Page 49 of Off Limits (Alpha Billionaire)

“Eh, eh, eh, no phone for you.” He plucked it out of my hand and tucked it into his shirt pocket. “No texting the boyfriend telling him where you are.”

The phone rang again. “What is with this guy?” Ryan jerked the phone out of his pocket and answered it. “If you try to call her again, I swear I’ll throw this thing out the window.” He ended the call and smirked at me.

“That should keep him on his toes for a while. Your little boyfriend, he’s kind of old for you, wouldn’t you say?”

“You were kind of old for me. You’re about the same age. You tell me,” I countered. I hated being stuck in this car with him. He drove like a maniac. And if this was all to teach Dylan some kind of lesson, well, I was done.

“I was your mentor. We had something special, a bond,” he said.

More like bondage. Our sex life had been pretty intense, but at the time, I had been too stupid to see what our relationship really was. One giant power and ego trip for Ryan.

I didn’t respond.

“Wouldn't you agree?” Ryan shouted, and he swerved the car as he glared at me.

I did not agree, but right then, Ryan was right about everything. I couldn’t risk him getting mad and losing his temper any worse than he already had.

“Yeah, I agree. What we had was a bond.”

“You can’t possibly have that with Dylan.” He said Dylan’s name like it was something slimy.

“No, I don’t.” Whatever there had been between Ryan and me, it was not what Dylan and I had.

The connection between Dylan and me was like nothing I had ever experienced. And I knew he was worried about me. “Are you planning on taking me back?”

Ryan shook his head. “No. I think I’ll make him come get you. He hasn’t earned you back yet.”

“Earned back? You still haven’t told me what this is all about. Okay, you want to make Dylan sweat. But why?”

“Business, something you wouldn’t understand.”

I scoffed. I understood Ryan’s idea of business just fine. After all, I had manipulated and cheated others to help him with his particular way of conducting business. For Ryan, that meant he was trying to leverage something to get a bigger piece of the financial action.

I looked out the window. We were in the middle of nowhere. How would Dylan know where I was? How would he find me? Even if Ryan gave me back the phone, I doubt I’d get a signal.

The adrenaline rush that had gotten me this far in this mess was beginning to wear off. I was shaky and suddenly cold. I didn’t feel well.

I reached out to adjust the air conditioning on the dash. Ryan smacked my hand like I was some kind of wayward child sneaking into a candy jar.

“Hands off.”

“I’m cold,” I said.

He gave me one of those raking glances, taking in what I was, or in this case wasn’t, wearing. All I had on was a tankini style bathing suit, the kind with boy shorts, a cotton lace crochet coverup, and some cheap plastic knock-off Crocs.

“Maybe you should have thought about that and put more clothes on.” He chuckled. It was like he thought this whole thing was one big joke.

I crossed my arms and leaned my head against the window. Eventually, the winding of the road, the monotony of the scenery, and with the constant threat of being car sick, I just kept my eyes closed. At some point, I fell asleep.

I woke up with Ryan shaking me. “For someone who spent enough time bitching about wanting to be let go, you aren’t being very convincing of wanting to leave.” My door was open and he was pulling on me.

“What?” It was dark out, and the car wasn’t moving.

“Get out. I’m done with you.” He took my phone out of his pocket and tossed it off the side of the road.

As I scrambled after my phone, he drove off.

“Asshole!” I yelled. Not that he heard me.

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