Page 59 of Second Chances

“As soon as you’re ready to leave hospital, Matthew and Sonia will drive you to a drug rehabilitation unit I’ve booked you into with James’ help. They’ve rented a cottage nearby and will both be on hand should you need them.”

I panic.

“Why not you? Ryan, please, I’ll need you.”

He shakes his head.

“That’s exactly the reason I can’t come with you. You won’t see Matthew and Sonia much either. They’re just there to keep an eye on you for my peace of mind. It will take thirty days, at least, for you to detox from the drugs. It won’t be pretty, and you have to face it alone. If I come anywhere near you, it will fail. I love you too much to let that happen. Elena, you can do this, and you’ll have the strength to survive anything afterward. But you have to do it alone.”

“Will you be there when I get out?”

I don’t want to hear his answer, but at the same time, I do. I fear his response more than anything I’ve ever heard an answer to in my life. My body starts to shake, the rate of my heart increasing. Ryan’s eyes flick to the monitor.

“Of course, I’ll be there. I’m not leaving you, Elena. I went through the same thing after I tried to kill myself on the roof. However, you have to discover who you truly are before you can love me fully. I won’t stop thinking about you the entire time you’re in there. It’s going to be the hardest thing I’ve ever done. But when it’s all over, I’ll be there waiting with open arms for you and our happily ever after because that is what we’re going to have—a perfect life together. So far, our pasts haven’t destroyed us, and we won’t let them win now.”

Ryan leans into me and kisses my forehead.

“Fight, Elena. This will be your last and hardest battle. Fight and win it. I’ll be your prize.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

Ryan

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Matthew asks as he turns around from the driver’s seat to face me in the back of the car we’re sitting in.

“No hesitation whatsoever. This can’t go on.”

“Spoken like a true Dom and a North.” My brother chuckles from the front passenger seat.

He’ll be taking a backseat in what we’re about to do, though, due to the injury to his arm—it’s the only way Amy would allow him to join us. None of us will let Victor get away with what he’s done. He forced Elena to steal from Amy by getting her hooked on painkillers, and he’s going to suffer as a result. Matthew’s done a lot of research into the drug dealer. Most of what Victor told Elena is false, and he needs to be dealt with.

Exiting the car, we line up outside the entrance to Victor’s house before Matthew kicks the door in. Rushing in and up to his bedroom, we find him balls deep in a woman. The girl screams when she sees us.

“What the fuck?” Victor pulls out and grabs the sheet, leaving the woman naked in front of us.

“Get out.” Matthew is the first to speak, his words directed to the woman as he picks up her clothes and throws them toward her. Her eyes go wide, and she scrambles from the bed, collects her clothes, and pushes past us and out of the door without any protest. “Hello, Victor.” Matthew takes the lead.

“Who are you?” the dealer asks. His skin has paled, and he has pearls of sweat across his forehead. I can’t tell if it’s because of his sexual exertions or because of fear. I suspect the latter, though, as his eyes dart between the three of us. Even with his arm in a sling, James is still imposing, and Matthew and I are built as strong as brick houses from our time in MI5.

Matthew pulls a gun out of his pocket and aims it at Victor.

It’s part of our plan.

We aren’t going to kill him.

Just destroy him.

“W-woah!” Victor jumps up from the bed. The sheet covering him drops to the floor, and his now limp dick hangs between his legs like the tail of a scalded dog. “You’ve got the wrong person.”

“I don’t think so.” It’s my turn to take over for a bit. James stands back and casually leans against a chest of drawers. Matthew takes center stage with the gun pointed directly at Victor’s head. “We’ve definitely found the coward we’ve been looking for.”

“I’m no coward.”

I laugh. It’s a direct display of my feelings at the moment. The man before me is worse than a coward—he’s a dangerous idiot. A despicable fool who harms innocent, vulnerable people and thinks he’ll get away with it.

I see his phone in among a pile of dirty clothes and discarded dishes with half eaten meals. This man’s a slob.

Kicking away the clothes, I place the phone in the center of the room where he can see it. He steps forward to try and claim it back from me, but Matthew waves the gun, so he thinks better of it and stops.

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