Without saying anything else, she disappeared around the corner, leaving me standing there trembling against the wall.
THIRTY-SEVEN
RYDER
Hatred clawed through my spirit, squeezing it in a fist as I stared at the bastard who sat in that same chair where he’d sat doling out my sentence for so many years. Where he’d wielded his power, twisting me up in a seedy grip of manipulation.
I shook with the brutalness of it. At the lengths he’d gone to keep me under his thumb. The sins he’d piled on top of me like they were my own when I’d wanted to get out from beneath them for so long.
It was time.
Fucking time.
“Have it ready by next Tuesday night. Marc and I will be at the safehouse at midnight.”
Agitation lifted a sheen of sweat on my skin, and I did my best to keep the anxiety from showing. I had to play it cool. It was just another job out of hundreds of others that I’d done for him. I couldn’t give him any indication otherwise. I was dead if I did.
“I’ll be there.”
Dare rocked back in his chair, a smirk lighting on his pompous face. “So agreeable.”
Air puffed from my nose. “Don’t see much of a point in arguing it.”
“Easy money in your pocket, Ryder. Not sure why you ever did in the first place. I’ve always taken care of you.”
He said it with zero conscience. Like he really didn’t see a problem with it. Like he was the one doing me a solid.
Like any of this was okay.
Amelia’s face flashed through my mind.
Grief over her fate.
That hatred burned hotter, singeing my skin. I had to grit my molars to keep from reaching across the desk and wrapping my hands around his throat until the life drained out of him.
But I had to be patient.
Play this right.
My shoulder lifted like I didn’t give a fuck. I couldn’t act too compliant, either. “Just want to get the fucking job done and over with. Have other things at the shop I want to be focused on.”
He laughed a sound of disbelief. “Fucking waste of time, but I guess your hard work provides a good cover, so I’m not gonna complain.”
I wanted to tell him to fuck off. Remind him it was something I’d built. With my own hands. It was one of the things I was most proud of.
He was the one who’d swooped in and used it in his favor, seizing it as his own opportunity.
But that shop was mine.
The art was mine.
Dakota was mine.
And this time, I wasn’t going to let her go.
THIRTY-EIGHT
RYDER
TWENTY-SIX YEARS OLD
Country music blared from the speakers as the band played from the stage at Mack’s.
Mack’s used to be a giant barn that had been converted into the bar that half the town of Time River had to be crammed into tonight. People were packed wall to wall, taking up the huge dance floor in the center of the cavernous space. Not a single one of the high-top tables that surrounded it were unoccupied.
Ryder sipped at a tumbler of whiskey where he and his crew had managed to pull a couple tables together. Cody broke through the crowd, carrying two pitchers of beer. Ezra was behind him, carrying another two, plus he had a stack of plastic cups tucked under his arm.
Ryder cocked a grin. “You two look like you have some sort of expectations for tonight.”
Cody chuckled as he set the pitchers down. “While I normally would be taking advantage of an opportunity like this…”
He waved a hand at the women in a line on the dance floor, tossing their hips as they spun and kicked to the choreographed dance. Most of them wore cowgirl boots and were in varying states of dress. Cut-offs and jeans and dainty dresses.
Mack’s was never in short supply of the fairer sex, and it’d become the place Ryder and Cody hung out most. Ezra had, too, until he’d fallen hard and gotten married a couple years ago. Brianna was home with their little girl, so Ryder’s cousin was flying solo tonight.
“Tonight is all about my sister,” Cody finished.
Ryder’s stomach tightened in a fist, though he kept grinning like he was completely unaffected. “When did she get back into town?”
“This morning. Graduation and birthday in the same week.” Awe shook Cody’s head as he slipped onto a stool. “She graduated with honors all while managing a bakery off campus the entire time. I figure we have some celebrating to do.”
Of course, she had.
This was Dakota they were talking about. Ryder wouldn’t have expected anything less. She was crazy smart and crazy talented, and he knew she was going to be crazy successful.