AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Ryan shrugged. “Every family has issues.”
“Funny. The sickest part is that your hands are dirty, while his are probably spotless. A ruthless man like that won’t hesitate to throw you under the bus when the time comes.”
“Worried about me?”
“Not at all,” I assured him. “You should be worried about yourself, though, because Diesel is going to kill you when he finds you.”
His lips curled into an ugly smile. “Oh, you mean Daddy? Do you call him that when he fucks you like the animal he is? Sleeping with your sister’s leftovers? You’re nothing but a biker cunt.”
I spat in his face, and his expression curled into arrogant rage once more. In one quick motion he stood up and backhanded me across the face, white spots darting across my vision as the pain seared through my skull once more.
“Your stupid fucking boyfriend won’t do anything if he ever wants to see you again.”
I thought about that for a long minute as the pain slowly receded into a dull thud across my cheek, and all I felt was grateful that he hadn’t taken Leo too. He’d grow up with his father and all the Steel Demons who loved him. I knew Gio was following me, so I was sure Leo was safe, and I was also sure that Diesel would do everything in his power to get me back, I just had to stay alive long enough for him to find me.
“Ryan Carter,” I said, watching as he wiped his face on a pristine handkerchief, studied it for a moment, and then threw it over his shoulder with a shrug. “I knew your family was rich, I just wish I’d known exactly who I was dealing with all this time.”
He made a little wriggling motion with his fingers, as if shaking something unpleasant off himself where his fingers must have touched my spit and turned back to me. “Look, that wasn’t entirely on purpose, keeping my identity a secret. I mean it was, but I didn’t really mean to at first. Dad asked me to keep an eye on you just in case stupidity ran in your family, but it was clear you had no idea who I really was, I was just Ryan Murphy who worked in his dad’s construction company.” He shook his head and a genuine smile appeared. “It’s why I liked you, Ellie. Given who I am, and what I’m worth, you didn’t care about my money, and you didn’t ask anything I didn’t offer up. You were the first real friend I ever had, and I hoped we could be more than friends.”
“I liked you too, Ryan. Too bad you were never really my friend.”
“I was,” he insisted, and he stomped his foot like a tantruming toddler. Just a little, just barely lifting it off the ground…but the motion was still there, and I couldn’t help but wonder how I’d never noticed this side of him before. “We came together under false pretenses, but the friendship was totally genuine!”
“Sure,” I snorted. “Tell me something, Ryan. Did you kill those teenagers and dump them around Steel Demon properties?”
“No.” His answer was emphatic and his eyes wide. “Dad doesn’t trust me to do that kind of shit yet. He only let me deal with Stacy because I was the one who realized she was onto him.”
“Do you hear yourself? He only let you deal with Stacy. Seriously that is fucked up, Ryan.”
“You think I don’t know that?”
“What I want to know, Ryan,” I said quietly, “is, are you going to kill me?”
Just asking the question brought tears to my eyes. I would never get to see Leo again. Never get to see him grow into a man. Finish high school. Fall in love. None of it. And there was Diesel. My heart squeezed so tight it hurt at the thought of never seeing those beautiful blue eyes again or tasting his mouth. Never feeling the heavy weight of his body pressed against mine. I won’t ever get a chance to tell him that I love him.
I was never going to have his baby, he would never know he was going to be a father again.
“That is entirely up to your boyfriend,” he said with a hint of sadness as he turned away and walked out of the room, turning off the light before he left.
I pulled against the ties on my wrist, but they didn’t budge. If anything, they got tighter with every move, and after a few minutes I was forced to give up. Alone in the dark and tied to a chair, only one thought came to me.
I really hope Diesel is coming for me.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Diesel
“He has to be here,” I growled as I balled my gloved hands into fists and flexed my joints, pointing at the stupid fucking mansion listed as Robert Carter’s main residence. Slate was still trying to track down Ryan. We’d unearthed some interesting intel on him. It turned out that Ryan Murphy didn’t exist, but Ryan Carter sure as fuck did. We’d already checked Ryan’s house but there was no sign of him or Ellie, so we were paying his dear old dad a visit.
Rocky dropped both hands on my shoulder to force me to focus on his face. “Listen, brother. I just got off the phone with Slate and he said Carter is definitely inside, the phone’s GPS located him here. He managed to hack his security system, and the old man is fast asleep, looks like he had one too many whiskeys after dinner.”
“Good.” Fury pumped through my veins so ferociously I vibrated with it, and with the need to fuck him up. “I’m not leaving without Ellie or her location. Period.”
“No shit,” he laughed. “Let’s go inside. Being in the burbs in the middle of the night like this is making me itch.”
That forced a laugh out of me. “Old memories?”
“Not old enough,” he grumbled, and pulled out his gun. “Ready for this?”
