Page 7 of Ryder

“Any more accusations and you may have more targets at your back.” Jericho turned and walked to the club house, but not before his hand flicked down and I knew he’d given the signal. Diving for the ground, I avoided the shot which hit the dirt near my foot. I rolled and crawled to safety. Holden, who’d stayed quiet throughout the exchange, swore and dived for cover before me.

Getting to safety, I got in my car and Holden got in the passenger side. I drove to the precinct where his car was.

“Well, that went well,” Holden muttered. “Silvermans have more enemies than I thought.” He chuckled. “Here I thought everyone liked you.” I shot a glare his way before focusing back on the road. He sighed. “Do you want me to bother phoning in the shots and what happened? We both know by the time we get search warrants that no weapons will be there and no one will have seen or heard anything.”

I hated it, but Holden was right. I growled and shook my head. “You’re right.” He nodded and we both stayed silent thinking of what we’d just learned.

With the new information, I knew Holden would be working with me until we could at least confirm that I had someone trying to get my attention. I drove into the precinct carpark and before we got out of the car I turned to him. “I need to make a call before I head in and we update everyone on what we just learned. Give me fifteen minutes and I’ll be up.”

Holden gave me a chin lift. “Sure. I get it. If I was you I’d warn my family too.”

I nodded, not about to tell him that my first call was going to be about getting protection for my soulmate. I grabbed my phone from the glove compartment and dialed my cousin Richard, not bothering to listen to his pleasantries when he answered. “I want bodyguards for my mate.” The chuckle on the other end had me gritting my teeth.

“Why hello to you to too cousin. How am I? How’s Bailey and Sebastian you ask? Good. No, not just good. We’re fan-fucking-tasic and I love running on four hours sleep. What? Only four you say? Yes. The hospital let Bailey and Sebastian come home Saturday at lunch time since they were, er, are doing so well and she has so much support. Bailey won’t let Sebastian out of her sight unless he’s with me and she’s made me promise no nannies. So, yes four hours sleep because my son is hungry and needs to be fed every four hours and he has a set of lungs on him.”

I listened to his rambling speech and realized that if he needed to get something off his chest, I couldn’t rush him. When he’d finished I asked, “So you like fatherhood?”

There was a loud sigh through the phone. “I love it. Bailey and I sometimes just sit and watch him sleep. It’s part of the reason we’re so tired. Instead of sleeping we’ve been staring at him, amazed at how perfect he is. And Ryder, I’m in awe of Bailey. She’s taken to motherhood like a duck to water.”

My heart filled with happiness for my cousin. I was so glad he found Bailey and I now couldn’t wait to have with my vixen, what Richard had with his wife. “I’m glad it’s all worked out. I’m sorry I was so rude.”

“Nah, it’s alright Ryder. I’ve been expecting your call since mother told me you found your one. I’ll send you two guards. One you know and he’s been waiting to hear from you. Expect a call in the next halfa. Take care. I got go get this sorted and I want to check Bailey is sleeping like she should be while Sebastian is. Bye.” Richard disconnected before I could reply. I pocketed my phone, got out of the car, locked it, and went up to the offices.

IT HAD BEEN TWO DAYSsince Ryder and the Silverman fiasco. I knew he wasn’t going to give up so easily. I was sure he was playing with me. I was a mess, sure that Ryder or some other Silverman would make their move. People don’t just hound you for days and then stop when they see you again and you don’t agree with them. Maybe this was his plan, to get me so uneasy and unsure of when he was going to show up again I was all jumpy and anxious. To make matters worse, I was a bundle of need. I’d never masturbated as much as I had since meeting Ryder, but the last couple of days not only did I dream of the man when I slept, but I was day dreaming and sneaking away to relieve myself. I was becoming a sex fiend.

It was Thursday and late-night shopping. I’d just finished work and was eager to spend some money. Arron was at boxing. Thursday was one of his longest training days and therefore it was my lazy, relaxing night. I loved my brother, but he was hard work. I was teaching him how to drive so he could take himself to boxing and more of my time would free up, but he was still a learner driver and had to have a fully qualified, adult driver when he drove. I made sure he knew how lucky he was to have me. I was taught by our father he taught me the way he’d train his men in the Army. He almost caused me to quit a million times. I didn’t want my brother to go through what I had to with our father, and I knew Arron and our father would kill each other.

On Thursday, I took my lunch break later so I could pick Arron up from school and take him to boxing. I usually just a got quick takeout food, but today I hadn’t had time so I was starving. I drove straight to my favorite all you can eat restaurant, Devour. Lucy, one of the waitresses smiled as soon as she saw me come in. She nodded, put down the dirty plates she was carrying, and came over.

“Camron, I’ll see to this one.” Lucy winked. “She’s one of those troublesome customers,” she loudly whispered.

I rolled my eyes. “The service here is so good I keep coming back.”

Lucy chuckled and linked her arm through mine. We’d clicked from the first time we’d met and Lucy had become a good friend. She even visited me on the base. We were both shoe crazy and Lucy was the best bargain clothes shopper I knew.

“I finish in an hour. Have you come to eat and take me shopping, or are you going to make me go by myself to spend money I really shouldn’t? You do realize I called you yesterday and you didn’t call me back. What’s up?”

Lucy guided me to a table in the corner and I sat down. I debated what to say to her. Did I tell her all about the Silvermans and Ryder or just about the Silvermans? Lucy was slowly becoming a very close friend. My stomach grumbled and I gazed over the buffet. “Let me eat and I promise, when you finish work I’ll tell you what has been going on.”

Lucy clapped her hands. “Ooohhh, gossip. I can’t wait.” She smirked. “Go stuff your face and I’ll see you in an hour.” I giggled as Lucy skipped off. I knew she was excited to hear something juicy.

I went over to the buffet, grabbed a plate, and piled it full. As I sat back down at my table, I felt lighter. I was looking forward to talking to Lucy. I needed to get everything out. I wanted a second opinion on what I should do. I had other friends, ones I’d been friends with longer, but Lucy was easy to talk to and she was a lot like me. I knew she wouldn’t sugar coat anything and would give me her true opinion. It was hard to find friends like Lucy. I was a military brat so I knew the struggle of moving and making friends and keeping those friends. Only a few friends had stayed with me throughout the years and move after move, as my father moved up the military ranks. I wasn’t moving from this town. I was done moving. I loved my job and the friends I had and was making. What I needed to know now was if I should give Ryder a chance when he came at me again. I hated to admit it, but I couldn’t get him and everything he said off my mind.

Shoveling the food in my mouth I tried not to think of Ryder as I ate. His image was burned into my brain and any time it came up my body came alive. One thing I hated was that I was so damn turned on when I thought of him. I’d even caught myself a time or two day dreaming and a moan or two had slipped. My work mates had been teasing me like crazy. And that had me thinking Ryder wasn’t insane.

No matter how many times I told myself Ryder was crazy and his family was pushy and I wasn’t a fan of their abuse of power. I couldn’t stop thinking of him. I’d even spent the weekend before meeting Ryder’s family at the school thinking about him too. I’d thought it strange since I’d only meet him briefly at the hospital and put it down to being curious, but after our talk at his house I couldn’t go more than a couple of hours without thinking of him. All I hoped was that he was worse off than I was.

Lucy sat with me as I savored the chocolate ice-cream. “Work is done. I’ve been hanging for gossip and you don’t bull shit. So it’s the best.” She raised her brow and sat forward on the seat. “Spill.”

In that moment, I loved Lucy. She always seemed to know just what to say. “I can’t stop thinking about a big, bulky, bossy, manly man.”

“What!” She got off her seat across from me, moved beside me, and leaned in closer. “You like meek men,” she whispered.

Rolling my eyes, I nodded. “Yeah, but you know why.”

Lucy’s head bounced up and down. “Yeah, your dad is…is, well he’s very male.”

I laughed at my friend’s assessment of my father. It was a nice way of saying my dad was over the top bossy and overbearing. “Yeah, that’s Dad. That’s why I don’t understand why I can’t get the guy off my mind. I don’t want a man like my father and this man is way too much like him.”

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