Chapter 15

Ryder

"What are you doing here, man? You know your family expects you at church." Ellie glanced my way as I walked into the shop on Sunday morning. It had been a quiet Saturday, and where I'd wanted to reach out to Dani, I felt like maybe she needed a little bit of time to herself.

"I'm going in for a little while. It's been a dicked up week. I wanted to try and get in a little more time on the clock to make up for some of it." I walked over to the work bench and grabbed a bandanna to put on my head. "Where's Axel?"

"No clue." She shrugged her shoulders and glanced down toward the wheelbase of the car she was working on. "He's not been in yet. At least I don't think he is."

"Like you don't notice." I chuckled and walked past her.

"Wait. What?" She followed me. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You guys should just fuck and get it over with, El. It's getting old alright." I picked up a handful of supplies to work on the paint job on my current project.

"Fuck and get it over with?" She put her hand in the middle of my chest as I turned to face her. "Jeremiah is my boss and my friend. That's it."

"Is it?" I smirked. "When is the last time you went on a date?"

"None of your goddamn business." She pushed at my chest, causing her tits to bounce. She had no idea how fine she was. Funny enough, my body didn't react in the slightest. All I wanted underneath me was a petite cop with a chip on her shoulder and something to prove in the bedroom. I still didn't have the full story on what her fucking ex-husband did to her. I wanted to know. It would be good ammo if I ever ran into the bastard while we were together.

Not that we were together.

"Right." I shrugged and moved around her. "Must get tired lying to yourself all the time, El."

"He's not interested, Jon. I tried a few years back and he pushed me off."

"Like literally." I put my stuff down and glanced over my shoulder, giving her a look. "Cause, I'll whoop his ass."

"No." She reached up and pulled her long, black hair into a bun. "I came onto him in the office, and he shut me down. Said he wasn't interested in messing up our friendship. Not over a fuck."

"Really? This is news to me." I wrapped an apron around my waist and knelt in front of the truck in front of me. "And what did you say?"

"Nothing. What could I say? I was trying for a fuck." She sniffled and turned away from me. "Asshole. As if all I was worth was a fuck."

"El," I called after her as she walked off. "That's not what he meant."

"Still trying to help everyone's relationships but your own, hm? So noble of you, Ryder." Tanner King walked around the car to my far left.

I stood as my muscles locked into place. "What the fuck you want, Tan? You know us being in the same room isn't good for your health."

"No?" He smiled and reached up to run his fingers through his hair. The gleam of challenge in his eyes had me on edge. If I had a gun on me, I would put a bullet in his skull without asking questions, consequences be damned.

"No." I turned to face him, not trusting the bastard for a minute. "What are doing here?"

"I wanted to tell you the good news. Face to face." His smile faded as he took a few more steps toward me.

I knelt and picked up a tire iron one of the guys had left lying around. Normally, I would bitch at them about it, but it seemed like their sloppiness was in my favor that day. "Tell me what, mother fucker."

"That you're going to be a daddy." He glanced to his rightand motioned for someone to join him.

Candace stumbled toward him, obviously pushed. "Johnny."

"What the fuck is going on?" My blood ran cold at Tanner's words. "You pregnant."

"Why would you care, Ryder?" Tanner's voice boomed through the room.

"Ain't nobody talking to you, bitch," I barked loudly and turned back to Candace. Where I didn't want the woman in my life anymore, there was still a part of me that cared about her. Especially if she had my baby in her belly.

"Tell him, Whore. Tell him what you told me." Tanner reached out and popped her in the face.

"Hey!" I walked toward him as he pulled a gun from his belt and lifted it toward me.

"Back the fuck off, Ryder."

"Johnny. Stop calling me that, you cock." I stopped short and turned my attention back to Candace. "Is he telling the truth?"

She nodded and pressed her hands to her face. "I'm sorry. We should have used protection."

"You fucked with me again, Jon. You did it when you promised you wouldn't."

"I've loved your sister most of my life, Tanner. You know this. It's not easy to walk away from her." I lifted my hands. "Just leave her here. I'll take care of her and the kid. Get the fuck outta here and let them be my problem."

He laughed. "And not have anything over you? No way you want this slut around when you're banging the local law enforcement."

I growled and gripped the tire iron tighter. "Fuck you. You don't get to monitor my life."

He reached over and patted Candace's stomach - hard. She yelped. "I do."

"Mother fucker, you better shoot me, cause if you give me the chance, I'm going to kill you."

"Get the information from the police station about my latest raid. It's on lock down. Get it and destroy it."

"No. Get it your fucking self."

He put the gun to Candace's head and she cried out. "I'll blow her fucking head off and kill the kid inside of her as well. Do what the fuck I told you to do. Now."

I started to tell the bastard that he didn't scare me, which he didn't, but I held my tongue. Knowing his crazy ass, he'd kill his sister right in front of me.

"Is the baby mine?" I turned my attention to Candace.

"Who else's would it be?" Tanner yelled at me before he pushed his sister out of the way and flipped the safety off the gun. "Get the cop to help you."

"I destroy the evidence and you're going to let Candace go? Yes?"

"You have my word, Jon." He nodded and turned, walking out of the room as quickly as he'd walked right in.

"What the fuck was that?" Ellie walked out, her eyes wide, her skin pale.

"That was my past. It haunts me a little too often." I pulled my apron and the bandanna on my head off and tossed them into a pile as I walked into the office and dropped down into Axel's chair.

Fuck me. I was going to have to get Danielle to help me destroy the info on Tanner. And she hated him more than anyone else in the world. Would she help me? Shit, could she?

I had no clue, but I had to try. Even if Candace was lying about the baby. I had to try just in case.