“I’m pretty sure it’s too late for some of us.”
There was something in her voice. Something that left him itching more than he had been.
“It’s never too late to become something better.”
He’d never been so sure of it as they made the trade with twelve men surrounding them with automatic rifles. As he’d looked down at death and knew he wanted to live.
These men got to decide his fate right then, and a true sense of terror covered him as he and Amelia gathered the four duffels stuffed with money.
But they let them walk, and Ryder promised himself he would never be in that position again. He silently chanted it as they picked up the rental car that had already been arranged for them and took turns driving back to Colorado.
He couldn’t sleep on his break, though.
He was riddled with too many thoughts.
Too many emotions.
Grief and hope.
Fear and love.
Guilt and the belief that he could be better.
And he held onto that belief when they pulled into the alley behind the dank dry cleaner’s office at just before dawn. Knew it as they went inside and tossed the bags to Dare’s feet.
As he grated, “It’s done, and so am I.”
A smile split across Dare’s face. The menacing kind. The kind that froze the blood in Ryder’s veins.
“Oh, Ryder, you’re just beginning.”
Pete stepped forward and brought the butt of his gun down at the back of Ryder’s neck. It dropped him to his knees. Dare came forward and leaned over him so he was holding onto his shoulder and muttering near his ear, “I own you, Ryder. Who is going to have to die for you to remember it?”
That was right before another blow landed at the side of his head. A blow that completely knocked him out.
He woke with pain splitting his head in two. Agonizing as he blinked open his eyes to the glaring light and tried to get his bearings.
The house he rented. He was in the bed in his house.
Dread seeped deeper when his arm brushed against something, and he shifted to find Amelia in bed beside him.
And the dread blasted cold when he realized she was too still. That it was too quiet. He flew onto his knees, taking her by the face and shaking her. “Amelia. Wake up. Please, wake up.”
Her body bounced as he shook her. No response. No resistance.
His fingers trembled where he pressed them to her neck. There was no pulse. And her skin was too pale. Too white.
He fumbled for his phone and dialed 9-1-1, begged them to hurry before he started blowing breaths into her mouth.
Frantic as he pumped at her chest.
Tears blurred his eyes as the paramedics came in, and he stumbled off the bed as they took over.
He watched like he was detached.
Floating.
Suffering a near-death experience and he was watching his body below him.
But he guessed a piece of him died right then.
When they took her away in the ambulance, even though he knew she was already gone.
He still went to the hospital in Poplar where they’d taken her. He waited in the waiting room, claiming her as his fiancée, knowing she had no one else. No family. More alone than he could ever be.
And the doctor gave no sympathies when he came out and told him they couldn’t bring her back. She’d OD’d. So many opioids in her system there was no way for her heart to beat.
Ryder buried his head in his arms and choked over a shattered, “What?”
As if he was in shock.
As if he didn’t know.
As if he couldn’t believe what she had been involved in.
But it was shock.
Shock over what Dare had done. The lengths he’d gone to keep Ryder trapped.
A warning.
A threat.
One that had cost Amelia her life.
Chains rattled around him. Cinching down tight.
He wandered out of the hospital.
And he dropped to his knees and wailed toward the sky.
Dakota – Same Day
Dakota looked at her reflection in the mirror where she sat at the dressing table in her childhood room. She slicked a shimmery gloss across her lips while nerves fluttered like the flapping of wings in her belly and chest.
Today was the day.
No more reservations.
No more holding back.
He’d encouraged her to chase a dream, had given her the gift of making that dream a reality, and she was going to chase this one, too.
She wouldn’t wait for the cover of night. When the world whispered around them. When they were held in a sanctuary where no harm could befall them.
She was going to go to him and tell him how she felt and pray he felt it back.
Inhaling a steeling breath, she stood and smoothed out the red dress she’d picked for the occasion. The one that made her feel pretty and confident. The one she was sure Ryder loved when she wore it.