Page 95 of Save Me

I look at Ryan, really look at him, as if I’ll be able to see some evidence of what exactly has been done to Rhett and Tanner. But there’s nothing about his appearance that hints at what they’ve been up to.

“What did you guys do?” I ask tentatively.

“We had a nice little chat.” He shrugs casually.

“I don’t believe you for a second,” I chirp back, and Ryan smiles.

“Well, Jax and I talked… they were a little too busy screaming to say much.”

I see a flash of the darkness in Ryan’s eyes as it rises to the surface, but it’s gone before I can really see who he is behind his calm exterior.

“And youenjoyedthis chat?”

“I did,” he says calmly.

“Do you enjoy having these types of conversations with people often?” I ask, trying to get a better read on him, on the friend he has become to me.

His brows furrow as he contemplates my question. “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t,” he says at last. “If someone is stupid enough to hurt a person I care about, to threaten those I love, then yes, I take great pleasure in causing them a lot of pain.”

I don’t know how to respond to that, don’t know how to explain how cared for I feel, even though he just admitted he likes to physically hurt people.

“Let’s go see them then.”

We walk out the door together, before climbing onto his bike, and I let the roar of the engine drown out the sound of my heart hammering in my chest.

CHAPTER 39

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We pull upto an unmarked warehouse, and Ryan helps me off the bike as I look around. We’re in the middle of some sort of industrial area with miles of cold gray warehouses the only buildings that lined our drive towards this place.

I turn around at the sound of a door creaking open to find Jax walking towards me with a smile on his face and a flicker of darkness in his eyes.

“You sure you want to do this, love?” he asks as his hands wrap around my waist. I let him pull me into him, let him brush his lips against my own.

“No, but I need to,” I say tentatively, willing my voice to remain steady despite my shallow breaths and clammy hands.

“Let’s go then,” he says, taking my hand in his and turning back towards the door.

I give Ryan a questioning look.

“I’ll be here,” he says. “I’ve already had my fun.”

I swallow the lump in my throat, not quite sure I want to know his definition of fun.

We walk into the building, through dark hallways and past empty rooms, before we start to descend an old cement stairwell into the darkness below. The building is silent, though I can barely hear myself think over the sound of my heart pounding in my chest.

“What is this place?” I ask, trying to distract myself from the mix of emotions swirling inside of me.

“It used to be a factory,” Jax responds as his footsteps continue to echo off the stairs. “It was fully functional up until a few years ago, and it used to be one of the many places we used for business meetings, hiding in plain sight while the operations would cover the comings and goings of everyone involved.”

“Clever,” I muse.

“But, when the economy went downhill it was hard to keep it running, hard to make the books look legit enough to maintain operations without questions. So, it shut down, and we ended up finding other ways to be discreet. So now this is just used when we have other types of business to settle.”

“It’s where you torture people?” The question slips through my lips before I can stop it, but Jax just chuckles.

“I’m not really into the whole torture thing, that’s more Ryan’s scene,” he says with a laugh. “Usually if people have made decisions that wind them up here, they don’t stick around for too long. The only exceptions being if I need information out of them, or if they’ve done something to you.” He looks at me, and even in the dark, I can see the glimmer of violence behind his eyes. “In those situations I am more than happy for them to spend a little time on the receiving end of my anger.”

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