Page 47 of Rider Daddies
The girl elbows me in the side, giving me another cautionary look.
My laughter fades. “How many men are working here?”
“Too many,” she says. “I was taken by five. They offered me free weed at a club in Vegas because I apparently looked like I “needed mellowing out.” Do you know what’s even crazier? I could’ve sworn that I was being followed by someone for weeks. I brought it up to my daddy but he said I was just being paranoid, watching too much true crime.” She shrugs. “He wasn’t lying about that, but I had a weird feeling in my gut. It was like it was trying to tell me something.”
I stare at the ground as the security guards begin a new lap around the parking lot.
Should I be scared that Ineveronce got a gut feeling that something was wrong about Tristan? That fucker really knew what he was doing.
“I was about to marry my stalker.”
The girl frowns. “What?”
“We met at a law firm. I was a new recruit and he was my senior. We dated for a year. Tristan Hampton—do you know him?”
“Tristan?” The girl’s eyes widen for a moment, but it’s not long before she’s shaking her head and rolling her eyes. “I shouldn’t be surprised. He’s an odd one.”
“You know him?”
“Not well. I heard on the grapevine that he’s been working with Manual for about a year now.”
I frown. “That’s about the length of time I’ve known him.”
“Weird,” she says, staring into empty space again. “Tristan is a strange one. He works closely with Manual as one of his most trusted employees. You never saw the signs when you were together that he might’ve been involved in a ring?”
Like I said, master manipulator.
“Nothing. He would sometimes stay at work until late. I guess that’s when he was pursuing certain…underground ventures. But I trusted Tristan.Well.I confided in him until I saw him getting with my best friend on our wedding day. I left the state after that and broke it off.”
“So, how come you’re here now?”
God, the last few days have been such a whirlwind that I don’t even know myself. Between being fingered in public by three brothers, to being taken away by a sex trafficking kingpin, I really don’t know how I’m supposed to process all of this.
“Because…” I sigh. “That man is a conniving son of a bitch who doesn’t stop until he gets what he wants. I just don’t understand why he would actively choose to dedicate a year of his life trying to get me under his wing. We did everything together—like, we went to wineries, movie night every Friday. He used to surprise me with flowers and take care of me when I was sick.” I frown. “A man wouldn’t do all of those things and go to so much effort if all he wanted to do was suck me into a trafficking ring. No offense, but he would’ve saved so much time and energy by fixing me up with a couple grams of weed.”
The girl watches me for a moment. “But you don’t look like the kinda girl that gets into drugs. Your skin is too perfect for that.”
“No, I’ve never used in my life, but that’s beside the point. Manual or Tristan could’ve cut to the chase, knocked me out andbrought me here a year ago. Instead, he had Tristan coax me into love for fucking three hundred and sixty days.”
She’s as stumped as I am.
The girl pushes away from the railing, crossing her arms over her chest as she regards me. “Youdohave a point, but when it comes to people like this, you can find a reason for everything.”
“Which is…?”
“What’s the reason for kidnapping a girl, creating a fake profile, and selling her body? To a normal person, there isn’t one, but to men like this, the answer is very obvious. They do what they do because they want to do it.That’sthe reason.” The girl bites her lip. “Tristan or Manual, whoever’s idea it was to manipulate you into walking down that aisle, probably got a sick hit out of it. Maybe they just wanted to switch it up. Play the long game for a change.”
My stomach should be churning with hunger given that I haven’t eaten all day. Instead, it feels like it’s getting ready to send bile up my throat. I’m on the verge of vomiting out my guts.
Waste my money.
Waste my food.
Don’t fucking waste my time.
Ugh. I could gut Tristan like a fish and put his intestines over his head, make him wear them like a necklace.
God, I’m starting to sound like the bikers…
