When Catherine finally regained her feet, her eyes were molten pools of blue fury, and she came at me with both arms extended. I prepared myself for her violence, but just before she reached me, a tall man rushed out from a side door and intercepted her.
It took me a minute to realize he was dressed as nicely as she was. Charcoal suit, custom fitted to his tall, well-built frame. Thick black hair with just a few touches of gray at the temples, and eyes that were a deep chocolate brown. I stumbled back as our gazes met, his over a struggling Catherine’s shoulder, from where he’d spun her around to try and calm her down.
“Who are you?” I asked, breathing rapidly.
He didn’t say anything at first, instead taking a moment to stare at me in what might have been an awkward way, but there was nothing sexual in that gaze. It was almost … sad.
Catherine had finally stopped fighting him, but I could see the way her back heaved as she breathed deeply, trying to get herself under control.
“You look just like him,” the man said, his voice hoarse. “Like my son.”
My breath caught in my chest, and I felt a sting of pain at those words. This was my birth-father, the elusive Richard. He’d stopped Catherine from attacking me.
After another few minutes, he released her, and she spun around to face me. A hand on her shoulder kept her from striding forward. “You’re lucky I need you alive,” she spat at me, her face awash in hatred.
I smiled sweetly. “That’s right, bitch. You need me. And if you’d like me to continue to do your bidding like a good little heir, there’s a few things I will require.”
Richard waved a hand tiredly at me. “Whatever you want, you’ve got it. Just ask Stewart. I give him permission to purchase anything.”
“No cars,” Catherine spat out. “You can have anything but a car. Don’t want to make it too easy for you to run.”
More than likely she was aware of my love for racing, knew that it was the only way I could ease that painful tension which twisted my gut up and sent my pulse racing at times. We all knew I could steal a car if that was the only thing stopping me from running. Catherine just wanted to exercise whatever power she could.
My parents left soon after that and I stumbled up to my room, and into the longest hottest shower I’d ever taken. It felt like years later I pulled myself out, took the painkillers and, dressed only in a shirt and underwear bottoms, crawled into my bed. It was barely past midday, but the sheets and mattress had never felt so soft, and I figured I’d be out cold in seconds. Yet the moment I closed my eyes, all I could see was the plane falling from the sky. Feel the terror that gripped me when the pilot shot himself. Mental images from the past twenty-four hours filtered across my mind, one after another. Death. Blood. Fear. Pain. It intermingled until I felt like I was going to scream.
A knock at the door pulled me from my panic, and I called out “yes?”
Stewart walked in slowly, a tray of food in his hands. “I just wanted to check on you,” he said softly. The tray went down on my bedside, and I tried to find my appetite. He pulled a phone from his pocket then and handed it to me. “Also, I figured you might need a new phone. I wasn’t sure if yours was damaged in the flight.”
I actually had no idea where the phone Dante had given me was. It could have ended up anywhere, but was probably still in the wreckage. “Mr. Deboise had me program his number in there for you.” Stewart’s eyes were glittering with something unspoken. “If any more … problems occur, he wants you to call immediately.”
Ah hah. If Catherine Debitch lost her shit and tried to hit me again, more correctly. Thankfully this time she hadn’t used her rings, so it’d just be one more bruise to add to my collection.
Couldn’t say the same for her, because I’d hit her hard enough to break skin. I wasn’t sure if I did or not, but part of me hoped she got more than just a bruise. Stewart left me, and as the door closed, the phone in my hand rang.
Glancing down, a familiar number flashed up on the screen. How in the… “Dante, how the hell did you get my number already?” I asked as a greeting.
“You’re in so much fucking trouble Riley. Open your damn door so I can yell at you in person.”
The line went dead then.
Pulling the phone from my ear, I blinked at it before pulling myself out of bed. Crossing to the bedroom door, I slowly opened it up, not at all expecting Dante to be waiting on the other side.
Only he was, his face dark with anger as he pushed his way in the room.
“Eddy,” I squeaked, seeing her there as well. She must have been hidden behind Dante.
I didn’t ask how they had gotten into the house; when Dante wanted something, nothing stopped him. I was just glad that the parental assholes had left already so we could have this fight in peace.
Turning, I let out a long breath. “I’m sorry I worried you,” I started, clearing my throat to try and ease the raspiness. Thankfully the painkillers had kicked in. “I promise, I didn’t mean to be on a plane that was sabotaged and crashed into Canada. Like … that was not how I thought yesterday would go.”
Dante appeared to be too furious to speak; his hands were clenching and unclenching into fists. His shoulders looked extra broad in the leather jacket he wore, ripped up jeans and a Metallica shirt the only other clothes. Outside of his favorite boots.
A warm feeling settled into my chest as I stared at him. My best friend.
I got to see him again.
When he finally took a step forward, I held my breath, prepared for his explosion. I’d only been on the receiving end of Dante’s temper a few times in my life, and while he was never physically violent with me, he certainly didn’t hold back in the verbal ass-kicking.
When his arms wrapped around me and he hauled me into his body, I let out a low huff and groan. The hug was painful, but I would gladly take it to have this moment with Dante. For a second, when the plane was hurtling toward the ground, Dante’s face had crossed my mind. Knowing I’d never see him again, it had hurt almost as badly as the crash did.
This was a precious moment.
When Dante finally let me go, he seemed marginally calmer. “Tell us everything,” he said softly, holding my hand. He left an opening for Eddy to hurry forward and wrap her shaking arms around me. “I just came from seeing Jasper,” she said in a choked voice. “He went in for surgery, but he’s doing okay.”
Surgery didn’t sound good, but I was relieved that she seemed to think he was okay. He’d been rushed away at the hospital, and I hadn’t seen him again.
The three of us sat on my bed, and I told them as much as I felt safe in saying. I didn’t mention all of the murder that the boys did, because that was … that was something I would take to my grave. I would not be the reason they all ended up in prison while they’d been keeping us safe.
“The world of Delta is dangerous,” Eddy whispered, her eyes darting around the room. “But there’s no way out now, Riley.”
Dante and I just stared at her. “Very comforting,” I said with a laugh, because what the hell else could I do?
At least I wasn’t in it alone. Beck might have disappeared the moment we returned, but Jasper and Dylan had acted the same. Like I was one of them. That would have to be enough.
Shuffling across my huge bed a bit, I wrapped Eddy in a hug as tight as my damaged ribs would allow. “I’m sorry about Jasper, babe. He’ll be okay though. He’s a stubborn fucker.”
Eddy gave me a watery smile, but I could see the fear in her eyes. “He told me you saved his life. I think he’s a bit in love now.”
I scoffed a laugh and bumped her with my shoulder. “Yeah right, pretty sure Jasper falls in love at least twice a week.”
She grinned and waggled her eyebrows at me but didn’t push the subject. Thank fuck. The idea of Jasper liking me as anything more than a good friend made me all kinds of tense and uncomfortable. Not that he wasn’t gorgeous. He was. But Beck...
I let out a heavy sigh and flopped back on my pillow mountain. “So what do you want to do? I don’t have a TV in here or anything.”
Eddy laughed and shook her head. “Oh my god, you’re so working class right now, Riles.” She said it with a teasing grin, reaching over to the bedside table and pressing a button that I hadn’t even seen, let alone associated with a TV.
From the bench at the foot of my massive bed, a huge flat-screen TV rose up like fucking magic.
“Get out,” I muttered in awe. “To think I actually read my school books when I couldn’t find that sucker last weekend.”
Dante laughed at this and I whacked him in the stomach with the back of my hand. Then immediately regretted it, because it pulled my side and I cringed with pain.
For the rest of the afternoon, the three of us stayed snuggled up in my bed, watching Disney movies and eating the popcorn that Stew delivered to us. Eventually, though, Stew came to tell us that it was my “curfew” and that Dante and Eddy needed to leave.
I wanted to argue, but exhaustion had been creeping over me like a black cloud, and I was already half asleep when my friends hugged me goodbye.
“Can I bring you some dinner, Miss Riley?” Stewart asked after my friends were gone.
I yawned heavily and tried to rub my eyes with the backs of my hands—only to scratch my face with that damn hard shelled wrist brace.
“Fuck,” I groaned. “No, I think I just need to go to sleep. Thanks, Stew.”
The old man gave me a small frown, but nodded and exited my room. “Call if you need anything, Miss. Oh, and I placed the codes to the house alarm, and the front gate on a note for you.” He waved the yellow post-it note. “As per Mr. Deboise’s orders.”
That made me chuckle, because Richard Deboise was definitely doing everything he could to piss off Debitch, which made me like him. Just a little.
Shutting the door after Stew and turning the lights off, I dragged my feet back to the bed and fell in face first. My whole body hurt, but I wasn’t due for another dose of painkillers for another two hours. I groaned into the plush bedding, then wrestled my way under the blankets as best I could without hurting myself further.