Ash(73)

I couldn’t see anything at first. Ryder went in front, gun drawn and his scary face in play. He blocked my sight for about eight seconds, but the moment I could see around him my blood did this strange thing where it boiled and froze all at the same time. Jayden was tied to a chair, an unmasked mercenary standing behind him. He was not particularly tall or broad, and had no real defining features. He was sort of bland in a mousy brown-haired way. But his eyes, they were scary – ash black, literally no silver – and they looked flat … dead. This was not a good dude.

As I focused in on my best friend, I could see that Jayden looked a little drowsy, like they’d either hit him hard enough to stun or tranqued him. Boring dude had a gun trained on the back of Jayden’s head, his hand steady, not even the slightest shake, like he could stand there for hours in the same position. The window behind him was open and I wondered if Sam and Markus were there waiting. Why would the Sanctum have that window open? Was that how he’d gotten inside?

“Ryder…” His voice was as bland as his appearance. It was so odd, but I felt like I could forget everything about this guy the moment he was gone. Which was probably the appeal. Except his dead eyes, they were seared into my brain.

He continued: “So nice of you to bring the target.”

Ryder was about two feet inside the apartment. I was right up in his business, because I knew he would freak if I didn’t attach myself to him. Of course that didn’t stop me from looking up and around more than once. I was pretty sure there were no other Sanctum members in here, but you could never be too sure.

“Laz, I was kind of hoping I wouldn’t see your ugly face again.” Ryder sounded calm, but I could feel his tension.

Laz’s expression finally morphed into something resembling an expression, sort of a sneer or a shrug. Hard to tell. “You know the drill, you’ve done this plenty of times before. Drop your weapons on the floor, and if you haven’t handed over the target within ten seconds, I shoot the friend.”

My stomach dropped as I saw fear flash in Jayden’s eyes. Ryder was smooth as he dropped his weapon, then took mine from me and tossed it on the ground also. The heavy weight was still in my boot, and I was relieved to think we still had that backup.

“Kick them toward me,” the Sanctum mercenary said.

“I’ll pay you double to call off the job,” Ryder said as he slid both guns across the tiles. They bumped near Jayden’s bound feet.

Laz looked a little surprised. “It’s not like golden-child Ryder to give a shit about a girl. Looks like this one is special to you in more ways than one. I might enjoy her before I hand her over.”

Not happening, asshole.

Then Laz focused fully on Ryder. “We both know you can’t afford it. This target is worth almost my entire year, and I will be bringing her in. The people who want her, they are willing to pay anything. She’s more important than you think.”

There I went again, being the all-important freakin’ unicorn. I would be okay with just being a regular horse right now. Unicorn was overrated.

Ryder grinned then, and it was sort of scary and sexy at the same time. “I know her exact worth. And they will never get their hands on her.”

Laz pressed the gun harder against Jayden. My friend’s head snapped forward from the impact. “Say goodbye to your friend,” he said.

“No,” I screamed, and right then I didn’t care about Ryder’s previous orders, I was handing myself over. If Jayden died because of me, I might as well be dead. I would never be able to live with myself. I shoved Ryder, who was not ready for it and stumbled. This gave me an opening, but before I could step out, Sam flew through the window. He held a gun in each hand and was shooting before he even landed. I felt a hot weight on my leg, and glanced down to find Ryder’s hand capturing my ankle, yanking me down beside him.

“Jayden!” I screamed again as bullets flew. My best friend had better not get hurt or heads would fucking roll!

I heard grunting, and I was able to flip over and see that Jayden’s chair had been knocked forward. Thank God. He seemed fine and was squirming to break free. The bullets stopped as Laz and Sam crashed into each other and started fighting. Laz seemed to favor grappling. He immediately brought the large enforcer down, but Sam recovered instantly. He was quick, and managed to flip Laz over and crack him twice with his elbow.

I was distracted as Ryder silently rose and crossed the room, moving in to help his teammate. Just before he reached them, though, another dark shadow flew in through the window. I expected it to be Markus, but the fully black-clad figure didn’t look like the Scottish enforcer. It was one of the Sanctum. He landed on Ryder, the two of them trading blows. I started to drag myself across to Jayden. If I freed him, we could escape together. I’d come back for Ryder as soon as my friend was safe.