“Okay,” I breathe out and close my eyes for a moment.
When I open them again, I look around, but don’t see the guy who was following me earlier. I’m not sure how I feel about that.
“You’re starting to freak me out a little bit, Teach,” Ryker’s voice is a mixture of wariness and amusement which cracks through some of my fear.
I shake my head slowly and take a breath. “Right,” I start to say right as we start to get moving, “I was taking pictures and kind of wandered behind the rides. No one was really out there; I was just snapping away.” My face scrunches up because now that I’m saying it out loud, it sounds stupid.
“Yeah,” Ryker rumbles, “we’ll circle back to that.”
Something flashed across his face when I mentioned my photography, but it was there and gone so fast that I’m not sure what it was. Odd, but nothing I have the mental capacity to take on at the moment.
As if it’ll prove what I’m about to say, I kind of shove my camera toward him. He doesn’t take it.
“I heard a dog barking and snarling like it was fighting for its life. When I looked toward the sound, I saw Bobby handing some guy an envelope. Then he got in the truck with the dog in the cage in the bed and he drove away.” I swallow hard. It felt like it took so long, but as I tell Ryker what happened, the whole thing happened so fast.
I shove my camera at Ryker again and, this time, he takes it. “Why are you handing me your camera?”
With a wave of my hand in its direction, as if I could show him by magic, “I got pictures of the whole thing.”
“Then you should go to your dad and show him. It could have been a legit sale of the dog,” he tries to reason with me.
I’m shaking my head before he even finishes. “That’s not even the worst part,” I tell him and grimace, wishing I could enjoy the view as our carriage moves slowly. “The guy turned and saw me. He immediately started to come after me. I took off.”
Ryker sits up straighter, his gaze moving down to the fair as if he’ll be able to identify the threat. I yank my camera from his hands and pull up the photos, showing him while scrolling through them slowly.
“See?” I shrug, feeling deflated. Maybe I overreacted? “I don’t know. I just, it didn’t feel like just a normal sale? I can’t explainit.” My gaze moves out toward the horizon. I can see town center in the distance and the beauty that is my home surrounding me.
But none of it really registers.
I don’t look at Ryker as I talk, my voice hollow, “That dog wasn’t being sold in a good way. There was nothing wholesome or right about what I saw.”
“You’re thinking this has to do with the dog fighting ring.”
My gaze snaps to his. Instead of disbelief I see understanding written all over his face. His very handsome face.
I want to reach up and cup his jaw, but I hold myself back. Barely.
When I nod, he pushes again, “Then why not go to your dad?”
“I did,” my words are low and thready. They hold the pain of him walking away from me. “I saw him first. I saw him and I expected to feel relief, feel safe, but when I tried to tell him what was happening, he didn’t want to hear it.” My nose scrunches up and I close my eyes before admitting, “I wasn’t making a lot of sense, but he rarely listens to me unless it’s convenient.” I sigh, hating how bitter I sound. “This time hadn’t gone any better.”
Warm hands cup my face and my eyes snap open. Ryker is looking down at me with rage roiling in his gray depths. Not at me. For me.
For me.
“You shouldn’t have to justify your fear to anyone. Not your father, not me. No one. I saw the look in your eyes, and I knew you were truly afraid.” His head tilts to the side and I try not to melt against him. It would be so easy to do.
Too easy.
“I don’t want him to find me,” my biggest fear comes out as a whispered confession.
Messy.
Honest.
I search his eyes and decide, for once, to be brave. “Will you help me?”
Ryker doesn’t say anything for a long time and the Ferris Wheel stops. Without looking I know we’re at the very top. I can feel the breeze and my gut twists.
