Something outside the room creaks, and I jump. I put the picture back in the drawer. But nothing moves.
Is this the brother Sawyer talked about?
I shudder out a breath and look at the penny. It looks like the coins my brother and I used to put on the train tracks, only to come back and find them squashed.
I check the rest of the room. I don’t find the gun. It has to be in the house somewhere.
I’ll bet they keep the good stuff in the office or their cars.
Tonight. Tonight, I should wait until they’re asleep and then leave. Take my freedom back.
My stomach clenches, and I think about the smell of sweat, burning coals, and coconut. I’ll never be able to go back to the person I was.
I come up with excuses. I need to have a gun when I run because something tells me they’ll hunt me with all they have. I’d shoot it better this time. I’d have to. I have no other choice.
Why does the thought make my chest tight?
Chapter 54
Sawyer
Ifind Ryder in the office. I step in and kick the door closed behind me.
He doesn’t even look up from his computer. He looks dark and brooding, slouched down.
I cross my arms. “We need to talk.”
“Nothing to talk about,” Ryder grunts.
“Sure there is,” I say. “You never told me if there were any hot guys in jail.”
He jerks his gaze up to me.
I arch an eyebrow. “Kinda leaving me hanging here.”
Ryder looks back down at the computer, his eyes dark and shadowed. “You’d have to call while I was there to know that shit.”
I snatch a paperweight off the desk and play with it, tossing it up and down in the air. “I figured they’d be all over you. You know, hot prisoner, fresh meat.”
Ryder grunts.
I toss the weight a few more times. “So how much is this case going to set us back?”
Ryder continues typing. “Why are you talking to me right now?”
“Grumpy?” I smirk at him. I know why he’s mad at me. We defied him downstairs.
“Would you stop throwing that?” Ryder snaps.
I look at his huge frame. Goddamn, the man is handsome, all dark and brooding. I toss it again. “You gonna make me?”
He glares at me, then seems to catch himself and goes back to his work.
“What, too afraid I’d beat your ass if you tried?”
He doesn’t even look up.
I slam my hands into the desk and snarl, “You gonna ignore me, Ryder?”