Page 64 of Redemption

Ryder gasped, smirking. She was gone. The door was open.Thank God.She was safe. He pushed back against the wall, catching his breath. Whatever punishment was to come would be okay because Zoe knew where to go and who to talk to until he could get to her. She’d made more than enough friends.

Ryder glared at the adults who directed the same look back at him until their faces changed, and the old man laughed, his eyes on the door. Ryder pivoted, head snapping that direction—and his heart stalled.

“No,” he whispered.

A cop stood with Zoe in hand, pale and shaking. Tears streamed down her face. “Sorry to barge in your evening, but it turns out as I was coming in to look for this young lady, she was coming out.”

“What did you do now?” Ms. Briddle muttered.

“Lifted bread.”

“To feed starving kids,” Ryder nearly shouted. “Old, stale bread they were throwing out.”

“Wasn’t yours to lift, son.” The copper gave him a look that made rage hollow him out on the inside.

“She was helping,” he pleaded, silently adding,just let her go.

“Well.” The old man stepped forward. “We just adopted this ‘un, sir, and it won’t happen again. If you hand her over.”

“You did?” He looked at the house director. “That right?”

“No,” Ryder answered. “It’s wrong. They’re up to no good.”

“The paperwork is complete,” the director said.

Zoe sobbed, shaking hard as she cried in the cop’s arm and pulled down, struggling as he tried to hold her.

“Don’t do it,” Ryder begged. “Lock her up. Give her a few nights. But don’t give her to them.”

The old lady walked past Ryder, not acknowledging Zoe nor speaking directly to the cop. “I’ll put her suitcase in the car.”

“No,” Zoe wailed.

The old man’s heavy boots echoed in Ryder’s head as he walked by, and the two men handed Zoe off as though she were an oversized raggedy doll. Burning tears blinded him. Pain seared his throat.

He lunged for her, and the cop clotheslined him, wrestling him to the ground, pinning his face to the floorboard as a hand wrapped against his throat, cutting off his air.

“Ryder, help.”

Ryder, help.

Ryder, help.

Ryder, help.

Ryder’s hell replayed over and over until the room went black.

###

Present Day

Delta team wrapped their training drills, and they filed out of the training center at Titan HQ, heading into the locker room. Ryder pulled his bag over his shoulder, fishing out his cell phone and dropping the towel he’d used to wipe the sweat off his face. Grabbing his phone was now his favorite thing to do when done with work, as it had been for the past two weeks since Mia insisted Victoria take one of Winters’s temporary cell phones from his tech room stash. Each time the text message notification pinged, he had an automatic Victoria-induced high.

The text message notification showed a partial message from Victoria, but this one stopped Ryder in his tracks, and Colin slammed into his back.

“Jeezus, dude. What are you? Three? Learn to text and walk.” Colin slapped him on the back, maneuvering around him.

“Got it, fuckwit,” he mumbled. The first few words Ryder had seen wereIt’s about that time…Dread told him the words he hadn’t wanted to read for the past couple of weeks were on the other side.

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