Page 170 of Wanna Play A Game?
Silence. I stare at Ryder. This has to be some big joke. This isn’t real, is it?
Ryder narrows his eyes. “Don’t make me fight you to keep you safe.”
What? My stomach clenches, and I squeeze my fists, my body getting ready to fight.
He gives me a sad look, “You too, Miles?”
Rage boils up in me. “Me too? It’s you, Ryder! You’re doing all this!”
He snarls at me. “Oh yeah? Well, what about this?” He holds up something in his hand. I squint to see it.
Sawyer sucks in a breath. Is that…her collar?
Ryder tosses it at Sawyer. “She doesn’t want you. You kidnapped her. Whatever you think you have with her is Stockholm. You’ll forget about her soon enough.”
“The fuck it is!” Sawyer yells. “You took that off her.”
“We need to go.” Ryder looks at me. “Please, Miles. Work with me.”
“Work with you?” I sputter.
“Don’t make me make you.”
My rage boils over. “Oh! So you’ll preach about choices, but you’ll take away our choice? What if we don’t want to go, Ryder?”
He throws his hands in the air. “I’m trying to keep you safe! What will it take to let me help you?”
“Let us get Cali back,” Sawyer growls.
“Not gonna happen,” Ryder glares at him.
I narrow my eyes. “You know where she is.”
Ryder shoots me a dark look.
“Jesus!” Sawyer stands, but his legs are still cuffed to the chair, loud clanking filling the room. “Tell us!”
“No! Get on the plane. Now.” Ryder motions at me.
“Not unless you tell me where she is.” I cross my arms. I know Ryder could beat me in a fight. He’s bigger than either of us, and Sawyer won’t be any help tied to the chair and drugged. Ryder could force both of us on the plane right now, and he knows it. His gaze is tortured.
“I can’t tell you.” He swallows. “We’re going to Wyatt’s island. You know he keeps track of everyone to come and go. She’ll go on a list. The same list we’re on. You know he knows everything about us and keeps tabs on us. She would never escape our lifestyle. Never.”
I swallow. Wyatt is brutal. He guards his secrets viciously. Which is great for a hideaway. Horrible for anyone he doesn’t know.
Ryder grips the side of the doorway. “You don’t even know Cali. This is just an obsession. You’ll get over it, and then what? Her life will be ruined because you couldn’t get your dicks under control!”
Sawyer snarls, “It’s more than that.”
Ryder runs his hand down his face. “You haven’t even known her a month. How can it be more than that?”
“It just is, okay!” Sawyer looks like he struggles to find the words.
I step in. “It’s more,” I say. “Cali is…everything we didn’t know we were missing.”
Ryder clenches his jaw. The room is silent and full of tension.
Finally, Ryder rips his hands off the doorway. “If you get on that plane with me right now, I’ll tell you where she is.”
