Bet on Me (20 page)

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“I will, try me.”

“No, you
really
won’t. And if I were you, I’d be a little nicer to me.”

“Why’s that?”

I glanced down at where my hands clutched around his thick biceps. “Because I have control over what we do. If you don’t want to lose me, you have to follow the rules. You haven’t seen crazy ideas yet.”

He didn’t seem fazed. “Maybe, but at the moment I’m the one keeping you on your feet, so I win.” As if to prove his point he let go and backed away.

I remained fixed in position, not daring to take a step in any direction. My head followed him, my gaze unimpressed as he skated around me until he stopped beside me. Sliding one hand down to my hand, he locked his fingers with mine.

“Come on. I’m not that mean. I won’t let you fall. It’ll be fun.” The irony of him using my words against me was not lost.

Taking a small step forward, he glided in front of me. Our arms extended between us as I hesitantly pushed off and took a second to catch up. I sidled up to him, making sure my grip stayed firmly clasped around his hand. He didn’t say anything as we circled the rink and I threw all of my concentration into staying on my feet and not falling over.

When we’d completed two laps Cole twisted to skate backwards in front of me. He changed over hands, for a second disconnecting us, and at the hint of panic widening my eyes and causing my arms to flail he chuckled. I could see an idea flicker across his features.

“Want to go faster?”

“What? No, not yet!”

“Aww, come on. Where’s your sense of adventure? After everything I’ve done with you, this should be nothing,” he teased, his grin growing by the second.

This was such a bad idea. I’d assumed we would both be crap at skating. Never in my wildest dreams would I have figured Cole for someone so steady on the ice. I also hated giving him the upper hand since he had no qualms about using it as revenge for everything I’d made him do.

Without warning, Cole spun back around and kicked off the ice. Shooting forward, the slick surface beneath our skates made it easy for him to drag me around. I cried out for him to stop, feeling like I was going to topple over at any second.

Breaking free of Cole’s grasp, I flew past him and continued on in a straight line to crash into the barrier ahead of me. I hurled my arms over the side and with white knuckles I gripped the plastic wall to hold myself up while my feet went in different directions. My cheeks flamed and my breath misted in front of me with my angry pants.

“Why the hell didn’t you stop?”

Cole slid to a controlled stop beside me, leaning back against the barrier so casually he could have been on land. “Come on, it was fun. Speed is always more fun.”

I bit the inside of my cheek, calming my racing heart. It hadn’t really been that bad, I just didn’t like being at a disadvantage. Wanting to regain control, with careful steps I moved to stand in front of him. Pressing my body against his, I wrapped my arms around his neck and forced his head down so my lips hovered at his ear. “Speed isn’t
always
more fun. I can think of a few situations where the last thing I want is speed.”

I pressed my body further into his to emphasise my point. The movement elicited a low grunt from Cole and his hands dropped to my hips to put some distance between us.

“If you don’t want me to carry you off this rink over my shoulder then you had better stop teasing me, sweetheart. I have very little restraint left.”

I couldn’t help it, my stubbornness took over and I gave him a mocking salute. His eyes narrowed at the action, but thankfully he took my hand in his and led me back into the flow of people without a word.

We skated around the rink in silence. The lights around us slowly faded from pink, to purple, and then to yellow. They created circles on the ice and the dim lights allowed the blackness to surround us like a wall. People laughed all around us and the longer we skated, the more my confidence grew.

I was happy to follow Cole’s pace. When he sped up so did I. When he slowed down, I matched his speed. I couldn’t be sure where he’d gone to inside his mind, but as his gaze wandered over the crowds, it didn’t seem like he was really present. He wore this glazed over look.

So much for making him forget about Ryder.

Finally, he guided us back over to the wall. Our time slowly drew to a close and the rink began to clear for a break in between sessions. Cole gestured for me to move out in front of him and he followed hot on my heels as I stepped on to the rubber flooring that protected the blades from the concrete. We headed straight over to the darkened corner next to the booths selling hot drinks and food where everyone rapidly grabbed their shoes off the ground and started to leave.

“I’ll take these back,” Cole said, having somehow managed to slip his shoes on before me. Standing up, he picked up both sets of skates and walked over to the short queue at the rental booth. I couldn’t help admiring the way his jeans hugged his ass as I zipped up my second boot. In fact, I was so fixated on him that when a hand came round my face to cover my mouth it took me a while to react.

My eyes widened, and I instinctively struggled against the grip. I was pulled back into a hard body and the hand muffled my scream as my attacker dragged me backwards off the bench and into the dark corner. Over the busy crowd—which was dispersing with people talking animatedly about their experiences on the ice—no one could hear me, and I wasn’t in sight long enough for anyone to notice.

Why had we picked the furthest corner away from everyone?
I thought, and my mind instantly flashed to Cole’s lips about to graze mine.
Oh yeah.

Something stabbed my thigh. A sharp, stinging pain shot up my leg.

Cole had been right. Why the fuck hadn’t I listened to him? He knew these people better than me.

The stinging sensation stopped and I continued to scream, even though the tight grip of my captor muffled the sound. The hand on my face pinched my nose, stopping me from breathing and suffocated my scream in a second as my breath ran out.

I twisted my head furiously. Throwing it in every direction possible, I attempted to shake off his grip.

I needed to breathe.

My lungs burned.

The pressure building up in my chest tightened, my natural instincts kicking in to fight for even a morsel of air.

Just as I thought I was going to pass out, the grip on my nose lessened. Without hesitation, I sucked in as much air as I could before the hand clamped down again and forced me to hold my breath once more.

I bit down on the hand. Latching on to as much skin as possible, I ignored the bitter, salty taste of his sweat and sank my teeth into his flesh with all my strength. The man behind me grunted yet didn’t make any move to stop me.

I increased the pressure until the metallic taste of blood coated my tongue.

Still it drew no reaction.

My eyes darted around the area wildly, but everything started to move in and out of focus. The lights from the rink seemed miles away as they blurred into faint spots … an unreachable goal I’d never get to.

My head began to feel lightheaded. It felt heavy on my shoulders as if only the grip over my mouth held me up. My muscles began to stop responding. Numbness washed over my legs as they buckled. I waited to hit the ground, but I don’t think I ever did.

All of my thoughts started to twist into a jumbled, incoherent mess.

I was losing focus.

My body wasn’t responding.

Every attempt to lift my arm, move my head, or lash out got no response from my limbs.

Panic seized at my throat. Red-hot, it coursed through my body as I tried to fight the blackness encroaching on my vision.

My eyes flickered open and closed; whatever my captor had injected me with proved too strong to fight. I leaned into the arm holding me up. My head tilted back and the last thing I saw before darkness engulfed me was the scar on the side of Ryder’s face.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Cole

It still amazed me how Alaya managed to banish all of the darkness in my life. Even though I didn’t think she did it intentionally, every time I was around her things felt easy. Living was easy, letting go was easy, and loving was easy. She pushed me, fought for me, and refused to back down. It was what I needed from my other half.

Fuck, did I really just call her my other half?

As I walked over to return our skates I shook the thought from my head. I refused to entertain the idea she meant more to me so early on. She’d already warned me she wasn’t someone who wanted to settle down, so considering her as more only set myself up for failure. If I wanted her it would have to be on her terms. Even if it meant following her around the world, it sounded like the best fucking idea I’d ever had.

How she had done it I would never know. In such a short amount of time she’d wormed her way into my heart, shocked it to start again, and now held the key. If she left I’d be a hundred times worse than when I was playing it safe.

Finally, I reached the front of the queue and placing the skates on the desk I smiled politely at the man behind the counter then turned to leave. It took me a moment as I approached our bench to realise Alaya no longer sat where I left her.

Glancing around the area, I searched for any sign of her. I scanned the heads leaving the pen, looking for her vibrant red hair that would help her stand out. Lashes of icy fear crawled over my skin and constricted around my heart.

I dragged my hand through my hair and scoured the area, praying she’d jump out at any second to claim it was all a big joke. I tried to convince myself Alaya was only messing with me and soon she would reappear, but when I reached the bench a single black glove rested on the ground beneath it. It matched the ones Alaya had been wearing.

Every organ in my body sank to my feet, leaving an empty space in my chest to be filled by raw fear.

I had been stupid to forget; to allow her to distract me.

That was the thing about being around Alaya; everything became too easy. I’d been so swept up inside her bubble of freedom I overlooked the fact that the last thing I could ever be was free.

We should have stayed at the hotel.

I should have tried harder to convince her.

If I had, none of this would have happened … yet I couldn’t say no. She had this way of disarming me. All of my problems seemed small with her and she made me readjust my perspective on life so that I built up ideas bigger than I should ever have. It was dangerous to be around her.

I should have remained in the UK. Alaya didn’t deserve any of the shit following me to transfer over to her. I shouldn’t have taken advantage of her and listened to the feelings that arose when I was around her. I always knew I’d destroy her eventually, yet I pursued her because for once I liked life.

I picked up the glove, running the soft material in between my fingers absentmindedly. Ryder finding us seemed like the only plausible explanation. It had been too long for it to be a joke and I knew Alaya wouldn’t mess around with something so serious. She pushed boundaries, but I had a feeling this crossed the line, even for her.

I couldn’t figure out how Ryder found us; we were careful and I kept an eye out. At least until I turned my back for a second.

Slipping my phone from my pocket, I dialled Levi’s number. I waited with bated breath as it rang, praying his plane would have landed by now. The longer the rings went on, the less hope I held on to. I removed the phone from my ear, about to hang up, when the line connected.

“Can this wait, Cole? I’m about to board my final plane.” Levi sounded tired on the other end of the phone, his voice thick with sleep. My next words would snap him out of it.

“No, it can’t. I think Ryder has Alaya.”

Levi didn’t say anything and the only reason I knew he hadn’t hung up was because I could hear the airport noises in the background.

“Levi? Did you hear me?”

“Of course I fucking heard you,” he hissed, his voice sounding muffled, like he was cupping the receiver to mask his words from prying ears. “How the hell did he get her? I thought I told you to stay out of the way.”

“We went ice skating, but I swear we were careful.”

“You
what?
” he shouted then lowered his voice. “I told you to do one simple,
fucking
thing. One, Cole. Just to stay in your room until I got there. Why is it so hard for you to follow instructions? I’m not dishing them out for my benefit.”

“I know that now—”

“You knew it before.” A woman on a speaker called out in the background, interrupting him for a second. “I have to go. Stay put until I get there. I should arrive at around two a.m.”

“That’s ages away! They could do God knows what in that time. I can’t just sit around.” My heart pounded furiously and my nostrils flared. With the shock starting to wear off, I needed something practical to do.

“You can and you will. You’re no good to Alaya if you get caught too,” he hissed furiously. “Go back to the hotel, stay in your room, and wait for me to arrive. There’s nothing you can do until they contact you … and you know they will.”

“Why take her, though? I was right there, out in the open.”

“You know the answer to that too, Cole. Now stay fucking put. I’ll check in once I land and be there as soon as I can.”

“Yeah, okay.”

“I mean it, Cole. Doing something stupid is not going to help her.” He disconnected the call so I didn’t have a chance to argue. It took all of my restraint not to throw it at the nearest building. Instead I settled for closing my fist around it so hard it felt like it was going to snap.

Levi was right; I knew why they took her. They wanted to send a message—to use her against me. It wasn’t enough to punish me, they were going to involve her because I’d shown an interest.

There were two options open to me. The first was to deny she meant anything to me. When Ryder contacted me I could pretend she was a nobody and they could keep her. I could call their bluff, but it basically meant handing Alaya over to them and leaving her to fend for herself.