a dark cave that made my insides clench uncomfortably. “Get in.”
But I would do as my Master ordered.
The car smelled like expensive leather and something else, something almost sweet and bitter at the same time.
I ended up behind Ryder, who smelled just like the car. Or was it the car that smelled like him?
Jason’s shoulders brushed mine as he closed the door behind him and pulled the passenger seat back to accommodate Shannon, who was taking a rather interesting entry in: mostly by slipping through Ryder’s window head first. But I supposed it saved time from having to go around the vehicle.
By the time Shannon had righted herself next to Ryder, the car was already moving and for one absolutely frightening moment, I felt the intense, dry-throated fear of dying in a small, metallic box in a million terrible ways, each more horrifying than the last.
I cleared my throat. “Small car.”
Ryder laughed again. I wanted to hear it again. “Sorry. I don’t really have more than one other person in it. Don’t get too many people in the backseat. Er. Other people, that is.”
Shannon snorted. “You’re a fucking dog, you know that?”
“Aw, come on, cut me some slack, yeah? It’s not like you don’t do this kind of shit either. So get off your high horse, you slut.”
Next to me, Jason flinched, but said nothing.
I wasn’t so sure if I could be so laissez-faire if someone I loved was called a tramp. “Do you always talk to each other like that?” And then a far more pressing matter occurred to me. That it hadn’t occurred to me before made me feel like an idiot. “And furthermore, how are you two related? I was under the impression you were under Vincent’s...rule, Ryder.”
He snorted as he turned a quick left taking us off the main thoroughway. “I follow him, yeah, but only when it suits me. I guess you can say that I am a...free agent.”
“Vincent doesn’t strike me as the kind of man who would be okay with that kind of loose allegiance.”
Shannon laughed, a high shrill sound that put my teeth on edge. “He’s not. Oh, he’s definitely not. If he ever found out about Ryder and his bid for freedom, I’m pretty sure he’d lope his head off. Ryder’s, not Vincent.”
It really was none of my business.
That didn’t stop me from asking. “Then why? It seems you’re putting quite a bit on the line. And for what purpose? Is it so you feel like you are your own Master? Is it because you feel stifled in your current position? Or is it because you’ve always hated him, always resented the fact that even though he is younger than you, he is still, and will always be, stronger than you are?”
Perhaps the last sentence I should not have said.
I almost broke my neck as he braked abruptly, almost sending Shannon through the windshield, while Jason bounced off the back of her seat.
Jason spoke. “That was not necessary. I apologize on her behalf.”
My hackles rose. “I don’t need you to apologize for me. I am fully capable of doing it myself.”
“Oh? Then why aren’t you?”
I knew I had stepped over some invisible line.
But I had to know. “Ryder, I’m sorry. But I can’t take that comment back.”
Shannon turned in her seat, eyes narrowed. “You know, you make us look like fucking saints, hunter. Put a clamp on that mouth before it gets us all killed.”
I shook my head. “I’m sorry. I can’t.”
Ryder stared straight up head, hands clenched on the steering wheel. For one brief moment, I thought he would break the steering wheel clear off and kill me with it. A muscle twitched by his thinned lips and then he blew out a heavy breath.
He laughed and leaned against his seat, taking his hands off the steering wheel, one hand going through his thick yellow hair.
“Wow,” he said, voice shaky and soft. “You sure as hell don’t pull your punches, do you?”
“I need to know.”
He drew in a deep breath and proceeded to drive. Something in me relaxed, now that I knew he wasn’t going to throw me out the window. Truly, I was lucky, although perhaps luck had absolutely nothing to do with it and just the fact that Ryder merely wanted to sleep with me. “Look...it’s not as easy as all that, okay? There are...issues. Vincent and I are...at odds with many things. I will follow him but there some things I just don’t agree with him. One