I lick my lips.
"You never even told me you got arrested. Mom and dad, they never told me..."
"I asked them not to," he says quickly. "I didn't want to worry you, Abby. You didn't need that on your plate, not with college coming up."
"But they spent all my college money on that. On your bail, and it still hasn't gone to trial?"
"It's not fast and they've been delaying it. And I didn't know mom and dad... I didn't know they were in so deep. I never would've asked otherwise, but I didn't want to owe that asshole anything more than I had to."
Was he talking about Ryder?
A chill went through me, and my anger gave way to exhaustion.
I close my eyes, breathing deeply as we both drift to sleep.
"We're going to get this done, Ryder. This is the last fucking bit of your shit I'm moving, and after that, I'm done. No more threats, no more fucking with Abigail. She gets fired; that's it."
Ryder is giving me the smuggest fucking smile, and I feel like pummeling it off his pretty boy face. He looks like a movie star, but he’s colder than any man I've ever met.
I sneer at him, folding my arms across my chest.
"This is it, Ryder, do you understand? You let this thing go to trial, you get me off, and you let her go if I do this for you."
"Sure," he says in that way that makes me instinctively not trust him.
But I don't have a choice.
There's only one way I can deserve Abigail, and that's if I get clean of this mess I got into trying to run from her. From how she makes me feel. No woman should ever make me feel like she does, and I've fucked dozens of them trying to prove that to myself, and my thoughts always go back to her.
Abigail.
From the way she tugs on her hair when she's angry to the way she always frowns at her reflection right before going out. Everything about her just gets in under my skin, and when I saw how she looked at me the other night... I was going to lose my mind if I didn't at least see if she felt the same for me.
Even if it meant running drugs with some of the worst people I've met.
"Fine. Tonight, you do this thing for me, and you and your little sister," he says, waving in the air, "can go. But if you fuck up? She's the one that's going to pay."
"Drinks, shots?" I'm trying my best to treat this like a normal night, but I have a bad feeling in my stomach.
I woke up excited to see Kaiden this morning, but he was already gone.
No note, no text, no nothing.
And my instinct is to worry that I scared him off again and put more distance between us.
I give one of the men at the table his whiskey and cola, glancing around the bar. No sight of Kaiden, but honestly, that wasn't unusual. I'm just being paranoid.
I move to the next table, handing them their drink before going back to the bar. It's a slow night, and I'm getting exhausted fast.
I refill my shot glasses, putting others in the dishwasher when I realize I forgot my phone in my purse. I curse and, with a quick apology to the bartender, run back into the office. It's pitch black, but I always put my bag in the same place. I find it and turn it on, hoping for a text from Kaiden, but there's nothing.
I sigh, and then I hear the shifting of a chair. Gasping, I look up to see Ryder approaching me slowly. I didn't even know he was working tonight. He usually takes off before midnight.
"Sorry, Ryder, I just needed to check my phone."
He tut-tuts.
"Checking your phone on work hours? I didn't take you for such a bad girl," he says, and through the light of my phone, I can see him leering at me.
I remember back to my first day when I met him, liking the way he looked at me. His gorgeous face, his strong, masculine form... it was hard not to be attracted to him.
But now all I feel is fear, and I think he can kind of sense it. Especially when he reaches out and touches some of my hair, his hand grazing along the shell of my ear.
I flinch away and his smile widens.
"But I bet you are a bad girl, aren't you? I see you, prancing in here with your short skirts, your low-cut tops, just begging for it," he says, his hand running down my neck. I'm too scared to even move, though I'm desperately trying to force my legs to run, to get me away from him.
For Kaiden to come in and save me.
Anything.
His smile is feral, and I can smell his cologne in the air as he leans in, tucking hair behind my ear and whispering in it:
"I bet you like it up the ass, huh? Prissy girl like you already looks like she's got somethin' stuck up there."
He grabs my wrist, and I try to yank it away, only for him to put more force into it. Making my hand touch against his bulge, his hand moving overtop mine and making me feel it throb against my touch. I pull away, but he pins me to the wall with his body, his scent overwhelming me.