Descending Darkness(76)

“It’s not the first time I’ve come to save you, and you attacked me,” he says with a smile. My eyes move to Natalie, who is staring up at Liam.

“Well, you can’t blame me the first time! It was really surprising to see you…when I actually awake.”

“You still attacked me.”

“Hey, you didn’t act much better when I first met you! You were all I wear black. I’m mysterious. Go away.” Ryanne says, trying to lower her voice to sound like Liam. It doesn’t work.

“That was a horrible impression of me,” he tells her.

“That’s beside the point. You were still a jerk,” she throws back at him while sticking her tongue out. It is so adorable when she resorts to child-like banter. Liam laughs and shakes his head but doesn’t respond. I glance towards Natalie and find her still watching Liam with a small smile on her face.

“Oh,” Ryanne gasps and looks at everyone. “Phillip is working for Dravin too. He’s the one that broke my wrist and bruised my stomach. Stupid guy doesn’t know how to take a hint.” She looks straight at me and says, “You’d think knocking someone unconscious would tell them to leave me alone, but he didn’t get that memo the first time.”

“Phillip, as in James’s brother?” I ask. I thought Phillip was on our side. He was always the quiet one whenever we met. James was the one that did all the talking.

“The one and only,” she mumbles and leans back against the edge of the couch.

“Ryanne…” Liam starts.

“Look, I didn’t mean to cry. I don’t know what came over me. I’ve turned into such a baby since meeting all of you guys,” she explains.

I reach forward and grab her hand. “Why did you cry?”

She bites her lip and looks down at our hands. “I was scared,” she whispers. “I was running through that forest alone, randomly fighting off these guys, and I was growing really tired and knew that I couldn’t keep it up for much longer. So, I was really happy when I ran into Liam that I just started crying.”

“Shoot, I probably would have crawled into a tree and just bawled my eyes out if that happened to me. I wouldn’t have run,” Emma says. I can’t really picture Emma bawling her eyes out though.

“We need to find a way to make sure that doesn’t happen again,” Liam says.

“Yeah, once was enough. I don’t know if I can repeat that a second time,” Ryanne mumbles through her yawn. I stand up and pull her up with me. She complies and leans against me, obviously exhausted.

“Ok, we’re going to go to bed. We’ll see you all in the morning,” I tell everyone as I start walking toward the stairs. Ryanne stumbles behind me as I pull her along.

“I’m not that tired. You can stay and talk to everyone if you want.” Nope, she’s not getting her way there. I continue pulling her upstairs, hoping that she doesn’t try to argue with me more. Of course, I’m not that lucky. “Colton, you don’t…”

I stop at the top of the stairs and whirl around, pressing her back against the railing at the top. “Ryanne, I just waited for two hours for you to wake up, worrying the whole time that something was happening to you while I couldn’t be there to help you. Please stop arguing with me all the time and just let me do what I can for you.” I reach forward and push the hair that had fallen out of her ponytail behind her ears. “You’re exhausted, and I want to help you.”

She still doesn’t know the extent I will go to help her. At the moment, the best thing I can do is lie down with her and let her get a good night’s sleep. She needs the rest. I can see it in her eyes.

She leans forward and rests her head on my chest. With a sigh, she responds, “You’re too good to me, Colton.”

I rest my chin on the top of her head and wrap my arms around her small waist. I look over her head and down into the living room. Emma and Natalie keep glancing upstairs, trying not to make it obvious that they are watching us. I wink at Emma and start walking backward, bringing Ryanne with me. She sighs and follows my footsteps toward our room. I reach out behind me and twist the doorknob, opening the door.

Dragging her inside, I push her back, so I can see her. She looks up at me through sleepy eyes. “Are you sure that you’re alright? You’re not hurting anywhere?”

Shaking her head, she reaches up and pulls her hair out of her ponytail. Her hair cascades down her back in messy curls. She runs a hand through it and steps away from me, moving toward the armoire that contains her clothes.

“Ryanne, you should just lay down.”