Page 21 of Monsters of Midlife

Both Ryder and Ratchet looked at me, their eyes wide and mouths slack with shock.

“You just lost your house and all your belongings,” Ratchet said. “You call it a little inconvenient?”

“I was starting to get sick of stuff anyhow.” I returned his gaze with a steely one of my own.

“Cold,” Ratchet said.

“I’ve been around long enough, and I’ve seen enough to know, really deeply, possessions don’t mean anything. They just come and then they go and when you die somebody else has to get rid of them.”

“Or when you leave,” Ryder shifted his gaze to me briefly.

“You didn’t leave much,” I responded. “I’ve gotten rid of all your stuff though. By the time we actually split up, well, there wasn’t much of you in the house.”

I was surprised there was no note of bitterness in my voice. I had grown accustomed to the idea he wanted out a long time before and he had just been too much of a chickenshit to actually say it. He wanted out of our relationship for at least a year. I was sure of it. It was apparent by his long absences. When I had filed the papers, he had finally felt free enough to actually do what he had wanted to do all along, leave. Now it was as if the final death knell to our relationship had come when the house had fallen into the Earth. I swallowed hard, grinding my teeth together slightly, making sure I didn’t show any remorse. It had been our house for only a couple of years and he’d never been there. Since he left it had been my sanctuary. However, it was always bittersweet because he had left me alone there. This was probably the shakeup I needed to move on.

“Take me to the Wyndham in downtown,” I said, pulling out my phone and preparing to text Laney. “The one right across from my work.”

“No.” Ryder whipped the phone out of my hands.

“Give me my phone!” I frowned.

“Not possible.” With a single closing of his fist, he crumpled my phone into a wad. He bounced it into his other hand, crushing it to dust and dropping the pieces on the floor.

“That…that is not possible,” I murmured, even though I had just seen it with my own eyes.

“You don’t need a phone right now,” Ryder said.

“You can’t just destroy my personal property!” I exclaimed. Though I knew it was futile. There was not actually anything I could do to get my phone back. I stared at the pile of dust on the floor of the limo.

“Just go with it,” Ratchet advised.

I looked out through the shadowy streets, the sun setting over Boston, we were on the outskirts of town, entering an industrial area. “Where are you taking me?”

“My parents’ place,” he stated succinctly.

“Your parents’ house?” I asked as we pulled up to a metal gate with a key card entry. I peered out the window. On the other side of the fence there was an old, seemingly abandoned airstrip. “Your parents don’t have a place in Boston.”

“Correct,” Ryder said as Danny, the driver, slid his window down and entered a key card into the metal slot.

The gates opened and I peered through the front windshield.

“It’s an airfield.” I murmured.

“You’re going to stay with me for the foreseeable future,” Ryder said. “I need to make sure you’re safe and the enemies of my family aren’t doing crazy things to you.”

“See, I told you that you knew more about this than you were letting on,” I pointed out.

Ryder glared at me. “I don’t know anything more than I told you, but I know you’re in danger and I want to protect you.”

“Does the place come with servants?” I asked. Because the last time I checked my house was buried six feet under and I needed a place to stay.

Ryder deadpanned me. “I thought you didn’t like servants.”

“That was the younger me.” I barely remembered when I had been fighting for everyone’s rights. “The new me just wants someone to take care of my laundry and my food while I sip a glass of wine on the veranda.”

“Liar,” Ryder growled.

I didn’t say anything more as the limo slide into the airport. Anything I said would incriminate me. All I truly wanted was to get back to work. As soon as Ryder dropped his guard, even a little bit, my plan was to escape and make my way back to Boston.

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