Page 31 of Ryder

“What the fuck is it?”I brushed past him…and stopped dead.

There, on the surveillance monitor, was the new bane of my existence—the brat.As if the visual of her rattling the fence wasn’t enough, the voiceover on the intercom between her assault on the gate brought an involuntary snort.

Dane tossed a set of keys at me.I caught them on reflex.“Sort your shit out.Snake might be out of commission for now, but he’s got plenty of assholes in his pocket.”

Coffee forgotten, I stalked toward the elevator, jabbing the button five times, even as I dragged out my cell and hit the dial icon next to her name.No fucking answer.

I messaged her.

What the fuck are you doing?

No, I didn’t care that I was cursing.

And no, she didn’t fucking reply.I hoofed it out of the building and all the way down to the gate.

There she was, standing at the gate, a sweet BMW idling a short distance away.Seeing me, she turned and called something to the driver, who backed up and sped off.

“The fuck are you doing, Em?Call them fucking back!”

“No!”She folded her fucking arms.Brat!

“What the fuck are you wearing?”It was a rhetorical fucking question.I could see everything she was wearing because there wasn’t a whole lot, just sneakers, some kind of skimpy shorts, and a T-shirt that hugged her perky tits and woke up the brain in my dick.I could see her fucking nipples.My throat went dust dry.

“I want to see my sister.”

“No can do, Em.Call your buddy back and get your ass back home.”

“I don’t have a home!The agency took it!I want to see Sloane.”

Her lower lip trembled, and her eyes glistened.They were red-rimmed and puffy.It was clear she’d been crying a lot, and her vulnerability hit me like a sucker punch.I sighed and fished out the keys to the gate.“Come on, brat, I’ll take you up.I can’t make any promises about your sister, but I’ll see what I can do.”

She was small and quiet beside me as we walked back to the club.

I wanted to take my T-shirt off and use it to fucking cover her up.

I wanted to take her hand in mine.

I wanted to rip that little scrap of clothing away and plow her with my cock so that both she and the alpha fuckers eyeballing her understood who she belonged to.

Only she didn’t belong to me, and if this shit hadn’t gone down with her sister, she probably wouldn’t have given me the time of fucking day.Which was my own fucking fault.

I took her to the communal dining room, which was now fucking full of the crew, tucking into platters of crispy bacon, scrambled eggs, and toast.

“What’s happening?”she asked, staring about the room, inspecting the occupants before turning back to me.“Sloane’s not here.”

“I already told you she was in heat and with Jace.You can wait here until they’re done.”

“Wait?For how long?”

Damn, her haughty tone made my palm itch to color her fucking ass.

“A few days.”I smoothed out my face and got ready for the explosion.

“A few days?!”

Yeah, I wanted to smile.It took a near heroic effort to keep my amusement locked down.

Her eyes narrowed.“Take me to her, now!”

---