Total pages in book: 148
Estimated words: 135517 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 678(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 452(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135517 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 678(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 452(@300wpm)
“Dad? What happened?” My voice and hands shook.
“The bank called in the mortgage. We’re out of extensions; you need to get that money. Where is he?” His words came fast and furious.
“I don’t know.” He rambled on with his threats, but my mind had gone blank. Who is this person that has this kind of power? They have to be using some kind of voice distortion device because I could’ve sworn that it was a young girl who’d called me that first time.
“Dad, I don’t understand. I thought we’d already taken care of that. I already gave you money to take care of it.”
“I used that money for something else. Your mother and I have to eat, you know. I thought you’d be able to get me more before the payment was due. Your mother and I didn’t go through all this trouble so we could end up on the street.”
All my excitement was long gone by the time he hung up. Why was everything unraveling? Why wasn’t anything going the way I’d planned? I did a few more lines of coke to take the edge off, and then I heard Ryder coming in downstairs and felt some of my angst leave me. He’s home; he’s here with me; he’s not with her. No matter what else was going on, at least I’d won for today. Ryder had come back to me; that must mean something.
Chapter 33
*Ryder*
“You can’t!”
“How do you know what I was thinking?” The one named Tyler looked at me with a smirk on his face but didn’t answer. How the hell did he know that I was tempted to go to Elena as soon as we landed?
I’m unsure what to make of these two men that Saunders had sent to the mountains to get me.
They weren’t the most talkative bunch, and I got the feeling that there was a whole lot more going on than what they’d told me so far. They hadn’t shared much, and all Saunders would say is that I would know in due time, but they did say that I was helping them in a big way, whatever that meant.
I’m not sure how, but I get the feeling that it’s huge, and it has something to do with the church and Mary. They were about to use me to get inside. There was an underlying feeling of something dark and sinister about their hushed tones and how they seemed on high alert even when we were thirty thousand feet in the air.
I know military men when I see them, and these two are most definitely part of some special force or some other military faction that no one ever hears about. They were precise in their approach when they told me how things were going to be when we got back to L.A.
I wasn’t allowed to ask questions or have an opinion one way or the other, something I’m not too good at putting up with when sober, but since they’d made it clear that it was for Elena’s benefit, I didn’t put up much of a fight.
They’d made me go over everything about five times until I got my story straight, and apparently, that was all I had to do, and they’d do the rest; their words. Other than that, they have been very tight-lipped, only giving one-word answers when they deigned to reply to a question.
I knew enough, though, to be grateful that I could honestly answer no that I hadn’t signed anything in blood when Saunders asked because whatever was behind that contract is what had brought these guys here, and they looked ready to fuck some shit up.
Saunders’s studio had a car waiting for us with two more with security, and I guess there’s no better way to tell the world that I was now one of his people. In this town, that’s better than the keys to the city.
I only knew of him before, but seeing how the man does things, I’m convinced no one knows the half of it. I’m aware that it was his one doing all this, and it was just his name being used, which in all actuality doesn’t make much of a difference because if there’s one thing everyone knows, it’s that Saunders loves his son more than his own life and has always stood by his kid no matter what.
That family is an enigma of sorts. Old Hollywood scions who don’t seem to have much of an interest in anything Hollywood other than putting out top-level movies and going hard for their stars. Until now, that was about all I knew about them, that and the fact that they were the richest family in this town and one of the few who held onto a humane reputation.
I’m still not sure if I should be thankful that his nieces hacked my shit or not, but so far, things seem to be working in my favor. I get the feeling, though, that one wrong move on my part and these two that he’d saddled me with would take me out without even blinking. At least I felt with them around; no one would dare harm me if it came to that. And the way they’ve been acting, I suspect that they think someone would indeed try to take me out.