Page 51 of Ryder
“Someone took her,” I muttered, my mind still whirling around everything that had happened.
He nodded. “Doing what she does, she’s bound to have other enemies, brother.”
He looked so calm, but then he wasn’t freaking out at the possibility of losing the only woman his dick would rise for.
“So that’s it? She’s pissed off others, never mind. Move on? I can’t fucking do that.”
He raised an eyebrow, lowering his glass.
“You act like she’s yours. You thinking of claiming the woman who raped you, brother? That’s every possible kind of messed up.”
It was. It really fucking was. I glanced around us, seeing nobody except Tommy, who was all the way across the huge room.
“What if I did, though?”
Stitch eyed me warily. “You claim who you claim. Doesn’t have to make sense to the rest of us. I will say though, she assaulted you, and maybe what you’re feeling isn’t the kind of connection you think it is. Maybe what’s really happening is, you just really want to see this through, and get your closure. Then you can move on. Maybe to a certain club female, who pretty much only lets two brothers even touch her.”
Chrissy. Yeah. I used to enjoy fucking her, but now? She didn’t even occur to me anymore. I hadn’t thought of her since that one night when I’d messaged her. I hadn’t thought of anyone but Tori.
“Will the club even accept her as my old lady, if that’s what I choose?” I’d never planned to fucking go that route. Why tie myself down to one woman, when I can fuck so many others? I never understood it before. Did I understand it now? Not really. Did I want anyone else touching her? No.Only I could touch her. And I didn’t even care if she accepted that. It was the way it had to be.
“What if we don’t find her?” Stitch asked, in that annoyingly reasonable tone of his.
I drank half of the vodka, and sat back to look at him.
“Are we doing everything in our power to try?”
He sighed, shaking his head. “Of course we fucking are, but I’m asking what happens if we fail.”
I felt all of the strength in my body drain away at the thought.
“I have no fucking idea.I think I need her.”
He was watching me closely, like he could see everything, every emotion, every tremor of fear and confusion. Everyfucking desperate urge in my tired body to get up and out there, and just find her.
“We’ll do our best to find her, Ryder. But you need to be prepared for the fact that whoever took her, may not keep her long.”
I knew what he was saying. She could be dead by tomorrow. She might already be dead. And we had no way of tracking her, because they’d left her phone behind, and our attempts to track it had been fucking pitiful already.
“If Ice had just fucking tracked her sooner.”
“Don’t put this on him. He’s been up almost every fucking night working on this. He’s used every skill he has; he’s called in favours that he’ll be repaying for a long ass time. He’s taken way more shit to keep him awake than I think any of us realise. After all this is sorted, you might want to try saying thanks to him.”
Yeah, probably. “I never used to be this much of an asshole, right? I mean… this is new. It is, right?”
Stitch smirked. “I think you’re a little more edgy than you used to be, but you’re still pretty much the same guy we patched in twelve years ago. You just like to get in your President’s face a lot lately.”
I ran a hand through my hair.
“Yeah… so… the fact that he hasn’t put his fist through my face yet. Is that a good thing? Or do you think he’s keeping count, so he can beat the shit out of me later?”
Stitch laughed, slapping a hand on the arm of the chair.
“I kinda hope for the latter, you know… for entertainment value.”
“Jackass.”
He shrugged. We were wasting time, stuck in a holding pattern. Waiting for something to give us a fucking clue. I appreciated the fact that Stitch was taking the time to distract me, rather than leaving me to pace and freak out.
