by T. L Smith
“I’ll use it against him because he isn’t going to rest. I could see it in his eyes. He hates me. Hates that I made him cower and now he’s lost all respect from his people.”
Quinn nods his head. “You disrespected him in his place.”
I clench my teeth hard. “He deserved it.”
He doesn’t argue that I am wrong, he agrees with me. “You should’ve killed him because now he’s going to try to kill you.”
He’s right, Antonio won’t let this slide. He’ll be on a mission to bring me down. I just have to work out first, how to bring him down. I didn’t plan on killing him, he’s too valuable. But all things can be replaced, Antonio included.
“He won’t be able to.”
Quinn looks behind me to the room where she’s currently sleeping. “You sure she isn’t going to try to jump from the window?” he jokes.
“No, she’s passed out.” Plus, we’re up high in the hotel. We own this suite. And the only way for her to get out would be to pass us.
“Are you going to talk about what Livia did, or do you plan to just phase her out?” He means how she lied to me about the baby.
“I need time away from her. If I saw her now, I don’t know what I’d do to her. That’s what scares me.” It’s true. My love for Livia has changed, but my love for Barbie has stayed the same. I don’t even know why.
“Do you want to know what I think?” I shake my head but know he’s going to tell me anyway. “You never really loved Livia, you just thought you did. Because that’s what you should have done. Because that’s what your father told you to do. You think you love her because she was there for you.” He could be right, but then again, he could be wrong.
My cell starts ringing. It’s her, it’s always her. Livia never stops. I’m drained, though, so fucking tired that I could pass out right now and never wake up. But I don’t want to do that. Right now, I want to see Saskia, touch her, and feel her. To know she’s mine, and I can have her. Obsession is a word I’d use for her. It’s what I feel with her, day in and day out and have done since the first day I saw her. Even when I tried to convince myself to hate her. It never worked. How could it on someone so perfect?
“I’m going to sleep.” Standing, my hands touch my ribs. They hurt, but the painkillers and alcohol have finally kicked in.
“Try to not molest her when she sleeps,” he jokes as I walk away. “Oh, and where the fuck is Cane?”
Shit. I forgot he was even here.
Looking back to Quinn. “You can’t find him?”
He shakes his head. “Nope, his cell is off, so I can’t track him. He’s probably drinking and fucking,” Quinn replies, which is what Cane usually does these days.
“Still, try to find him anyway, especially now.”
Walking over to the room, I open the door and check she’s still there. She hasn’t moved from the spot I left her in, with a sheet over her and wearing my shirt. Pulling the sheet back, I slide in next to her, careful to place my arms around her so I can wrap myself into her. She breathes deeper and sighs in her sleep.
This is my happy place. Pity it’s fabricated and not to last.
SHE’S MOVED, ONLY TO come closer to me. Her hair is fanned out everywhere. I’m stroking my fingers through her beautiful hair, and I know she’s awake. She isn’t moving, though. She just lays in the same spot.
“Are you going to talk?”
She shakes her head in answer.
We stay in the same spot, both not speaking, just lying still.
The bedroom door swings open and it slams against the wall. We both move looking up, and Livia stands there. She looks to both of us, and the glass in her hand is thrown straight in our direction. I cover Barbie taking the glass to my back, followed by the cold water that hits us.
“You plan to move on that fast?” she yells.
Barbie jumps from the bed, her eyes wide and she’s shaking.
Fuck! Why did Livia have to come now?
“We didn’t do anything, we only slept.”
Livia looks to her, sneers, and looks back to me. “Get her to leave, Ryken, now. If you want to try to save us at all, get her to leave.”
Her threats won’t work anymore. Looking to Barbie, she hasn’t stopped shaking. She’s watching us with wide eyes and still dressed in my shirt.
Quinn comes to the door, and I glare at him. How the fuck did Livia get past him in the first place? He’s rubbing his eyes. That’s how she got in—he wasn’t even awake.
“No. Now get the fuck out, Livia.”
She gawks at me then looks to Saskia. She didn’t want anything to do with her before. She also knows that Barbie loves her. So if I don’t listen, guess who will.
“You plan this? To sleep with my man?”
Barbie’s hands shake, looks to me then back to her. “We only slept. Nothing else, Livia.”
“I want you to leave, Sass. I want you to go right now.”
Barbie doesn’t argue, picks up her shoes, and doesn’t look back as she walks out the bedroom door straight past Livia and Quinn heading toward the door. I go to stop her, but Livia steps in my way.
“She won’t choose you. Do you not see that? If I told her, she would choose me.” It takes everything in me to not strangle her. “Now you need to do the same. You can’t throw us away that easily, Ryken. We’ve been too good together. Built a life.”
I’m sick of this shit, fucking sick of it. I can’t handle it anymore. Taking a step toward her, I go to tell her something, and that’s when I see it. That’s when I see them.
Three other men are in the suite. Quinn turns fast and drops to the ground, and army crawls to where his guns are located. Grabbing Livia as shots fire through, I pull her to the ground covering her with my body. One hits me in the arm, and then a gun is slid in front of me. Quinn fires back, I can hear the shots next to me. Reaching for the gun, and keeping Livia under me, I do the same, lifting and firing. Two are shot, the third man runs. Quinn runs to the door to make sure everything’s clear before he comes back in.
Barbie.
I look up to him, and his eyes are wild.
“She left before this went down. I’ll find her.”
I release a sigh in relief then get up from Livia. Her eyes are wide as she looks at me. She looks scared. “Liv.” She doesn’t say a word, tears roll from her eyes. I go to move her, but Quinn yells at me to stop.
“If you move her, you could cause more damage.” He walks over and looks at her.
“Livia, are you hit?”
Her eyes leave mine and look to Quinn as she mutters a small, “Yes.” And he automatically dials an ambulance.
“Fuck.” I drop to her side and kiss her forehead. She cries harder, not moving.
“I can’t move, Ryken, I can’t feel my legs.” Her words shock me. I try to talk to her, to tell her everything will be okay.
A few minutes later paramedics arrive and assess her. She’s been hit, the bullet has passed through her side and lodged in her spine. They’re careful when they move her and rush her to the hospital. Quinn and I follow closely behind, and the moment we arrive, she’s rushed in for surgery.
“She’ll be fine, Boss,” Quinn says. His gun is still on him, I can see it tucked in his pants.
It takes hours. We sit in the same spot watching the clock tick by, until the doctor comes out. The police have come. Livia’s parents have visited. But there’s no sign of Barbie.
He tells us what we all don’t want to hear, that it did indeed hit her spine. They have to wait and see how she’ll recover. But they have high hopes that she will walk again, but it will be a long process.
My heart plummets to the fucking ground.
It takes everything in me to not go after Antonio right now. Because I know it was his men. No one else would be stupid enough to do that.
“Why were there guns?” Christopher, her father asks.
He listened when we spoke to the police, but we played dumb. We aren’t familiar
with the police here. This isn’t our local territory.
“We don’t know, sir,” Quinn answers for me.
Christopher looks at him then back to me. “What is it that you said you did for a living, Ryken? Because I don’t really feel all that confident with you for my daughter.”
“I run my father’s businesses.” He looks to the floor and looks back to the door to where the doctor came from. Livia’s mother hasn’t said a word, she’s just sitting there with her hands tightly clasped together, and she’s rocking.
“I want you to leave, Ryken. I don’t want you here when she wakes up. I want to speak to my daughter without your influence.” If only he knew it was Livia that has the influence. She’s the one that pulls the strings, she’s the puppet master, and I’m just the puppet that doesn’t always obey.
“I want to see her.”
His lip turns up in a snarl at my words. “You will when she says you can. Leave, now, please. I can’t have you here with my wife, while we wait for our daughter to wake up.” I don’t argue with him. I stand, and Quinn stands. He doesn’t look back to us as he sits down holding his wife’s hand. Walking out the front of the hospital, Quinn pulls up his phone.
“He’s still at the Arena, you got a plan?”
I don’t answer because I’m still trying to convince myself to not walk in and rip his head from his body as he shows me the tracker. “I put it on him last night. When I shook his hand.” I smile at how smart he is, and clever. Who would have thought to do that, but Quinn? I need to thank him. Give him more than my father never could.
I would be dead if it weren’t for him.
So would Barbie.
“You haven’t found her?”
His eyes fall to the ground before looking back to me. “Nothing. I even hacked into the security cameras. Can’t find her, but I’ll keep looking, Boss.”
“Call the men.”
He nods, placing the cell to his ear as our car pulls up.
We’re about to make some noise.
We’re about to blow some fuckers up.
And they won’t see it coming.
Because unlike them, we won’t go in there with just a few. We’ll come in with a whole army and a huge bang.
Chapter Thirteen
Saskia
It feels like all I do is run. Running the last few days is all I’ve tried to do, but fail each time. Shoes in hand and only his shirt on, I feel well underdressed. The man at the door of the hotel looks at me then quickly averts his eyes.
“Whore.” Spinning around, I see Amy standing there.
What the fuck is she doing here?
She smiles a sinister smile at me, looking behind me then back to me. “You didn’t think I’d let you go that easily, did you?”
My eyes search around, for anyone. The doorman isn’t at the door anymore, and all that’s there is a black car. With Amy standing outside of it staring me down. Her leg is wrapped in a bandage, and she’s careful to not to put weight on it as she stands.
“What do you want?”
Amy shakes her head at my words. “Well, for one, you’re never something I wanted. But now you’re gone, I miss having someone to play with.”
With a quick shake of my head, I take a step back. “You have issues, you know that, right?”
She shrugs at me. “We all do. I just embrace my crazy. You’re the same, Saskia. I see it in your eyes. You just prefer to hide and think you’re good.”
I shake my head at her. “You don’t know me.”
Amy tsks at my words. “Oh, but I do. You have severe depression, don’t you? And the only way you know how to control it is to take pills. You don’t need pills. Listen to the voices and do it.”
“There’s no voices, Amy. What are you talking about? Maybe for you there are, but not for me.”
“Is that why you tried to kill yourself?”
I look down at the scar on my wrist. “My world was changing, I tried to stop it.”
Once again, she tsks at me and steps forward. Her steps are slow, measured, but also because she’s virtually crippled from the stab wound Ryken so kindly gave her.
“You don’t have your pills. Don’t you want them?” Amy waves them at me. She thinks I need them to survive, but I don’t. I hope. But the two ailments are completely different. I know this much.
“I don’t need them to survive.” I look around to see two men step out of her car, and she crosses her arms over her chest.
“You see, though, I need you. I’ve come to miss you in the last twenty-four hours. Haven’t you missed me?”
I just about burst out laughing. “Not one single fucking bit.”
“Pity.” She clicks her fingers as the two guys start toward me. One reaches me before I can turn and run, so I kick him hard between his legs making him drop. The other takes that opportunity to grab me, locking my hands to my sides and picking me up like I’m a rag doll. I drop my head and bite his hand as hard as I can.
That’s when I hear it, gunshots. My body locks up, and my eyes go wide, as I try to look back to see where the noise came from. It was muffled, but it was definitely a gun.
“Oh, that was just my men killing yours. Nothing for you to worry about, Saskia.”
I could have pulled away, but this time his hand is back on me, and he’s lifting me and taking me to the car. He pushes me in and stands on the outside of the door, so I can’t open it and escape. The doors lock, and the driver starts the car as Amy sits next to me. I want to claw her fucking eyes out, reach for that injury and dig my nails in so far to see if she’ll scream.
“Your brain doesn’t turn off much, does it?” she asks.
The car speeds up, and I inch closer to the door. Traffic is everywhere, but the car windows are blacked out the tinting is so dark. My hand reaches for the lock, while she picks at her nails.
“Oh, it does, when I’m sleeping.”
Amy laughs at my words and I manage to unlock the door without her noticing. Looking forward, the driver doesn’t seem to be slowing down, but the road is full of cars.
“You’re jealous of me, aren’t you? That I’m prettier than you.”
Her lips form a tight line, and she looks ahead. I’ve managed to maneuver my hand on the handle. I’m not going back. No fucking way. Not a chance in hell.
“You don’t—” Her words are cut off as I open the door and fling myself out, jumping from the moving car. She screams, but I don’t care. My back and head hit the ground hard, but even trying to protect my head doesn’t do much. I hear screeching, and cars stop all around me. A man in a silver car gets out and walks toward me. He doesn’t look to be one of them, but I’m cautious nonetheless as I sit up to get away from him. Even if I can’t move far.
“Miss, miss, please don’t move. You jumped from a moving car. You may have some serious injuries.”
I shake my head and look at the car that I was in. It’s no longer there, they kept on driving. Thank fuck. Now I have to get out of here and as far away from her as possible.
“I’m fine.” The minute the words leave my mouth I know I’m not.
“No miss... please. I’m a doctor. At least let me take you to the hospital.”
I ignore him and attempt to stand. Some cars around us start moving again, apart from the one behind us which is his silver car. His hand slides under me, and he helps me stand, so I don’t fall.
“I don’t want a hospital,” I reply with shaky legs.
He doesn’t argue with me, escorting me to his car. “I have a clinic. Will you come with me there? Just so I can make sure you haven’t broken anything or have a concussion? You need a medical assessment.” He smiles kindly.
“No one else?” He looks at me in surprise. “Okay.”
He sighs as he opens his car door and I get in the best way I can. He runs around to his side, gets in and starts the engine. We pull off onto the street and sit in silence as he drives. My back hurts, and my head is pounding so hard I’m afraid it’s
going to explode.
“Do you have anything for my headache?” I ask.
He shakes his head then looks to me. “We’re almost there. Once I assess you, I can give you something.” We pull into a doctor’s office and he gets out, coming around to my side to help me out. He walks with me, his hand on my hip, careful to not hurt me as he unlocks the door and turns on the lights. Assisting me on to a bed, he looks me over, checks everything and steps back, passing me some pain meds. “You should be watched closely for the next twenty-four hours, you hit your head pretty hard.”
I ignore his word of warning. “I need to go back home.”
He looks down, and that’s when I actually look at him. His hair is light, his face is soft, and he’s kind. Something I haven’t seen or been around for quite some time. Even Ryken’s not kind. Ryken wants me, and no one’s going to stop him from getting me. Even me.
“Umm... can I ask where your clothes are?”
Shit! I pull Ryken’s shirt down as far as it will go.
“You don’t happen to have any ladies clothing lying around, do you?”
He looks past me and walks to a closet, opening it and pulling out a woman’s skirt. He leans over and passes it to me. “This do? It’s my assistant’s.”
I nod. “Thank you.”
“What’s your name?”
“Sorry, it’s Saskia.”
“Well, Saskia... I don’t want to sound like a police officer or an investigator. But hey...” he smiles, “... you did jump from a moving car almost right into mine.” He shrugs his shoulders, and I try to not smile at his choice of words. “But, I must ask? Is someone hurting you? Do you have a problem you want to share?” He looks down to my wrist, then to my leg, where there’s no doubt as there’s a fresh wound courtesy of Amy.
“They were, but not anymore.”
His eyes go wide like he wasn’t expecting my answer. “Maybe you should go to the police.”
“No. I just want to go home.” Looking up to him before I put the skirt on, I ask, “What’s your name?”
He offers me a kind smile. “Wyatt.” He turns away as I slide the skirt on, then when I say, “Thank you,” he turns back to look at me.