Page 38 of Ryker

Especially since she’s had none her whole life.

“Money we can make easily enough,” D whispers. “I’ll enter a few more heavyweight fights.”

“And I’ll suck a lot more dick.” Because that pays better than servicing a woman around here.

We both fall into silence with my mom passed out in the seat in front of us.

“Hey,” Dmitri snaps his fingers in my face. “Ryker.”

“Yeah.” I clear my throat. “I’m good.”

“Don’t pull that shit, okay?”

“What shit?” I’m sweating like a sinner in church. Yanking on my collar, I pop the top button and it rolls across the floor. “I’m not doing anything, D.”

“You’re blurring the past and present. Tara’s not Natalie. And your mom is—”

I wrap my hand around his fat neck and squeeze. “Don’t talk about her.”

We promised the day we put her in the ground, we would never talk about my mother again. All the blood, sweat, tears, and other fluids we drained ourselves of just to make her shortened life a good one blew to smithereens too fucking quickly. I don’t think either of us have recovered from it yet.

“You’ve got to move on,” D says with a strained voice. His face is a lovely shade of crimson and I have no intention of letting him get air. “Everything… happens for… a reason, Ry.”

My long-leashed fury breaks free. I draw my fist and smash his face.

Chapter 14

Tara

What the hell is that noise? It sounds like two lions attacking each other in the hallway. I peek my head out the door and—

Oh shit!

Racing over to the bed, I grab a blanket and tie it around myself, then shoot out the door to stop the fight between Mr. Hudson and Dmitri.

“Stop!” I yell.

They’re pounding each other. Or rather, Ryker is walloping on Dmitri, who’s doing the bare minimum to stop him. When Dmitri finally pushes back, Mr. Hudson slams against the wall so hard, it leaves a dent in the drywall. Mr. Hudson shoves Dmitri, screaming as he drives him backwards, and now there’s a Dmitri sized dent in the other wall.

“Stop it!” Getting closer to them will likely risk an elbow to my face, so I look up and wave my hands at the camera in the corner down the hall. “Someone help!”

“Don’t worry about it, Sweetheart.” Dmitri grunts as Mr. Hudson punches him in the gut. “He hits like a little bitch, anyway.”

Ryker swings a left hook that makes Dmitri spin around and fall to the floor, blood spraying out of his mouth.

A door opens down the hall and Vault runs towards us. Instead of pulling Ryker off Dmitri like I expect, he manhandles me instead and starts pulling me back towards my suite. “Get back inside, Butterfly. You don’t need to be here for this.”

“Get off me!” I yank my arm out of his loose grip and turn back to the fight.

“Butterfly,” Vault growls. “It’s for your own safety.”

“I’m not the one bleeding all over the floor!” I jerk away when he grabs me again. “Get off me!”

“Touch her again and I’ll tear your fucking hands off, Vault.”

We both freeze and my eyes widen when Mr. Hudson slowly rises to his feet. His chest expands with his heavy breaths and blood drips from his split lip. Dmitri rolls over and stands up, swaying on his feet even as he laughs.

Crazy motherfuckers.

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