Bittersweet Symphony (Bittersweet #4)(36)

His car is parked in a spot that said my daddy-owns-this-f*cking-place don’t start with me. I know he is the type who always got what he wanted when he wanted it.

I pull my phone checking the text from Landon again. It said apartment number 201. I walked up the steps into the apartment complex. They were concrete and similar to those of the dorm rooms. I look at the only door into the building realizing I needed a card to get in.

Fuck.

I turned around ready to walk back down the steps and back to my car when a girl came out the door.

“Thank you.” I murmured to her, taking the door from her hand and sliding into the building. There is nothing to the inside really. White walls, and brown cream colored carpeting. There is a directory on the wall showing what floor what apartment is on.

Looks like my luck has turned around. Sam Wikes name is sitting nicely next to the number 201. I take the stairs two at a time not wanting to waste an ounce of time confronting him. I know Kennedy can’t have told him. The secrets were too close to me, and I know she can’t risk what we have.

Once I found myself on the second floor, I take a right and there it is his apartment. There is no welcome sign not that I thought there will be one but still…

Make a fist I pounded on the door absurdly loud. I don’t want to draw a ton of attention but I definitely wanted him to know whoever is on the other side of the door is very much able of taking the door down.

I can hear the locks on the door clicking out of place as he unlocked them. He pulls the door open, his dumbass face looking straight at mine.

A smile that caused even the evilest person to want to vomit marred his face.

“Hi Ryder, how can I help you?” The way he says it made it seem like I owed him something. As if he can hold everything above my head and blackmail me into something.

“You can just explain to me how in the f*ck it is you think you can blackmail me. You don’t know anything. I bet you don’t even have any proof.” Hate is found in every word that left my mouth. I hated him, if it isn’t obvious enough.

He laughed. Directly in my face. Saliva clung to my skin, and a dark rage is ready to explode from within me.

“Proof? Who do you take me more? Someone who has no means to anything? My father is a very well established man. If I needed to I can find out whatever I wanted too. Is that way you’re here? To find out what it is that I know about? Are you worried your little secret, or rather big for that matter will be spilled?” He is standing against the door jam. It takes everything in me to not knock him the f*ck out.

I take a step forward not afraid to get in his face one bit.

“I’m not scared of whatever it is you think you know, because I can guarantee whatever it is you “know” isn’t something you really know anything about.”

His eyes narrowed as he peeked out into the hall his gaze swinging both ways. Whatever he is looking for he doesn’t find.

“Where’s Kennedy?” He asked curiously. The lust in his eyes is disgusting.

“Kennedy has nothing to do with this, therefore she isn’t here. Not that I will allow her to be within ten feet of you.” I sneered. I won’t. I will never let him get within touching distance of her again.

He takes a step towards me, so I stepped back knowing if I got into a brawl with him here I will end up in jail. I wanted badly to beat him into oblivion but the last thing I needed is a record.

“Let me a deal with you Ryder.” His eyes squinted at me as if he is trying to read me. A smile pulls at his lips. “If you leave Kennedy alone, I just might be able to keep my mouth shut. You give her up, and I’ll take your secrets to the grave.”

My fist clenched together as the blood left my brain, all rational thoughts going out the window. I reached out, grabbing him the front of the shirt holding him so our noses were touching.

I am hoping it will cause him to piss his pants but it doesn’t. If anything it urged him on more. His smile grew larger, and larger and my rage grew hotter.

“The only way you’ll ever get a shot with Kennedy is if you kill me, and I don’t foresee that happening anytime soon. Whatever you know isn’t worth giving her up to you. I would rather exploit my secrets then allow her to be hurt by you, so whatever it is you have to say, say it.”

Then I released him, watching him stumbled back onto his feet. It doesn’t matter to me if he has something to hold over my head. I mean it made me angry, but I still have Kennedy and to me that is enough for me.

“Oh I will… Believe me I will have your secret around campus in no time.” I matched his ugly smile with one of my own.

Before I walked away though I have a few last words to say… “Go for it.”





Kennedy


One week later




Worry ate at my insides. I’m scared. Terrified. Sam knows. He plainly knows, and told Ryder. I know Ryder is playing it off as nothing simply, looking at me as a way to rid the pain. I wanted him just as bad as he wanted me but I am not sure I can follow through with everything that was going on. I have to do something. Find a way to stop Sam before he ruined our lives, even if it meant sacrificing my own happiness.

I can feel the tears slipping from my eyes at the very idea of never seeing Ryder’s face again. Of never being able to show him that life is worth more than what he has been given. That he isn’t anything like his father. He is amazing and someday he will realize that.