Page 53 of Monsters of Midlife

As always, I was an afterthought in his life, never allowed to be the center of it, never allowed to truly be part of it.

The tears fell with the water from the shower until there were none left, the shower drowning out the sound of my sobs until I could compose myself. I let the hot water pour down on my face, feeling its refreshment and wishing it could wash away the pain and loneliness I had every time Ryder left. The only time my life seemed right was when he was fully within me.

That was impossible.

He was unreliable. He came and left as he pleased. It was exactly how he treated our marriage, and he wasn’t acting any differently now; I didn’t know what I was thinking. I swallowed hard and turned off the shower. I wasn’t going to stand for this. I didn’t need him; I didn’t need to be protected by him. I didn’t care if I didn’t understand the world. There were other people here who did, other people who would help me. And I certainly needed the help.

I quickly dried off and put on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to be able to get out of here, but at least I’d be able to try to make some connection with the outside world.

Great. I was going to have to face the person watching me. I pulled my hair back into a tight ponytail and decided to face my guard.

Some guy, undoubtedly a guard intended to ‘protect’ me, was in the kitchen making eggs and bacon.

He looked up with a big smile as I walked in the room. “You want some breakfast?” he asked.

That’s when I realized how ravenous I was. I hadn’t eaten in what felt like days and now it was time for me to get my strength back.

I sat down on a stool at the counter, nodding. “Yeah,” I murmured. “I also want a phone, Ratchet.”

“No phone.” Ratchet replied.

“I know you have one,” I said.

“I do,” he retorted, “but I’m not supposed to give it to you.”

“That couldn’t possibly be true. Ryder knows I’m going to have to check in with work. He’s an asshole, but he’s not that much of an asshole. He knows I need to talk to my staff, at least to make sure my experiments are going well. We aren’t dicking around making new algorithms for Facebook where I work. We are trying to cure cancer. So maybe you can be a little helpful and hand me your phone. You can watch me as I use it.”

He served up the eggs and bacon onto a plate, placing it in front of me.

“Me watching you is the only way you’re going to be able to use a phone,” he said.

“Of course,” I said compliantly. “I just need to ring my colleague Laney.”

“Text should do,” Ratchet said

“Fine,” I said, holding out my hand. He placed the phone in my hand but didn’t move away, making sure he could see everything I wrote. I had to be really careful with what I wrote to Laney, but I needed some level of help. I hopped into his text and typed out a quick message to her.

“Make sure those experiments are running well.”

Ratchet looked at what I wrote. “Good enough,” he said. He handed it to me and let me send it.

“On a date with Magnus!” Came Laney’s response, followed by a series of hearts. She was clearly falling for the guy.

"The eggs are burning,” I said, pointing back to the stove. Ratchet turned to grab the pan off the stove and in a split second I switched apps, opening WhatsApp and typing to Sophie to come over as quickly as possible. I hit send and closed the app just as Ratchet turned around. He read Laney’s response and then grabbed the phone.

“That’s enough,” Ratchet said.

I stared at the phone as it disappeared into his pocket. That message to Sophie was my only hope to get out of here. I didn’t care how many monsters were after me. I just needed to get as far away from Ryder as possible.

He was by far the biggest monster to fear.

* * *

Continue the romance of Ryder & Caroline in book 2: MONSTERS OF MAYHEM

Or read on for a sneak peek!

Prologue

---