Page 205 of His Virgin Romance Series

CHAPTER21

Ryder

One day…one day had passed since Abby and I had slept together. That was it. And I was already going crazy. I didn’t know how to behave around her anymore. I didn’t know what to say to her. I had no idea what to do next. Hadn’t we agreed that we had no future? Now all I seemed to be able to do was to think of all the ways that we could get around that somehow.

I was throwing darts in the living room, but my mind was somewhere completely different, and my usually perfect aim was all over the place. Bones and Devon walked in and sat down, observing my throwing with quizzical expressions.

“What the hell is up with you today?” Bones asked.

“What?” I shrugged.

“Look at that fucking dart board,” Bones said, by way of an answer.

I turned back to the board and realized that I hadn’t even managed to hit it three of the six times I’d thrown. The wall was punctured with little holes from the fallen darts that had made their way to the floor.

“My head’s not in it today.”

“That’s obvious,” Bones nodded. “My question is why?”

I decided to just keep quiet, and Bones didn’t push me. I did notice that Devon barely said two words the whole time, however, despite the fact that I could feel his eyes on me.

“Any new leads?” I said, abandoning the darts and sitting down across from Bones and Devon.

“None at all,” Bones sighed. “His trail has run cold.”

“Not that it was ever really hot to begin with,” Devon pointed out.

He looked slightly annoyed as he looked me over, but I decided just to ignore him. I suspected that he knew about Abby and me without really knowing; he was just too scared to ask the question.

“Where’s Abby?” Devon asked, almost as though he had heard her name in my head.

“I don’t know,” I said, answering a little too quickly. “I don’t keep track of where she goes as long as she’s in the house.”

“She seemed a little down this morning,” Devon said, as though he expected me to answer.

I avoided his eyes and looked up at the ceiling. “He’s bound to show up somewhere. He can’t stay underground for long.”

“We need to figure out a way to flush the fucker out,” Devon said. “This waiting game is not helping anyone.”

“How do you propose we flush him out?” I demanded. “Short of standing in the streets and yelling out his name.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“I’m seriously asking; what do you suggest?” I asked challengingly. “Because if he’s being protected by Godwin, then we have to be smart about this. The Knights already know we’re searching for someone called Walter Black. Going after him means confronting the Knights head on.”

“Which you want to avoid?” Devon asked, with one raised eyebrow.

“Obviously,” I said.

Bones looked between us like he was trying to figure out what was going on. The tension was building slowly, and it was starting to become palpable.

“Really… because I thought the only reason you agreed to take Abby in, in the first place, was because you wanted to get revenge on the Knights.”

“I wanted to get revenge on Godwin,” I clarified, refusing to back down. “There’s a difference.”

“Small difference.”

“There are other ways to get your revenge,” I pointed out. “Apart from open war.”

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