Ryder's Rush

by E. C. Land

  “And I didn’t want my brother in a state penitentiary for something he didn’t need to do,” I snap.

  “Shut it, woman, and let me enjoy the moment seeing as I haven’t seen you in years. More years than I like to admit,” he mutters.

  “Not your fault.” And it wasn’t his. I always came up with reasons why I couldn’t meet up with him. I’d simply didn’t want him to find out what I was dealing with.

  “Swear to fuckin’ God, Mini, that motherfucker is a dead man walking right now. I get my hands on him he’ll wish he was never born,” Bryan snarls.

  “You’ll have to get in line for that,” Tyres mutters.

  “Tyres,” Ryder states firmly. “Boys are in here and they’re scared enough as it is.”

  “Shit, sorry little dudes,” Tyres says.

  Tilting my head back, I look up at my brother. “Meet your nephews and stop thinking about negative crap.”

  “Crap? Seriously Mini, that shit don’t justify as crap it’s completely fucked up,” Bryan mutters.

  “True, but I try not to use that language around Marcus and Micah, thank you very much,” I say sternly, poking into Bryans chest as he and several others begin to chuckle.

  “Whatever, Mini. Introduce me to my nephews then sit your ass down and start talkin’,” Bryan commands setting me away from him.

  “Don’t tell me what to do,” I argue. “You’re not the boss of me.”

  “Brielle, I’m your big brother and I sure as fuck am. No matter how old you are, plus I practically raised you until I left for boot camp. Now sit your ass down and I’ll introduce myself to my nephews.”

  “Whatever,” I huff snarky as I turn and face my boys and Ryder. “Marcus, Micah meet your uncle who is a pain in my backside.”

  Marcus eyes my brother up and down as if he were sizing him up as Micah merely stares in surprise at the massive size of Bryan.

  “Are we going to be as big as you?” Marcus asks causing everyone to chuckle.

  That’s my boy always asking questions and not afraid to speak his mind when he knows it’s safe for him.

  “Mon bijou need you to come into Chains office for a minute. Boys will be okay with Bitsy and Nora. Prospects at the gate, no one is getting in,” Ryder states as he steps up behind my chair where I was sitting with Nora and Tiny. Two women who I found out were ol’ ladies to not only members of the club but Ryder’s nephews Breaker and Chains.

  “Okay,” I mutter, dreading this conversation.

  After the kitchen drama with my brother, who declared I was not to call him Bryan but by his road name. I’d placed my hands on my hips stared him down and stated I would not. He has always and will until the day I die be Bryan to me. No way in hell was I going to call him Whip.

  “You two listen and behave. Do not go anywhere that you’re not supposed to. Am I clear?” I ask glancing between my boys.

  “Yes, maman,” Micah and Marcus say at the same time nodding their heads.

  “I’ll be right back,” I murmur as I go to stand, finding Ryder placing an arm on mine to help me. Due to the pain in my stomach, movement still hurts but I refuse to lay around in bed. Not when I have two boys. Doesn’t matter that everyone around here seems nice and not minding helping out with Marcus and Micah. Still I’m their mom and have to look out for them. It’s my job and I won’t let anything happen to them.

  With Ryder’s arm wrapped around me, I walk with him to Chains office to find not only Chains sitting behind his desk, Tyres is standing behind him to the right, Breaker to the left with their arms crossed. Off to the side Brake has a knee propped up on the wall. Throughout the rest of the office Bryan, and the two men who’d come with him Venom and Cane stand with him.

  Great this isn’t going to be fun. Not one bit. I wish I were able to just leave. Run, find somewhere else to go; however, nowhere in the world has ever made me feel as safe as I do with Ryder’s arm around me.

  I’m completely screwed as it dawns on me. ’I’ve fallen for my neighbor and we’ve barely said two words to each other over the last six months.

  Chapter Six

  Ryder

  “Brielle, I know you, this isn’t going to be easy for you; however, we need you to tell us what we’re facing,” Chains states softly.

  Holding Brielle close to me I feel the way her body tenses.

  “Before you start you should know something first,” Tyres mutters from where he’s standing behind and to the right of Chains.

  “What’s that?” Brielle asks.

  “That Brake and I are Louis Pelletier’s sons by blood,” Tyres sneers.

  “What?” my woman murmurs so quietly I barely hear her.

  Glancing at her, I realize she’d gone pale at this news.

  “Baby, here sit down,” I mutter gently as I guide her to one of the chairs in front of Chains’ desk.

  Once seated, I keep my hand firmly on her shoulder. What is it about this woman that draws me to her the way it does?

  “Umm, how? Does Titus know this? Is that why he . . . he said he’d be back? That if I ran h–he would sell Micah and Marcus to some guy named Delancy.” At this my hand tightens as I meet my nephew’s gazes. A fire I only rarely see now burns in Chains eyes same as my other nephews.

  “This the same Delancy who Parker worked for?” Whip asks. Of course, he’d know about Parker considering Victoria’s ol’ man is his VP.

  “Yeah,” Breaker grunts.

  “Fucker needs a bullet in his head,” Whip grumbles.

  “Let’s get back to task. Brielle, start at the beginning,” Chains orders.

  Sighing, Brielle reaches a hand up and runs her fingers through her hair. “When I was seventeen, I went to a party with my best friend Fawn. We didn’t know until after we got there what type of party it was. Drugs and alcohol flowed freely, granted I didn’t partake in any of the drugs, I’d had a couple of beers that night. Titus came up and introduced himself to me and I instantly fell into his trap. Nine months after that I had Micah and Marcus. Since then my life has been pure hell. I tried more than a dozen times to escape Titus’ hold on me but every time he’d find me and the boys and make me pay. Thankfully he never touched them; however, me, I was fair game for him to beat, hurt and what not. To him I was his possession and he wasn’t giving up his toys.

  “This last time when I’d escaped Fawn talked to her cousin Ice, he and his club the Toxic Warriors MC helped me. Titus didn’t find me for over a year and a half. I thought I would finally be able to put the boys in school. Be around other kids their age without having to worry so much. Thought we were safe, I was wrong. So very wrong.

  “Titus showed up at my door, beating it down, I wanted to escape through the back door, but I didn’t know if any of the other Péché Mortel were with him.”

  “Péché Mortel?” Whip asks, interrupting Brielle.

  “Deadly Sinners,” Brielle answers.

  “I know that, but who the fuck are they?

  “It’s the name of their group the Pelletier’s are head of,” Tyres states.

  “And the Pelletier’s are what exactly?” Venom asks.

  Leaning heavily on his desk, Chains shakes his head, “The Pelletier’s not only run flesh, they have designed their own drug that is similar to Heroin. Yet deadlier than heroin and coke combined.”

  “Fuckin’ hell, Mini did you know any of this shit,” Whip asks, his focus on Brielle.

  “No. I knew they weren’t doing anything legal considering they had the majority of the police department in their pocket and pretty much own half the town Louis presides in,” Brielle states her gaze not meeting anyone in the room.

  Lifting my gaze up to meet Chains, I know he’s wondering if she’s hiding anything. Something about the way she said this doesn’t sit right. Did they have her doing something she doesn’t want to admit?

  “Mini, known you all your life. Love you but you’re not tellin’ us something. Need you to tell us everything,” Whip says calling my woman ou
t before I have the chance to. Moving my gaze back to Brielle, I notice her face pale as she pulls her bottom lip between her teeth.

  Damn any other time that bottom lip shit would be hot but right now, nope.

  Sighing, Brielle closes her eyes and shakes her head. “I have a way with computers, Titus found this out and Louis wanted to use me. Louis and his brother, Henry, they order Titus to keep me under lock and key. So, he did. It’s why he uses my boys as leverage to keep me in check. Because I will die protecting Marcus and Micah.”

  “What do you mean you have a way with computers?” Breaker asks.

  “Anything you name it I can do it, hack into accounts, move money without being detected, pretty much because I can read codes and write them. I can make a hidden door into just about anywhere on the internet,” she murmurs.

  “Holy shit,” Brake mutters.

  “They used you to do what exactly?” Tyres demands.

  “I was the one who ran the auction sites that they used for their sales of flesh, laundered the money into the different accounts, found the information Louis demanded on certain people.” I want nothing more than to take Brielle in my arms right now, hearing the pain seep through her voice as she speaks. She didn’t want to do any of those things.

  “What sight did you run exactly?” This time it was Cane to speak up.

  “The last auction I put up for them was a mixture with another group. When I’d seen the list and images, they’d given me, I nearly threw up right then and there in front of them. They had a baby girl no older than 3 or four months.” Brielle’s body begins to quake as she goes on to talk. “I didn’t want anything to happen to her and knew she had to have parents looking for her. She was beautiful so I left a slight backdoor open for someone who would be looking for one to find. They did and I don’t know if the little girl is with her parents or not, but I know they looked into it afterward and found I’d left an opening. That was the last time I was punished before Ice helped me and the boys escape them, one night when Louis sent Titus out to handle some business.”

  The tension filling the room can be sliced with a knife it’s that fuckin’ thick.

  “Brielle, can I show you a picture real quick?” Cane asks through clenched teeth as he pulls out his phone.

  “Umm, I guess,” she murmurs.

  Cane does something on his phone, looks to Whip and Venom as he steps forward turning his phone and handing it to Brielle. Glancing over her shoulder to see what he’s showing her, I tense even more as my woman gasps.

  “That’s her. The little girl,” she cries.

  “Fuckin’ hell,” Venom mutters as Cane nods his head and takes his phone back.

  Lifting his gaze, he meets each of ours before he speaks. “I’m going to have to call this in to our Prez, Stoney. The little girl Brielle is talking about is Prez’s daughter.”

  Oh fuck.

  This shit just got even more fucked.

  Chapter Seven

  Brielle

  At the mention of the little girl’s father being Bryan’s prez, I couldn’t hold it anymore. I covered my mouth and rushed out of the office moving toward the bathroom. Embarrassed by what I’ve done to survive, I needed away from them all.

  This is the reason I never told my brother. I wanted to protect him from the darkness I’ve endured. That I’ve had to do to other people. So many women out there in the world were taken and sold into prostitution and slavery because I ran those sites.

  Louis and Henry worked closely with the Lucifer Heretics in North Carolina as well as the Alcazar Cartel. I can still feel the belt Louis had taken against my back as Titus held me down to take the lashes. After he was done, Henry took his turn, but rather than use a belt like Louis he preferred to use a switch. When I was bleeding and leaning too far into Titus, that’s when Henry would stop, and Titus’ torture began. Still everything I did to those women guts me far worse than what the three of them did to me.

  I barely make it to the bathroom. Sobs wrack my body at visions of each of those women. Every single one of them play on a roll in my head. The baby girl playing every few images on repeat.

  “Brielle, baby, it’s okay,” Ryder mutters soothingly.

  Oh God. Why is he in here? I don’t want him to see me like this.

  I need to get out of here. Take my boys and run. Run as far as I can.

  Australia would be good.

  I could find somewhere like on that show ’McLeod’s Daughters and escape the rest of the world.

  “Mon bijou, your gonna hurt yourself, baby. Come on let’s get you up off the floor.” How can he be so nice to me after hearing what I’d just told them all?

  I’m shocked they haven’t put a bullet in my head for what I did or taken my boys from me. Most would think I’m an unfit mother for allowing them to be around such a negative environment for a majority of their lives. But I tried. God, I tried so hard to get them out of it. To keep them safe from not only Titus, but everyone else who would hurt them.

  “Just leave me be,” I cry, attempting to shrug off Ryder’s grip on my shoulders.

  “Not gonna happen, Brielle,” Ryder growls and I make a squeaking noise in my throat when he moves, lifting me off the floor. In his arms he adjusts me gently. “We gotta finish talking and this time it’s gonna be you and me alone doing it.”

  Not what I want to do. Talk to him alone.

  Out of all the men that were in the room with me while I spoke in Chains’ office, Ryder is the one who I fear the most right now. Not fear as in that he’ll do something to me but rather what he thinks of me.

  “Can I at least brush my teeth first?” I blurt the question in distraction.

  Peering down at me, Ryder watches me closely. “Yeah, baby,” he mutters and carries me out of the bathroom and heads for his room. Seeing all the men who’d been in the office with me standing in the hallway, I bury my face in Ryder’s chest. “We’ll talk later. Brielle’s had enough for now and needs to rest. Her ass is still supposed to be resting as it is.”

  Oh.

  My.

  God.

  The rumble in Ryder’s chest as he declares story time is over, causes my breath to falter.

  “Yeah, she good,” Chains asks.

  “She will be,” Ryder assured, moving passed them.

  “Mini, love you just remember that,” Bryan shares when Ryder’s close enough for me to hear my brother’s whispered words.

  Lifting my head out of Ryder’s chest, I meet my brother’s gaze. “You don’t hate me?” I ask.

  “Couldn’t hate you Brielle. Never. Might be pissed as hell at you right now but that don’t mean I hate you. You’re my sister, my mini, we’ll be good.” Bryan states.

  Nodding, I lean my head back into Ryder’s chest.

  “Love you too, Bry,” I mumble, melancholy.

  And I do love my brother. He’s the only one besides my boys I’ve always loved. Even when I was mad about him leaving and joining the Army; however, I wouldn’t have stopped him no matter how upset I was. He deserved to get out of there and the military was his way out of the household we were living in.

  I didn’t escape the same way he did but if I had I wouldn’t have my boys. So, in a way I don’t think I’d change a thing. I’d sacrifice anything for them. They are my world. Marcus and Micah gave me the strength to fight for what I needed to do to protect them. I might not have been able to do it the way I wanted but I hope one day they’ll understand, I did everything and will continue to do so.

  Without putting me down, Ryder opens his door and steps through before closing it behind us and moves toward the bathroom. Setting me on my feet in front of the sink, he stays rooted in place directly behind me.

  Doing my best not to look at him, I go about brushing my teeth. I hate the taste of vomit in my mouth and I could go without that taste for the rest of my life if it were possible.

  Finished, I put the toothbrush back where I’d placed it this morning after opening it when Ryder
gave it to me.

  “Time to talk some more, baby,” Ryder grunts as he lifts me back into his arms and carries me to the bed.

  Oh boy. Here we go.

  When he sets me in the middle of the bed, Ryder joins me by climbing up and sitting directly next to my hip bracing himself up using a hand on my other side caging me in.

  Nervous, I pull my bottom lip in between my teeth and bite down. It’s a habit I’ve always had, and I can’t help it.

  Ryder’s eyes drop to my mouth and I swear it was like they flared with lust for a brief second before his eyes came back to mine.

  “Now mon bijou, you and I are going to get several things out in the open and then we’re going to move on from it, got me?” Ryder declares.

  “Why do you call me mon bijou?” I ask, frowning. It’s not the first time he’s called me this but it’s the first time I’ve had the chance to ask him about it.

  “Because that’s what you are, my jewel. You stand out when everything else is shadowed. Hard around the edges but beautiful through and through.” I barely keep myself from tearing up at this. His answer is one of the most beautiful things anyone has ever said to me.

  “Umm,” I start to say but Ryder shakes his head at me telling me with the narrowing of his gaze to stop before I even begin.

  “Right now, Brielle you’re going to listen to me.” To this I give Ryder a slight nod. “You said a lot of things in the office. A lot about that pisses me and everyone else off. Not at you, though I’ll tell you now it’s fucked you didn’t get out of there sooner and stay out of there. If you’d been smart and contacted your brother, it could have saved you and our boys a hell of a lot of pain.”

  He did not just say that, did he?

  I don’t need anyone else making me feel horrible, that’s the way I feel as it is.

  “That being said, baby, you were dealt a shit hand and you did what you thought was best for you. In your mind I figure you were trying to protect everyone from getting hurt by taking it on yourself. Well that shit ends now, Brielle. I saw it in you at the hospital and again earlier today. You want to bolt and that shit ain’t fuckin’ happenin’. We’re going to handle this clusterfuck, while we’re doing that, you and I are gonna start this.”