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Noted.
He guided me to a sleek black car that almost looked like an SUV in the driveway, opening the door and putting me inside. The interior was red and black leather and it screamed money as I settled in the seat, momentarily stunned. He took the seatbelt in his hand, reaching across my body to buckle me in like a child. As soon as the car door closed, I resisted the urge to pull it open. When he dropped into the driver’s seat, it almost seemed absurd how much space he took up. It wasn’t a tiny car, but it felt infinitely smaller with him inside it.
I had to wait until we were off the property, though how I would get to my kids before him when I didn’t have a fucking car would take some creative maneuvering. “You can’t do this. Please don’t do this,” I begged instead. I might not have known him, but I had little doubt that my pleas would fall on deaf ears. He didn’t care what I might want or what my kids might need. Having a stranger insert himself into their lives and uproot them from their home was the absolute opposite of what they needed.
As I expected, he started up the car and the screen on the dashboard flashed with the Maserati logo. “We should get one more thing straight before we run into any problems while we’re out,” he announced, backing out of the front of the house and turning down the driveway. The gate opened for him before we got there, and he coasted through smoothly as he nodded at whoever the hell worked the gate.
“Is this the part where you tell me you’ll kill me if I talk?” I asked tartly, crossing my arms over my chest.
He chuckled, and the humorous sound made my body vibrate with a need I didn’t understand. It was rough, hoarse in a way that I suspected came from disuse. “No, Sunshine. I meant it when I said I won’t hurt you. That includes murder, the last I checked.”
“Funny.” I gave him the finger.
“I have no such hang-ups with anyone else though, I assure you. I will not let anyone come between us. Do you understand what that means?” I shook my head, pursing my lips. It didn’t sound like there could be very many interpretations of that statement, but he couldn’t be that insane.
Could he?
“It means that if you go to someone for help, know that I will make them disappear. It will not be a pleasant experience for whoever helps you. So unless you want that on your conscience, I suggest you mind your tongue around other people.”
I winced but nodded. “So let me get this straight. You’re using my family to keep me cooperative in the privacy of your house, and you’re using other people to keep me from getting help, and what? I’m supposed to like you? Is that how you see this playing out?”
He glared at me out of the side of his eye, but underneath the annoyance it felt like there was genuine amusement there. “That’s about right,” he said.
“Great.” I grinned at him. “I’m not sure when you last dated, but
in case it was the stone age maybe it’s time to modernize your strategy.”
“Calla,” he warned with a drawl. “I swear to fuck, tame the sass unless you want me to pull over and spank your ass.”
Something in my stomach clenched.
Nope. Down girl.
The psychotic man was not on the menu.
“What pray-tell are we going to tell my children then? Since they can’t know you’re a scary man, but apparently you won’t hurt us. How do we make them understand that you didn’t exist to them yesterday, but now we live with you?”
He didn’t bat an eye as he shifted gears once we got off the dirt road. “You let me handle that.”
“Um, no. They’re my kids. If I’m supposed to do this to shelter them from the fact that you seem to think it’s okay to just pluck people from their lives and make them dance for you, then I need to know what the plan is.”
“You can dance for me anytime,” he said instead of answering.
“Ryker!” I hissed in annoyance, but even I had to admit that in any other circumstances where he didn’t make me want to stab out his eyeball, I might have been entertained by him. For a man who chuckled like he’d forgotten how to laugh, he seemed to have a smart comment for everything I said. Like he lived inside my head and could predict my words before I spoke.
And I’d officially creeped myself out.
He glanced over at me, all traces of humor gone from his eyes as they darkened. My brain shouted at me to retreat, but with him barreling down the highway there was zero chance of that. “Say it again,” he ordered.
I fumbled over my thoughts, wondering what the hell had come out of my mouth to piss him off so much when he’d smiled through insults. “Ryker?” I asked finally.
He let out a deep breath, releasing some tension that had filled him so suddenly. “There was a time when I never thought I’d hear you say my name.”
Half of me melted, because it was oddly sweet to see how much it affected him. But the other part screamed danger.
Because that was creepy as fuck.
“Umm. Okay. But really, what are you going to tell my kids?” I asked as the city came into view. I didn’t dare glance at his speedometer to see how fast he’d driven to get there so quickly. It felt like it took me an eternity to get to his murder shack of a home, though that might have had something to do with the fact that I’d been scared out of my ever-loving mind.
