The reality of it all is, before Ryker no one would have cared. It’s clear Fritz didn’t. I still don’t understand what we had. The way Ryker acts with me makes me question it even more. Now my relationship with Fritz feels more like friends who kissed on occasion.
I thought I was in love with Fritz, but the things Ryker made me feel are on a whole new level, and I haven’t even been around him long.
Fritz never kissed me like Ryker did in the orchard. Hell, I’d never kissed him like that either. I was practically crawling up Ryker without even realizing I was doing it.
When we get to the house, Ryker takes my hand and we walk inside. He pulls me towards his office, and I follow along.
“I just need to go in my office for a few minutes. I’ll have some food brought in.”
I only nod as I walk around the room and look at the space. The walls are all lined with bookshelves that hold rows and rows of books. I run my fingers across them absentmindedly, then I start reading the titles.
I glance over my shoulder at Ryker, who’s standing behind his desk watching me. He slides his cell phone into his back pocket and smiles.
“They’re all for you,” he tells me.
I look back at all the romance books. I recognize many of the author names. I haven’t read for pleasure in a long time. When I was younger I devoured books because they were my only escape. I lost that over the years, focusing on other things like school.
I’d stopped checking them out at the library completely when Fritz made an off-hand comment about my choice of books. It reminds me again how much Ryker knows about me.
“What did you do? Hack the school’s library database or something to see what I checked out?” I say absently.
The look he gives me, though, makes me think I hit the nail on the head. I chastise myself for speaking to him. What happened to the silent treatment? For some reason I thought it might drive him crazy, but now I’m wondering if I should go with sweet so he lets his guard down. Then maybe I could sneak away or steal his cell phone and call someone.
A knock at the door sounds as I pull a book off the shelf. The same woman from the night before comes strolling in with a tray in her hands. She sets it down on the coffee table next to me and gives me a bright smile as she stands up.
“You know I’ve been kidnapped, right?” I say, waiting to see how she’ll react.
“That’s lovely. Would you like milk with your tea, sweetheart?” I let out a frustrated noise at her response, before I nod. She adds some milk to my tea and then smiles brightly. “Anything else I can get you?” She looks between Ryker and me.
“A cell phone?” I raise my eyebrows at her, and it only makes her smile even more. Like I just told a little joke.
“That’s all, Lily, thank you,” Ryker says before she turns and leaves.
I roll my eyes and go back to the bookshelves. I pull out a book and read the back, then decide I’ll sink myself into this one. Maybe get lost in the story long enough that I can forget the craziness happening around me.
“You won’t find someone here who isn’t completely loyal to me,” Ryker says, coming around from behind his desk. He leans up against it, watching me. I don’t respond. I carry on with my juvenile game of ignoring him. “They’ll do anything you ask except help you leave me.”
“Money really can buy you anything.” I walk over to the tray and sit down next to it. I pick up one of the little brunch sandwiches and take a bite. I clearly can’t be quiet, I don’t know why I even try.
“Money can buy a lot, but I promise you, loyalty isn’t one of them. At least not true loyalty. That is earned.”
I can’t stop myself from looking over at Ryker, wondering who he really is. How he has such blind loyalty from people. From the few things that he’s told me, I know he’s clearly a driven man who gets what he wants. I thought I was driven, too, but I could never grab what I always wanted. Or when I do get what I thought I wanted, it’s never like I thought it would be.
I polish off one sandwich before taking another and settling in on the sofa with my book. I don’t know how long I stare at the same page, well aware that Ryker is watching me. But that same feeling I got when I was in my apartment comes back, and now I know it was him all those times I thought someone was watching me. Someone was.
I still wonder why he’s so fixated on me. There has to be more to it than something as simple as seeing me and needing to have me. Love at first sight isn’t real. It can’t be. He might have nurtured an attraction to me over time, so I wonder how long he’s been after me.
No matter how many times I go over and over it in my head, it all comes back to the stolen artwork. Maybe it has something to do with that? There are a lot of nice pieces of art here in his house. It’s also obvious Ryker has a lot of money, and people around him who are willing to commit felonies for him.
Maybe Ryker is a thug in a suit? Is a thug as sweet as Ryker is with me? I want to roll my eyes at my own questions. How would I even know that? The only men I know are the drunks my mama dated, and Fritz. All of whom turned out to be total losers.
Ryker lets out a deep sigh. “I’ll let you have your moment, but I’m not going anywhere.”
I peek up him out of the corner of my eye as he goes around his desk and sits back down. Bear comes strolling into the office a moment later and I watch as he walks right past me and jumps onto Ryker’s desk. Ryker reaches out and pets him, and I feel like I was just betrayed. One would think they’re best friends with the way Bear purrs for him. The normal pissy attitude Bear gives new people is nowhere to be seen. Even Bear’s going to be loyal to him, too.
I grab a blanket and a pillow off the sofa and take it over in front of the fireplace. I’d always wanted a fireplace growing up. I never thought the first time I’d be curling up in front of one with a book would be with my handsome kidnapper watching me.
I lie down and reopen the book, trying not to feel salty about my cat loving someone that I think is pretty great, too.
“Cricket, I’m sorry about Johnny. Don’t be mad at him. It would break that old man’s heart if you didn’t talk to him again.”
I let his words sink in and attempt not to cry. Instead I push all thoughts of Johnny away. I block out thoughts of everything that hurts my heart and focus on my book. I turn the pages, pretending to read, while I try to come up with a plan to escape.
Chapter 13
Fritz
I beat on the door of the apartment and wait. I hear music blaring from the other side, so I know Roxy is home. I bring my fist up to pound on it again, and just as I do, it swings open.
“About time,” I say and shoulder past him. I go straight to her room and see it’s completely empty. There’s no trace that she was ever in here, and anger bubbles up inside me. “Where is she?”
I turn around and glare at him as he shuts the door. He stands there with his arms crossed over his chest and looks at me like I’ve got two heads.
“Who?” he asks, like we have any other mutual acquaintances.
“Blair, you fucking idiot.”
“Clearly you can see she moved out. What do you want?” He looks me up and down in disgust. I notice he has a fading black eye.
“I want to know where the hell she went!” I shout, but all he does is stand there looking unsure of what to do.
I’ve been looking for her for days, and nothing has come up. I wasn’t too worried about it at first until we figured out she’d taken with her all of our documents on the art. Then once we realized she had everything in hand to expose all of us, the search was on. I wasn’t going to jail, or worse, ending up dead because the people we’ve been working with find out about our little slip.
I tried to track down her redneck family, but I couldn’t remember her mom’s name or that of her trailer park. She doesn’t have any social media, and no friends. I wasn’t about to make a trip to Louisiana and just knock on her door. Plus, I don’t really think Blair would have gone crawling back
to that sewer. I don’t remember much about her past, but I know she didn’t want to be anywhere near it.
Lilith has been a royal fucking cunt since Blair split town, and we’ve got people breathing down our necks. It somehow leaked to the buyers that someone has their names, and shit fell apart. I have no idea how they could have learned this. It’s almost like someone is playing against us. The pressure has been building for days, and I don’t know how much more I can take before I snap.
“Fuck!” I shout as I run my hands through my hair. I can’t remember the last time I slept, or even ate, for that matter. There are people pissed at us, and it’s the type of people you don’t want pissed off. Everyone has turned their sights on me, and I’m not the one taking the fall for this. No fucking way. Not after all the work I’ve done. I didn’t come this far to lose it all. I’m going to prove to everyone I’m something. That I don’t need my family to make it and that they can all fuck off for cutting me off.