Page 92 of Ryder
He groaned. “I trust you. I’m sorry I over-reacted before.”
I rinsed the glass, and refilled it, grabbing some paracetamol, and bringing them back with me.
He took one look at them and sighed.
“I really wish I could.”
I set them on the bedside cabinet.
“I’m sure you can safely take them. Unless you think you won’t keep them down?”
He groaned. “The nausea is back, so I really don’t know.”
I reached for his phone, and his hand shot out, stopping me.
“What?”
“What are you doing?”
I withdrew my hand. “I was going to find out if it’s safe.”
“Don’t! You can’t ask anyone. You can’t let on what we did.”
I frowned, sitting up taller. “What do you mean? I can’t google it?”
His own frown cleared a little.
“Oh. Maybe. I don’t know. If anyone’s still monitoring my phone, it’ll be Ice, and he already knows.”
“Ryder, why would anyone be monitoring your phone?”
He barked out a laugh and then grabbed his stomach, letting out a sharp breath.
“Oh. No reason… just that some woman kept contacting me, and we were trying to track her down.”
I opened my mouth to answer, before I realised he meant me. So because of what I’d done, he’d also lost any chance of privacy. Could I really complain about my having to live here, and nothaving a door on the bathroom, when I’d messed up literally every aspect of his life?
“Jesus, don’t look like that. It’s not like it’s a big deal. They’ve probably stopped now anyway.”
I cast my eyes down. “I just didn’t realise how much damage I’d done to you, apart from the obvious, I mean. Has it damaged your reputation with your brothers?”
His eyes widened. “You don’t need to be worrying about that. But… andthis is important… nobody other than Ice can know what we did last night, especially if we do it more than once.”
I felt a ripple of excitement at his words.
“You’d do it again?”
He swallowed hard, sipping more water.
“I’ll be more open to that when I don’t feel like I’ve been on a three day bender, but yeah, probably.”
“They won’t like it?” It was a dumb question, I know.
Ryder set the water aside, and leaned back against his pillows, which I’d helped pile against the headboard.
“The thing about life in a club like this… I mean, it’s nothing like the TV shows, or those porn books you read. It’s real. It’s gritty, and dangerous. We do dangerous things. Not all of it is legal, although maybe more of it than you’d think. The important thing is that we can all trust each other. To have each other’s backs. To fight for each other. To be willing to die for each other.”
“My god.”
