Chapter 92

* Elena *

“Do you remember this?” I opened my eyes sluggishly, barely able to keep them open as tired as I was. I still find it amazing how the body could be resplendently buzzing with excitement while simultaneously sapped of all energy. Not for nothing, but I think Ryder and I have had more sex this time around than we used to before.

I might have mistakenly believed it to be trauma bonding, but I think we were way past that by now. So much had been said, so many misunderstandings finally resolved that now there was nothing between us but the affection we once held for each other with the added bonus of time and experience.

The years apart had added something new to our bond, and believe it or not, I felt closer to him now than ever before. I realize that most of it had to do with clearing the air, but it was also hugely in part because of his sobriety. I never noticed just how much of a difference it would make, but this mature, self-reflecting Ryder was eons above the boy I’d fallen in love with.

There was so much more to him now, and me too. My heart was so full of him, just like before, but now with the knowledge of what it would be like to be without him. Now, the very thought of it makes me ill. I never want to be without him again, and I showed him in many ways throughout the night.

It’s like living our second honeymoon stage on steroids. Not that I’m complaining. Even though I had abstained for the last five years, I’ve always been a very sexual being, especially with him. No matter how much Sydney and sometimes even Rachel had joked that I should get laid to let off some steam over those years, I was never tempted.

Sex for the sake of having sex just never really appealed to me, but my libido had come back full force, and when my mind wasn’t occupied with unnecessary things these days, it was on Ryder and being together like this. Thankfully, he was on the same page. But none of that was going to save him if he didn’t let me sleep.

I was about to say that to him until my eyes landed on what it was that he held in his hand. All tiredness disappeared as I sat bolt-upright in bed. “OH my….” I had to force myself to calm down and not hyperventilate like a ninny. You’re no longer the young girl he met with stars in her eyes but a grown-ass woman; act like it.

I tried, but it was hard. I looked from the box in his hand, and back to him I don’t know how many times, lost for more words but with a million thoughts in my head. “That… is that?”

“Yes, it’s the ring you fawned all over before our world went to shit.”

I’m not sure what it was. I’d already said I believed him about what led him down the path he’d taken in the past, but seeing that ring was like something untying all the knots that remained. The diamond shone through the tears that fell as he lifted my hand and placed the ring on my finger.

There was no fear, no hesitation. I didn’t give any thought to what anyone else might say. Not my mother, not my best friend, not even my fans whom I’ve always been deathly afraid of losing, of disappointing in some way because that’s what I had been taught.

At that moment, as I released a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding, I felt as if the weight of the world was lifted off my shoulders. That one brief moment when I didn’t care about anyone else but him and I felt like I was soaring amidst the clouds.

“Ryder!” I couldn’t get any more words past the lump that had formed in my throat. “When?” He knew what I was asking, thankfully, because I was down to one-word sentences, it seemed like.

“I got it a few days after I got married. I carried this around with me a lot. Somehow, telling myself that I would one day give it to its rightful owner kept me going, even when I was high out of my mind. I used to take it out and look at it when I missed you the most, and I was always deathly afraid of someone else taking it wearing it. She saw it once, coming on to the end.”

He stopped talking and just stared at the ring on my finger. “I’m not sure, but I think that might’ve been one of the things to spring me into action. She asked about it, and I, of course, was honest with her. By then, I’d already seen through all the lies and pretense and hated her beyond measure, so it didn’t matter what my words did to her. In fact, I relished causing her pain.”

“Each time I thought of how she’d lied to get me by her side, the way she and the rest of them had hurt you, I wanted blood. But in the end, it was more important to me to be with you than to get revenge. Still, when I saw her looking for the ring when she thought I wasn’t there was the first time, I felt like maybe it’s time to get my shit together.”

“It still took some doing; I didn’t rush right into getting sober; I had a lotta baggage and a lot of people I trusted telling me the wrong thing. I still can’t believe Steve and Matt. Mary, I can see; she’s always been on my radar because even though I was caught up in the life, part of me still knew that there was something very predatory about her actions, but those two.” He shook his head, and I felt a pang of pity for him.

I’ve never been one to say I told you so, and now would be an awful time to start. There was no reward in being right this time; too many lives had been destroyed by this whole mess, and I still don’t fully understand why. It seems like a bit much to go through to keep two people apart. But so far, that’s the only answer I have.

Each time I think that there must be something else going on, something more at play here, I hit a stumbling block in my head. It seems silly to go to those lengths. I mean, I can see Mary not wanting me to know about her molesting him when he was younger or the things she’d encouraged him to do with her daughters, but there were other ways to go about keeping me in the dark.

They didn’t have to publicly humiliate and destroy me and our blooming relationship to do it. Even if she was mad about me turning her down for the job of being my manager, she didn’t have to go that far, not unless she was crazy. I’d long heard that she was an arrogant narcissist who thought the world revolved around her and the plastic Barbies she’d turned her children into, but I hadn’t been around her enough to notice.

Now she was gone, just like that, in a most horrific way. And so was Steve. “Wait a minute. Don’t you find it strange that both Mary and Steve are just suddenly gone? I mean, I know his death was from a heart attack while hers was outright murder, but isn’t it strange? Do you think there’s some kind of connection?”

“I haven’t given it any thought one way or the other. I’m just glad I didn’t have to get my hands dirty, or I’d probably end up in jail.” I smacked his chest playfully and laid my head back down while holding my hand out to the light. It really was a beautiful ring. I’d fallen in love with it at first sight many years ago.

That day, we’d just been strolling through Amsterdam on a side trip from Paris during one of our rare getaways between jobs. He’d just finished his last tour, and my album was due to hit any day. We’d snuck away just the two of us, the way we’d been fond of doing when we needed a break from the rest of the world.

I’d seen the ring in a display window, the Asscher cut drawing my eye immediately. Something about the old-world beauty of the ring had touched me the way no modern-day obstacle could have.

I must’ve stared at that thing for a solid five minutes without saying a word. He’d noticed, of course, and made mention of it, and when I exclaimed over the beauty of it and all the reasons I liked it, he’d done nothing more than kiss my temple before we walked away from the display window.

I never got any inclination that he cared one way or the other because he never let on. The fact that he’d bought it that long ago said so much to me now that it was almost enough to wipe away years of pain and suffering. Almost, but not quite. I’m only human, after all, and I know that it’s going to take some time for me to completely get over all that had been done to me, to us.

“But why did you get it after getting married to someone else?” The female in me felt just a little bit spitefully gleeful at that, but the feeling was followed closely by remorse for my inhuman thoughts. No matter what, I cannot be like them; I refuse to be.

“Beats me. I know I was high back then, but some part of me must’ve known that this day would come, or at least I hoped it would. I can’t honestly say; I just know I couldn’t let anyone else have that ring.”

I felt tears gather in my eyes again and brushed them away. Sometimes, life is so confusing, and it’s always the most painful part. The ring, the fact that he’d bought it when he had, explained so much about his ordeal throughout this whole thing. I don’t think I’d given enough thought to what he had suffered because I’d always seen him as the culprit. But more and more, I’m beginning to see that he, too, was a victim of this game, whatever it was.

***

*Lyon*

“So she was here to drop off money.” Lying fuck. I let Flanagan spew his shit, knowing full well that he didn’t believe that shit no more than I did. Since I’m not one for beating a dead horse, and the job was already done, there was no point in grilling his wife about her real reasons for being here.

It’s an open secret among the rest of us that the crossbow is her weapon of choice, but if the two of them want to play it that way, they must have their reasons. Add the fact that Mengele is the one who sent her out here, and I want no part in that shit.

“Very well, it’s time to head back to the island. We’ve been gone too long, and the stench of this place is starting to get to me.” Fucking L.A. nothing but a bunch of fuck nuts and drug addicts. Besides, I miss the fuck out of Kat and her annoying ass. Who knows what the hell she and the rest of her hen pack had been getting up to behind my back.

“I need to call the kid and let him know we’re done here. There’s still one kid missing from the list that we haven’t found yet, but we’re working on it. The rest of the names on the list of perps can be dealt with once we get back, but we’re done here for now.”

This pedophile ring is like a ten-headed dragon; you cut one head off, and another spring up, not to mention they’re spread all over the world like weeds. Hollywood is infested, no doubt about it, but with Saunders on the job on this end, we’ll make our way through eventually. If I stay here weeding out these fucks I’d be here forever.

“I’ll fly back with her; make sure she doesn’t make any side trips.”

“You do that.” Poor sap looked like he’d aged ten years. Nothing like a wife and kids to age a man, especially when their heads are as hard as ours.

“Where is she now?”

‘Taking a nap, believe it or not.”

“Killing is a tiring sport.” He gave me a look like I was supposed to pretend I didn’t know his wife had nailed some woman to her door with an arrow through her damn head. I ignored him and went to see about getting the rest of them off their ass and on the plane that was waiting to take us back. I’d been gone for so damn long this time I was beginning to forget what the island looked like.

I found Mancini in the war room packing up shit while grinning at some shit that was going on in his head. “What’re you laughing at?”

“I just got off the phone with Catalina.”

“What does she want now?”

“It’s what she’s got. The doctor talked.”

“I’m sure he did. What did she do to him?”

“Gave him weed.”

“Weed? Did she lace the weed with something?”

“No, she crossed two different strains together.”

“So that’s what she and the pothead have been working on for the past two years.

“Yeah, it’s one of her and your father’s special grows. It’s an experiment they’ve been working on; it works kinda like a truth serum.”

“Grass can do that?”

“Yeah, apparently. She said he sang like a canary against his will.”

“I’d like to see that.”

“You will, she recorded it.”

“What else did she tell you?”

“Nothing, that was it. She just wanted to know when we’ll be back.”

“Why? What else is she up to now?”

“Beats me, but the others are back with the plants she sent them after.”

I glared at his lying ass, and he laughed harder. “Okay, okay, I’m not gonna lie. She asked me to find her a school of baby dolphins.”

“What the hell does she want with them?”

“She only said that sharks are afraid of dolphins.”

“Don’t tell me anymore; I don’t want to know.”

“She said she’s going to train them as pets.”

“I told you not to say shit else to me. Where are we with Lorde’s situation?”

“He’s on the road already, should be at ground zero by now. You should give him a call.”

“I will, as soon as we get back. We need to send backup to meet him there.”

“I’ve already warned the others they should be gearing up as we speak.”

“You filled them in on what they’ll be doing there?”

“Yeah, they know that their women are going to be used as cover if that’s what you’re worrying about.”

“Ah, I’m still not happy about that, but it’s the best we can do with the last-minute warning my kid gave us.”

“I think you’re worrying for nothing. She’s already using them for the job, so it no longer matters whether we like it or not.”

Yeah, I know, but that doesn’t make it any easier for me to take. I never wanted my wife and daughters anywhere near this ugly shit, but my own damn kid has gone and circumvented all of my good intentions. “Fuck it, let’s see what she does.”