by Amo Jones
“Ryder!” she whispers, a single tear sliding down her cheek.
I kiss her hand. “Do you trust me?”
She nods her head. “Yes, yes, I trust you.”
“Good, because I want to spend the rest of my life with you.” I pull out the box from my pocket and she sucks in another breath.
“Oh my God.”
“Ryder, baby. My name’s Ryder,” I tease and she narrows her eyes at me.
“Phoebe Speedy Rendon…” She laughs and pushes my elbow.
I narrow my eyes at her and her face straightens. “Will you marry me?” I pop open the box and her eyes bug out.
“Yes! Yes, I will marry you, Ryder.” I stand and pick her up kissing her like my life depends on it. Drawing in her bottom lip, I pull at it before taking the ring out of the box. “Jesus, Ryder. This is…I would’ve been happy with a smaller one. Shit.”
Chuckling, I say, “You deserve the best baby, and that’s exactly what you’ll be getting.”
“The wedding of the year is set for six months’ time when Phoebe Rendon and Ryder Oakley tie the knot. Who will be there? And who won’t be? I think that’s the question we’re asking ourselves,” a posh voice comes blaring through the television.
“You’re watching the E! Channel again, Blake? Should I be worried?”
He shakes his head with his eyes narrowed. “Can you believe these people?”
“Nope, not at all, and I probably never will.”
“This is going to be your life, Phoebe. From here on out, all privacy…gone.” I know he wants what’s best for me, but I’ve thought about this for months now since Ryder and I became official.
“I know, but I’ll learn to work around it.” He rounds my kitchen counter, pulling me in for a hug. My body relaxes at the feeling of being in my brother’s protective arms.
“I love you,” I say to him in muffled tones into his arm.
“I love you, too.”
“Hey, look on the bright side,” I say pulling away from him and placing my arms on his shoulders. “At least, you don’t need to dig any more graves for me.” As soon as I’ve said it, I regret it. “Blake…” I say to him and his face relaxes. “You need to stop one day.”
He rolls his eyes. “Not you too. I thought you out of everyone would always understand what we do.”
“I understand, but I don’t agree with it. Just please take it easy. You have an expanding family now,” I look down to my watch, “who I’m supposed to be meeting for lunch.” I kiss him quickly on the cheek, picking up my keys. “I’ll see you back here later to look over the plans. I love you!” I say dashing out the door and running to my car.
I quickly text Vicky and let her know that I’m on my way before I put my keys into the ignition. I’m pulling down my driveway when I see a figure run past my window and behind a tree.
What the fuck.
I look around to see if there are any cars, and aside from Blake’s bike that’s sitting in my driveway there’s no one else.
“Fuck’s sake,” I mumble, removing my seatbelt and opening my door. I’m going to be one of those dumb girls who gets murdered because she was too nosey. But I know Blake is there, and he will see my car parked in the middle of the road, so that makes me feel a little better.
Gripping onto my door, I slam it shut. “Hello?” I yell out like an idiot.
I begin walking toward the tree, the dry autumn leaves crunching under my feet, my breathing deepens and my stomach turns in knots. “Who’s there?” I circle the tree to find a girl wearing a hoodie and suit pants. “Who are you, and why are you on my property?” I ask the figure. I can’t see much of her because her head is down and her long hair is draped over her face with her hoodie on. I kneel down, attempting to catch her face. “Hey? Are you okay?” I reach out to touch her and her head flies up, revealing her face.
Her face…
“Abby!” I scream.
Her body drops to a mountain on the grass, and as if in slow motion I fall down to her and place her head under my arm. “Abby? Wake up. Oh my God. I push her hair out of her face and run my fingers down her cheek. She has a few cuts and grazes and the sight of her pulls at me.
“Phoebe?” Blake yells, running out of my front door.
“Over here,” I yell back to him, and Abby squeezes my arm.
“Hey, hey, it’s okay. It’s just Blake. What happened? We thought you were dead, Abby.”
Her green eyes open and she looks into my eyes. “I know,” she croaks out, her voice dry and raspy.
Blake reaches us and kneels down beside us. “Abby?” he asks in shock. “What the fuck is going on?” he adds.
“Blake…” I warn.
“We thought you were fucking dead.”
Abby pushes off me, attempting to sit against the tree, and brushing her hair out of her face. “I know. I know. I had to. I had to, I shouldn’t be here. I shouldn’t have come, but I can’t bear the thought of you all thinking I’m dead. I can’t get to Ade, Phoebe, please tell him I’m alive.”
I think over her words and my eyebrows cross. “No. No, I will not tell him that you’re still alive, Abby, not when it looks like you’re about to die all over again. You didn’t see him.”
“See all of us,” Blake adds.
“How the fuck could you do that to us, Abby? Why did you think you couldn’t run to us?”
“I can’t talk about this. Not right now. I have to leave. Please? Please let them know, I’m okay. I have to go back before they know I’m missing.”
“Who? Before who know you’re missing? The Russian’s? Kazimir?”
She shakes her head. “No, not the Russians.” She begins to stand, wiping the dirt off her pants and turning her back, starting to walk back into the forest.
I grab onto her arm, swinging her around to face me. “Who, Abby! Fucking who? You were dead…dead! We fucking buried you, cried for you, and missed you, Abby. But all this fucking time you were alive? So tell me, where the fuck you’ve been? I have secrets that could fill an entire church, let me at it.”
She turns her head over her shoulder. “The Army.” Before dashing off ahead of me. I pause in my thoughts and turn to face Blake.
“Who the fuck is ‘The Army’?” His body stills, stiff as a rock.
His eye twitches and his jaw clenches. “I need to go. Now.”
“Blake! I yell from where he’s left me standing. “Who the hell are they?”
He stands with his back to me. “They’re your worst fucking nightmare. Go inside and call Ryder. Now Phoebe, and don’t leave his side.”
Then he walks to his bike, starting it up and speeding out of here in full throttle.
I’m walking back inside when I pull my phone out to text Ryder.
Me: Hey baby, can you call me when you’re free? xo
I place my phone back into my bag and pull open my front door. Twisted Transistor ‘Freak’ starts playing from my phone and I smile. I love this song, even though it was probably about some hoe banger Ryker knew. It has a catchy beat. Ryder isn’t that much of a fan of me having this song as my ringtone and not ‘Heart Shaped Tiger,’ but he has that as my ringtone.
“Hey,” I say down the phone, placing my keys back on the console table and shutting the door.
“Hey baby, what’s up?”
“I hope you weren’t busy?”
“Nah, not at all. I’ve missed a couple calls from Blake as well.”
“It’s Abby, she’s alive and some shit is happening again that I know nothing about. I’m inwardly freaking out, but I don’t think it has sunk completely in yet. You don’t need to come home. I have shooter—”
“I’m coming now. Can you go to the clubhouse and wait for me?”
“I can wait here, Ryder. I’ll be fine. Have you seen my dog?”
“Phoebe…go to the clubhouse and wait for me. Take Shooter. I’ll catch the first flight out tonight.”
“Okay, I’ll see you soon.”
Hangi
ng up the phone, I head back out the door to my car before heading to the clubhouse.
“I gotta go, Phoebe needs me.” I get off the chair and push it back under the table.
“What do you mean? She all good?” Ryker asks.
“Yeah, something’s just come up.”
I swing my leather jacket around my shoulders. “I’ll call you if I need anything. Keep going with that track.”
“Wait! Ryder, have you looked through the invites for the wedding yet?”
“No, why?”
“It’s just. No nothing, don’t worry. Tommy was going to bring Lara as well.” His tone changing, trying to deflect his actual reasoning for asking me this.
“Yeah, that’s fine. I’m sure Phoebe will want to see her anyway.”
He nods his head, but I can see he has a burning question behind his eyes. “What is it, Ry? I don’t have time, so spit it out.”
He rubs his hands over his head before dragging them over his face. “Look, okay. Fuck it.” I’m standing there waiting, getting impatient. “Can you not invite the Munroe’s…please?” he pleads.
Understanding sets in so I smirk. He sees my face change and his eyes narrow. “It’s not funny. I haven’t seen them since…you know…since high school, and they’ll still hate me after what I put Bryleigh through in school.”
I nod my head and laugh. “Ryker, I doubt they’d give a flying shit about all that right now. They’re invited. They helped us a lot growing up, there’s no way I am not inviting them.”
“Please,” he pleads again and I laugh.
“No, Ryker. Sort that shit out with Bryleigh yourself. I hear she’s a surgical nurse now. I doubt she’s been sitting around thinking about the bully she knew at high school. The one who she gave her virginity to, then he went around and spread every rumor about her at school which caused her to move to Croatia for a year.” I shake my head at the memory. “You can write your wrongs with that family. They’re coming.”
“Fuck,” he answers, slumping back into his seat.
To tell you the truth, I almost forgot about the Munroe’s. I haven’t heard from Senator Munroe for a few years now, I think it’s time for me to reach out, I smirk to myself as I step out into the crisp air.
Fucking Ryker, his dick is always getting him into trouble.
Rufus steps out of the driver’s seat of the limo and opens the back door for me where I slide in. Pulling out my phone, I text Phoebe letting her know that I’m on my way to the airport and the jet is ready to go.
Once I’m seated in the jet, my eyes drift off and I think of the day I took Phoebe home for Christmas to meet my aunt.
Christmas
“Are we almost there?” Phoebe nagged from the passenger seat. Fuck, she’s been a handful during this trip. She’s my handful, though.
“Almost baby,” I brought her hand up to my lips and kissed her briefly before bringing my eyes back to the road.
“Is Ryker already there?”
I nodded my head. “Yeah, he got in last night.”
We pulled into the high gates of my aunt’s house. Once we hit it big, Ryker and I put our everything into building her the home of her dreams. We wouldn’t have been here if it weren’t for her and for that I owe her more than everything. It took her months to accept it, of course.
“Wow,” Phoebe said from her seat. “It’s stunning here. Oh my gosh.”
I smiled. “Sure is. I remembered her stories when we were little. She used to create these fairy tales and tell them to Ryker and me. Of course, we thought they were real. The fairy princess was named ‘Celeste’ my aunt’s name is Corletta. We didn’t pick it up at first, but eventually as we got older, we worked it out. She worked day in and day out just to feed Ryker and me, making sure our school fees were all paid. Her fairy tales were about a fairy princess whose wings were snipped at a young age by her evil sister, so she could never fly like the other fairies. That was until she met two little gnomes who fulfilled her heart with so much love that they healed her broken wings. She took them back to her magical palace that had white lilies growing all around the front of a big glass door.” I pulled up outside the large house and Phoebe’s eyes glazed over. When she looked toward the front door, she gasped out in shock at the view of all the white lilies we planted.
“Oh my God, Ryder. That’s so beautiful, this…” she gestured outside, “…is so beautiful. I can’t wait to meet her.” I squeezed her hand, pulling her out of the car.
“Come on.”
I hadn’t even reached the door when it came swinging open and my aunt with her tiny five-foot-two frame came flying out, wrapping her arms around me. I hugged her back, squeezing her into me.
“Hey Aunt, I want you to meet Phoebe,” I gestured to Phoebe and my aunt’s face lit up like the fourth of July.
“Oh, it’s so lovely to finally meet you, Phoebe. The way Ryker has been talking about you all night, anyone would think he was the one dating you.” She rolled her eyes and pulled Phoebe in for a hug.
“Is that my favorite girl?” Ryker yelled from inside. I wrapped Phoebe around me protectively, walking her inside.
“You have such a beautiful home,” Phoebe said to my aunt, removing her jacket and hanging it on the clothes hook.
“Thank you, dear. Come, I want to show you something,” she said as they walked off outside. I knew what my aunt was showing Phoebe. The garden no doubt. I dropped our bags inside the door and Ryker walked out in an apron, with a spatula in his hand.
I shook my head and laughed. “What the? Why the hell are you wearing an apron?”
“Don’t try to de-man me, Ryder. I could wear heels and still have enough man in me to pull it off.”
I rolled my eyes. “What are you cooking?”
“Well…barbecue onion rings, of course.”
Of course, he is.
Present Day
“Ryder?”
“Ryder!” Rufus mumbles, pushing at me.
I wipe my eyes, looking at him. “Yeah? We there?”
He nods. “Just landed.”
I remove my seat belt, calling Phoebe, and she picks up on the third ring.
“Hey, you here?” she purrs down the phone and everything that was going on around me stops for that brief second that her sexy fucking voice vibrates down my ears.
“Yeah, you at the clubhouse? I’ll come now.”
“Yeah, I’m here. I’ll see you soon.”
When I first went to the clubhouse, Marcus had a lot to say about it. It didn’t look good me being there and all that. That was until I told him to get fucked, and he never mentioned it again. Now with the wedding being planned, the media is going crazy over just that alone. They think that the wedding is in six months, but we’re actually planning for it to be held in two weeks, secretly at one of the chapels here in Westbeach.
I walk out to the limo, shutting the door behind me when my phone starts vibrating in my pocket. I see it’s Rellik, so I answer.
“Yo,”
“Sup? You in Westbeach?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Is Phoebe with you?”
“No, she’s at the clubhouse. I’m going there now. Again…why?”
“Nettie still won’t answer my calls.”
“You don’t say.”
“Not helping.”
“Well, I’d say that ship has sailed. Find a new toy.”
“I’ve tried!”
“Try harder. Oh, and leave Nettie alone.”
I hang up my phone putting it on silent. My fucking brothers. If I thought one was hard, two is a nightmare.
We pull up to the clubhouse and one of the prospects opens up the wired gate, letting the limo drive through. Phoebe comes running out to the car as I jump out and leaps into my arms, kissing me all over my neck.
“I missed you so much.” She bites my neck and my dick automatically stiffens against her. She notices and smiles.
I shut the door, taking her under my arm as we make our
way to the bar. “What’s going on?”
She shrugs. “I don’t know. I just know what Abby herself told me. No one here is telling me anything else.”
“Probably for the best,” I say kissing her head.
“No, I want to be prepared.”
“Prepared? I think all your preparing gets done for you.”
“At the expense of who? Who will be the next one?”
I stop our walk, gripping her shoulders. “Hey, hey, look at me.”
She brings her eyes up to mine. “What if something happens to Blake, Ryder? Or Zane or Ade? Or any of their women. I would…I can’t think about it.”
“Then don’t,” I state calmly.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, everyone is going to die one day, Phoebe. It’s a part of the circle of life.”
“I know that, but—”
“No buts. Come here.” I pull her into me, running my lips across hers. They’re warm and plump and God, I have fucking missed her. Slipping my tongue out, I run it across her bottom lip before sucking it into my mouth. “Come on. I need a beer.”
I’m rubbing night cream over my face and leaning against the bathroom door while looking at Ryder, who’s sprawled out on my bed when I smile and tilt my head. “This the view I get for the rest of my life?”
He chuckles, his lips arching into one of his beautiful smirks. “If you keep me.” There’s a question in that smart mouth.
I walk to the bed with a smile on my lips. “Hmm, I—” I’m cut off by him gripping my hand, and pulling me down to him. His body rolls on top of mine, his heavy weight pushing into my groin. I bite my lip to stifle a moan that is until he begins nibbling on my collarbone, the motion causing goosebumps to prickle all over my body. His hands glide down my stomach, under my panties, and my breath hitches. I wrap my fingers around the back of his neck, running them through his hair and over his beard. His eyes scan mine when he pulls back from my neck.
“I love you,” he whispers against my lips.
“I love you, too. Always,” I answer, getting lost in the deep blue depths of his eyes. “Well…I guess I should marry you then,” I say sarcastically with a laugh.