Bear is sitting on Ryker’s desk watching me pace. He must have heard the commotion and come running inside. I watch Johnny and Ryker leave, and now I can’t sit still. Poor Diamond. I wish I could go to her, but I know if I’m there it will only be a distraction for Ryker. He was right. He needs to save her, just like he saved me. I can’t help but think how he truly is a knight in shining armor, always rushing in to rescue the princess and save the day. I’m just glad I’m the princess.

As I turn to pace the room again, I notice I knocked all the files to the floor. I guess in my panic I wasn’t paying attention. Kneeling down, I gather some of the papers up, but I don’t know which order they go in. I should probably look through them, but I wanted to do it with Ryker.

Bear wanders over to the coffee table in front of me and looks down at what I’m doing. He watches me as I try to straighten the papers, but when I hear a creak on the wood floor, he arches his back and lets out a loud hiss.

“Bear?” I say, shocked at his behavior just before I look towards the noise.

As I turn, I feel pain burst against the side of my head and my vision dances with black spots. I don’t pass out, but I can’t see, and the wind is knocked out of my lungs. The pain comes so quickly that it’s too much for my brain to process. My body goes limp and falls to the floor, and somewhere in the back of my mind I hear a man’s voice cursing.

My thoughts are scrambled and I can’t make my arms and legs move. The only thing I can feel is the throbbing in my brain as I lie there and force myself to breathe.

Ryker! my mind screams at me. Call for Ryker!

There’s no air in my lungs, and my lips can’t form the words, but I push myself to try. I will my body to come back even though the pain is beyond anything I’ve ever felt. I have to get help.

“You stupid bitch,” I hear through the dark cloud surrounding me, and I blink a few more times.

Some of the darkness fades, and the fuzzy morning light brightens the room as I try to make out the man standing over me.

“Fritz.” I can barely whisper, but I know it’s him.

That voice sends chills down my spine as pain once again rolls over my body as he yanks me up by the back of my neck.

“Do you know how hard it was for me to get to you?” he hisses in my ear as he drags me out of the house.

I never thought Fritz was a strong man, or even capable of lifting me off the ground, but rage is fueling him as he hauls me out the front door and drags me to a waiting car. When I see the vehicle parked there, terror floods me and I begin to fight. A memory flickers through my mind…Ryker had said he had other reasons for taking me, a need to keep me safe. It had something to do with Fritz…

I don’t know what the hell is going on, but he can’t take me to a second location. I know that from all of the true crime shows I’ve watched. If he makes me leave this house, I might never come back. My arms and legs are still limp, but I force myself to kick at him and punch with all the adrenaline I have left in me.

But in the end, it’s futile because he stuffs me in the car like a Kleenex and slams the door. I reach for the handle, and my hand slips on the first try, and on the second, it won’t open. It’s then I notice the blood on my hands and I reach up to touch my head. I can see my reflection in the window and realize half my face is bloody. It’s probably why I couldn’t see at first. I’m surprised I didn’t pass out, but then I remember someone telling me that head wounds bleed like crazy.

I flinch when I feel the driver door open, and I turn my body so it’s plastered against the passenger side. I hold my hands out in defense as Fritz gets in and starts the car. He hits the gas and I hear the tires screech as he pulls out of the driveway.

“Fritz, why are you doing this, what’s going on?” I say, trying to keep the tears out of my voice. I want to break down and cry, but I’m scared shitless and need to be calm.

“You fucked everything, Blair. Everything!” he shouts and swerves around a bend in the road. “But I’m going to fix this. I’m not going down for this shit.” He grasps the steering wheel in a tight grip.

The folders from Ryker’s house are in his lap. I look up, and this time I really see him. His blond hair is greasy and ratty looking. He was always so careful with how he styled it, never a hair out of place. Now his eyes have dark circles under them, and his cheeks look hollow. When did he last sleep? His hands are filthy, and his clothes look just as grimy, like he’s been rolling around in dirt. This is the complete opposite of the Fritz I knew. He looks like he’s having some kind of breakdown.

I’m afraid that whatever I say might provoke him, so I just keep quiet and try to think. How the hell am I going to get out of this? What it is even going on? How did I get mixed up in something like this?

I think my head has stopped bleeding, but I try to be as still as I can as Fritz speeds down the road. I can’t tuck and roll with how he’s driving, but maybe I can wait until he stops. I’m not wearing any shoes, but at this point I don’t care. I just know that he’s somehow snapped and I need to get away.

“You were supposed to do your job and all this was going to make me rich. I wouldn’t have to worry about my parents’ money or anyone else riding my ass. This was going to be my chance, but you fucked it all up. I thought some redneck trailer trash would be easy to blame. But then you had to get all emotional when you saw me fucking Lilith.”

He stares at the road as he talks, and though his name-calling hurts, the fact that he had sex with Lilith means nothing to me. At the time I remember feeling devastated, but now I couldn’t care less. I want to tell him that it’s fine if he’s with Lilith, but I keep my mouth shut, sensing he’s too close to whatever edge he’s on. In fact, I’m not even sure he’s really talking to me.

“I spent years trying to find the perfect person. You were so desperate for affection, all I had to do was send you a text every three days and you thought we were dating.” He makes a snorting noise like the thought is laughable. “Like I would ever be seen in public with someone like you. Someone of your class.”

He looks over at me, and for the first time I see the ice in his cold blue eyes. He looks at me as if he hates me. There isn’t a single ounce of affection there, and that’s the most chilling part of all of this. He turns back to the road and grips the wheel as he continues. His words would have cut me at one time. I might have even believed him, but not anymore.

“Lilith and I had this worked out long ago. I met her at one of my parents’ parties. I’m sure she was just looking for a quick fuck, but I knew I could use her like she wanted to use me. I knew from my parents’ whispers she was in debt up to her eyes and her ex-husband wasn’t paying her bills anymore. She needed money and so did I. I knew my family was about to cut me off, so I made a deal with her. We’d funnel the stolen artwork through her gallery and sell it all through one group of buyers. All we had to do was find someone to process all of it, so that if the cops came looking we wouldn’t have our names on it.” He says it all like he’s bragging, as if he’d come up with such a great plan.

“Me,” I whisper and close my eyes. How could I have been so stupid? I tried so hard to not be like my mama and to not let men use me like they had her, but I was only looking at it from one angle—sex. There were so many ways a person could be used.

“We were so close,” he grits out and pounds the steering wheel. “But these are not the kind of guys you can mess around with, and now the whole operation is fucked. They’re after me, Blair.”

For a moment, there is a pleading tone in his voice, and he sounds like the Fritz I once knew. But it doesn’t pull at my heart like it once did. Instead it makes me hate him. How could he use me like this? What if this had been me? Would he have sacrificed me to save himself? I don’t even have to think about the answer to that.

“But I can fix this,” he says, and I hear him sniff as he rubs one eye with the heel of his hand, then the other. “I’m going to fix this.”

I don’t know how long I’ve been in the car, but we’ve made it back to the city and he’s turning in to the art gallery warehouse. For a second, I think he’s going to park, and I might have a chance to make a run for it, but instead he pulls right through the loading door and I hear the metal crank down behind us, closing us in.

My door never unlocks as he turns off the car and gets out. I think about crawling out the driver side, but Fritz is at my door and yanking it open before I can make a move. He grabs me by my arm and jerks me out of the car, nearly dragging me over to a stack of crates.

He throws me down on top of one, and I bang my hip against a sharp wooden corner. I cry out as I try to lie on top it. I shouldn’t close my eyes, because I probably have a concussion, but my body is begging me to pass out and get away from all the pain.

“You idiot, you brought her here?!” I hear Lilith shriek as a door slams nearby.

“Shut up,” Fritz says so low that it sounds deadly.

I turn to face him, and I see him staring at Lilith. She’s gone white in the face at the sight of Fritz and the gun at his side. I don’t blame her. He looks like he’d be all too happy to use that thing right about now, and suddenly I’m sure he’s going to use it on me. I know it.

“Fritz, honey,” Lilith begins, but even I can hear the false tenderness in her voice. “It’s over. Put the gun down and let’s get out of here. We can hop on a plane and head to the Caribbean. They won’t find us there. She doesn’t need to be involved anymore.”

I’m surprised that Lilith is willing to defend me. Then again maybe she’s scared he’s going to lose it and shoot both of us.

“They’ll never stop looking,” Fritz says, turning to look at me. “I was supposed to be on a beach sipping margaritas by now. But instead I’ve had to track down all the loose ends.”

“I promise I won’t say anything,” I plead, sitting up. “You have all the information I found. That’s all of it. I haven’t told anyone what happened.” Tears fill my eyes as I try to convince him to let me live. “I’m nothing. No one would believe me.”

Fritz takes a menacing step towards me and leans in close. “Is that what my brother told you?”

Confusion sets in at his words, and an evil smile forms on his face.

“What? You didn’t know Ryker is my brother?” There’s a strange excitement in his eyes as a knot of worry grows in my stomach. Then suddenly he begins to laugh. “Oh god, he didn’t tell you?”

His laugh echoes through the warehouse, and I think for a second that I might throw up.

“Oh, sweet, stupid Blair. He’s been using you this whole time.”

The pain in my head from where he struck me is nothing compared to the pain ripping through my heart at the realization that I’ve been used again.