Page 16 of Redemption

No shit. Soon as they returned back to the States and debriefed, Ryder would forgo sleep. His first stop would be to Winters’s place, and he hoped to all hell she was still there.

CHAPTER SIX

Australia

Eight years ago

Zoe walked into the bedroom of the overcrowded foster home holding a cupcake and a birthday card, a smile dangling on her face like she knew that she had snuck one over on Ryder—because she had.

“Happy birthday!” She shoved both the card and cupcake into his face and jumped beside him on the bed.

“How did you know?” Surprised, he sat up, feeling heat in his cheeks and that very present feeling that accompanied her when she walked into the room. She was the closest friend he had—the prettiest too. That didn’t matter, though. He liked that she was tough, could keep up with him when they ran the train tracks, and could skip rocks behind Mister Gregor’s pond. “Where’d you get a cupcake?”

Because no one in this foster home or any one of the government-run, orphan-packed operations he’d been stuffed into would spend a dollar on his birthday.

“I’ll never reveal my sources,” she said triumphantly.

“Spit it out!”

She shook her head, ponytails slapping her cheeks. “All you need to know is the sketchy nature of its acquisition should make it taste all the better.”

He raised his brows as he drew close, and she did too. They placed it between them, and he looked up. “Then we’d better do it again, yeah?”

“Card first.”

He rolled his eyes. “Only because I want a stolen cupcake.”

“Didn’t say stolen. I said sketchy.”

He snagged the handmade card from her hand and opened it.

Happy Birthday, Ryder!

For your 14 years, I came up with 14 things that make you my best mate.

Ryder looked up. “You made me a list of reasons why I’m great?”

“A broke girl has to be creative.” She nodded.

His fingers pinched the paper, and he didn’t know what to say. “No one’s ever got me a present before.”

The corner of her lips curled like she understood because she did. “Just read.”

One. That time I met you. You covered for me when I snuck in.

Two. That time I snuck in and you said I owed you for covering for me.

“Hey.” He pushed her shoulder and vividly remembered the night Zoe had been locked out after their ward locked down the doors. He’d put on quite the distraction when he saw her working the door and windows. “I saw a person in need.”

“Ha!” She pushed him back. “You like collecting favors.”

He smirked. He could never have too many people who owed him one in a place like this. “Maybe.”

Three. Sneaking beer by the Gregors’ pond.

Four. When you took back my blankets from the fuckwits who kept taking them.

Ryder laughed. “Arses, all of them.”

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