Page 7 of My Stupid Heart

Ryker stood on each of Adrian’s hands, then sat down on top of his thighs before reaching into his pocket and pulling out his switchblade.He popped the sharp and shiny blade and grinned.

Tears started to fall down Adrian’s cheeks.“Please … please don’t.I … I’ll leave her alone.I swear it.”

“Have you ever seen the inside of a human body before?”Ryker asked, ignoring Adrian’s blubbering.

“Help!”Adrian screamed.

Ryker rolled his eyes.“Seriously?Fine.”Using his switchblade, he sliced off a sizeable chunk of Adrian’s shirt, then stuffed it into his mouth so he couldn’t holler anymore.“That’s better.Now, where was I?Right.Besides on shows likeGrey’s Anatomyand stuff, have you ever seen the inside of a human body before?Do youknowwhat the spleen looks like up close?”

Raw fear stared back at him.

Gently, so as to not break the skin, he skimmed the tip of the blade up Adrian’s now bare stomach, from his navel to between his nipples.“I have.I’ve held a man’s spleen in my bare hands while he was still awake and still alive, watching me.He had a similar look on his face as you do now.Only, he was also in quite a bit of pain.See, I’m trained to take out the bad guys.The guys that hurt other people for no reason but their own sense of superiority and entitlement.I’m very good at my job.I go in.I shed a lot of blood.Then I clean it up so that nobody would ever guess a body had been cut into teeny tiny little pieces.I have disposed of bodies in some very creative ways.And, never the same way twice.I like to keep things interesting.”

Tears fell with abandon down the sides of Adrian’s face.He shook with fright, and for the briefest of moments, Ryker felt sympathy for the man.

“Molly and Sasha O’Shea are off limits.You hear me?If I hear that you’ve even farted within five hundred meters of either of them, I will be back and I will take you off the census so fucking fast.This is a courtesy warning.I could just as easily deal with you now and nobody would ever find your body.”He glanced over at Adrian’s phone on the floor near a potted plant.“You’re welcome to call the cops.Do I recommend it?”He faked a frown.“Try it and see.”Careful not to break Adrian’s fingers with his boots, he stood up off the blubbering, terrified man, retracted his switchblade and stuffed it in his pocket.Then he was gone.

Hooligan’s Pizza had some of the best fucking pizza Ryker ever tasted.Besides seeing Molly and Sasha, it was the thing he looked forward to the most when he came to Jackson Hole.That and the view, of course.But it also conjured a lot of memories of Brendan.This was where Brendan grew up and over their years together, Decker and Ryker followed Brendan home quite a bit.Mrs.O’Shea was a top-notch cook and by the time they left, they were each packing at least five pounds of her chicken pot pie and spare ribs around their middles.But it was so worth it.

He picked up the pizzas and headed back to Molly’s house just as the sky was beginning to darken.He made sure to order a small pizza for the cop parked outside the house and was careful not to cause alarm when he approached the driver’s side door of the patrol car.

It was a different officer than before.This time, it was a tall African American man with a noticeable white scar on the left side of his top lip.“Can I help you?”

“Just came to introduce myself and see if you wanted some dinner.I’ve done this kind of thing in the past and it can get lonely and boring.So I figured pizza might help.”He held out the pizza box.

The cop’s brows lifted, and his dark eyes widened with pleasant surprise.“Thank you.”He took the box.“Officer Kaan.Felix Kaan.”

They each balanced the boxes on their hips and in one hand so they could shake hands.

“Ryker McKnight.”He knew his dog tags were hanging on the outside of his shirt and the cop’s eyes drifted directly do them.

“You’re a friend of Mrs.O’Shea?”

Ryker nodded.“I served with her late husband.There were ten of us—including Brendan—so the nine of us that are left vowed to always be there for Molly and Sasha if they ever needed anything.”

“Well, hopefully Mr.Huber smartens up now that I’m parked out here and you’re staying with Mrs.O’Shea.He didn’t seem like much of a threat, but nailing that cat to the side of the house proved otherwise.You need to be one sick fucker to do something like that.”

Ryker chuckled.He liked it when cops dropped their professional decorum a bit and were justreal.It humanized them.“Yeah, well, I think we can agree that Adrian Huber is a sick fucker.”

“I’m on until six in the morning, so rest easy, Mr.McKnight.You should all be safe inside.”

Ryker did a friendly slap on the cop’s shoulder, smiled, then headed toward the front door.

“Meat Lovers with mushrooms from Hooligans!You might be my new favorite person, Mr.McKnight,” Officer Kaan called from the road where he stood with his open pizza box.

“It’s my favorite, too.Have a good night, Felix.”Then he punched his personal code for the front door and entered the house to the delightful and familiar sound of mother and daughter singing—terribly—to Taylor Swift from the portable stereo.

His smile quickly turned into a laugh as he made his way to the kitchen, where Sasha was cutting up veggies for a veggie tray and Molly appeared to be making sangria.“It’s turning into a party in here,” he announced over the music.

Molly had her back to him and jumped at his voice, which pulled a cheeky smile from Sasha, who saw him coming from her vantage point behind the island.

Molly’s face flushed so easily, given her fair complexion, and she didn’t let him down this time, either.She flashed him a teasing glare.“Don’t sneak up on me.”

“Sash saw me.Just because you’re pretending that you’re at The Eras tour with all the friendship bracelets doesn’t mean I snuck up on you.”

“How do you know about Taylor Swift, the name of her tour, and the bracelets?”She turned down the music.

“I pay attention to the news.Plus, I’m a Chief’s fan, so …” He plunked the pizza boxes on the counter.“Dinner is served, my ladies.I slaved.”

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