Ryder carried a half-dazed Alecia into the apartment with her family behind him. Taking her to their bedroom, he lay down next to her and caressed the hair out of her face. She still hadn’t said a word to him. Not one. He kissed her cheek and wrapped her into his arms. She rolled over and faced the wall. A deep ache grew in him. What had he done to her? Loosen up.
That was what he needed to do.
“Please roll back over,” he said as he placed a firm hand on her hip.
She shook her head.
“We’ll have more.”
“Please leave me, I beg you." She whispered.
“Do you want Trina?”
“No one.”
He kissed her cheek before he got up and left. He walked out the door and inched it closed. He could not look at her family, so he concentrated on the floor. “She wants to be alone.”
No one responded so he locked himself in the guest room, burying his face into the pillow as he let his tears fall. All he wanted was Alecia back; to lov
Alecia eyes popped open. Her hands flew to her mouth. All she could see was the face, a strong face, which neither smiled nor grinned, but looked at her as if it was complacent. She removed her hands and bit down on the tips of her fingers. The man held her down as Ryder pierced her skin with something. She took a deep breath, trying to calm her irregular quick breaths, but her heart would not stop pounding the blood through her, making her gasp. It must have been a dream. Just a dream.She tried to roll over and look at her husband, but he was right behind her, his arms wrapped around her in a firm hold. He would never physically hurt her. Doubt crept through her. She reached for his hands and tried to lift his arms; however, they grasped her tightly, and would not budge. She looked at the wall. The face filled her mind. “Ryder, wake up.” Ryder sat up, and leaned over her face. “Are you okay?”“Let go of me.”
Alecia listened to Ryder walk around the room as he got ready for work. She slipped further under the sheets, blackness filling her vision. When the alarm went off this morning she couldn’t bear the thought of getting up and putting on the pot of coffee. The face was still ingrained in her mind. The sheets were pulled down just below her eyes. Ryder leaned over her. He half-smiled and bent to give her a kiss. “My sister will be by later.” She nodded before he pulled the sheets back above her face, shielding her from the outside world. When she heard the bedroom door close, she rolled over and cried, letting the tears pour forth. She couldn’t get the face out of her mind no matter how much she tried. “I can’t live like this,” she whispered. “I want to die.” Sitting up from the bed, she let the sheets fall. The ache that spread through her was intense. She bit on the sheets as she rocked back in forth, but the pressure wouldn’t releas
The soft clanging of bells filled her ears, making her eyes pop open. Ryder reached over her and pressed it off - his skin sliding over her bare body. A yawn escaped from her lips. She had barely slept last night. She rolled over on her side and focused on the wall - with her eyes trailing the lavender border at the top. This would be her last morning here. Ryder breathed deeply as he struggled to wake himself up. Last night was another late one.He pushed himself up and rolled out of the bed. “I should be used to this,” he said.She smiled and brushed his bangs out of his face. Best to keep up appearances.Their eyes connected and Alecia's heart jumped. His eyes glittered in the early morning light, making him look like a youth. Like the boy she had fallen in love with. Would a part of her always love him? He kissed her head, sending the familiar tremors through her before leaving to wash up.She laid out his clothes, and made
Ryder walked into his father’s office, sat down in front of his desk and glared at him. He didn’t want this conversation, but best to get it over with. His father would help him get her back and then make her stay. He had done it once before with his mother. Now, Ryder understood the anger that had pushed his father to reclaim his wife. His mother should have stayed. All she had to do was listen. Just like Alecia should have.His father leaned back into his seat – his white dress shirt stretched with his movements. His eyes narrowed contrasting with the full smile. “So she left you. I told you to have the council keep an eye on her,” his father said. “But you wanted no one looking at your wife, but you.” His father’s lips curved in a smirk. He was mocking him.Ryder folded his hands in his lap. He wouldn’t respond to his mockery, letting him see how each word fueled the heat boiling in him.“Did she wip
Ryder held the pen over the document. She was not in her hometown, but her parents were, so where could she be? It had been two weeks and his men hadn’t been able to find one clue of the girl. He shook his head and turned to the document in front of him. He needed to keep reading this briefing report, making sure every detail aligned with their case. He should go to her hometown and force the details from her parents, but his father said to wait until they knew where she was. Wait and catch her off guard. Ryde looked up when his phone beeped. He pressed the intercom button.“Yes, Jacky.”“There is a Mr. Sose here to see you.”“Send him in,” Ryder said. He looked up as the door opened, and Jacky showed Sose in. Sullivan glared at her until she quickly slipped behind the door and shut it. He really could scare people with just a glance. Sose walked over to the desk, and dropped a brown envelope onto it. Ryder picked it up.
Alecia laid her head on Ryder's bare chest and caressed the soft skin of his rippling abs. They had just made love, a new promise, a new life together and perhaps a new life would form in her womb. She scratched her face as something tickled her. Ryder's lips ran along her neck, sending tingles through her. Every part of her filled with the intense pleasure only he could produce in her. Something pressed against her skin, making her eyes pop opened.She quickly sat up. At her side sat Ryder with her father’s shotgun on his lap. His face void of all emotion except for the darkness in his eyes.“Daddy,” she screamed out.“Don’t wake him.”She looked at her sister who hadn’t even moved. She turned back to him. “What have you done?”“They’re just sleeping.”“You drugged them.” Ryder smirked.A rattling feeling spread through her as he stood and place
Alecia woke up from sleep, somehow, all the memories came rushing back. It was never a dream. Their had really been a man who grabbed her, and Ryder had injected something into her -- something that had made her lose the baby. The tears that filled her eyes now we're tears of hopelessness. She would never be happy again, never be free. Never be the girl she used to be. She remembered all that had happened in the few days after Ryder kidnapped her from her family. They had wanted her to testify in court that Ryder hadn't had someone killed, someone she knew he had killed. To prepare her, or maybe to frighten her into telling the lies they wanted her to tell, they had slit the throat of a man before her very eyes. After that, she was nothing, felt nothing but sadness and utter hopelessness. She got up and walked to the bathroomAlecia stared at the mirror in the bathroom, into her lifeless blue eyes. She had be
There is no more innocence in her eyes. Ryder ran a finger down Alecia's pale cheek, feeling dampness- evidence of her tears. His hand trailed to the bandages over her wrist, covering the ten stitches it took to close up the wound. A deep sob formed in his throat before a few tears slipped out. He pushed a fist into his eye, trying to push the pain away, but it only grew. What had he done? He had destroyed her.He turned from where she lay on the bed, covered in his black silk sheets, and walked into the hallway as a voice as soft as the wind beckoned to him. Leave, it called. Whenever he stopped to listen to it, it vanished like a ghost exposed to light. He walked outside of his Manhattan penthouse to the balcony, and placed his hands on the rail of the deck - the cool dry air floated around him - feeling like an omen. From this view he could gaze at the tall skyscrapers that pierced into the night sky, as if trying to prove their dominance. Car lights shined lik