Page 44 of Ryder’s Storm

“All I wanted was to protect you. So you wouldn’t meet your mother’s fate.”

Scarlet shook her head. Her father believed her to be crazy and a suicide risk. “If you’d ever bothered to talk to me about all this, you would have realized that I’m not like that at all. I’m not crazy, and I would never dream of taking my own life.” She tipped her chin up in defiance. “But you never even tried to understand me.”

“Please, Scarlet. You need help, before it’s too late,” he pleaded.

“I don’t need your help.” She turned on her heel and marched out into the hallway.

At the stairs, she stopped for a long second. But she couldn’t set a foot on the stairs. It would mean defeat, giving in to her father’s wishes, and accepting that he was right in his assumptions, when she knew he was wrong. If she wanted a life of her own, one in which she made her own decisions, no matter the consequences, then she couldn’t stay here. She turned and directed her gaze to the entrance door. Her mind was made up.

She bridged the distance to the door with a few steps, and opened it. Without looking back, she stepped outside and ran. Tears were now streaming down her cheeks, but she didn’t care if anybody saw her crying. She just had to get away. She felt betrayed by her father as well as her mother. Scarlet had only been fourteen when her mother had committed suicide. Soon after that, her episodes had started. And now her father claimed that the unexplained symptoms Scarlet suffered from were the reason her mother had killed herself? She didn’t want to believe it. Instead, she channeled all her anger and disappointment toward her father. Not only had he lied to her about her mother’s death, he believed Derek’s version of the events of the previous night instead of hers.

And Ryder? What if he wanted nothing to do with her now that her father had told him that she was mentally ill? That she was crazy? And her father firing him now gave him the perfect reason to never have to see her again.

Never in her life had she felt so alone as in this moment. Had her mother felt like this too, before she’d chosen the easy way out by ending her life? Had her father betrayed her too by not listening to her, simply assuming that her ailment was mental not physical? Was there nobody her mother could have turned to for help? Nobody who would have understood what she was going through?

“Scarlet! Come back!” her father called out after her, but she didn’t look back. She knew he wouldn’t be able to catch up with her, not with his injured ankle.

22

Ryder collected his toiletries from the ensuite guest bathroom, then tossed them into his overnight bag together with the few clothes and the book he’d brought. He was still fuming, still enraged about the way Brandon King had spoken about his daughter. Scarlet had been assaulted, and her father made excuses for the would-be rapist, claiming that it was all Scarlet’s fault? What kind of father did that? This would have never happened in the Giles family. His parents and siblings would always have his back, and so would everybody at Scanguards, no matter the minor rivalries that existed among the hybrids and some of the more seasoned vampires.

Ryder didn’t care that King had dressed him down and fired him. It wouldn’t stop him from looking out for Scarlet. She was his mate, and nothing would change that. He would protect her, and when she was ready, he would make her his. And Brandon King couldn’t do anything about it.

With a look toward Scarlet’s room, Ryder walked to the stairs, when he heard the front door being slammed.

“Mr. Giles? Ryder?” King called out.

Ryder hurried down the stairs and found King looking distraught and breathing hard. Sweat was on his brow, and he used the banister as support.

“What is it?”

“I need your help.”

“You just fired me. And after the way you treated your daughter, I’m not—”

“Scarlet’s gone. We argued, and she ran off. I couldn’t run after her.” He motioned to his ankle.

“Fuck!” Ryder cursed and dropped his bag, already charging toward the door.

“Find her, please!” King begged.

Ryder didn’t bother replying. From the raised entry level of the house, he looked up and down the street, but he couldn’t see Scarlet anywhere. She’d probably already turned a corner. He picked up her scent, but was unable to figure out from where it came. The wind was dispersing it into different directions.

“Fuck!”

He pulled his phone out of his pocket, and clicked on the app to trace the location of Scarlet’s cell phone. When the dot appeared on the display, he breathed a sigh of relief. She hadn’t left her cell phone at home. But she was already farther away than he’d expected. He raced to his car on the other side of the street and jumped inside, but a traffic light changing at that moment sent a whole bunch of cars down the street, preventing him from pulling out of his parking spot.

“Move, for fuck’s sake!” Ryder yelled, frustrated.

Finally, there was a gap in the traffic, and he charged out, engine revving. He made a U-turn, tires burning on the asphalt, the SUV swerving, and kicked the gas pedal down. One eye on the traffic, one eye on the dot on his cell phone, he took the next turn barely slowing down. A few more blocks, and he would be able to see her.

At the next intersection, he raced through it when the light was already turning red again. One driver honked angrily, but Ryder ignored him and made an illegal left turn at the end of the block. That’s when he saw her. Scarlet was running down the narrow street not looking right or left. Ryder shot past her with the car, screeched to a halt a few yards ahead of her and jumped out of the SUV.

He almost collided with her a moment later. He wrapped his arms around her, but Scarlet hammered her fists against him, not even looking at him.

“Scarlet! I’m here now. Scarlet.”

She finally lifted her eyes, the skin around them puffy and red and still wet from her tears. “Ryder.”