Very Bad Things (3 page)

Her thoughts were a jumbled mess, making no sense to
her at all. Why wasn’t she screaming for help? What was the point in screaming?
No one would save her. This man didn’t strike her as the kind to have people
waiting for him. Wherever she was, they were alone together.

He killed Jake.

She couldn’t get away from the thought or the image of
Jake dead on the floor. They’d not been great friends. He was just the only
person she felt comfortable enough to ask to borrow sugar. They didn’t really
know each other. He’d not really been a friend to her, just a neighbor.

“
You’re still not screaming.”

Again, she licked her lips, not knowing what to say to
him.

“
Why are you not screaming?”

“
Would it matter?” she asked.

“
No, it wouldn’t. If you feel the need to scream, go ahead. You could
scream as long and as loud as you like and no one would answer you. I’m the
only one here.”

“
Then why should I do it?”

Why are you questioning a killer?

Do you have a death wish?

Ryker smirked. “Good point. You’d just be wasting your
voice.”

“
Are you going to kill me?” She didn’t want to ask the question but knew
in her heart she couldn’t handle not knowing what was going on. What was her
future? Would she be looking down the barrel of a gun very soon?

He was scary and not just because of his scars. She’d
never seen a man so large, muscular, and menacing.

“
At last, she asks something sensible.” He took a sip of the dark liquid
in the glass. His gaze didn’t move away from her. What was he thinking? What
was he planning?

Would she beg for death before he allowed her to
finally die? She hoped for a quick and clean death. Fiona hated pain of any
kind and wasn’t afraid to beg if it came to it. He tensed, and she couldn’t
help but wince, closing her eyes so she didn’t see anything.

He chuckled. “I’m not going to kill you.”

She blew out a breath and forced herself to open her
eyes, staring back at him. “You’re not?”

Another sip of his drink and he once again tilted his
head to the side. “Well, it depends on how you answer my next questions.”

“
Please, I promise I won’t say anything. I’m nothing. I’m no one, please.
I don’t want to die.” Her life was miserable. There was no one in her world
who
cared about her, yet she knew she didn’t want to die at
his hands or any hands. She hoped to one day marry a man she loved or at the
very least cared about. Maybe in time have a couple of kids and dogs and they
could all grow old together. If this man wished, he’d take everything away from
her. She’d have nothing but the few memories she’d managed to create for
herself.

The pain of losing my family.

Great life, Fiona, great fucking life.

The sound of a chair scraping along the floor filled
every one of her senses. She tried to move away from where he sat, but there
was no give in the bindings. He’d secured her well.

“
Now, I don’t want you to bore me with your begging. I’ve never been into
begging so it won’t do you any good.” He placed the glass on top of the drawer
beside the bed. “What’s your name? If you lie, I will know and then I’ll punish
you. I’m not scared to hurt you. I heard him call you Fiona back at the
apartment. Is that it?”

The image of Jake dead on the floor entered her mind
again. Yeah, she knew Ryker wasn’t afraid to hurt her. He’d probably killed
lots of women.

She nodded. “Yes, my name is Fiona.”

“
Fiona what?”

“
Sterling.”

“
Your name’s Fiona Sterling?” he asked.

“
Yes.”

“
How old are you?”

“
I’m twenty-three years old.”

How was she answering these questions clearly?

Blowing out a breath, she stared up at the ceiling
wishing there was something to look forward to other than her untimely death.

Morbid, so
fucking morbid.

“
You’re young. You don’t strike me as the kind of woman who’s had a hard
life. What’s your story?” he asked.

“
I don’t have a story.” She was talking to a guy she just saw murder her
on
ly
friend and now he was asking her so many
normal
questions. It didn’t seem right to her.
The accusations he’d thrown at Jake—were they true? She hadn’t spent any
length of time with Jake. Fiona had only ever visited him a few times for sugar
or coffee. Crap, she needed to learn to stop giving her life story to total
strangers.

“
You’ve got a story. Everyone in this shitty little world has a story.
Some stories are fucking boring while others hold a little excitement.” He
shrugged, leaning back in his chair. “What’s yours?”

“
I’m not a murderer.”

“
No? Well, I am.”

Her heart raced at how easily he talked about killing.

He chuckled. “I’m not going to kill you.”

“
Why did you kill Jake?” He wasn’t going to let her go, so what was the
point in not asking?

“
That’s private.”

“
He was my … friend.”

“
So? It doesn’t mean he wasn’t a little shit who fucked off the wrong
people. And he wasn’t your friend. He was a neighbor.” He took hold of the
glass and pressed the glass to his lips.

“
Jake was a nice man to me.”

“
He was an addict and a waste of space. It would have only been a matter of
time before he got you doing more.”

She shook her head. No, Jake had helped her when no
one else had.

“
What’s your story?”

Fiona closed her eyes, feeling the tears fill her
eyes. She didn’t want any droplet to fall, yet she knew it was going to happen.
Her tears were already leaking out of her eyes.

“
I can sit here all day and night. I’m sure you’re going to need the
bathroom and food. It’s up to you if you want to get either. I’d start talking
if I was you.”

“
You’re a fucking monster,” she said.

All he did was smile. “It’s not the worst thing I’ve
been called.”

She didn’t imagine it was. His scars didn’t bother
her, but she imagined there were plenty of people who were repulsed by them.

“
I had a family.
A nice one with loving parents and
siblings.”

“
You don’t anymore?”

She shook her head. Speaking about them aloud was too
hard.

“
No, I don’t have anyone. The only person who actually gave a shit about
me was Jake, and you killed him.” Staring up at the ceiling she wondered if
there was going to be any way of getting out of this.

“
What happened to your family?” he asked.

Blowing out a breath, she didn’t look away from the
ceiling. “They all died in a plane crash. I had one more exam and then I was
going to join them. Bad weather and they didn’t make it. No one on that plane
made it.”

Saying the words didn’t make her feel any easier.

“
You’ve been on your own since then?”

“
Yes. I work, and I sleep.” Her life had turned into one long line of
nothingness.

“
Pretty shit and mundane life if the only person in your world was a drug
dealing addict like Jake.”

She nodded. How could she deny it? There was a time
when someone had loved her, cared about her. Fiona hadn’t known Jake all that
well even though she trusted him with the truth about her parents.

The tears fell thick and fast.

“
Can I go to the bathroom now?” she asked, feeling the need to relieve
her bladder.

He didn’t say anything for so long that she turned to
look at him.

Neither of them spoke as she stared back at him,
waiting.

“
We’re in the middle of nowhere,” he said.

She didn’t have any intention of running. Ryker stood
and started to untie the knot holding her hands together. She gasped as
circulation came back as she moved her arms.

He gripped her arm and helped her off the bed. The
strength in his touch was hard for her to ignore. With quick movements, he
walked her to a door along the wall. He opened the door, flicking the light on
to show the bathroom. “Take a piss and don’t try anything funny. I’m not in the
fucking mood.”

She closed the bathroom door and rested against it.

Pressing a hand to her racing heart, she wondered what
he expected her to do. She wasn’t going to run. There was no one for her to run
to for help. She was trapped in the middle of nowhere with a killer.

Great, Fiona, way to go.

Chapter Four

Ryker grabbed the whiskey bottle and poured his glass
full. Why had he brought that girl back to his place? It was a stupid decision,
but it was like he had been moving on instinct. He couldn’t just let her leave
his place, couldn’t thrust her out there knowing what she had seen, and
realizing that if Tricks or any of his other men found out she was alive they’d
snuff out her life. But he couldn’t tell the man he worked for that he had the
girl that had witnessed the murder Ryker had carried out on
Tricks’s
order. That would complicate things and put her in a position Ryker didn’t want
her in.

He leaned against the kitchen counter and stared out
the window above the sink. He could hear the water running in the
bathroom,
and although he was pretty sure fear and
intelligence would keep her from running, it wouldn’t make a difference anyway.
There was nothing out there for her, not for miles upon miles. He had meant it
when he said no one would hear her scream. They were alone, utterly alone.
Being in the line of work that dealt with death at his hands, Ryker needed to
make sure that no one snuck up on him. It was a rare occasion when someone got
the upper hand, and if they did he made sure it never happened again. This
property was twenty acres of solitude, and his cabin was right in the middle of
it.

The sound of the toilet flushing had him turning away
from the window and staring at the bathroom door. He didn’t know what she was
doing in there, maybe looking for an escape, but there was none. He’d also made
sure to take out anything that could be used as a weapon. She had only been
passed out for a short amount of time, but he had made sure to lock up the shit
that she could use against him, not that he would let her get that far anyway.
But Ryker wasn’t all for taking chances.

Yet you took a big fucking chance bringing her here when Tricks could
easily come to the cabin and find h
er
.

He took a swig straight from the bottle when he had
finished off the booze in his glass, and stared at the strip of light that came
from under the bathroom door. He couldn’t see her shadow, and although he
shouldn’t care how she was feeling right now, a part of him did hate that she
was afraid that he’d hurt her. Of course it was the smart reaction for her to
have, because he
was
a cold-blooded
killer and had no remorse over the individuals that he took out as part of the
job. But that didn’t mean he didn’t have feelings, and having taken her away
from the only home she had known, and the fact she had no family, had a part of
him feeling like a bastard.

The feeling of his cell vibrating in his pocket had
him taking it out and looking at the number that flashed across the screen. He
was using a burner phone, and although he didn’t have any numbers programmed in
it, he always recognized
Tricks’s
number. Turning
away from the bathroom door and moving into the other bedroom, Ryker leaned
against the doorframe.

“
Yeah?” he said low.

“
You handle it?” Tricks said, and the scratchy, deep voice of the man
that he worked for came through the receiver.

“
You really need to confirm that?” Ryker said, knowing that Tricks was
wasted by the fact he called him only hours after he had ordered the hit, and
that he was slurring his words. The sound of music and women giggling came through,
and Ryker scrubbed his hand over his face. When Tricks was in a mood then a lot
of people died. He was a bad, evil bastard, but then again Ryker wasn’t an
honorable man in the least. But when Tricks decided to get trashed, he was
different, becoming a man that didn’t care about formalities, was sloppy in his
actions, and even more unstable than his crazy ass usually was.