Page 61 of Bleeding Hearts Duet

Chapter Twenty

The overwhelming exhaustion from my emotions had allowed me to sleep on the plane, but once we were back in Ryland’s house on Belvedere Island, I was wide awake.

He’d gone downstairs to order something for dinner while I paced back and forth across his bedroom. The idea of Brayden going back to prison was gnawing at me. I still had a little over three months of our agreement before Ryland would keep up his end of the bargain. But I couldn’t accept that. I needed to find a way to make him agree to speed up the process.

My brain worked overtime as I tried to come up with a solution. I could lay down the gauntlet and threaten Ryland with an ultimatum. Either he did this, or I walked away. But that wasn’t what I wanted. I didn’t want to walk away from him anymore, and that was the problem.

“I know what you’re thinking.” His voice carried from the doorway.

I walked up to him in three short steps and clung to his jacket as if it were my salvation.

“Please, Ryland,” I begged through bleary eyes. “There has to be a way. I’ll do anything, anything you want. You name it. I’ll finish out the six months, I swear I will… please. If you care about me at all…”

“I don’t care about you.”

He looked horrified by the idea, and I felt equally so by his reply.

My hands fell from his shirt, and I stumbled backwards as I stared up at the unfamiliar coldness in his eyes. I hadn’t seen it before. I hadn’t been able to see it. But this was it, this man standing before me. This was the emotionless monster who’d kept my brother in prison for all these years. The man who had taken my virginity and been inside of me more times than I could count, and who now proclaimed to feel nothing for me. This was who I’d been dealing with all along.

My legs trembled as I made a beeline for the door. He didn’t try to stop me.

Tears tracked down my face as I bolted into the street and looked around at this place I didn’t recognize. I pulled my cell phone from my pocket and called the only person I could think of.

***

When Matt pulled up in his truck, I stared at him in confusion as I climbed inside.

“What are you doing here?”

“Nicole called me,” he said. “She doesn’t like to come out here.”

“Oh.” I gave him a weak smile. “Well, thanks for coming to get me.”

“No trouble at all,” he replied, pulling back onto the highway. “So I take it things with Mr. Bennett aren’t going too well, huh?”

I couldn’t even muster the energy it took to deny his accusation, so I stared out the window instead.

“Is it that obvious?”

“No,” he admitted. “But Ryland and I go back a ways. He wouldn’t want you to know that, though, so don’t say anything.”

This earned him my attention. “You’re friends with him?”

“Not exactly.” He kept his gaze forward. “I was friends with… well, we had a mutual friend. I’ve known him a long time.”

“What’s with all the secrecy?” I snapped. “Is everything in Ryland’s life this complicated?”

“Yes,” he replied without hesitance. “And Brighton, I know I shouldn’t say anything. I really need this job, and he only gave it to me as a favor, but I think you should be careful with him.”

“Why?” I demanded. “I’m so sick of everyone talking in riddles all the time. Just tell me why, Matt.”

“I can’t.” He tightened his grip on the steering wheel. “That’s all I can say.”

“Then why bother saying anything at all?” I argued. “And it’s not like I have a choice in the matter, anyway.”

“Don’t you?” he arched a brow at me in question.

I’d said too much, but did it even matter anymore? “No. I don’t. And that’s all I can say about that.”

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