking at me instead of going back.

A metallic scrape sounds behind him.

Remy shouts.

Ryder starts to turn.

Preston is sitting against the base of the worktable with another gun in his hand. Carter is moving toward him, Remy already reaching for his weapon, but Preston isn’t pointing the gun at any of them.

He’s looking at me.

His face is battered, his breathing ragged, and the smile he gives me is the same one I spent years learning to fear.

“You’ll never escape me now.”

He puts the gun to his head before anyone can reach him. Ryder moves over me at the same instant the shot tears through the room, his body blocking my view while the sound slams through the concrete walls and leaves my ears ringing.

34

RYDER