CHAPTER 6
RYDER
“I liked them,” Grace said, as she nestled into my arms late that night. We’d turned out all the lights and crawled into bed together, my favorite part of every day since I’d met her. I pulled her close to my chest, her hair brushing up against my chin like silk. Inhaling deeply, I sunk my face into the softness, wanting to bathe in her perfume.
She was everything to me.
She was the light, the breath, the beauty that kept my heart pumping blood through my veins. I laughed at the man I was before I met her, when I thought I knew what life was all about. I knew nothing.
Grace had taught me things I wasn’t even aware I didn’t know.
She taught me humility and integrity and what true loyalty and family really meant. Now, all these years later, our souls were woven together, our very purpose in life shared. From the moment we opened our eyes each morning to this moment here, the quiet stillness shared after a fulfilling, exhausting day — each hour that we spent side-by-side was in pursuit of a better world.
Grace was the wind in my sail.
She showed me what my true purpose in life was supposed to be.
I’d wasted so many years partying, hating myself, brooding about the hand I’d been dealt. I tried not to think about those years, because I didn’t want to live with regret. I didn’t have much time for retrospection anyway.
Our days were filled with figuring out logistics and budgets and safe plans and fielding phone calls and having meetings with Riot and every now and then, we had to bust into a place and show a little force. Some cases were more dramatic than others. Sometimes a little blood spilled. But a lot of the time, just showing up went a long way towards getting the result we desired. Other times, money was a convenient tool.
We had lots of tools at our disposal, thankfully.
Most valuable of course being our intuition, intelligence and street smarts. Social graces could get you far. Charm could be wielded like a weapon against the right person.
I knew all of this, and I knew Grace possessed all of those skills. Still, I hated the idea of her going anywhere near those pricks the Vipers. This was the hardest part of our jobs. Knowing every time we put our asses on the line, there was a risk of losing each other.
She’d suffered through it countless times herself.
For most cases, Grace stayed in the background. Pulling strings and organizing things, she focused on those sorts of details and left the heavy lifting to us usually. Rarely did I find myself on this side of the situation.
But who was I to say no? Who did that make me if I put my fear ahead of everything else?
I had to trust that this situation would turn out successful, just as all of the others. Would I worry and be filled with torturous anguish until it was over? Fuck yes.
But I signed up for this life and this was part of it.
I guess I should be grateful it wasn’t a common occurrence, and I was, but that didn’t make it any less miserable right now.
“Did you like them, too? I think I should take Nate with me, he’s the biggest and scariest. And I think we should go in tomorrow.”
“They seemed like straight-up dudes, from what I can tell. Hard to know someone’s character right away.”
“That’s not what you said when you first met me,” she said, pressing her naked hip into my side. My body stirred, that familiar warmth washing over me.
“You’d already been lying in my bed for a few days before we first met,” I replied, the memories washing over me. I’d found Grace on the side of our dirt road, passed out and about to be killed by her pimp. I took her home and nursed her back to health, not knowing she was an undercover cop at the time. Wouldn’t have mattered, though, I’d have done everything the same even if I’d known. When she woke up with amnesia, looking at me with those huge, trusting eyes, my heart woke up from what I was sure was a permanent death.
“I could tell by the way you slept,” I joked. “I watched you constantly, looking for signs of life…and signs of evil.”
She laughed, a soft, slow laugh that ripped right through my chest.
“That’s kind of creepy,” she whispered.
“I never claimed to be a saint, Grace,” I shrugged.
She laughed again and I couldn’t take it anymore.
Forget talking about dangerous situations, forget worrying about what might happen tomorrow. Right now, the most incredible woman in the world was lying naked in my bed and every minute not spent devouring her deliciousness was a colossal waste of time, as far as I was concerned.
Gently, I pulled her chin up, kissing her slowly and deeply, the hardness between my legs instantly throbbing. She moaned and pressed into me.
“I’m glad you’re not a saint,” she murmured. I trailed kisses down her neck, slowly, inch by inch, until she moaned again, her song of desire my greatest reward.