Mature Content 17+ || Savage Wolves MC Book Three
Talia's been through hell and back. After suffering at the hands of Dmitri Petrov and his band of goons, she was left broken and ruined.
But, she isn't going to let that stop her from being the woman...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
•Talia•
"Can you take a break?" Ryder's face looks serious and I instantly drop the rag I'm using to wipe down the back counter into the sink.
"Yeah, can you get a prospect to cover for me?"
He nods and whistles across the room to where Sean is cleaning the glass window that looks into the kitchen. Sean turns and Ryder motions for him to come over and tells him to tend the bar while I step away.
When I come out from behind the bar, Ryder places his hand on my lower back, his palm warm against my skin.
He leads me out back and past the pool to where the gazebo is. The area looks sadder now that so much of the foliage was destroyed during the mini fire, but I'm sure come spring June will fix it up real nice and it'll be bursting with life again.
Ryder steps in front of me and I catch a whiff of his cologne on the air flowing between us. Spicy, warm, comforting.
We sit down on the wooden bench going around the edges of the hexagonal space, Ryder throwing his arm over the edge behind my back and me turning to face him, drawing my knees to my chest and placing my feet on the bench in between us.
His other hand comes to rest gently on my leg, rubbing up and down slowly, trailing his short nails against my sensitive skin enough to give me goosebumps.
"Is it them? Did something happen?" I already figured whatever he had to say had to be about my attackers. Whether it was good news or bad has yet to be determined. Ryder's emotions show on his face most of the time, but he's definitely perfected keeping everything bottled in when he wants to.
Like now.
His face is impassive and holding onto secrets. "They'll be delivered tomorrow morning to the cabin."
My body tenses and my palms grow sweaty. "So soon?"
Ryder nods. "The guys I hired...they're really good at their job. I'm sure no one has even reported them missing or notices they're gone."
My eyes widen, thinking of the families of the last three attackers. "What about their families? Are they dead? Why wouldn't they think to report them missing?" Fuck, that's not what I wanted.
Ryder quickly denies my suspicions. "No, they're not like that. If I wanted them to kill, they would have charged extra. But—"
My face hardens, thinking about the innocent significant others and children that might be involved in something I had no intention of them getting involved with. "But what?"
"I can't be certain, they didn't give me any information, but it's likely the families know they were taken but have been threatened into silence or either they've been silenced in other ways."
My nostrils flare. "They're innocents, Ryder."
"Hey, we can't be sure of that. If they are, they'll be fine. The guys I hired won't touch them. They're not evil. They work for money but they do still have morals. I promise they won't be harmed at the hands of the guys I hired, but I can't promise they won't be scared into submission."
