Chapter 70

* Ryder *

“What’s this fuck nut up to? It’s a given that when one of these assholes starts showing his ass, it means there’s something much worse he wants to keep hidden from the world. Knowing what I know about his ilk, I can take a wild guess as to what that might be. I’d bet everything I own that this asshole is involved in kiddie trafficking and, worst.”

“Who the hell gave Lyon a newspaper?” I was still trying to decipher his rant when Mancini asked that question to the room at large.

“I don’t think anyone gave it to him; it was delivered to the house this morning,” Tyler answered.

“I’m sorry, I must’ve signed up for some kind of daily subscription.” The way they were acting, I felt as if I had committed a crime.

“Who is he talking about?” I asked Mancini since Lyon was still scowling at the paper.

“Who knows?”

“Asshole politicians. Every last one of them was either bullied on the playground, and now they’re taking their shit out on the rest of the world, or they were the bullies who never outgrew that stupid shit.” I guess that was my answer, even though he wasn’t talking to me directly.

I was already nervous as hell because we were getting ready to leave the country. The speed at which these guys move was both satisfying and worrying. Of course, it was good that they had the resources to find the stolen teenagers as quickly as they had, though they hadn’t shared how they’d done it with me and weren’t planning to.

But I was worried about leaving her so soon without a valid explanation. She’s going to be busy shooting for a while, but this thing isn’t going to be an overnight grab-and-go. In other words, I have no idea how long it’s going to take, and I won’t be able to run back and forth once we get started so as not to give away our plans.

I still had a lot to take care of on the home front as well, like getting out of my contract with Scott, which was being dealt with right now thanks to the Saunders group and the whole deal with Mary Hudson, though legally, there wasn’t anything I could do to her on my end.

I thought that that’s what these guys were after, that they would have her and Scott arrested, but so far, nothing has been said about that. I didn’t kid myself that they were going to let them get away, but I was a bit afraid to ask what their plans were for them.

From what I’ve come to know about Lyon, I was afraid he’d bury the whole lot of them as he’s always ranting about doing. Something the others always seem to laugh off as a joke, but I have quickly come to realize is not quite the case.

His phone rang, and he put the paper away and answered, but more chaos ensued. “What’s up, Mengele? I’m not going to pick up anything for anybody, so don’t ask. I already got the crap you asked me for. What is it that you want now?” He said all that before the kid even said hello, I’m thinking.

“She what?” He looked over at me and then at his men, then sighed. “Okay, I’ll take care of it. What do you mean you already did? Fine. No, I’m not mad; why would I be mad? I thought you didn’t like him, what do you care? Fine, goodbye.”

“What was that about?” Mancini asked as soon as he hung up. Lyon kept his eyes on me when he answered.

“Your ex rented a car and changed her appearance; my kid thinks she’s headed to New York, which should take her a few days at least according to what level of crazy she’s at right now.”

“What does that mean?” I was already panicking at her reasons for heading there, and his cryptic statement only made it worst.

“If she straps a diaper on her ass and drives straight through, it can take forty hours or so, give or take. If she stops to rest up overnight, it will take longer. You’ve been high before. You know how some of that shit you took could keep you up all night. Crazy as she is, she could probably make it there on foot.”

I’m not sure if I should appreciate the fact that he doesn’t skirt around the issue of my addiction or be highly offended. I know enough to know that he wouldn’t care either way. “Why does Catalina think you would be mad at her?” Once again, it was Mancini who asked.

“Because she sent Devon and Quinn to join the others to look after his woman.” He nodded his head in my direction. “She claimed she did it to give him peace of mind. So much for being mad at him and not liking his cheating ass.” Geez, this guy.

“I didn’t cheat, exactly.”

“Why don’t we ask your girl how she feels about that?” Enough said!

“Does it seem to you that Mengele has been getting rid of almost all the men on the island? At this point, only Flannagan, the twins, and a few runts will be left.”

“What is it?” The one named Connor, who had joined them over the weekend when I was gone, asked.

“Dafuq, do you mean what it is? My kid doesn’t do anything by chance. Check your women. Mancini, make sure the security feed to the island hasn’t been tampered with, and don’t let them pull the wool over your eyes, you fucks.”

“Damn, what the hell could they be up to?”

“Are you kidding me?” Lyon grumbled while each man seemed to reach for his phone. I was lost as hell but kept my lips zipped since no one asked me for my input. Until I remembered that he said he thought Janie was headed to New York.

“I have to warn Elena.”

“That’s a negative. If you tell her that nut is on the way there, all it’s going to do is make her worry. We already have more than enough men on her, and with Mengele sending more, not to mention her own private detail, she should be fine.”

That still didn’t seem like enough. “You can pull out now, kid, and go be with your girl. No one will blame you.” One thing about these guys is they never seem to judge, and though it was on the tip of my tongue to ask what he would do in this situation, I knew I would gain more respect from them and for myself as well if I made the decision on my own.

“I think I’m going back to New York.” I waited for the fallout, but instead, he smiled and walked over to clap me on the shoulder.

“Good man. I would’ve made the same decision. There are more than enough of us here to get the job done, so there are no worries there.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really. My wife and kids will always come first, and that goes for every man in this room.” The others nodded, making me feel like less of a monster for giving up so soon, but the thought of her being a sitting duck for even more bullshit from Janie would’ve hounded my every step if I got on that plane to go with them.

“Is there anything else I can do, though? Maybe I can pay for some stuff.”

“No need. We’ve got it covered, kid. This is what we do.”

“What about that one girl that was still missing?”

“We’re still working on it. We’ve waited as long as we can, but it’s not fair to leave the others there while we try to find her. We’re gonna try not to make it too obvious that it is a sting, that way, their little network won’t catch on, but that’s the risk we’ll have to take.”

Apparently, Janie’s little televised rant had helped them because most of the men who had bought these girls had moved them to different locations overnight in fear that the heat would come knocking at their door before long. Since Lyon and his squad had already found most of the buyers, again, I don’t know how, but Janie’s notes had helped a lot there as well; they already had eyes on their marks.

I’m guessing that is why most of their people were off the island since they had been running around the globe locating these people and setting up surveillance. According to Mancini, this was all part of the nieces’ plan, but I can’t see how. How could they have known what Janie would say in front of the cameras or how the perpetrators would react?

I’ve stopped asking that kind of question out loud because as much as I have come to think these guys like me, they treat the nieces like national treasures, and I get the feeling one wrong word from me might not go over so well. But I’m dying to know how the hell three little girls became so smart.

“Cord, get him back to New York. I don’t have to tell you that no one needs to know where he’s going. Russo went back to wherever the fuck he came from, but he said the New York mansion is available when needed.”

“We’ve got Andros’s place on the Hudson as well.”

“They’re looking for someplace to lay low, Mancini, not putting out a hit.”

“Funny! Anyway, it’s an option.” Mancini offered.

“Then again, maybe we should let Andros do his thing.” Lyon snorted. I got the feeling that I did not want to know what they were talking about.

“Okay, kid, go get your girl. If I were you, I wouldn’t tell her about the other one making her way to the city. It’ll only stress her unnecessarily, but keep your head on a swivel and watch your six.” I won’t lie; I myself know how much I have grown in the last little while, but when he or one of the others speak to me in their jargon, I feel more included than at any other time in my life.

“I will, don’t worry.” I have no interest in seeing Janie ever again, and I damn sure don’t want her anywhere near Elena, but I guess if there was going to be a confrontation, I’d just as well get it over and done with sooner rather than later.

I’m not sure what legal action can be taken against her and her family, if any, and the lawyers don’t seem to think that there is anything that can be done. Mary was the one who had blackmailed Rachel into drugging Elena, and though Janie had been the one to benefit from all their misdeeds, that was not against the law.

There are moments when I imagine doing the most unimaginable things to her and all involved, but it would only lead to me being thrown behind bars and away from Elena, which is not something I’m willing to forfeit for the momentary gratification it would bring me to break Janie’s neck.

I’d left her with nothing, which was about all I could do at this point apart from exposing her for what she had done. Then again, she’d started that ball rolling on her own, and the Internet was still in a feeding frenzy, looking for more information.

I know my house had been staked out for days as well as Elena’s place in New York, which Lyon’s people were doing a good job keeping secure. If I hadn’t had a front-row seat, the allegations that had been flying fast and furiously in the last few days would’ve seemed like something out of a very poorly written fanfiction.

But the fact that only the half of it had been shared with yet more left unsaid was a testament to just how screwed up my life had been in the last five years. When I think about the twists and turns these people had gone through to break us up for their own selfish gain, I find it hard to wrap my head around.

If I hadn’t lived it myself, I’d deny that such a thing was possible. As screwed up as I was with drugs and other messed up childish behavior, a part of me was still the innocent little boy I’d been before being tossed into the limelight, and that boy still saw the best in people and expected everyone to have at least an ounce of goodness in them.

It was a hard pill to swallow, and I was still coming to terms with the fact that I had been betrayed and duped by everyone around me except for Elena. She’d tried her best to warn me and, in the end, got hurt the worst.

I’ve had to revisit my every interaction with these people, at least the ones I can remember, and the shame and regret I felt for falling for their bullshit lies, realizing how gullible and stupid they must have perceived me to be, leaves me feeling both angry and ashamed.

I don’t know how long it’s going to take before I can forgive myself for what I’ve done to her because, at the end of the day, I still hold myself responsible for all of it. I was the only one who owed her anything as I was the one in the relationship with her.

I’m the one who’d made promises to her, so though they were wrong for what they did, it was me who had let it happen. My lack of trust and my screwed-up mentality had caused this. They’d read me every step of the way and used my stupidity against me. I never knew I could hate anyone as much as I now hate those three people.

The more upset I get at myself, the more I hate them. As to that, I haven’t spoken to my mom much either, beyond telling her that I was getting out of the situation.

I’m not quite clear what part she played in this whole farce, but knowing that she had condoned what went down in the beginning and only came to her senses once she realized the truth about Janie bothered me on some level. And though I’m eternally grateful to her for telling me the truth, I can’t help but distrust her for her part in all this.

You see, the way I now see it, Mom was close to Elena when we were dating. I’d go as far as to say she treated her like her own kid, and I know how much Elena loved and respected her. As my mom, she should’ve kicked my ass for doing that to someone she proclaimed to love, but instead, she’d let others talk her into going along with treating her like shit.

It’s probably a messed-up way to think, but right now, I can’t get over the anger long enough to see straight. In my mind, anyone who played any part in hurting her is no longer accepted. Where was my mom when Janie was using my accounts to attack Elena?

How could she believe that I was the one doing it? And even if she believed that why didn’t she call me out on my shit? It’s a vicious cycle because then I have to remember that Janie had cut her off from having any sort of contact with me, but I still can’t bring myself to forgive her just yet. I guess I’ll forgive her at about the same time I learn to forgive myself.

I hadn’t given much thought to Janie, or what was going to happen to her once I learned that there was no legal recourse for me for what she had done, and now she was headed to New York. That city wasn’t big enough for her and Elena to be there at the same time, so instead of lollygagging, I headed upstairs to my lonely bedroom and grabbed a suitcase, and threw some stuff inside before heading to the airstrip with a couple of Lyon’s guys.

I did feel a bit guilty about not following through with my plans to be there when they rescued the kidnapped girls, but as hard as it may sound, she had to come first. I wouldn’t be any use to them if my mind was on her and whether or not she was safe anyway, so this was the best outcome for everyone.

I didn’t call to tell her that I was coming; there was no time, and by the time I was being snuck into her building in disguise, the only thing I cared about was seeing her. It had only been one day since I left her, but it already felt like forever.