Ryder's Last Run (Dueling Dragons MC Series) (11 page)

Faith

It’s been a miserable week. First, I come to Alabama and find out that Ryder was arrested and is now in with the Russians, and then right after that happens, my daddy passes away. How is that for some shitty luck? Well, to be the topping on the fucking cake, I still don’t know where Ryder is and I am alone, horribly fucking alone. My brothers have been lumps on a log since Daddy passed. Every time I walk upstairs, I stop and look in his room; the hospital bed is still where it was before and nothing else has changed. None of us wants to move anything; I think we’re all hoping that it is just a very bad dream.

I start to walk across the landing at the top of the stairs when I hear the doorbell. I keep walking across the landing toward my room and the door rings again. Ugh, is neither one of the boys going to snap out of
his stupor? I huff my way down the stairs and drag my feet across the floor to the door, reaching for the knob to open the door the bell rings again.

“Yeah!” I say as I rip open the door
. Standing in front of me is Peggy Sue; in her arms is a little bundle of baby. Probably no more than three weeks old.

“Faith, I know I am probably the last person in the world you want to see, but we’ve known each other way too goddamn long for me not to be here right now. You’re like a sister and he was like a father to me. I’m so sorry for what you’re going through.”

“Thank you. Would you like to come in?” I decide that I need to be polite as possible considering she has a small… human in her arms. It’s still somewhat weird
to me that Peggy Sue had a baby. Never thought either one of us would be a mom at this age.

Looking over at her as we sit in the living room reminds me of how close we used to be, how much we used to trust each other. I don’t know if it will ever be the same
, but something tells me that I need to let the past be the past.

“You know
, Faith, I have wanted to talk to you and explain what happened, but I was so afraid you wouldn’t talk to me. Beau said that he called you and you were begging him to come and see you because of what was going on with your dad.”

“He told you that?”
She nods. “He said that he was calling because you guys decided to show your concern. I never want to see him again. I’ve moved on and I am way happier with Ryder than I ever was with Beau.” I show her my left hand. “He asked me to marry him.”

Peggy Sue squeals and starts to bounce up and down. “Oh
, Faith, I am so happy for you.” Her son starts to fuss in his seat; she reaches over and rocks him. I can see that she wants to say something. I’ve known her my whole life; I know everything about her.

She starts to sniffle, “Beau…
Beau… He cheated on me. He has been sleeping with this one chick that works on the fourth floor at his company.” I look at the innocent child who is the product of an affair and think about how he’s going to grow up with no daddy because he couldn’t keep it in his pants.

“How did you find out? I mean, did you stalk him or something? And are you one hundred percent sure that he’s cheating?”

“He was home taking a shower one night after work
. I decided to lie down early because of the baby and what not. I was in bed, starting to fall asleep, and his phone went off. I normally don’t check his messages but something told me to look.” She sits there, breast-feeding her son. “Tucker. His name is Tucker. He was born three weeks early, but he’s as healthy as a horse and as stubborn as a mule.” She strokes the top of her son’s head and looks down at his face. Shifting him onto her knee, she starts to burp him.

“Did you ever think we would be in this situation?”
she asks.

“What do you mean? You holding Beau’s child and me sitting here worrying about my fiancé
?” I throw that in there just to see the look on her face. “If that is what you’re asking, then no. I didn’t think we would ever be here. I never thought I would be sitting here doubting someone who was my best friend most of my life. And I never thought
she
would be the one to have Beau’s child.”

“How many times am I going to have to say I
’m sorry before you start to actually believe me? I want us to go back to where we were, or at least as close as we were.” She stops when my brother, Nate walks in.

“What is she doing here?” He stops and nods his head toward Peggy Sue.

“Well, she is my best friend so that is why she is here.” I cock my head to the side and look at Nate. “She is also here because she has been in the family her whole damn life and daddy was like a daddy to her.” All of this was said with my matter of fact tone. 

Nate looks between the both of us. “Keep all your girly shit to yourself. Faith, are you coming with me?” He asks me.

“No, I think I’ll stay here and spend some time with Peggy Sue and figure some things out.” He looks at me as if I ran over his puppy or better yet wrecked his truck.

“You’re not leaving so soon
; we need you here.” His voice cracks a little bit.

“I
’ll stay a little bit longer but I need to get back with Layla and figure out what to do about Ryder.” I start to worry about him all over again. I see a glint of disappointment in my brother’s eyes. “Sorry, Nate, I will help with burying Daddy and settling a few things over the next few days but after that, I need to get moving on.”

****

Peggy Sue and I spend the next few hours talking about everything from when we became friends to the stories of our first kisses. Mine, of course, was Beau and hers was some freckled kid named Jeremy.

“I miss this. I miss us
,” I confess to her. Something deep inside tells me that our friendship is the kind that you don’t just give up on. “Pegs, I’m going to say something very bold right now to you. And take note of it because I don’t say it that often.” I stumble over my words a little bit. “I want to start over. Let’s forget about you know who and just move on.” I look over at her and show a small smile.

“Are you serious? Because if you are, yeah. Let’s move on. I could use my best friend’s help raising this baby.” God, I love listening to her Southern drawl. “But you’re leaving? Right? And you’re with Ryder, so where does that leave me?” Her questions are valid and I wish I had answers for her but I don’t. Not right now. Maybe when Ziggy checks in, I can ask him.

“Well, I am going back to Kentucky and I have a two bedroom apartment there
. I’m sure we can get you a job at Layla’s.” I reach over and grab my phone. Texting Layla, I let her in on the plans while I look up at Pegs and make sure that it’s something she wants to do.

“I have nobody here anymore; Beau was all I had left after my parents disowned me for what I did to you and getting pregnant.”
She looks defeated; Beau has done a huge number on her and now she has a spawn of him to look at every day and remind her of what he did.

“Well, Layla and the guys are amazing. Very accepting of anyone and everyone.” I snicker to myself and wonder if I should let her know about Ryder and the guys being bikers.

“Well, it’s late. I think I’m gonna go upstairs and take a shower and try to get a few hours of sleep. We can hammer out all the details in the morning. The guest room is also open for you to sleep in if you choose.”

“Thank you
, Faith.”

Ryder

Bringing my knee up
, I feel it connect with the guy’s chin. Blood instantly shoots out from his mouth. He starts spitting out teeth; fuck, yeah, I broke this fucker’s jaw.

He swings and connects with
my
jaw. Stumbling backward, I bring my leg up and connect with his side, three times fast. He surges with the pain; this guy doesn’t give up. Pulling back, I connect my fist with his jaw and it looks like lights out for this fucker finally. I’ve been kicking his ass for what feels like forever.

“Great job, Ryder. You are getting amazing at your fighting skills,” Ant says to me as he lights his cigar. The smell hits my nostrils and I feel sick to my stomach.

Need to swallow that shit Ryder!
I keep telling myself that I can’t show how fucked up this really is but I will say this much I am lovin’ the fighting. Makes me feel… I don’t know how to explain it. I feel like I am worth something when I fight like I could conquer the world.

“You know that I set you up for a big fight? Big fight that can make me money.”

“What the hell are you talking about, Ant?”

He told me to start calling him Ant after my second fight
. Something tells me that he is now family and I should treat him like family, but he isn’t treating me any fucking better.

I jump down from the ring and
we walk back toward the big bathroom used for cleaning up from the fights.

“I
’m talking about you have a fight in a week. If you win, you’re released; your father’s debt will be paid off.” Is he for real right now? “But I must warn you, if you lose, I will be taking your lady. I haven’t decided if I want to keep her as my own personal slave or if I want to sell her.”

WHAT. THE. FUCK. “Don’t you fucking touch her; she is not your concern. Do you hear me? You touch her and you will have the whole fucking MC breathing down your back!” This fuck obviously doesn’t realize who he is fucking with. You don’t kidnap the VP’s ol’ lady and live. It just doesn’t happen that way.

“I don’t give a fuck what your little club has to say about me taking your girl.”

He stands in the shower room looking confident
. Something feels off; I don’t know what it is, but I can feel it.

Fuck, I need my boys.
I wish I had a way to talk to them and to let them know to keep everyone safe, because I can feel this is going to start a huge rift with the MC and the Russians.

Shaking my head and stepping into the shower, I decide that I need to do something. I need to get a handle on all this shit.

“Fine, when am I fighting this fuck? I need extra training.” Figure the extra training will not only help me in the end but it will get me out of my own fucking head.

“That works
. When you’re done here go lift weights. You no longer need to stay in that cell; you get a room.” Interesting; like I said, something big is happening.

Man, I miss my girl. I miss those tits, that ass. More than that I just miss
her
. Fuck, Ryder, you’re a biker. Get your head back in the game.

Shrugging on my wife beater and shorts, I walk out of the shower room with a new determination that I am going to stick to what I know. Kicking ass, fucking and riding bike. Fuck all that feeling bullshit.

****

“Ryder, I want you to make love to me. Please, take me as yours.” I look her deep in the eyes I turn my head to give her access to my lips. She leans forward and kisses me deep and hard. “Ryder, I’ve fallen in love with you. I am admitting to you right now that I love you. I love you with all my heart and soul.”

“Oh,
God. Yes ,Ryder. Please. Do something; hold me in your strong arms and make love to me. I love you.”

God, I can hear Faith’s words just as if she was lying here next to me in bed. I can almost smell her
. Rolling over, I extend my arm out and my subconscious tells me that she’s there, that I will feel her, that all this is a joke. My arm falls on an empty bed and that is when it slams me hard.

She isn’t here; I let myself go for a bitch. Yeah, she is a good fuck and
one hell of a woman, but I need to get my head back in the game. I’ve been away from my boys. I haven’t even properly taken over as VP.

It’s gonna hurt a few people for what I am about to do
, but I am going to do this fight and get the fuck out of here. Taking over as VP is what I have wanted to do since I was young. Thinking back, I can remember conversations between Zig and me about becoming the VP and Prez of the MC; fuck, doesn’t that sound like the life? Ride bikes, deal with club business, and get to fuck all the bitches that I want.

Yep, that is the fucking plan. Extending my arms out, I put my hands together and pop my knuckles. I walk across the room and exit out the door into the hallway
. I can see a door open at the end of it. Oh, why the fuck not? I walk over toward the door and I hear a couple voices. One sounds female and there seems to be two or three other guys. I am not sure how many, though. The bitch sounds familiar but I can’t place the voice. Then I hear something about everything is set for next week and the plan with go as planned.

I don’t have time to give a shit about what the Russians are up to. Honestly, I just wan
t to win this fight and get the fuck home. Back to my club and back to my boys. Time for the real Ryder Porter to come out; I turn and walk back down the hallway and turn into the practice room that is set up in the Russians’ massive mansion. Stepping in, I see the sparing buddy that I have been set up with.

This dude is fucking big. Makes me feel like I am the smallest man in the world. Talk about ugly
; he’s riddled with acne scars all over his face and neck. He has a scar that is stretched from his left eyebrow crossways over the top of his head, like someone cracked the dude’s head open.

“Ghost, how is it?”
he asks as I walk into the room. “You look tense, dude; let’s get that shit worked out.”

I nod my head at him and walk over to the medical trainer so he can wrap my hands. “Dude, you have no fucking idea what I need to work out.”