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My head drops back and I stare at the spinning ceiling fan overhead. Maddox might be right, but if Riley drags me down with her, it means she wants me near her. In that case,drag me down, baby. Abuse me. Hurt me. Love me.
When I was eleven years old, my mom told me I needed to get control of my emotions. They rise and fall rapidly, and I feel them too intensely. That same day, my entire life changed in the worst way imaginable.
“Ridge! Stop!” Mom cries out as I raise the bat, bringing it down on her boyfriend of the night’s face.
He hit her. No one hurts the people I love, especially my mom. Never again. I lift the bat, bringing it down harder this time.
Mom grabs my arm before I’m able to bash his ugly face in again. “Baby, please.”
Her voice steals my attention and the horror-stricken expression on her face puts an end to my episode of madness. With a trembling hand, I drop the bat to the floor. The metal hits the ground with a thud, splintering the ceramic tile. Blood drips from the bat, trickling between the fresh crack.
Two arms wrap around me from behind. They’re warm and safe and allow me to forget for a minute.
“Oh, Ridge. What have you done?”
I open my mouth to speak, but my words fail me. No matter how hard I try to tell my mom what I did, I can’t. My throat isn’t restricted. I’m still breathing. So why can’t I speak?
Say something. Tell her why you did it. Tell her why you’d do it again and again if needed. For her. To protect her. Always.
Mom turns me around, her hands now holding on to both of my arms. She drops to her knees, resting in a pool of blood. Tears stream down her cheeks and the sight alone has me crying, too. Words fight to climb out, but they’re stuck somewhere deep inside me.
I raise my hand, swiping my finger under her swollen eye and catching her tears.
“Oh, sweet boy,” she cries out, pulling me into safety again. Her hugs are my happy place. Mom makes everything better.
When I say nothing, she hugs me tighter and whispers, “I understand.”
She knows. I don’t need my voice because she knows.
“You have the biggest heart, Ridge Foster. You love fiercely. But you need to get control of your emotions. The rapid rise and fall will get you in trouble one day, if you let them. Now go to Maddox’s house next door and don’t say a word about what you did, Ridge. Promise me? Let me do this.”
I gulp, my head immediately shaking no. “No,” I finally say the word, and it’s a song to my ears because it’s reassurance that I’m not permanently broken.
“I have to do this, baby.”
“No,” I shout. “No!” It’s all that comes out, but it’s something. I can’t let her do this. I killed him. Not her.
“Ridge,” she presses, “The Society will protect me. I promise, I’ll come home to you. Now go next door and stay with Maddox and his family until I call.” She pulls me in for one last hug. “I love you, Ridge.”
“I love you, too, Mama.”
Mom was right, The Blue Bloods protected her and cleared her name for a murder that I committed, and she walked away scot-free. Until she wasn’t free anymore.
When someone helps you, they always want something in return.
Four days later, I saw her beautiful face for the last time. That’s the day I began my path down a road of complete fucking insanity. I killed a man when I was only eleven years old, and when I saw his face as I was beating the life out of him, I knew he wouldn’t be the last.
The world is full of evil people, and my secret is, I’m the worst of them all.
CHAPTER4
RILEY
“Ugh,”I grumble, dropping on my bed in the same dress I had on at the party. My fingers weave through my hair, massaging my scalp. “If this headache is the start of what I’ll face in the morning, I’m never drinking again.”
Scar pulls my light pink comforter up to my chest, tucking it in on both sides of my body, just the way I like it. She rests half of her ass on the mattress beside me. “Did you have fun?”
“Eh,” is the sound I choose for that question.
