Page 46 of Without Fail

The sound of exploding rage should have warned him, but call him stupid… He was caught off guard when Ryker’s knee crashed into his groin and took the air from his lungs and sent bile coating his tongue.

Unable to stand, Marshal dropped to the floor, cupping himself.

“Don’t ever touch me again,” the man snapped, jerked his suit jacket to straighten it, and then walked out of the room, leaving him rolling on the floor.

Marshal fought throwing up and breathed through the pain.

“Marshal!” Bishop was there with a hand on his shoulder and he finally rolled to his back.

All those hand-to-hand lessons in self-defense he’d taught Ryker had come back to bite him in the ass.

And he had only himself to blame.

Shit.

Fuck.

How was he going to get Ryker to believe that he hadn’t meant a fucking word he’d said to Bishop?

“You okay?” Bishop asked.

“No.”

He wasn’t.

And if his words had screwed up his newly formed relationship with Ryker, he would never be okay again.

Ryker found himself in the lush green of the terrarium for the past few mornings.

The plants soothed him like nothing else could.

He’d avoided Marshal since the incident nearly a week ago, but he knew he couldn’t avoid the guy forever. He needed time to process the hurt and once his anger cooled, he began to wonder why Marshal had said those words to Bishop.

There was a reason and Marshal would tell him.

Right? Maybe.

Or maybe the man would pay him lip service to cover his ass since he’d been caught badmouthing him.

Brandon and Chad had become worried about him and had started following him around the estate. He shared with Chad a little bit, but that was it.

“There might be a reason why he said that,” Chad had said.

“I know, but I’m not ready to hear it.” That plus he was scared that the reason Marshal had said those things was because he didn’t measure up. But then hadn’t Marshal himself said that he didn’t mean it?

He sighed and picked up the small hose to finish watering the potted ivy that filled one of the long greenery-filled benches.

A sound suddenly filtered into the room from out in the main hall.

It was odd.

It sounded like muffled shouting or screaming. Then a distant popping sound had Ryker shutting off the water.

Rushing to the door, he hurried out of the terrarium and ran into Chad standing in the hallway.

“Stay here. Okay?” Chad gripped him by the shoulders until he reluctantly nodded.

“Lock this door when I go out,” Chad ordered once they reached the heavy oak door that accessed the main hallway.

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