Braylen
As soon as Kena and I walked in, fear made my heart slam against my chest, and I still had no idea what was going on. A few of the guys were surrounding someone, shouting for him to let go of something or else he was going to be taken down. It wasn’t until we took a few more steps forward that Jagger saw us and came running over.
“Oh thank God you’re here. You need to try and talk some sense into him.” He grabbed my hand and dragged me across the room. I tried to break away from him but the guy was too damn strong.
“Jagger, I don’t know what you want me to do. What’s wrong with him?”
“He got into that shit. That’s the problem.” He released me, flicking back the strand of hair that had fallen over his eye. He had a darkening bruise forming high on his cheekbone.
“What happened to your face? Was that from your last fight?”
“No, your boyfriend clocked me.”
“What? Why would he hit you?”
“Because Ryder is a goddamn psychotic motherfucker when he drinks like this. He hit at least three other guys, and the only way to make him stop is for us to beat the hell out of him. All of us at once. I don’t know why, but when that stuff is flowing through his blood, he has the strength of a goddamn gorilla.”
That was an awful lot of information for Jagger to vomit at me all at one time. Trying my hardest to wrap my head around everything, I made a move toward Ryder. Tripp turned around and saw me, hesitation flickering across his face before he looked to Jagger.
“I really think she can calm him.”
“I don’t know. I think it was a bad move calling her here,” Marek added, taking a step forward to shield my presence. He blocked my view, and when I tried to walk away from him, he grabbed my upper arm and pulled me back. He didn’t hurt me, but his hold was strong. “I think you should leave, Braylen. We got this.”
Choosing to ignore him, I asked, “What happened? Why is Ryder freaking out?”
“We don’t know,” Tripp answered, switching his attention back and forth from me to Ryder and back again. “He yelled something about not being able to do it. That he’s weak and pathetic. He’s not making any sense.” Tripp looked back toward Ryder once more. “He’s got blood on his clothes and his knuckles are split. We didn’t do that to him.” He ran a frustrated hand over his head. “I probably cracked his rib, but that’s it.”
“Cracked his rib? Why would you do that?”
“Because he came at me.” He said it like it was a normal occurrence, like he had no regrets about hurting his friend when he was in an obvious altered state.
“Get away from me!” Ryder roared, throwing a bottle he’d been holding at the crowd of men caging him in.
“Calm the fuck down, man,” someone shouted.
“At least he got rid of his drink,” Marek said, finally releasing my arm. “But I still think you need to leave.”
As if finally sensing I was near, Ryder pushed through the crowd of men and came straight for me. I wasn’t gonna lie—he scared me. I’d never seen him like that before, and the fact that he seemed to be a bit out of his mind was unsettling to say the least.
His dark hair was disheveled. His face was cut and bruised, his gray shirt ripped in several places and spattered with blood. His hands were swollen, his knuckles cracked and covered in the red stuff as well.
“Bra . . . Braylen,” he slurred, “What are you doin’ here?” Before I could answer, he yelled, “Go! You need to go.”
Marek and Tripp tried to hold him back, but he pushed them, causing them to lose their footing. Jagger was right, Ryder seemed to have the strength of ten men. Okay, maybe not ten, but definitely superhuman strength.
“What’s wrong, baby,” I soothed, reaching out to touch him, to try and offer him some sort of solace in his crazed state of mind.
“You can . . . can’t be here. You ca . . . can’t see me like this.” He erased the remaining distance between us and all of the men froze, waiting to see what he’d do. When I looked into his eyes, they were blank, a void shadowing his essence. I’d never seen anything like it, not in all my life.
“Ryder, please tell me how I can help you. Do you want to go somewhere? Just you and me?”
It was like he never heard me, schooling his expression before grabbing me and pulling me impossibly close. The smell of the whiskey on his breath made my eyes water.
“Let her go!” Jagger shouted, trying to pry Ryder’s hands off me, but to no avail. My upper arms started to ache, but I needed to make him see that I was right there with him. For him.
“Tell me what happened,” I pleaded.
A tear fell from the corner of his eye but he made no move to wipe it away, allowing the trickle of emotion to show his distress. I’d never seen him look so broken before and it tore at my soul. Something had devastated him. Destroyed him.
“I couldn’t do it,” he whispered, another tear falling as his shoulders started to shake. He was having some sort of breakdown.
I had to try and be strong enough for the both of us. I had to push aside my fear and attempt to reach him, make him tell me what happened.
“You couldn’t do what?”
“He stole every . . . everything from me,” he slurred, “and I couldn’t fu . . . fuckin’ do it.” His breathing turned labored. “My mom,” he garbled, but I’d heard him.
“Who did?” I tried to keep him on point, but he was drifting all over the place.
“I gave him a ch . . . choice and he didn’t pick her.”
At that point, I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. Had he really split from reality? Were his nightmares filtering into his consciousness, making it difficult to decipher what was real and what wasn’t?
As if finally realizing he was holding me, a look drifted over his face before he shoved me away from him, stronger than I believed he meant to. I lost my footing and fell on my ass, hurting my wrist on the way to the ground because I was trying to break my fall.
“Goddamnit!” Stone yelled, rushing forward with Jagger and Tripp. They tackled him, but not before Ryder threw out a few punches on his way down.
Kena rushed toward me and helped me to my feet, pulling me back toward the other side of the room. Other than my wrist, I wasn’t hurt.
Scared.
Shook up.
But physically intact.
“Don’t hurt him,” I cried, but my pleas fell on deaf ears. It took all three men just to hold him down. “Please, let him go.” I cradled my head in my hands. I just couldn’t bear to watch them hurt him any longer.
“Hold him still,” someone shouted. “I need to get this in his arm before he hurts someone else. Or himself.”
Several moments passed before the shouts subsided. I was afraid to look, so I kept my head down until someone tapped my shoulder. When I didn’t budge, they smacked my arm. My head shot up.
Kena.
He’s out cold. I think they injected him with something. Tears drifted down her face, she was so shaken up. I hated that she’d witnessed Ryder shove me, but I was fine. I had to convince her of that. Besides, the man who pushed me wasn’t Ryder at all. That was someone else inhabiting his body. There was a reason, a dark reason he went off the rails, and I needed to find out what it was.
Jagger finally came over to see me. “Are you okay, Braylen? Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine.”
“Shit. I’m sorry. I really thought you being here would’ve calmed him down. Instead I think I made it worse.” Jagger looked so distraught. I felt bad for the guy.
“I’m fine,” I repeated. “Really. Don’t worry about me.” I tried to see if Ryder was still in the room with us, but I couldn’t find him anywhere. “Where did they take him?”
“They dragged him to his room and cuffed him to the bed.”
“They can’t do that. Oh my God.” I tried to shove past Jagger, but he caught me midstride, pulling me back toward him. “Let go. Please. I need to see him.”
“Uh-uh. No way, Braylen. Not a chance in hell. I learned my lesson the first time. You’re not going near him until he sobers up. And even then. . . .”
My body tensed as I asked, “Even then what? Finish what you were gonna say.”
“When he sobers up, if he remembers you being here and that you hurt yourself because of him, he won’t forgive himself.”
“It’s only my wrist,” I said, gingerly holding my arm. “I’ll show him I’m okay. That he didn’t really hurt me.” I pleaded with him to release me so I could at least check on Ryder, but he held firm, ushering me toward the exit.
“Kena, I need you to take your sister home. Now.” Looking at me, he said, “For your own good . . . you’re not allowed back here to see him. Do you understand me?”
I remained silent because there were no words sufficient to convey my distress.
“Do you understand me?”
Finally I nodded, Kena helping to hold me upright while guiding me outside.