Very Bad Things (2 page)

“
You know why I’m here,” the man said, stepping across the threshold. He
closed the door behind him, coming forward into the room. Any chance of anyone
finding them was slim to none.
He filled the
doorway, and even from the short distance, he made her feel small.

“
Fiona isn’t part of this. Leave her alone and let her leave.”

“
How do I know that? She’s carrying a small jar. Surely she’s part of
something. Haven’t you gotten her hooked yet, Jake? Not getting her to work for
you on the sidelines?”

Jake shook his head.

“
What’s going on?” she asked, and then all words ceased as she saw the
gun appear in the man’s hand. It was like he pulled it out of nowhere.

She couldn’t pull her eyes away from the gun. He’d not
pointed it at anyone. Jake didn’t look surprised.

“
Please, let her go.”

“
You fucked up, Jake. You know there’s no way out of this, but maybe I
can save the girl before you crush her fucking spirit.”

Jake gripped her arm tightly. She gasped, crying out.

He released her arm, and she took a step away from
him.

“
I don’t think so, sweetheart. Stay right where you are.”

“
Ryker, please.”

The man shook his head. “No, I’m not letting her go.”

As if in slow motion he raised the gun, which had a
silencer attached. Jake jerked and fell on the floor. Beside her blood and
brains spattered his furniture. It was then she saw the large bag of white
powder with the tiny bags. Jake had also packed a gun.

He’d been expecting this visit.

Frozen to the spot, she placed a hand over her mouth
to try to stop herself from crying out. She was going to be sick. One jar of sugar
and she’d seen her first murder.

Glancing up she saw Ryker heading toward her. Ryker,
was that his real name?

Tensing, she took a step back, breathing in.

You’re going to die. You’ve just witnessed a murder. There’s no way
you’re going to live.

He stepped closer, using the tip of the gun to move
her hair off her face. Staring up into his eyes, she saw his dead eyes. They
were blue, yet they were dead inside.

“
What am I going to do with you?” he asked.

Tensing, she dropped the jar she’d been holding onto
for dear life. Her whole body was shaking, and nothing she did could stop it.

“
You’re a mousy little thing, aren’t you?”

Was this what murderers did? Taunt their prey?

“
Are you going to kill me?” she asked, licking her lips.

He didn’t respond, but neither did he back away from
her.

What was he waiting for?

Ryker stepped away to glance around the apartment. He
pointed the gun at her.

Closing her eyes, she tried to block everything else
out. First her parents were killed and now her friend. When was her life ever
going to be normal? There was no one to blame for her parents whereas the man
in front of her was responsible for killing Jake.

He pulled out a cell phone and dialed a number. She
kept a good distance away from him.

“
Target down.”

Tensing up even further, she stared at him. What the
hell was going to happen to her?

He closed his cell and glared up at her.

“
Sorry about this.”

She didn’t get to ask him what was going on. Pain and
darkness followed the rise of his arm.

Chapter Two

He shouldn’t have taken her that was for fucking sure.
Ryker Black glanced in his rearview mirror at the girl who was far too young
and innocent to be mixed up with the likes of him. He was the devil, and she
seemed so angelic it made his blackened and cold heart beat a little harder.
When he had gone to that drug addict’s place, hired by a man even more
dangerous than Ryker, shit had gotten real. Ryker might sell his skills to the
right person for the right price, but taking a young woman with him because she
had seen and heard far too much, was something he had never done.

The ring he wore on his pinky finger had nothing to do
with fashion. A small needle could be extracted from it, and the tip of it
covered in a concoction that could be used to make someone incapacitated. Ryker
should have killed her, because what the fuck did he think he was going to do
with her? He glanced at her once more in the mirror, watched her chest rise and
fall twice, and then focused on the road again. Ryker had to be a stupid fucking
fool, because right now he was heading out of town, deep into the mountains,
and actually planned on keeping her at his home.
What are you doing?
He scrubbed a hand over his face, and the image
of that girl in the backseat slammed into his head. The shithole she was living
in would have made him assume she sold her ass, or maybe shot up heroin. But he
had looked in her face, seen in her eyes that she was clean, and knew that the
situation had just gotten more complicated. She was at the wrong place at the
wrong time.

He took the turn sharply, and couldn’t get the image
of her curvy body right behind him, unconscious and looking so good, out of his
head. He tightened his hands on the steering wheel and felt his anger slam into
him over and over again. He wasn’t just angry because he was a stupid asshole
for taking her and not just snuffing out her life, but because he
wanted
her.

He took the last turn, drove his truck up the steep
incline, and went deeper into the mountains. He was about an hour out of the
city, and he needed to get to his place since she’d be waking up soon. Tricks
would also be calling him and checking in on the final word. Jake was dead, and
soon his body would start to smell and alert others to his presence, well,
unless the men he owed money to on the streets came knocking first. Jake might
have wanted to protect the girl, but deep down he was a criminal, a drug dealer
and addict, and had stolen from the man that Ryker worked for.

Fiona.

It was like a name in a child’s book, not meant to be
associated with a woman living in that type of environment. Yeah, he knew she
wasn’t involved, and had believed Jake when he said she was innocent of knowing
anything, but it didn’t matter. Fiona had seen his face, had been staring at
him pretty fucking hard, too. She was a risk that Ryker couldn’t afford to take
in letting her walk away.

The cabin was small, intimate, and isolated. It was
surrounded by mountains and trees, giving him the solace, stillness, and the
peace he desperately needed at times. Ryker took liberties to make sure this
property was protected. He had security cameras around the property, and it was
far enough back from the main road and hidden behind trees that passersby
couldn’t see it. In the line of work he did—hired to kill—he had to make sure
his shit was taken care of, and everything was in place.

He drove his car into the garage, and the weight had
the floor activating and
lowerin
g
. His truck was
taken down a level, and once it locked into place he pulled off the platform.
The floor he had just been on went back up, sealing him in the underground
basement of his home. It was a security measure he had built into the seemingly
rustic and simple cabin. Extravagant maybe, but it was a security he needed. He
pulled the vehicle to a parking spot, cut the engine, and just sat there for a
moment. The dull lighting in the underground basement offered enough
illumination that he could see, but wasn’t bright and obnoxious. He looked at
himself in the rearview again, saw the nasty scar he had gotten years ago, and
lifted his hand to run a finger along the raised flesh. He remembered the day
he got the mark, and even now he didn’t even know if he should have walked away
alive from the situation. He was a cold-blooded killer, had hatred boiling in
his veins, but he wouldn’t have had it any other way.

He climbed out of the truck and walked back to the
rear of the vehicle. After grabbing his black duffle that carried twenty
different pieces of firearms, blades, and even some items that weren’t legal in
the United States, he went to the backdoor, and opened it. Ryker stared at the
young woman still unconscious, and let his gaze travel over her body. She was
in clothes that were formfitting and that showed off her curves. She was the
first woman in a long fucking time that actually made Ryker feel something
other than the evil that lurked within him. He still didn’t know why he had
taken her back to his place, or what he planned to do with her. As it was she’d
be his prisoner, and how well would that go?

He put the strap of the duffel over his shoulder and
reached out for her. She was curvy like a woman, and not all skin and bones,
but she was tiny in comparison to him. He cradled her in his arms, and stared
down at her face. Her dark hair was long and wavy, and even with her eyes
closed he remembered the greyness of the color when she had stared at him with
fear. Her chest was full, and her cleavage spilled out over the top in this
position. His cock jerked forward, stirred as if the damn thing had a life of
its own, and he had to hold in the groan that would have came forth from him.
Yeah, she had a lot to fear from him, and Ryker wished he could take that away.
But her not being afraid of him would be the stupidest reaction from her,
because he was one deadly motherfucker.

He shut the door, and made his way to the stairs that
would take him to the upper level. After he unlocked two doors, and bolted them
back in place, he carried her to his bedroom. He had plenty of room so that he
could have let her sleep in a separate bedroom, but he wanted her close, needed
to make sure she didn’t try to run. Even if she didn’t somehow escape him
before he figured out what he wanted to do with her, she wouldn’t get far. He
knew these woods like the back of his hand, and they were miles away from
anyone else. She’d get lost and then die out there before she got away from
him.

He set her on his bed and took a step back. All of the
lights were off, but he could see her perfectly from the moonlight that came
through the skylight. Her ass was big and thick and her belly slightly rounded.
Yes, she definitely had the thickness of a full-figured woman, and that had
Ryker’s cock punching forward, hard and insistent.

She’d wake up soon, probably scream and fight him, but
he expected that. He went over to his dresser, set the duffle on it for a
second, and reached inside for some rope. Once he was back to her, he tied her
hands to the headboard, feeling like a sick motherfucker for the first time in
his life, and then moved back a step again. There she was, all spread out on
his bed and bound like some kind of sacrifice, and all he could feel was this
filthy arousal drumming through his body. He grabbed a rag and gagged her,
because even if no one would be able to hear her screaming, he sure as hell
didn’t want to listen to it. And then he left her alone in his room to get a
stiff drink, because right now a little liquid oblivion sounded like a good
idea.

Chapter Three

Ouch!

Fiona’s head hurt, and as she opened her eyes, her
vision was blurry.

What the hell happened?

Her thoughts and memories were all over the place.
What was the last thing she did? That was right—she had gone to Jake’s for some
sugar.

Jake!

Pulling on her arms, she gasped, and suddenly her
vision cleared. Staring up at her arms she saw her wrists were bound together.
The rope hurt her arms as they tied her to the bed. Crap, what the hell had she
gotten herself into? The man, Ryker,
yes, that
was his
name. He had killed Jake.

Her heart raced and her mouth ran dry at what she’d
witnessed. There had been so much blood. Why did all these things keep
happening to her? First her parents and now Jake were gone from her. Was she a
bad person? Was this the way God paid her back?

No, stop thinking like that.

“
I see you’re awake.”

She looked to the end of the bed. Ryker stared at her.
In one hand he held a glass with dark amber liquid inside. He didn’t look drunk
as he observed her.

“
Strange,” he said.

“
What is?” Her words came out croaky.

“
Most women in your situation scream or do something to try to stop
what’s going on. You, you’re not even crying.” He tilted his head to the side,
watching her.
“Interesting.”

Fiona licked her lips trying to figure out if that was
a good thing or not.

She looked around the room or as much of the room as
she could see, which
wasn’t a lot
. There was no way
she was getting out of here alive.

He killed Jake.

He’s going to kill me.

I don’t want to die.