RYDER (Slater Brothers 4) (18 page)

Ryder blinked. “No, wait a second—”

“You knew who she was and you let me date you while knowin’ what your brother was doin’ to her? Did Dominic know, too? Did all your brothers’ know? Were you all laughin’ at me behind me back because I was too clueless to see what was right in front of me?”

“What? Fuck, no, baby—”

“Don’t baby me, arsehole!” I spat.

I turned and ran out of the bedroom with Ryder cursing as he got out of bed and hurriedly dressed himself. I ran up to the top floor of the house, and banged on the bedroom door that I knew belonged to Dominic.

“Bronagh!” I shouted, wrapping my fists against the door just as Ryder jogged up the stairs and came to a stop behind me. He sighed and placed his hands on my hips, but backed off when I slapped his hands.

I heard a pained groan from inside the bedroom then Dominic shouted, “We’re busy!”

Busy?
I gasped.
Fucking busy!

I heard Ryder laugh from behind me, so I jabbed my elbow into his gut causing him to yelp.

“Get away from me sister you pervy little fucker or I’ll end you!” I bellowed.

It took a few seconds, but eventually the door to Dominic’s room opened wide revealing my eighteen-year-old sister who looked hung-over as hell, and a half naked Slater brother lingering across the room with his eyes glued to her arse.

Typical man.

“I can’t remember anythin’ or how I got up here, but I didn’t do anythin’ with him. I swear!” Bronagh gushed to me.

I let my eyes roam over her looking for any sign of injury, and luckily I saw none, but what couldn’t be missed were the love bites scattered over her neck. I felt heat crawl up my neck and spread out over my face.

“You
better
not have touched her without permission—”

“I didn’t!” Dominic cut me off, his anger evident. “I’m not a fucking rapist!”

I growled. “You better not be because I’ll fuckin’ rape
you
if you harmed her in any way!”

Dominic’s smirk put an instant scowl on my sister’s face, but his reply had her flat out glaring at him.

“You can rape me anytime you want, gorgeous.”

He was a Slater brother,
I thought,
there was no denying it.

“You’re a prick!” My sister snapped at him.

Dominic flicked his eyes to my sister and rolled them. “I’m kidding, don’t be mad at me for that. Even though your sister
is
smoking hot, you’re hotter.”

Did he really think that was a smart thing to say?
I wondered,
because it really wasn’t.

Bronagh set her jaw and said, “Piss off, Dominic!” before turning to me, and grabbing hold of my hand. “We’re leavin’!” She stated.

I nodded my head, wholeheartedly agreeing with her decision. With my sister’s hand in mine, I turned and narrowed my eyes at Ryder.

“Move.”

He didn’t move.

“I’m not letting you leave here until you hear me out!” He demanded, the firmness in his voice giving me chills.

Bronagh scoffed from behind me, and before I could stop her she said, “You can’t keep her here, arsehole.”

I felt Bronagh’s hand tense in mine when Ryder switched his soul-shuttering glare from me to her, and I
felt
how scared she became of him. She shifted behind me a little bit, blocking most of her body from Ryder’s stare. I had to turn so she wouldn’t twist my arm off at the angle she was tugging it at.

“Don’t look at me sister like that, do you hear me?” I snapped at Ryder. “You’re scarin’ her!”

He scrubbed his face with his hands. “Bran, baby, I didn’t know Bronagh was your sister. You called her Bee when you talked about her. If I had known who she was I would have told you so you didn’t look at me like you did last night.”

I knew what way I looked at him last night, like I did just a few minutes ago. I looked at him like he played me.

“Hold up, rewind and freeze. Branna… are you seein’ him?” my sister asked, blatant shock laced in her tone.

Shit. Fuck.

“I wasn’t keepin’ it from you, sweetie.” I assured her. “I met ‘im at Darkness a few weeks ago when I was there with Aideen. We hit it off and went on some dates since then. I wasn’t goin’ to tell you about ‘im until I was sure about ‘im. I know how you feel about people, and I didn’t want to bring ‘im around unless I was sure he was goin’ to
stick
around.” I cut my eyes to Ryder then, and found he was looking at me with a deep intensity.

I was beginning to gather that he was always intense, but had a special intense gaze about him whenever he looked at me, and I’d be damned if I didn’t love it.

“What is your deal with people, Bronagh?” Dominic’s voice asked from behind me, making my sister tense up. I felt her hand squeeze mine to the point of pain.

“It’s
none
of your business,” I snapped at Dominic then looked back to Ryder. “I’m not doin’ this to ‘er. She doesn’t like you, and that means it won’t work between us.”

The pain of Bronagh’s death-like grip on my hand had nothing on the agonising pain that encircled my chest when I spoke those words to Ryder.

Bronagh comes first
, I reminded myself.
Bronagh always comes first.

Ryder’s face was the picture of rage, and something else, as he reached for my free hand, and tugged me away from Bronagh. He wanted to converse in private, but his raised voice meant Bronagh and Dominic could hear everything he was saying.

“You can’t just dump me because your sister doesn’t like getting close to people, Branna. I really like you, and I
care
about you a
lot
,” he said, his eyes drilling into mine.

I knew what the look was. He was telling me that he loved me, but didn’t want to freak Bronagh out more than she already was so he lessened the intensity by changing the word love to care. I greatly appreciated it, and it tore me apart that I might have to let him go.

“I
know
you feel the same way about me. I don’t want this to end. I want you to be my girl. We can take things slow. I won’t press Bronagh out of her comfort zone but please don’t give up on me, on us.”

Well, fuck him anyway,
I thought as I forced the dam in my eyes to stay strong.

I loved this man, and he loved me, but I loved my sister, too, and I couldn’t risk her becoming more withdrawn just so I could be happy. I mentally slapped myself when I realised how unfair that was on me, but Bronagh came first in my life, and she always would. Ryder got that too, which made this harder.

“Branna,” my sister mumbled, pulling me from my thoughts and gaining my attention.

“Don’t break up with ‘im,” she murmured. “I’ll… I’ll try harder for you. I promise.”

I couldn’t hold my tears back at that vow.

“Baby, you don’t have to try for
me
.” I cried. “Try for yourself, this outlook you have isn’t healthy. I want you to let other people in; you can’t only have me in your life. If anythin’ ever happened to me, you would be all alone, and that terrifies me, Bee, more than anythin’.”

Bronagh was silent for a few moments as she mulled things over in her mind, but when she looked at me, she nodded and said, “Okay, I’ll try harder. I promise.”

She switched her gaze from me to Ryder and she lightly blushed.

“Sorry for causin’ trouble for you, Ryder.”

He smiled at her. “I think you just
saved
me a lot of trouble, Bronagh.”

She smiled at him then to me she said, “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about ‘im. You usually can’t keep shite to yourself, so how you didn’t let on about ‘im is beyond me.”

I laughed, sniffled, and then rubbed under her nose. “It was horrible. I wanted to tell you so many times but had to bite me lip or talk about somethin’ random.”

Bronagh chuckled. “So, you’re both like a real couple? Boyfriend and girlfriend?”

Ryder and I looked at each other, smiled, and nodded.

“This should be interestin’.” My sister grumbled

Ryder looked to her. “Why is that?”

“Because she is a freak,” she stressed, “and you will soon learn things about ‘er that will have you runnin’ for the hills. For example, she is an OCD cleaner and has multiple personalities. I’m not even jokin’, she could be me sister one minute then me ma and da the next.”

I playfully slapped Bronagh’s arm while Ryder laughed.

“Why would she be your mom or dad?” Dominic asked my sister.

I had forgotten he was there, and from the look of shock on my sister’s face, so did she.

“Our parents’ died nine years ago, Dominic,” I explained. “I’ve been ‘er guardian since I turned nineteen. I took over raisin’ ‘er when our parents passed away, so she considers me her sister, her ma, and da all wrapped into one. ‘er memories with them are limited, because she was so young when they passed. She doesn’t talk about them at all.”

I frowned at my sister as the wheels turned in her mind, and in that moment, I’d have given my left arm to know what she was thinking. She blinked her eyes after a few moments of silence just as Dominic said, “Is that why you have people issues, you won’t get close to anyone in school, or people in general, because you’re afraid you could lose them like you did your parents?”

Bronagh widened her eyes.

“Dominic,” Ryder snapped. “Show some compassion!”

“I was just asking a question.” He defended. “When our parents were killed you took over the mother and father role like Branna did, but I didn’t push everyone away from me because I was afraid they might die. That’s a pretty shitty way to live.”

I wanted to skin the little shite alive for being so blunt.

“I want to go home,” Bronagh said as tears filled her eyes.

“Bronagh,” I whispered and quickly followed her as she pushed past Ryder and ran for the stairs. I heard Ryder shouting at Dominic, and Dominic shouting to Bronagh that he was sorry.

The next few minutes that followed included more arguing and me trying to beat the crap out of Dominic for him being a complete dickhead to my sister. My sister, however, had enough of him and pushed him into the gym room so they could talk in private.

While they spoke I turned to Ryder and said, “It’ll be hard, but we can’t interfere with them, they’ll only argue with us and tell us to mind our own business. Unless we have no other choice, we’re keepin’ our noses
out
of their relationship or their not relationship or whatever it bloody is they have goin’ on.”

Ryder grinned as he put his arm around me and lowered his head to mine, “Yes, sweetie.”

“Oh, my God.” I laughed at the same time Alec and Kane said, “So it begins.”

Alec proceeded to make whipping noises, which only amused Ryder further. I could feel his smile as he kissed me, and it made me smile, too. I had a feeling about us. I didn’t know whether it was good or bad, but it was a very strong feeling and I decided then that Ryder was stuck with me too.

Maybe falling in love with him would be the best thing I ever did… at least I
hoped
it would.

Present day…

“Branna?”

I blinked as I was pulled from a memory and thrust back into my sombre reality.

On a sigh, I called out, “In the kitchen, Bee.”

I stood up as my pregnant sister barrelled into the room, her eyes wild until they landed on me. When she saw me, a breath of what sounded, and looked, like relief left her.

“You’re okay.”

I raised my brows. “Why wouldn’t I be okay?”

My sister crossed the room and hugged me, which caused me to smile as I felt her bump brush against me.

“I was scared you’d do somethin’ stupid.”

I frowned when we pulled apart.

“Because of Dominic?” I quizzed.

“Because you’re goin’ to break up with Ryder.”

Oh.

I swallowed. “How do you—”

“Damien showed up at our house before Dominic could go lookin’ for Ryder and he started askin’ ‘im a bunch of
crazy
questions. Dominic got mad and tried to move to a different room so they could speak in private, but Damien literally grabbed Dominic and pinned him against the sittin’ room wall.” Bronagh said, her eyes wide and she recited what happened. “Branna, I nearly wet meself I was so scared. Damien was bloody furious with Dominic, he said you filled ‘im in on things that Dominic and the other brothers should have told him about long ago.”

My sister took my hands in hers.

“Dominic wouldn’t speak on it when I asked, but Damien told me to talk to you to clear up some of me questions.”

Thanks a lot, Damien!

I groaned in annoyance. “I barely know anythin’ though! It’s one of the main reasons
why
I’m breakin’ up with Ryder!”

“Just start from the beginnin’,” my sister pleaded. “I’m so blindsided by your decision, and the shite Damien was talkin’ about. I knew you were havin’ troubles with Ryder, but damn, sis, you’re really goin’ to walk away from him? You’re
really
goin’ to walk away from Ryder?”

I swallowed down the bile that threatened to shoot up my throat.

“Yes, I’m really goin’ to walk away from Ryder.” I admitted. “I have no choice, Bee…
he
has left me no choice.”