Hunted. A Pack Novel

Chapter Forty: Violet

The nurse ducked back into the hall and a moment later Ryder Abbot dressed in a black designer suit walked through the door pausing at the threshold when he was confronted by a wall of angry bikers. "What do you want?" Dan asked him.

To his credit Ryder didn't turn tail and run out the door but stood his ground. 'I would like to speak to Violet in private."

Tanner snorted looking about two seconds from throwing the man out of my room but he restrained himself. All we needed at the moment was for one of the pack to be arrested for assaulting a US senator.

 "Whatever you want to speak to me about you can tell me in front of my family." I informed Ryder.

He raised an eyebrow but moved further into the room. "Very well. I'm here to speak with you about these false accusations against my son-."

Seth stood up from the chair so quickly that it toppled over backwards but I was just able to grab onto his arm and pull him back to my side before he did anything stupid. It was no surprise to me that the senator would try to spin his son abducting me into a poor love stuck woman who was just confused as to what had happened. The man had built a platform on a squeaky-clean image of wholesome America and having a psychopathic son wouldn't sit well with that image if I went to the media; but it was something that I had prepared for.

"Senator, I believe we are well beyond being able to spin what happened to me as 'false accusations.' Maybe if your son hadn't been stupid enough to stuff me in the trunk of a car and try to get away on the highway where multiple members of the police force saw him kidnapping me you might be able to spin to the police that I am just some crazy stalker woman. But I think we can both agree that we are beyond that option." 

I was calmer than I thought that I would be. If this man had gotten his son professional help when he was younger then I would never be in this situation.

He ran a hand down the front of his suit smoothing out the non-existent wrinkles looking up at me through his lashes his face never changing from his self-assured butter wouldn't melt smile. 

"I don't think that it's beyond an option yet. All you have is the testimony of small town sheriffs who don't really know what they are doing and the words of felon's and criminals." He sneered at my family like they were nothing but gum on his shoes. I could see where Decker had learnt to have different faces; one for the public and the real one.

I might have been willing to let Ryder Abbot leave and spin his version of what happened and wait for the police to deal with Decker but no one spoke about my family like that. 

"What about the word of upstanding doctors, nurses and other fine American citizens not to mention medical reports, signed witness statements and security footage that show what your son originally did to me? I've had time to get a collection together. I'm sure America wouldn't blame you if Decker had only hit his girlfriend at the time but I think they'd be pretty outraged when they find out that he killed his unborn child at the same time. How do you think the media would react to that?"

Seth threaded his fingers through mine, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips as Ryder was silently fuming knowing that I had him beat. "And what assurances do I have that you won't go to the media anyway?"

"Mutually assured destruction. You let the media know that your son needs help and that you are doing everything in your power to make sure that he gets it and let the police do their work and I won't breath a word about what he did to me; it's not like I want the world to know about it but I'm not afraid to come forward if I am forced to. Decker stays away from me and we have no problem but if he tries to hurt or kidnap me again I will not hesitate to kill him. Get ahead of it now and it shouldn't ruin your image"

The room was deathly silent as I waited to see whether Ryder Abbot really was a smart man or not but he seemed to have more control over himself than his son did. "You don't breathe a word to the media and I will accept this compromise." And with that he turned on his heel and stalked out of my hospital room.

The breath that I had been holding rushed out of me and I relaxed back into the bed as the tension in the room went down a few notches. Seth leant down and cupped my cheek. "Do you really have all of that?"

I smiled at the pack who were all listening now. "Nope, I've got my medical file and that's it but Ryder doesn't know that and his image is more important to him than anything in this world." Who said that I couldn't bluff with the best of them.