“Her last boyfriend,” I whisper, feeling sick to my stomach.
“Then he probably left because he couldn’t handle waking up to a rack of bones that stays doped up out of her mind,” Ryker justifies.
“He left because of Lola!”
“I doubt—”
“He left because I told him the next time he tried to break into my room and climb in my bed I’d have him arrested!” I defend, sick of all of this, and mostly sick that this person is my mother.
“He what?” Ryker asks, his voice deadly.
“You should have just let him. Phillip was good to you. You didn’t complain when he put food on the table,” my mother claims, like she’s tired of talking about it.
“You aren’t getting a penny from Lola or from me,” Ryker says and this time he’s not yelling at my mother. He’s not growling in his normal tone. This time his voice is deadly quiet and has the strength of steel behind it.
“She—”
“We don’t really know each other, so I’m going to give you advice now. Lola is mine. She saved herself for me. You just told her she should have given what was mine away. More than that, you just admitted you would have sacrificed your innocent daughter to keep your man happy since you couldn’t.”
“How dare you!”
“This is the only warning you get, so you better heed my advice, lady, because I’m not giving it twice. You leave this place and you don’t even try to contact Lola again. As far as you are concerned she’s dead to you.”
“You don’t have that right.”
“I have every right. I’m protecting my woman from a viper like you.”
“You have no control over me. I’m not some lapdog like you’re trying to turn my daughter into.”
“I can see you’re not going to listen to my warning. So let me tell you what will happen if you don’t leave. That fucking candy store you’ve been running out of the trunk of your car will be discovered. I’ll make sure enough fuckwads come forward to pin your ass to the wall.”
“You can’t. You don’t have the proof to do that.”
“It’s amazing what money can do, and as you just said… I’m loaded. So try me. I’ll make sure they lock you in a federal pen with security so tight you’ll never see the light of day.”
My mother is watching Ryker closely. I can see the moment she knows she’s hit a wall she can’t get around. I even see a glimpse of real fear on her face.
I don’t know what she would have said next. I don’t get the chance to ask.
Ryker spins around and picks me up, throwing me over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry so fast my head spins. I cry out and try to steady myself by using my hands on his back.
“Slim?”
“Yeah, Ryker?”
“My woman quits. She’s going to work at the garage where I know she’s safe and filth can’t touch her.”
“You got it, man,” I hear Slim answer right before the door to the club slams behind us.
Ryker marches over to his old truck like a man with a purpose. He opens the door and then shifts me so I’m standing.
“Do you have a problem with anything that happened in there, Lola?” he asks.
“No,” I answer honestly.
“Good. Then I’m taking you back home, I’m fucking you raw and then after I’ve calmed down, I’ll fuck you soft. You got anything to say to that?”
“Take me home, Ryker,” I whisper softly.
He grunts in reply, scoops me up and deposits me in the seat of his truck and buckles me in. He’s still vibrating with anger at my mother, but even in his fury he takes the time to kiss my lips. He kisses them softly, too, letting none of his anger bleed through.
With Ryker I know I’ll always be safe. It’s such a beautiful feeling.
Epilogue
Ryker
One year later
For me there is only Lola. There will only ever be Lola.
Until she came into my life I didn’t know I could actually be happy, that a bastard like me deserved something so pure and good.
A year has already passed since I staked my claim on her. I made her quit that fucking bar job, and told her whatever she wanted to do I’d support her. And now she is enrolled in some community classes and loving the hell out of it.
I pull into the driveway and cut the engine. I’m out of the truck and in the house, anxious to see her, in a few minutes flat. She’s in the kitchen, the smell of steak filling my nose. My woman might be younger than me, but fuck, does she know how to cook her man a meal.
With her back to me I walk up to her, my dick already hard, my need for her never dimming in this last year. Hell, I fuck her nearly every day simply because I can’t get enough of her sweet fucking pussy.