“No shit.”
“It kind of makes me mad.”
He tapped my bottom. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
He chuckled. “Me too, baby.”
“But then I think about her family and I’m still sad for them.” I frowned. “We got Scottie back, you know?”
“I know.”
“But they made Scottie out to be something she’s not and she still tried to protect Taylor.”
Ryder nodded, saying nothing.
“Her depth of character’s pretty incredible.”
“She’s a good girl,” Ryder agreed.
“I think she got that from you.”
“What?”
“Her character.” I slid my hand to his neck. “You taught her that.”
He leaned into my touch. “That’s all her, baby.”
I shook my head. “No. It’s not. I love you, Ryder Carsen.”
“Love you too, Sadie Ross.”
He kissed me and pulled me onto his lap. I couldn’t get close enough and found myself whimpering in frustration.
“Baby, don’t do that.”
I leaned back and frowned. “What?”
“Make those noises,” he said. “I’m hangin’ by a thread here...”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered and buried my face in his neck. “This is really hard.”
“Literally,” he breathed out, holding me closer.
I giggled. “I’m impressed by your restraint, honey.”
“That’s what you’re callin’ it?”
“What do you call it?” I asked.
“Baseball stats.”
“I’m sorry?”
“I run baseball stats through my head... it helps.”
I leaned back. “While you’re kissing me?”
He shook his head. “After.”
“Oh, okay then.”
He chuckled. “That works for you?”
“Well, it’s better than not doing this.”
“This is true.” Ryder grinned. “But I’m warnin’ you, we’re not havin’ a long engagement.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re funny.”
“You don’t think I’m serious?”
“Ryder, we haven’t known each other very long.”
“Doesn’t mean I’m not gonna marry you.” He slid his hand through my hair. “I’m gonna make the proposal romantic, baby, don’t worry about it.”
“I’m not worried.”
“It’s good to know you’ll say yes.”
“Is that what you heard?” I challenged.
“I speak Sadie.”
“That’s a neat trick. I don’t even speak Sadie.”
Ryder laughed. “Stick with me, kid. I’ll translate the world for you.”
“Just figure me out and I’ll be happy.”
“You got it, baby.” He pulled me closer and kissed me again. “You gonna sleep with me tonight?”
“In your bed, you mean?”
“Yeah.” He patted my bottom. “’Course, you wanna do anything else, I’m open.”
“Don’t tempt me.”
“Don’t tell me what to do.”
I giggled. “You don’t like competition for your bossiness, huh?”
“Smartass.”
“At your service,” I retorted, then promptly yawned. “Sorry.”
He chuckled and pulled me off the sofa. “Come on, baby, let’s turn in.”
“I don’t think I should sleep with you.”
“No?”
“I really want to be a good example for Scottie and Molly...” I shook my head. “Plus, I think I’m way too attracted to you for me to be able to keep my hands off you.”
“You think you are?” he challenged with a sexy grin.
“Stop it.”
“Stop what, baby?” he asked innocently, sliding his hand to my waist.
“Looking at me like that.” I shivered as his thumb stroked the skin at the top of my yoga pants. “And doing that thing with your thumb.” I pressed my index finger into his chest. “You know it drives me nuts.”
“Baby, what I can do with my thumb—”
“Stop.” I laid my fingers over his lips as a shiver shot through me. He grinned and nibbled at my fingertips. “Don’t.”
Ryder chuckled. “Okay, baby, no more torture. We’ll revisit that on our wedding night.”
I stood on my tiptoes and kissed him. “You’re kind of a butt.”
“Yeah, baby, I know.” He pulled me closer. “I love you.”
“Love you too, honey.”
“Go to bed.” He patted my bottom. “I’ll go take a cold shower.”
“You naked two doors down doesn’t really help,” I grumbled, and headed for my room. I heard his quiet laugh as I walked away.
Sadie
I AWOKE WITH a gasp. Disoriented and frightened, I glanced around the room, not entirely sure what had scared me.
Sitting up, I climbed out of bed and tiptoed to the door. Nothing. The house was quiet, so I slipped out of my room and down to Ryder’s. I pushed open the door and forced myself not to sigh. Ryder was on his back, one arm behind his head and the sheet and blankets at his waist. His ripped, bare chest exposed. Goodness, he was gorgeous.
He stirred, and I whispered, “Ryder?”
I saw his head tilt and then, “You okay?”
“I think I had a bad dream.”
He held his hand out to me. “Come here, sweetheart.”
I didn’t hesitate, running for the bed and jumping onto it, sliding against him. He pulled me close and kissed my forehead, wrapping a blanket around me. “Do you remember the dream?”
“No. I just felt like someone was watching me.”
“No one’s watching you.”
“Well, I know that now.”
He chuckled. “I’ve got you, baby.”
“I shoulda just slept in here.”
“Probably,” he agreed. “Never mind. You’re here now. Sleep, baby.”
“No. I want to snuggle more.”
“Whatever you need, Sadie,” he said, a slight hint of mirth in his voice. “I’m here to serve you, after all.”
“Darn tootin’.”
“You do talk funny.”
“Whatever. Spoon,” I demanded, and rolled over.
I heard him shift and then his chest was to my back and I wiggled closer.
“I love you, weirdo,” he whispered, and kissed my shoulder.
I smiled. “Love you too.”
Before he could wrap himself around me, his phone buzzed on the nightstand. I lost his heat as he rolled over to answer it. “Ryder. Hey.” He sat up. “Shit. Okay, yeah. Okay. Yeah, Reese and Ollie are here.”
“They are?” I asked.
He squeezed my arm. “No. Yeah. Okay, good. Thanks, Cam. We’re ready.” He hung up and stretched out beside me again.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Four Spiders hit the Frog. Agents were waiting.”
I sat up on my knees. “What do you mean, agents were waiting?”
“We’re past the forty-eight-hour mark, baby, so they’re coming.”
Holy crap! I hadn’t even thought about that.
“What?” I squeaked, scrambling off the bed. “We need to go somewhere safe.”
“Sadie.” He sat up (totally calm and in control) and patted the mattress. “We are covered. Totally protected.”
“What about my aunt and the girls?” I whispered. I’m not sure why I whispered... because of potentially planted listening devices maybe? I was watching way too much crime TV.
“Totally covered.”
“How are they covered?” I challenged.
“One agent for every one and a half girls, plus one exclusively covering your aunt, plus an insider.”
“An insider?”
“Someone Cam sent in. I don’t know who. Better that I don’t.”
I crossed my arms, suddenly freezing. “When did Reese and Ollie get here?”
&n
bsp; “About an hour ago. Reese is on the sofa in the family room, Ollie’s downstairs.”
“Why are you so calm?” I snapped, stomping my foot.
He sat up and held his arm out to me. “Come here, baby.”
“I’m freaking out here, Ryder.”
“I know, baby. Come here.” He waved me over.
I inched toward the bed and he reached to grab my hand, pulling me down beside him. My breath left me with a grunt as he slid his hands under my arms and guided me up against his body. “Still freaked?”
“Um, yes.”
He rolled me onto my back and kissed me. “How about now?”
“Yes, Ryder. You kissing me isn’t going to change that.”
“Since I can’t do something more distracting, I was hopin’ it would.”
“Ryder.” I frowned and pushed at his shoulders. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”
He sighed, kissed me gently one more time, and flopped onto his back, pulling me against his chest. “Char said I had forty-eight hours. So I put things in motion during that forty-eight hours. Now we wait.”
“Wait for what?” I whispered, my freak-outery rising with every second.
“For him to lay the rope he’s going to hang himself with.”
I let out a frustrated growl and sat up again. “What does that mean?”
“When he gave me that timeframe, baby, he showed his hand. He owes someone something and he owes them soon. There’s also a reason he’s asked for the girls back... instead of demanding replacements.”
“Replacements?” I asked in horror.
“Do you know how easy it is to traffic people, Sadie?”
“Apparently not,” I snapped, not particularly liking his tone, and moving away. “But thank you for speaking to me like an idiot.”
“Sorry. I know you’re not an idiot.” Ryder pulled me back. “And I didn’t realize I had a tone.”
I bit my lip and sighed. “You have a tone sometimes, but I could be tired and projecting.”
He chuckled. “Look at us communicating and shit.”
“Well, we’re not here to talk about us, so please explain to me why he wants the girls back instead of asking for replacements.”
“I don’t know, honestly, but there’s definitely a reason, because it would be much easier just to get a couple dozen more girls from the streets. He’s made a deal or has to pay something back. He’s desperate.”
“Or he could just have thrown out an arbitrary number... or felt getting replacements would be too much of a hassle.”
Ryder smiled. “Char doesn’t leave anything to chance, Sadie. Everything is planned and calculated down do the second... or more accurately, the penny.”
“But why are you involved? Outside of getting Scottie out, I mean.”
“Because of my fetish.”
“So you admit you have a problem now.” I bit back a giggle because this really wasn’t a giggle-appropriate moment.
He grinned, tugging me onto him again. “The FBI’s been lookin’ at the Spiders for a while. They’ve been tryin’ to get a guy on the inside and it’s been a long road. Cameron saw a way in when Scottie was taken—”
“So what does that mean?” I asked. “He used Scottie’s kidnapping as an opportunity?”
“You make that sound nefarious.”
“It’s a little ambulance chasing, don’t you think?” I climbed off the bed and paced the floor. I needed to think, but I could only do that moving.
He shook his head. “No, but I see how you might.”
“He used the horrific ordeal Scottie and you were dealing with to buddy up to the enemy.”
“He didn’t, baby.”
“Sounds like it to me,” I countered.
“I know and if you come here, I’ll explain.”
“Fine,” I ground out and went there.
He wrapped his arm around me again and pulled me close. “When Scottie went missing the first time, she came back. By that time, Cameron was watching the Spiders for what he suspected was trafficking. When we lost her the second time, he had evidence from his surveillance that whatever this was, it was way bigger than her going missing, so he got a team together. Char stayed clear and by that I mean, his fingerprints weren’t on it. Literal or just his MO. This concerned me, because even his guys stayed clear. No one came to the bar; no one came to any of the other bars I own. No one came anywhere.”
“Char was in jail,” I pointed out.
“Yeah, but he doesn’t stay clear, baby. He’s close to the club prez...who doesn’t do anything without Char, so the fact Dad’s hands were off the trafficking the Spiders were doing was a tell.”
“You own other bars?” I asked.
“Yeah, baby. I own six.”
“Oh, wow,” I breathed out. “So you either live above your means or you’re loaded.”
He chuckled. “Don’t live above my means, baby.”
“Well, that’s good to know. Continue,” I said.
“When Char’s hands are off something, he’s on something else, and if he’s not up my ass even a little, then he’s doin’ something to fu—screw with me, so I had Cam focus on dear old Dad.”
“Smart.”
“More like been burned before, Sadie. He’s nothing if not predictable.”
I kissed his chest. “Sorry.”
“It’s no big deal. He was a shit dad, so I found people I liked better to be my family.” He kissed my temple. “And you and I are gonna have tons of babies, so I can show them what a real dad’s supposed to be.”
“Okay.” A shiver shot through me. Tons of babies, huh? Making a mental note to revisit that later, I asked, “How did Char get out of jail? Is it so easy to get out just because a witness recanted? Surely they had other evidence.”
“Not sure yet,” he admitted. “But we’ll find out. Like I said, Cameron has been trying to get inside the Spiders for years. Well, I should say, the FBI’s been trying to get in, and with his and my friendship, he was hopin’ he could find an in. But Char can see Feds comin’ from space, so nothin’ was workin’, and it caused drama that could get someone dead, so they went another way. I don’t know which way, they didn’t tell me, but they got in. And that’s apparently how they found the girls.”
I gasped. “Seriously?”
“Yeah.”
I sat up again. “It’s Michael!”
“Come again?”
“I knew it!” I slid off the bed and waved my hands in the air. “Unless it’s not. But I think it is.” I glanced at Ryder. “Do you think it’s Michael?”
He sat up. “Sadie, baby, I need you to slow down.”
“No, it can’t be. He’s been there for two years. I think I would have seen something.” I bit my lip. “But maybe not.” I didn’t notice that Ryder had slid out of the bed until I caught a view of his naked rear end heading toward the bathroom. I squeaked. “You’re naked!”
“Can’t get anything by you, Sadie.”
I turned (admittedly, not until I’d taken a lingering eyeful... lordy, he had a nice butt) and crossed my arms. “Why didn’t you tell me you were naked? Why are you naked? Where are your pajamas?”
“You were standing in my doorway lookin’ freaked, I always sleep naked, ergo, I don’t wear PJs.”
“You always sleep naked?” I whispered, my voice low and breathy... gah!
“I always sleep naked.” Strong arms came around my waist, making me jump a little, but his lips landed on the soft spot at the back of my neck and I relaxed again. “Unless you’re in bed with me, then I cover up.”
“I appreciate that,” I said, but I didn’t really. I wanted to see his butt again.
“You can see it anytime you like, baby. Just say the word.”
“I did not just say that out loud!”
He turned me to face him with a laugh. “Yeah, you did.”
I covered my face with my hands and fell against his chest. “I’m so sorry, Ryder. That was really disres
pectful.”
“Liking my ass is disrespectful?”
“We’re not married Ryder,” I mumbled into my hands. “It’s most definitely disrespectful.”
“Well, I’m flattered.” He lifted my head and tugged my hands from my face. “And you’re gorgeous all flushed and sexy... can’t wait to make you look that way by other means.”
“Don’t say things like that to me.” I scowled and smacked his chest. “It’s not fair.”
“You can open your eyes, Sadie. I put pants on.”
I opened one and then relaxed. “I’ll admit I’m a little disappointed, but I appreciate it.”
He chuckled and kissed me. “Now, back up. What’s this about the priest?”
“Michael and Cameron seem like they know each other. And it could be a coincidence, but they seem to know each other outside of church. The other night, they were talking privately, and I saw them and it seemed weird. Not wrong weird, just weird, you know?”
“Yeah, Sadie I get it.”
“I started thinking more about it yesterday and he doesn’t act like most of the priests I’ve been raised with. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a great priest,” I rushed to say. “He’s never done anything wrong, but he does do things differently.”
“Differently, how?”
“Well, like you.”
“Like me?”
I nodded. “All man. You know, badass man... not priest man.”
His lips twitched. “Okay, I think I’m trackin’.”
“So, that’s weird, right?”
“Yeah, baby, it’s a little weird.”
“What are you going to do?”
He shrugged. “Nothin’ right now. We are going back to bed.”
“That’s it? You’re not going to talk to Cameron?”
“Sweetheart, it’s three in the morning. He’s busy, it’s not life-threatening, and if he’d wanted me to know his connection to priest Michael, he’d tell me.”
“You’re not even a little bit curious?”
“Not at three in the morning, no.”
I let out a frustrated growl. “You’re useless.”
He chuckled. “You stayin’ or am I gettin’ comfortable?”
I licked my lips and studied him for several seconds.
“Baby?” His hands slid to my waist.
“I’m thinking.”
“How about I stay clothed and, if you have another bad dream, you come back?” he suggested.
Ryder (Sinners and Saints, #1) Page 19