Page 28 of Red Queen (Red Thorns Crew 3)

Everything moved in slow motion. Everything felt like a blur. And I knew who had called the cops. I knew who had done this to me.

No wonder Peter was out in that hallway for so long.

A call to someone’s boss didn’t take that long. But a call to the police to feed them information did. I didn’t feel betrayed, though. Not like Dani would if she ever found out. If anything, I understood. I understood his reaction, because it was the kind of reaction I would have had with my own daughter. Not that I’d ever have children one day. But sometimes I thought about it.

What it might feel like to lead a life that enabled me to have a family.

You’re the reason for all of this.

“Watch your head,” the officer said.

People rubbernecked around corners to watch me get hauled off. I flopped down against the hard plastic seat of the police cruiser and drew in a deep breath. And all the while, I thought about Peter. How dedicated of a father he was. How Dani didn’t see that in him. I wished with all of my might to be there. To tell her that she really had something special with her father. Instead of bringing the demons down onto her shoulders--like mine always had--her father was protecting her from them. Protecting her from the monsters who lurked in the dark corners.

Protecting her from men like me.

Dani had a great father in Peter.

And because of that, I knew I’d never win him over.

I hoped Dani saw it that way one day. I hoped she didn’t stay mad at her father forever. All he was doing was exactly what he was put on this earth to do: protect his family, provide for those who loved him, and to love the girls in his life with all his might. I knew Dani wouldn’t see things that way right now, but eventually, I hoped she would. She had a father who wanted to love her. Who wanted to protect her. Who wanted to pull her out of harm’s way instead of push her into it, like I had.

I wish I had a father like that.

My eyes fell out the window as the world passed us by. The cruiser inched away from the hospital, and it quickly fell away behind us. I couldn't think about Dani any longer. It made me sick to my stomach to think that I might never see her again. Because honestly? I wasn’t sure what my future held any longer. I knew damn good and well the guys hadn’t gone to my father’s house to clean anything up. I knew damn good and well my father’s cameras had captured most--if not all--of what went on last night. And I knew damn good and well it would take

a fucking miracle from a lawyer I probably couldn’t afford to pull me even halfway out of the hole I’d dug for myself.

Dani was alive, though.

And that’s all that mattered to me.

I felt my anger bubbling, rising up the back of my throat. I felt the beast inside me rattling in its cage, begging for more, despite the poor condition of my body. In reality, the only person I was truly angry with was my father. He was the one who’d done all of this. He was the one who’d come after me. He was the one who’d tried to take out my entire fucking crew. He was the one who’d decided to gun for me because I wouldn't bow to his every whim.

I wonder if that man’s still alive.

“So want to tell us what happened last night?”

I held my tongue as the officers started asking me questions.

“Come on, Ryddle. Does you no good not to talk.”

“Just a bit. I mean, how in the world did that kind of carnage take place last night?”

I locked my eyes out the window on the passing landscape and kept biting further down into my tongue. I wasn’t speaking to anyone without a fucking lawyer.

Though I wasn’t sure how to obtain one if no one knew I had been arrested.

The officers stopped asking me questions once they figured out I wouldn't answer them. I kept myself tightly-lipped as we made our way for the precinct. I knew the rigamarole. I’d been through it a couple of times before, and multiple times with my men. Rupert was the worst of them, but he always found a way to wiggle himself out of things. I could only imagine what he had paid over the course of his lifetime in lawyers’ fees. Maybe I could place a call to Rupert and have him call that lawyer of his.

Maybe I stand a chance that way.

Either way, I couldn’t let the cops know what had gone on last night. I mean, they probably already knew I was involved. There was no way in hell they hadn’t already been looking for me after finding my father’s estate in the disarray we’d left it in. What I didn’t know was what had happened to Rupert. I hadn’t seen him since Dani and I were admitted. He hadn’t been at my bedside. He hadn’t come back in the morning. In fact, it hadn’t even dawned on me that Rupert hadn’t been around until my mind started wandering.

Is Rupert okay? Did he get caught up in all of this, too?

As the police cruiser pulled into the parking lot of the precinct, I closed my eyes. I lifted a silent prayer to a God that had cast me out a long time ago, hoping and praying that Rupert was all right. That he had managed to escape the police’s interest. That he hadn’t gotten caught up in the carnage my father had left in the wake of his death.

The praying stopped the second my door ripped open.

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