Ryder, upon seeing the tears, scooted closer to her. He went to put his arm around her but stopped. It seemed like the natural thing to do, but they were still more or less perfect strangers.
Stormy wiped her eyes. “So what do you want from me, Ryder? Because I’m pretty damn sure I don’t have any money if that’s what you want.”
“Oh, I don’t want any money,” he said as he placed his hand over his chest. “Swear.”
“So why are you here?” Stormy demanded. “What do you want?”
“Because you’re my brother’s widow,” he said. “Jett and I weren’t talking these last few years, but I feel like I owe it to him to make sure you’re okay.”
Stormy paused trying to wrap her head around a concept that made no sense whatsoever.
“So let me get this straight,” she said as she stared him square in the face. “Jett didn’t talk about you, didn’t tell me you existed, but you want to take care of me? Yeah. Right. Makes perfect sense.”
Ryder laughed. “I know it seems crazy. I’m just trying to right some wrongs, you know?
“A little late for that, don’t you think?”
“It’s never too late to do the right thing.” Ryder shifted uncomfortably. “I also want to find out who killed him, and I need your help.”
“The police said it was someone in a rival gang,” she said. “Honestly that’s all I know. I’m afraid I won’t be of much help.”
Stormy rolled her eyes. She was still having a hard time buying what Ryder was trying to sell her. Something seemed fishy.
Ryder’s eyes danced around the room and he took a deep breath. “It was one of my men.”
“What?!” Stormy yelled.
“I’m pretty sure,” he said. “I just need your help because I don’t know for sure.”
“Help? How?”
“If you become my old lady and I bring you into the group, maybe we can see who treats you differently or acts differently around you,” he said.
“Wow,” she replied. “I don’t even know you, Ryder.”
“Ask me anything,” he said.
“When did you move out of Coleville?” she asked. If he wasn’t going to volunteer any information, she figured she could at least ask questions and try to piece something, anything together.
“When I was eighteen,” he said. “I was into some bad stuff. Smuggling cocaine. Got recruited by the Hellfire Motorcycle Club. Never came back.”
“Why didn’t you come back?”
Ryder chuckled as if her question was silly. “Would you want to come back to Coleville if you didn’t have to? I worked my way up to VP. It’s hard to walk away from all that power. Why are you still in Coleville? There’s nothing here.”
“My family’s here. It’s not that bad,” Stormy shrugged.
“Well, when your family is like mine,” he began. “Sometimes it’s not worth coming back for. My mom was a drugged up hooker. My dad left when we were little.”
“So you just abandoned your younger brother? Nice,” she retorted.
“Jett was sixteen when I left. He wasn’t a kid. He could fend for himself. Plus I figured he’d be out of the house sooner or later,” he justified it. “Unfortunately he didn’t take it that well and stopped talking to me.”
“Can’t say that I blame him. Pretty shitty thing to do,” Stormy said as she scowled at him. “But then again, I can’t say I blame you for wanting to get away from your mom. If you can even call her that. Jett told me stories.”
“Good old, Misty,” Ryder said as he stretched his hands back behind his head and sunk back into the couch cushions. “How is that crazy broad doing these days?”
Stormy was a little taken aback by Ryder’s candor, but on the other hand she appreciated that he wasn’t trying to put on an act with her. So far he appeared to be forthcoming and genuine, but only time would tell.
“She hates me,” Stormy said. “That’s about all I know. She thinks I took Jett away from her. Really I told him to stop supporting her drug habit by giving her money every other day.”
“Yeah, she’s obsessed with money,” he said. “And getting her next fix.”
She wanted to ask more questions, but she didn’t want to bombard him just yet. It seemed like a few questions here or there were getting him to open up about things without realizing it. She was going to have to be strategic if she wanted to get any more information from him.
An awkward silence filled the space between them for a few moments until Stormy got up and grabbed their empty wine goblets. The moment she stood up, she felt dizzy. She then remembered she hadn’t eaten all day.