Page 61 of Keeping What He Wants

Razor turned with a smile on his face. “I was wondering when you’d show up.”

“You okay, Ella?” Ryker didn’t take his eyes off his father.

“Yes.”

“Get her.”

Ella watched as Superman came toward her. “It’s okay.”

He grabbed his knife and cut the ties digging into her wrists. She didn’t like the man all that much, but when he lifted her, she felt a huge sense of relief. Ryker took his eyes off his father for one second as she passed. His expression hardened.

“Call her dad.” Ryker turned back to his own. “Make sure she’s taken care of.”

Ella groaned as Superman carried her out of the hot warehouse. A few prospects stood guard outside, and one opened the van doors so that he could sit her in the back.

“What’s the damage?” he asked. She sat there struggling to swallow. He grabbed a bottle of water from a cooler and twisted the cap for her.

She drank and gulped the cool liquid down her parched throat. Her stomach still cramped and she felt like shit, but something as simple as water did make her feel better. She wiped the back of her mouth with her hand and groaned.

“I probably need to go to the hospital. I’ve got a stomach bug.” Superman backed away from her, and if she weren’t so fatigued, she would have laughed. “I’ll need an IV. I’ve been sweating a lot and vomiting. I don’t have much hydration and I need to build my electrolytes back up. They’ve probably plummeted.”

“Okay. I’ll take you to the hospital.”

She nodded. The water she drank sloshed in her stomach, and she stood to retch it back up. She sat down on the pavement clutching her stomach and crying out in pain.

“Are you going to make it to the hospital?”

*****

Ella didn’t know how he got her in the van. Or how he got her out. Her coworkers surrounded her as the horrid florescent lights shined above her head. She closed her eyes feeling like she was dying. She’d been scared of death a few times, but nothing felt so horrible as what she went through at the moment.

“I called your dad,” Superman told her. “He’s on his way.”

She faded in and out as the new doctor, Dr. Jackson, dictated protocol. She had a head wound, and they wanted to do a scan to see if there was any more damage. The IV drip felt nice going into her vein. Derek grabbed her hand as she cried out with stomach pain.

“I’ve got you,” her friend told her. “You’re okay now.”

Sometime later, they situated her in a private room. Her father had pulled rank, threatened to arrest the doctor standing guard, and then nearly punched him to get inside her hospital room to see her. He came over to her bedside and smoothed his hand along hers.

“How do you feel?”

“Horrible.” She groaned. “But better.”

He gave her a small smile. “They said that you were contagious, but I told them I’d already been exposed to it so they might as well let me in. Your mom is here, but they’re keeping her out.”

She swallowed, and her mouth felt like cotton. “Ryker?”

“I don’t know. He hasn’t showed up yet. Some of his club members are here.”

She brushed her hair from her face. “It was Razor.”

Her father arched an eyebrow. “I thought Razor was dead.”

She shook her head. “No. Ryker didn’t kill him. Well, he may now.”

Her father pulled up a seat next to the bed. “Razor was killing all those women?”

“No.” Ella took a deep breath. “Someone else. Guy in a suit with a black hat. Looked like a mob wannabe. He was calling the shots on the girls. Razor was getting the guns.”

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