Deadly Silence (Blood Brothers #1)(63)

“Dunno. We’re about to find out.” Ryker carried the guy inside the cinder-block room and shoved him onto the one metal chair.

Heath cut the duct tape and fastened shackles in the same places. “He’s out cold.”

Denver shut the door and grabbed a bucket of cold water from the floor. “We can fix that.”





Chapter





22




Zara finished dishing another waffle onto Greg’s plate as he sat on the floor. The kid ate hungrily, seeming completely unaffected by what was probably happening down in the boiler room.

He glanced up. “It’s okay. Ryker won’t kill the guy.”

Zara blinked. “How are you so knowledgeable about this kind of thing?”

Greg pushed his shaggy hair away from his face. “I was trained from day one as a soldier. So were my brothers. This is no big deal.”

Yet it was. It truly was. “We’re supposed to be the good guys.”

Greg lifted an eyebrow. “We are, I think. The good guys have to be able to use bad methods in order to win. You get that, right?”

She shook her head, everything in her wanted to soothe the boy, who was so familiar with violence. Ryker and Greg were cut from the same cloth, without a doubt. “I’m a paralegal, and I chose the law on purpose. We need to follow it.”

Greg snorted and shoveled in more waffle. He swallowed the entire chunk. “Your man doesn’t care about rules or law right now. A guy broke into your place and put his hands on you.” Greg shook his head. “Forget what I said. Maybe Ryker will kill him.”

The door opened, and Ryker strode in. Blood marred his torn shirt, and his jeans were wet.

Zara pushed away from the counter. Fine tremors attacked her nervous system. “Well?”

“The guy’s name is Jonny Reese, and he’s a thug out of Denver.” Ryker stretched bruised knuckles. “He and his buddies were hired to kidnap you, Zara.”

Pins pricked down her back. She believed in law and the rules. The idea that some thugs would just break into her safe home to take her made her knees weak. She looked at Ryker with new eyes. He didn’t believe in law or any rules. Nausea boiled in her stomach, and her breath quickened. “Why would they want me?” She tried to keep the fear out of her voice, but her voice trembled.

Ryker shook his head. “I don’t know yet.”

The world seemed darker somehow. A shadowed place where guys like Ryker moved freely. If he hadn’t been there, it was doubtful she and Greg would’ve won the fight. He’d saved her. She could’ve been the person in a boiler room.

Why? Why would anybody want to hurt her? “I don’t understand,” she whispered, her voice thick with tears.

Ryker’s gaze softened on her. “You have my word. Nobody will hurt you, baby.”

She nodded and swallowed several times. Ryker would kill to keep her safe, but what about him? What if he sacrificed his life for hers? She couldn’t let him do it. “I’m not scared.”

His lip twitched. “It’s okay to be scared. Means you have a brain.”

Oh. Okay. So she wasn’t weak. Time to think. She needed to copy how Ryker handled danger and think clearly without the fear. “Who hired that guy?” she asked, her mind spinning.

“Unfortunately, Jonny didn’t know that tidbit,” Ryker growled. “Only one of the guys was in contact with whoever hired them.”

Greg stretched to his feet, carrying his empty plate, shaking his head. “And you let him get away.”

“Yep,” Ryker snapped.

“What about Jonny?” Zara whispered, her body preparing to flee even while her mind wanted to fight.

Ryker turned and strode toward the bedroom. “Denver is dropping him off at the hospital. He might need stitches.” Anger he was failing to mask trailed in his wake, and he disappeared into the bedroom.

Greg threw his paper plate away. “See? Nobody got killed this time.”

This time. “If you want more orange juice, it’s in the fridge.” Zara hustled after Ryker. None of this made any sense. How could it? She swallowed and opened the bedroom door. Clothes littered the floor to the bathroom, and the sound of the shower being turned on filled the morning.

The last time she’d followed Ryker into a bathroom, she’d ended up on her back, moaning his name. Was that only a night ago? So much had happened, she just couldn’t grasp a thought. Who would want to kidnap her? It was good that it was okay to be afraid, because she was terrified. She stepped gingerly over his discarded clothing, not sure how much of the wetness was actually Jonny’s blood. “Ryker?” she pushed open the bathroom door.

Dark tile and chrome fixtures made up the bathroom with its double vanity and three-sided glass shower stall. A toilet was in a side room. Ryker stood under the spray with steam billowing all around. His head was down, and the water sluiced over his muscled back and down to the tile, spreading over his bird tattoo like it was dancing along the fire.

She hesitated to go inside, and that just pissed her off. “Hey. The guy had no clue why somebody wanted to take me?” The very thought made her stomach hurt. Her nicely routine life, the one from a week ago, seemed far out of reach.

She wasn’t sure she could survive in this reality without a safe routine.