Bullet's Riley: Ruthless Renegades by Kat Cameron (book suggestions .TXT) 📕

me. There wasn’t a damn thing pleasant about this place. The carpet was orange and the walls were fucking brown, while the ceiling had brown leakage spots all over the place. TV channels were scarce but I wasn’t planning on actually watching it. It was just background noise to block out the couple fucking on the other side of my wall.

As I laid on the most uncomfortable mattress known to man I was thinking about the time that Riley and I were cuddled up in bed after an explosive roll in the sheets. She was laying on my chest while my fingers were running through her hair. She always smelled faintly of blueberries and maple syrup. Her fingers were tracing my tattoos when they stopped on the certain one of a brightly colored palm tree.

It was a little thing in the midst of much bigger ones. She asked why I would have a colorful palm tree in the middle of all my black and gray ones. It was a painful memory but it was something I could give Riley since I hadn’t yet given her any of my background story.

“My mom loved palm trees. They were her absolute favorite thing. She had palm tree everything; tablecloths, curtains, oven mitts, towels and purses. You name it, she had it. After she passed, I felt it necessary to get one for her. To know she would always be there with me. The reason it is the only colored one of mine is because she was the only color in my life when we were younger. No matter what we were going through, when my world was filled with black and gray, she made it colorful.”

Riley looked up at me then and kissed me softly, telling me, “That is the most beautiful thing I have ever heard. Thank you for letting me in a little bit. I wish I could have met her.”

The alarm I set on my phone was blaring. I must have dozed off last night thinking of Riley. I was in the same clothes I was last night, which made for an uncomfortable sleep. My eyes were barely open when I left the room, but I stopped to get a coffee and a breakfast sandwich to get me going. The rest of the day was just me sitting in my truck at this gas station, waiting for my brother to magically show up. Finally around five in the evening, I needed to do something else so I drove around town.

An hour later, I found myself in a town I never thought I would be in again. Driving slowly, I rolled down the road that I used to call home. I couldn’t believe I found myself here or what drove me to come here. After everything happened, the reminder of the life we once lived was too hard. As I drove past the house, I saw that the yard was overgrown and there was shit all over the yard. The once white fence was damaged in multiple places and some of the windows are shattered in the front room. The front door that was once red was now peeling, while the siding of the house was now dirty as hell instead of the nice tan it used to be. The house had definitely weathered over the years.

I doubt anyone lived there since we had been gone. There was no car in the driveway either. We left that night and never came back. Who knows if someone came in and cleaned up all the blood on the floor or the homemade noose JP made in the bedroom. Driving away, I swore I saw someone move the curtains in the bedroom that used to be mine. It was probably just the breeze that we had today. There was no way anyone could live there.

Feeling more hopeless than I had since the day she was taken, I went back to my hotel room and packed my shit. Not that there was a lot, since I didn’t bring much for only one night. I haven’t heard jackshit from Knuckles or Snake either. I opened the door and turned around, once more double checking I didn’t forget my phone charger. Satisfied that I hadn’t forgotten it, I went to walk out the door when I noticed who was standing directly in front of me.

It never seemed to amaze me how strange it was looking at someone that was identical to me. Although, now seeing JP here in the flesh in front of me was something else entirely. Nothing was the same. His face was hard and brutal while his eyes held something akin to a never ending abyss. They were so dark it actually scared me for Riley. I didn’t know what he was capable of anymore and that downright terrified me.

“I saw you drive past the house. You pull that shit again and she will be dead. She doesn’t want your life of overbearing protectiveness anymore, now that she’s had a taste of the freedom I can provide for her. By the way, tell Hailey I said thanks for her help.” With that statement, he sucker punched me and it was lights out for me.

I woke up to a woman, I think an EMT, judging by the jacket she was wearing, shining a flashlight in my face. After making sure I was fine, she let me go and I made my way back to the clubhouse. I can’t fucking believe I didn’t turn around and check out the house after I saw the curtain move. I was so close to her. Now I was on my way home an hour and a half away, we needed to figure out a game plan in order to get Riley back. There was no way what that little shit said was true. And what the fuck was that shit he said about Hailey? Did she have something to do with this shit? If so, she didn’t have long