Page 9 of Ryder

My heart rate jacked up as the enormity of what I’d just done hit me.

Looking back toward the dance floor, I found Jude dancing with Jewels.They were both grinning.I smiled back.

“Ready, baby?”

The man holding my hand drew my focus back to him.Damn, he was so freaking big.

“Yeah, I’m ready.”

His business partner, the one Art had called Dane, was standing by the elevator.

Ryder stabbed the button, ignoring the pointed glare Dane sent his way.

“The fuck?”Dane muttered.“We’ve only just come back.”

Ryder placed his hand on the other man’s shoulder.“Going to be busy for a little while.You’re it.Make sure Jace’s guests don’t get up to any trouble.It’s your balls on the line.”

ChapterFour

Ryder

What the fuck was I doing?

I had no fucking idea how I’d ended up in the elevator with a pixie at my side.I swore to myself when I walked away that I wouldn’t go there.Then I’d come back, just to look things over, and found some asshole panting over her.Things had gone downhill from there.

“Oh, wait!”She held up one hand and started rummaging in her bag with the other.

“For what?”I asked.“In case you’re confused, we’re in an elevator, baby.Waiting isn’t an option.”

The little brat rolled her eyes at me, and that fast, my palm was itchy.

“May I have your ID, please?”she asked, tapping on her cell.“I want to put your details into the Play Safe app.”

“Are you shitting me?They have blockers on that app in ninety percent of establishments on this side of the fence, and that’s assuming the assholes living here have genuine IDs.”

“Do you block them here too?”She looked up at me with those big doe eyes.“Do you have a fake ID?”

The elevator dinged as it came to a stop on my floor.I hit the hold button, wondering if I was going to be heading straight back down.I hadn’t wanted a hookup when I entered the club tonight.A truckload of liquor was stolen earlier today, and I’d been more inclined toward beating the shit out of the fucker we’d caught trying to make off with it.Jace had called me in because, for once, he was getting laid.Given I owed Jace and Dane my life, I could suffer an interruption to the much anticipated fun of pummeling the thieving prick.

But when I’d seen another alpha sniffing around the little pixie the beast inside me coveted, everything had changed.I wanted her, plain and simple.I ought to lie to her.It wasn’t like we would ever see each other again.Most betas who came into Desparion were here to tick us alphas off their bucket list and never returned again.We were both just scratching an itch.I should’ve just handed over my ID and let her convince herself the happy green tick meant it had been registered and the beta police would come screaming in here to rescue her should she disappear.The truth was, they didn’t give a shit what we did, so long as it didn’t spill over into safe beta turf.Any beta foolish enough to enter did so at their own risk.The visa was granted on a mile-long disclaimer.Most of the fools skimmed past because other people did it, right?Therefore, it must be legit and fine.

Naïve, all of them.

I’d been naïve once.

“I don’t have a real ID anymore.Most people they toss in here get a black market one asap.”Especially snotty-nosed rich bastards whose fathers had fucked over half the neighborhoods where the deadbeats living here came from.

I watched her lower lip tremble.

“Is your name Ryder?”

“It is now.”

“Is my sister safe?”

“What the fuck?”I scowled at her in disbelief.I was holding the fucking elevator door, so I could take her back down if she wished.Surely such an act registered me on the not a complete asshole side of the line, and by association, Jace.“She’s with Jace—the guy has a fucking hero complex.He doesn’t tolerate bullshit of that kind in our club, and there’s plenty of the regular kind going on.We don’t rape women or force them.Jace would fucking castrate a man he caught taking a woman against her will, and I’d help him by holding the fucker down.”

Her body softened.“I love my sister.”

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