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C h a p t e r T e n »»————> A D r e a m t o T e l l t h e T a l e <————«« Sofia Warren
"Sofia? Sofia, wake up?" Cold hands touch my face, my eyes assaulted by bright light as they slowly blink open.
"What happened, are you alright?" His hands cup the back of my head and I look down at myself, a towel is wrapped around me, my hair still sopping wet.
"What?" I sit up with the help of Ryder. His hands roam my face, his brows furrowed.
"You passed out, Sofia," My face heats. I was dreaming.
"You hit your head, its bleeding," He stares at the spot that must be crimson and wounded.
"Okay," Is all I can manage. I swallow the dry lump lodged in my throat. Attempting to ignore the fact I just about had a sex dream with my captor. That cannot be healthy.
"You've got to stop kissing me Ryder!" I say all to quickly before I can really process the words coming out of my mouth. He pauses, falters for a moment before he looks at me warily, his cheeks flushed ever so slightly. He is embarrassed.
"I apologize, Sofia," He clears his throat and scoops me up as quickly as he can. He avoids any eye contact possible is he carries me downstairs, to the kitchen to once again stitch me up.
This time he numbs the area before handling the wound, which I am very thankful for. He does his quickest clean up job ever, then leaves me alone, sitting at the dining table in nothing but a towel. Serves me right I guess, so I get up and grab some clothes to change into in his room, no longer comfortable with being basically naked in front of him.
Going back to the kitchen, he is standing before the stove, cooking what smells like steak. Guilt invades my conscious enough for me to work up the courage to muster an apology to him for what I had said earlier. "I'm sorry, I wasn't planning on saying that, it kind of just slipped out," I rub my temple.
"Its quite alright, Sofia," He does not take his eyes off the pan in front of him, clearly not wanting to talk about it.
"You do understand how confusing that can be though? I mean shit, you were just throwing me down stairs and beating me to a pulp not that long ago," I joke mainly to myself.
This catches his attention, and it is angry. His eyes narrow on me, his fist clenching the handle of the pan so hard, I think he may break it, "I think it is best we do not have this conversation right now,"
That sentence angers me just about as much as mine did him. My jaw falls slack and I scoff at him, the audacity this man thinks he has to get pissed at me for beating the shit out of me! Oh hell fucking no. "Are you kidding me?" I rise from the chair I was just sitting on, "You don't get to say that to me! Fuck you, you bastard! You cant abuse me for a week straight and just get away with it and the consequences of your actions!" I yell.
"Just because I flirt with you every once and a while does not at all mean you can ever be forgiven for what you did to me! Ever, you hear me? You're a piece of shit, Ryder. And a fucking joke of a man! You're a terrible person and you need to know it! Just because you kill bad guys that doesn't make you any better than them!" My chest is falling and rising at a rate his almost matches. He doesn't say a word, he just pins me down with his sharp eyes.
"Sofia, please," Is all he says, the words just barely a sigh, and my face falls. He turns away from me and just continues cooking.
"No," I stalk over to him quickly, now standing right next to him, and I turn the stove off. I now realize truly how large of a man Ryder is. Even with his head ducked down he is still well over a foot taller than me, he lets go of the pan handle and looks at me now. I squeeze in between him and the stove and push on his chest as hard as I can.
"You're going to listen to me, okay?" I dig my index finger into his chest and he sighs at me. Now looking down on me as if I am a misbehaved dog. I frown hard at him.
"You cannot be mad at me for something you did to me!" My voice softens, now feeling nervous, all my courage evaporating under his hard demeanor.
"I have already explained this to you once," He shakes his head, regret and guilt taunting his features. Guilt wells deep in my stomach and I know yelling at him was wrong. He is right, he has explained this to me. He was being intoxicated, I know that and I blame a version of him that is not him anyway.
I drop my hand from his chest and slip away underneath his arm. "I'm sorry," Is all I say as I begin to walk away, but he catches my wrist and tugs me back to him, wrapping his arms around me he buries his head into my neck, and I feel tears soaking the collar of my shirt. His body begins to shake violently, as he cries into my arms.
"I am so fucking sorry, please don't ever apologize to me, I'm so sorry, Sofia. Fuck, I'm sorry!" He gasps his last words. We slowly crumple to the floor as I hold my hand to the back of his hand and rub his shoulders with my other. He shakes against me, tears pouring from his eyes now, I am stunned. I don't know what to do, so I just hold him. I hold him until the tears dry and his shaking numbs and his breaths begin to slow.
"Ryder," I say almost quieter than a whisper. He hums against my neck, in response and now is holding my to him tighter, like he is scared to let go because I will fall into a void of nothing if I am released.
"It is okay, I know that wasn't you truly there then, I know that and I should have recognized that," I run my hand down his head just one last time before he finally lets me go. I slowly stand up and he does too, his eyes are red and puffy, his face full of sorrow I've never seen before. I now see the boy who lost his mother when he was younger, and how much that has affected him.
He had no one to cry to and no one to hold his hand when he was scared. He is just a scared boy and I just hurt him.
***
Ryder sets down a plate in front of me. I push the slice of meat around on it, not hungry, but needing to be present when Ryder's father...Angelo is here. Ryder sits down next to me and begins speaking but I tune them out as I eat.
"Thoughts, Sofia?" Ryder asks.
"What, sorry?"
"Well were thinking that maybe if we take you back to Tennessee we can speed up this process. We believe Kai still lives there. We checked road cameras today and spotted his car on the highway," Ryder explains to me, looking back and forth between me and his father.
"How will he know I'm in Tennessee if you guys are just gonna keep me locked up?" I roll my eyes and focus back on my plate, taking another bite of the steak.
"That's the point, you won't be, you will be wandering somewhat freely, I mean, we will kill you ourselves if you end up telling a soul about our little establishment. We are going to insert a microphone and tracking chip in you," Angelo says like its no biggie, and is a normal thing to inject things like that into people. My stomach knots at the sound of that procedure.
"Oh," Is all I can muster.
"So you think this should work?" Ryder asks one last time.
"I assume, I mean you guys are the skilled kidnapper killers, not me. I have faith in whatever your final decision is," I set my fork down and take a long drink of wine. Thankfully Angelo isn't just a useless, lunatic killer, he also happens to be an alcoholic.
