Page 32 of Ryder's War

Jerking her face back out of his hand, she shook her head. “No, we’re not doing this. Last night was fantastic. We’re not going to change up the way we have sex because of that bastard. I don’t think it was that anyway. I think it was seeing the basement.”

“The bastard kept you in his basement?”

“Yeah, every time I ran, he played this little game with me,” she said, doing her level best to keep the darkness of her past from sucking her into its powerful grasp. “First, he’d chain me up on his back porch. If I was good, he’d lock me in the shed. Hell, that was better simply because I was out of the elements.” She remembered well those cold, wet nights spent shaking on the unforgiving, splintering old wood, keeping an ear out for any local fauna that might try to sneak up on her in the night. “I had to earn his trust back for the privilege of sleeping on the cold cement floor in the basement.”

“I can guess what you had to do to earn his trust,” he said hatefully.

Wrapping her arms around her stomach, Tiffany stared at the floor. “That’s the thing—you probably can’t guess. He was into weird loyalty tests where the other person had to really degradethemselves to prove they were worthy of being in his good graces.”

“Fucker. I’ll circle back around to him the very first chance I get.”

“Babe, I hate to ask this, but I really need a favor,” Tiffany said, looking up into his eyes.

Kissing her on the top of her head, Ryder murmured, “Anything, you name it.”

“If he ever gets me, and you can’t stop him, put a bullet in my head,” she rasped, emotion clogging her throat. “I can’t do the Stuart thing again. I just can’t. It would be a mercy.”

Ryder's features hardened, that familiar switch flipping from man to enforcer. Some threats required more than just club justice. They needed complete elimination.

His voice carried the weight of an oath when he spoke. “One way or another, I’ll make sure he never touches you again.”

Lifting her off the counter, her rough-and-tumble biker carried her into the shower and began gently washing her hair and body under the warm cascade of water. She soaped her hands and did the same for him.

Normally, silence hanging in the air was awkward and uncomfortable for Tiffany. This morning, neither of them needed words to know they were on the same page.Some promises were beyond speech - they lived in the space between heartbeats, in the way his arms tightened around her like armor. The past might have teeth, but so did protection. And Ryder's bite was infinitely worse.

~ Ryder ~

Ryder took Tiffany down to the kitchen, and they came to a sliding halt just inside the doorway. The scene before them was wrong in ways that set off every one of his instincts.

The prospects were busy cooking, and the sight at the table about floored him. Darkness was sat staring at Abigail Fucking Andrews, who was apparently all thumbs when it came to taking care of her own child. Her awkward handling of the baby wasn't just inexperience, it was complete unfamiliarity. Like watching someone try to mimic motherhood without understanding it.

The baby was screaming her little head off, and Abby kept trying to put a bottle in her mouth, but the kid wasn’t having it.And there Abby was, unlike any mother he’d ever seen, getting frustrated and embarrassed.

Like a typical nurse, Tiffany walked over and began looking the child over. She gently squeezed her stomach, and a little burp gurgled up. Grabbing the bottle, she shot Abby a strange look and popped it into the microwave for a few seconds. Taking it out, she shook it and squirted a bit onto the inside of her wrist. This time, when Abby tried to feed her, the little one settled down and nursed greedily.

Darkness motioned for Ryder to sit beside him. “Report?”

“Well, sir, based on what I just saw and the information provided by the caregivers, I believe the child has mostly been left at a boarding school.”

“Boarding schools are for school-aged kids, not little babies,” his president pointed out.

“This one was different,” Ryder informed him. “It was a private affair and clearly said Mockingbird Lane Early Education and Boarding on the front door.”

Glancing at one of the men standing nearby, Darkness sighed. “Ace, can you please…”

“I’m all over it, boss. Be right back.”

Darkness turned back to him. “Any idea who she was calling last night when she thought I was asleep?”

Abby’s head snapped up, wearing the same look of shock Ryder felt, and she opened her mouth, probably intending to tell a bunch of lies, but she caught the look on their faces and buttoned it up.

Openly glaring at the woman in question, Ryder told him, “She texted with Devil, and they tried to hack our wireless network. She calls him her Honey Bear.”

Staring at his little daughter, Darkness muttered, “Well, this is turning out to be a total shitstorm. What are your recommendations?”

Waiting for the prospects to finish putting their food down, Ryder sighed. “First of all, I think you need someone with actual experience taking care of babies. This trying to feed your little one cold milk is all kinds of crazy. I can call my little sister. She’s good with kids and babysits for actual babies, as well as older kids. She’s going to know more than most of us.”

Shoveling a bite of eggs into his mouth, Darkness nodded. “Do it.”

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