Page 3 of Keeping What He Wants

The charges were fabricated. They had to be. Her father had bet on the off-chance that the president of the Roaming Devils MC actually had drugs on him when Ryker had been clean for months. She went to her bedroom and found a pair of pink sweatpants and an oversized shirt to wear. She supposed that if her father couldn’t reason with her, then he’d pull out his badge and show her how terrible he thought Ryker was.

It was childish and immature.

She grabbed her purse and her keys and left the apartment to go get Ryker. She didn’t know a lot about drug laws, but she did know some. They had nothing to keep him. He didn’t have anything on him, and he didn’t have anything in their apartment. Whatever they had, they were trying to tie to the club, which was another situation all on its own.

She parked her car in the lot of the local jail and went inside. After talking with the lady behind the counter, Ella stared at her as she told her Ryker wasn’t there.

“What do you mean?”

“He’s not here.” She shook her head. “I’m sorry. I can’t do anything until he’s in custody.”

“Where is he?”

“I can radio the arresting officer if you’d like. What was his name?”

“Patrick Hawkins.”

The woman picked up the walkie-talkie and radioed dispatch while Ella waited. Not only had her father taken Ryker out of their home for fabricated reasons, he’d taken him to some undisclosed location where she couldn’t find him.

“Detective Hawkins says he doesn’t have a criminal with him. He’s off duty.”

Ella’s heart jumped to her throat. Where had he taken Ryker? What the fuck was he doing? Ella thanked the woman and left. Her cell phone was in the console of her car, and she grabbed it as soon as she situated herself inside.

After dialing her father’s number, she got his voicemail. She didn’t know if Ryker had his phone on him, so she dialed him too. Voicemail. The headache between her eyes was growing sharper as she tried to figure out what the hell was going on.

She left the jail and decided to go to the club. A party was in full swing as it was just about every night, and Vampire had a chick rubbing her ass against his dick. As the new Sergeant at Arms, he sure looked like he was living it up as a club member. Of all of Ryker’s friends, he was the one she could tolerate the most. She watched for a moment as he seemed to enjoy himself before he finally looked up at her. Superman followed his gaze to her and narrowed his eyes. The two of them weren’t exactly friends.

“Have the police been here tonight?” she asked Vampire.

He frowned. “Does it look like the police have been here tonight?”

“Ryker’s gone.” She scoffed as the naked woman grabbed Vampire’s hand and lowered it to her bare crotch. “The police came and arrested him, but he’s not in jail.”

Vampire shoved the woman off him. He walked over to Ella, grabbed her arm, and led her down the hallway to one of the rooms in the back. Ella jerked out of his grip, reminding him with her eyes alone that he didn’t touch her. Ella wasn’t part of the club life, and Ryker wanted to keep it that way.

Vampire blew out a breath and motioned for her to step inside one of the back rooms and closed the door behind them to block out the noise. When they were alone, he asked, “What are you talking about?”

“They arrested him, and I don’t know where he is.”

“Who arrested him? Your father?”

“Yes. I went to the jail to bail him out, and he was never brought in. They called my father, and he told dispatch that he was off duty and he didn’t have a suspect with him. I tried calling his cell phone, and he won’t answer me.”

“Fuck.”

“Yeah.” She glanced around the room. “I’m not exactly privy to the criminal life. Where did he take him?”

Vampire scratched his chin. He’d gotten his name because of how bloodthirsty he was rumored to be. In reality, he teetered between being a decent person and being a criminal.

“What would you do?” she asked him. “You go out and get your enemy. Where would you take him?”

He blew out a breath. “Someplace quiet.”

Ella tried not to react. The idea that her father would intentionally harm Ryker wasn’t something she could believe. He was pissed: her father and Ryker had had a huge physical fight that had ended with her sedating them both. God only knew where they were and if they were finishing their original argument with their fists.

“Atlanta is a big city. Where is someplace quiet?”

He didn’t say anything. She knew better than anyone that there was only so much info that a club member would give an outsider. They didn’t share their secrets. They didn’t let on what they were thinking. If Ryker didn’t come back on his own, they would go find him. And she knew that when they did, her father’s life would be in danger.

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