“You can go now, Ryken.”
My head starts shaking, but the look she gives me tells me she doesn’t want me here anymore. I have to go.
“Why the fuck is he here, Sass? You didn’t want to come to see me, but you spend time with him?”
She looks to the floor like she’s ashamed. I want to protect her, but I keep my mouth shut and slide past them as she pulls him in, locking the door as I go.
It’s the last glimpse I get of her as I make my way to my car. Hoping and praying that I will see her one last time.
Chapter 28
Saskia
He’s angry, so fucking angry. I’ve never seen him this mad before. Stiles paces the small room of my shop. I called him in here to inform him that I will be going away. I can’t tell him where or when I will be back, I just begged him to ask his sister to run this place. She can take all profits. I own the shop outright, and the money I have left over is in a check being sent back to Ryken.
“He comes back, and you go straight to bed with him?” His hand runs through his blond hair.
“It’s not like that.”
“It is,” he yells.
Looking down to the floor, I’m ashamed. He still loves me, I know this. But my love for him won’t survive us. We love differently.
“Please, Stiles.”
He nods his head. Then leans in to kiss my cheek before he walks out.
Looking around, I see the mess that’s my shop, thanks to Ryken and I.
Cleaning it up, I kill the hours before the knock inevitably comes on my door. My mind’s gone numb, it’s the only way I can think of surviving this. Otherwise, I’m afraid of what I will do.
Quinn is here to collect me.
“WHY DO THEY LOOK ANGRY?”
Quinn looks to me then out the door. There are men standing in front of a van. I recognize some from that night. My hands skim down my skirt, and Quinn hands me something.
“It will take the edge off,” is all he says.
I take it straight away not even questioning what he’s given me. We get out, and just as I start putting one foot in front of the other, my name is called. Not my name, his name for me. Turning fast, I see him. His hands touch my face, his lips inches from mine.
How did we get here?
How did he let me get to this place?
I’m broken. Now beyond repair.
“Come back to me, Saskia.” He’s never, not once, called me by my real name. Something inside of me moves. Just a little. But not enough to hold onto him.
Why can’t I hold onto him?
“Ryken…” My voice is weak, it will always be weak. His love overpowers mine, even when it shouldn’t. He loves me more, of this I’m sure. Even if my heart only bleeds for him, it doesn’t know how to love like he does.
My heart… it’s broken.
“Come back, Saskia.”
Shaking my head, I step back so his lips don’t come near me. So his hands, hands that only know how to bring me pleasure, don’t touch me. Because sometime, somehow, I want those hands to hate me. I deserve it. I deserve it all. I deserve everything coming.
I’m broken.
“You need to leave.”
Stepping back into the hands of the man who will take me. They’re cold and unlike the hands that were once touching me. Wanting to give me other things. Things only Ryken could give me. He shakes his head then steps forward. Quinn touches Ryken, pulls him back, so he can’t move forward to me again.
“Don’t do this, Saskia, I can fix it.”
My head shakes, a tear falls. “Some things are just meant to be broken, Ryken. Some things you can’t fix.”
“I don’t believe you.”
Tears fall to my mouth, and I taste the salt.
“Quinn, don’t let him follow.” My eyes skirt to Quinn, who can only supply me with a nod.
Nothing else is to be done.
Hands pull me, almost tripping me, as I try to keep upright while pulling me further away from him.
It’s what’s best. Because…
“I’m broken.”
“You’re mine.”
Shaking my head, the hand that holds me grips me harder. A bruise will be there in the morning.
“I’m not. Fight for Livia. Love her.”
Quinn’s hand holds tighter on Ryken as he makes a move for me again. The men who are next to me grip their guns as they look to him. They know if he wanted to he could shoot them all, and Quinn would help. I’ve heard stories of how lethal Ryken’s become. Stories get around like the infected. They spread. His stance in this underworld is still one of the strongest.
Quinn’s just as dark.
“It’s you I want.”
Shaking my head as the man tells me to move. The car is at the back of my legs, I can feel the steel hitting them.