Page 4 of The Wayward Sons & the Seattle Sirens

“Bartender dropped off your car, darlin’,” I told her as I passed. “Your girlfriends made a hell of a fuss about you goin’ home with two strangers.”

That’d been a hell of a wake-up call when I’d passed out on the hood of the car. The bartender was easily twice my size and well-rested whereas I was hungover and not in the mood for small-town protective nonsense.

“I’d hardly call this home,” she snapped. We’d call her attitude a consequence of Ryder throwing her pretty little ass out.

“Works just fine for us,” I retorted and went inside, closing the door. She’d be good on her own.

Ryder… that was another fucking story. He hurried around the room, stuffing shit in bags. He never stuffed shit in bags. Everything was always neatly folded to make it less work for us later on or some shit. His mood was shit, his shoulders were rigid, and his jaw was clenched tight.

“What the fuck did she do?” I asked, flopping down on the bed. I had a hard time believing the angry blonde thing had anything to do with his mood.

“Mal is missing,” he said. “And so is Tess’s husband.”

“Tessa got a what now?” I replied. My eyes widened at that sentence. Granted, it wasn’t that hard to believe. Ryder and her hadn’t talked in fucking years.

“Tess got married. Three years ago. And has a kid.” He zipped a bag while I let out a whistle.

“So, you mad because your brother is missin’ or because your sister got married without tellin’ you?”

“Yes.”

“Got it.”

“I’m going to Seattle.” Ryder stopped what he was doing to stare at me as he waited for the backlash.

“The hell you are,” I said. “Remember the last time?”

The last time his dad almost caught him. Yeah, that dickhead was still hellbent on putting Ryder back in that makeshift backyard prison. Over my dead body—well, over his dead body. There was no way I was letting Ryder go.

“Why the hell you lookin’ at me like you want to fight me, baby?” I demanded when he crossed his arms.

“Because I know what you’re going to say.”

“Good. You know I’m right.”

“You can come with me and help,” he began, his tone dark, “or I’m going alone. You make the fucking choice, Gray. I’m not fucking around right now.”

He had me. He knew it, I knew it, he knew I knew it. If shit hit the fan in Seattle and I wasn’t there to protect him, I’d never forgive myself.

“Fine,” I said with a sigh. “But you do what the fuck I say, you hear me? I ain’t fuckin’ around, Ryder. One wrong move. That’s all it fuckin’ takes for him to find you. You agree to that, we go. You fight me and I’ll drag your sorry ass halfway underground and keep you there until you listen.”

His gaze narrowed while he scrutinized me, trying to judge just how fucking serious I was. The answer was dead serious. If he wanted to fuck around, he’d find out just how I felt about the whole situation.

“Deal,” he replied quietly. “But if I think you’re holding back, I’ll intervene. I’m not losing my brother to a demon, and I’m not letting my sister’s kid lose her dad.”

“And I ain’t losin’ you.” I didn’t give a fuck who was missing or why. If I had to pick, I’d pick Ryder every single fucking time.

CHAPTER 04

When we hit the Seattle city limits, my chest tightened painfully. I didn’t want to be back here, and I really didn’t want Ryder to be either. I wanted to drag his ass back across the city limits and flee across the country. I wasn’t one to run from a fight, but this was one I wanted to. The potential for shit hitting the fan was too high.

From the sounds of it, Tessa had been out of touch with their dad for years. So had Mal. It put us in a dark area, where we didn’t have a clue what the fuck Daddy Hartford was up to.

Ryder wouldn’t hesitate to use his power if it meant helping Tessa. But what would the cost be? What if the spell was altered? What if it killed him instead of locking him away? How the hell did we know their dad wasn’t already onto Ryder’s presence in the city?

What if I was just hand-delivering him into trouble?

Fuck, I was stressed.

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