Page 36 of Ryder
We were back to square one.
Fourteen
They thought they wereso smart. They thought I wouldn’t realise that they’d taken her.
After the dead guy… after my tortured night of guilt, and self-recrimination, I woke after a brief sleep, realising that I couldn’t blame myself for his poor health. I couldn’t blame myself for him not being able to stay alive. It was sex. If he’d died during sex, it could have happened at any time.
And that was how I convinced myself that the best way to get over that shock, and horror, was to get back on the… well…horse.
Our plan had been made for tonight, but what she didn’t know was that I’d taken to following her. You don’t do what I do and trust, implicitly, that your one paid accomplice is completely trustworthy.
I saw them take her. I could have helped. I could have stepped in, and given her the backup that she probably thought I’d offer, if she were caught out. It was too dangerous though. There were four of the bikers waiting there for her. Even two of us wouldn’thave succeeded against them. They were fast too. She stepped out of the building she lived in, and they grabbed her, shoving her into a van, with so little noise or fuss, that nobody noticed, or perhaps they simply turned a blind eye.
They were taking her back to their compound. Where else? The temptation to follow had been so strong. Would I have been able to get a glimpse of him? He wasn’t with the ones who took her, but he’d be there. He’d be there when they questioned her. Would she give me up easily? The money I paid her was for the care home her mother was in. It had kept her mother well looked after for so long, so maybe she’d try to hide me.
I couldn’t take the risk either way. If she even happened to get in touch tonight, and confirm that she had one for me, I had to stay away. I had to change everything. It was time to disappear.
I swapped my phone for another burner, and glanced around my flat. It wouldn’t take long to move on. I didn’t have much in the way of belongings, because this really wasn’t a life that allowed me to make a home. Always on the run. Always hiding. Always alone.
And yet… I found myself watching their compound that evening. Watching as they ushered her out of there, and left in a van, followed by two bikes. I gave them time to get on the road, then I followed, and I watched. I watched as she entered a bar, and they lay in wait. Two were dressed in normal clothes, and followed her into the bar, from inside that van.
The two who were on the bikes had stayed down the road. They were fully intending to take me a prisoner. But they’d underestimated me. Never again would a man make a choice for me.Never again would he take my choice away.
So I sat and watched, and as the night dragged on, she eventually reappeared, flanked by the two who’d gone in there with her. If I’d been the type, I’d have had a gun trained on her, and I’d have taken her out, while they all dropped low, and triedto find the shooter. But this is England, and we don’t do things that way, and I’m not the gun toting type, either way.
So when I drove away after their van left again, with her safely ensconced inside, I went to my new flat, and I hid out there. I needed a new plan. A new process. A new accomplice. And more than that? I needed that biker back.He was mine, and I still planned to keep him.
Fifteen
What a fucking nightmare.Another week had passed. Another fucking week, with no news on who the bitch was. We’d kept the other woman here, I mean, what else could we do with her? We couldn’t free her. She was an accomplice to rape and murder, and she would have a chance to warn off the other bitch.
I’d stayed away, but I knew that Reacher was spending time with her, questioning her, learning everything he could. Her name was Alicia, and she had been helping her out for four months. Four months of finding poor unsuspecting men, and dragging them to a lair to be raped. Half of them probably just thought they got blind drunk, and slept with some random bird and went home.
If she hadn’t dumped me where she had, we might have assumed I’d just had a skinful, and woken up somewhere random after a good shag.
By dumping me outside the clubhouse, she proved two things. One, she knew exactly who I was, and who we were. And two,something other than the norm had happened, because I woke up on the pavement outside our clubhouse. If I’d been out drinking with the boys, they’d have seen me to my room. If I’d been off and shagged some girl, I’d have woken at her place, and come back.
I was back to work, helping with the next drug shipments, and it hadn’t gone unnoticed that I wasn’t back to myself just yet.
“Wanna get a few drinks later? Do a couple of the club girls?” That was Has-Been. My other date that night. Wow, a few weeks ago. It had dragged like hell, but somehow still felt like it had gone fast.
“Uh… nah, I’m gonna get some sleep.”
He shot me a sidelong glance, his long blond dreads hanging over his face.
“Yeah, you’ve said that every night this week, brother. You know Chrissy’s gagging for you to fuck her. She misses you.”
Yeah, and I missed my fucking cock, and being able to fuck a girl. I shot him a glare.
“Well, I’ve got stuff to do. You do her. You’ve always liked Chrissy.”
He smirked. “Well… you know… I can still get dates based on my pretty face.” He had been a child actor, because of his baby faced looks. He’d never really grown out of them, even though he tried to look tough with the hair and the tats, and his ever increasing collection of piercings.
He always kept his face clean shaven though, so girls could still recognise him. His road name, Has-Been, was a nod to the fact that he’d been a star, you know, until he’d suddenly hit his late teens, and nobody wanted to hire a baby-faced adult. Poor guy.
“Brother… we can go out somewhere else, if you’re bored with here.” He wasn’t getting it. He was one of the many who hadn’t been privy to what had happened, short of being at the bar and seeing me leave with the MILF. He figured I just got laidand took a bunch of drugs, even though he should know me well enough to know I never ever did that shit.
“Has… look… I just need to get some shit done on my own, yeah? I’ll come out with you guys at the weekend. We’ll paint the town red, or whatever colour is in right now. I’ll even do my best not to beat up any pricks in the street.”
