Page 97 of Redemption

He pulled in a long, painful breath that tore at her heart. “She was adopted by abusers. Users. Scum of the earth.”

“They killed her?”

Ryder repositioned, pulling her close to his chest. “They worked the system, adopting girls who were almost ready to age out, ones who had no legal recourse and who, when put through that kind of hell, would never turn around and report it once they were set free. If they made it.”

“Oh… God.” She didn’t know the right words. “Ryder…”

Suddenly, he put both hands on her biceps and straightened her to face him. His hands cupped her cheeks harshly, until he seemed certain her eyes were on his, and her attention was nowhere else.

“I was older than she was. Soon as I could, I joined up. They gave me a gun. I was a good shot. I knew that already. But I was born to do what I do. I’ve told you that already.”

Victoria nodded, but he held her head still.

“She didn’t write me back. I never heard from her, and when I had leave, I went to find my girl.” Hardness coated his face, despite the term, my girl. “I found out what she’d been through, and I hated myself for not learning sooner.Hated. But then I did what I know how to do, what needed to be done. I did it, and I will never regret that.”

Victoria’s eyes went wide. “What did you do?”

“I killed them.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Judge. Jury. Executioner.Victoria would either understand, or she would demand he leave her house. Ryder wouldn’t blame her. That wasn’t something some people could understand. They needed the law to handle criminal activity. The law did eventually come in and found body after body buried in the backyard. Zoe’s adoptive parents had worked the system for years, maybe decades, pimping teenagers and peddling flesh.

Local news had sensationalized the shallow graves with multiples bodies, but there hadn’t been a single loved one to claim a child. Not even a funeral. Ryder had held his own for them all, a ceremony of sorts. But it started and ended with prayers, and somewhere along the line, he also prayed for himself to find peace for not checking on Zoe sooner.

Peace had come over the years.

Delta team, he’d thought, was his final saving grace. His soul had been saved by the ghost team that focused more and more on human trafficking. Granted, they did the big money contracts, but they never missed out on the chances to help eradicate the dark web of people for purchase. Then came Victoria. He thought he had found peace, that he’d handled what needed handling about Zoe. But right now? All was right in his world. All had beenmade rightin his world.

“Say something.” After all, he’d just told her he killed two people in cold blood. The silence couldn’t last forever.

Victoria surged forward, her lips landing on his. The kiss lasted forever as her arms wrapped around his neck. She finally broke her lips away, rolling her forehead against his slowly, side to side, then eased back. “Thank you.”

Ryder pulled her back into his arms. He had no idea what he thought she’d say. He’d never spoken about what he’d done, except for the conversation with Brock that consisted of nothing more than I-know-what-you-did. That was different than laying it out there, the truth, the reasoning, his most vulnerable moment, his biggest secret. And she accepted him, understood him and his ugly, sad, lonely past because she had one of her own, different in so many ways, but yet, not.

Knock. Knock.

“Tell me someone isn’t at my door,” Victoria groaned into his chest. “I just want to exist in a world that feels like your arms wrapped around me.”

Her phone buzzed from her purse on the floor, eliciting another groan. Ryder chuckled as he recognized Seven’s voice carrying through the door. “Unless you’re having crazy, wild monkey sex, I’m coming in.”

“She has a key.” Victoria pushed off her chest.

“What if we were having crazy wild monkey sex?” He laughed. “And Seven is loud.”

“True.” Walking toward the front door, she smoothed her hair. “She is that.”

Seven’s voice bounced through the front hallway as Ryder’s phone buzzed on the coffee table. He glanced at the notification on the screen before it went dark.

BROCK: Need you back here.

Ryder dropped his head back and pinched the bridge of his nose.Back to reality. He was going to miss his girl, and no question, was headed back here soon as he could. What would Victoria think of that?

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“Just like that, you’re leaving?” Seven gave a nasty side-eye, to which Victoria gave her a glare to take it down a notch.

“Work calls.” He leaned back on the counter. “Sorry to run.”

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