Ready or Not (The Love Game Book 4) by Elizabeth Hayley (pdf ebook reader .txt) 📕

if that made me seem like a lunatic or a caring… I guessed boyfriend wouldn’t be the correct term, but I didn’t really have a better one right now.

A few more people came and went as I stared out into the dark parking lot. And in the reflection of the streetlight on the white Ford Raptor parked in front of me, I looked pathetic. If Taylor wanted to be with me, she would, and I had no right to suggest that the way she’d handled the situation with Brad had been wrong. It was her life and her decision. I was beginning to understand there was no right or wrong in any of this. Just feelings and more feelings that felt messy and confusing. And who was I to judge anything?

I’d spent enough time overthinking all of this for one night, so I stood and headed toward the steps to the Yard. Maybe I’d enjoy the rest of the night with my friends after all.

But before I got one foot on the wood, an empty feeling in the pit of my stomach stopped me. It took me a moment to realize that my body must have sensed it before my ears had heard it. Or my subconscious had somehow recognized what I could barely make out.

A faint voice in the distance, muffled but somehow still clear in the night air.

A scream. Then another.

Taylor.

And then I was running, faster than I knew my legs were capable of taking me. It was when the screams began to fade that the adrenaline carried me toward them. I didn’t want to lose them. I couldn’t.

Against my instincts, I stopped, waiting for a sound. Any sound.

And when one didn’t come, I spun around and around, my breaths coming out in heavy puffs of fear.

“Taylor!” I was frantic. Looking down driveways and into dim parking lots. “Taylor!”

As sick as those screams had made me, I prayed silently that I’d hear them again. They were my only link to where she was—where he was. I knew it was him before I turned the corner into the skinny alley between the organic food store and the nail salon Taylor and Sophia had gone to a few times.

Why the hell did she even walk this far? It had only been a couple of blocks, but she’d said she was going to call an Uber.

“Taylor!” I called once more, my voice echoing between the surrounding buildings until it died completely.

I heard a rustling at the end of the alley that I hoped wasn’t just some animal looking for dumpster scraps.

It wasn’t. But it was another kind of animal. The kind that held an innocent woman by the throat against the hard stone of a building while he covered her mouth with his hand.

“Fucking piece of shit!” I yelled as I grabbed him by his hair, yanking his head toward me before letting it go so my other fist connected with his face.

And like the pussy he was, Brad immediately let go of Taylor and brought his hand to his eye to comfort himself. He stumbled back a few feet when I followed with a quick jab to his stomach. He coughed—hacked, really—as I laid into him, but he didn’t go down without a fight.

He swung wildly at me, partly because he could barely see and also probably because he had never been in a real fight.

I let him get close to me only so I could grab his head and bring my knee to his face. Blood spewed from his nose, and I was sure some landed on my shirt.

Once Brad hit the ground and stayed there, I ran over to Taylor.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt? Did he hurt you?”

“No. No. I’m okay.”

I held her face between my hands and brought my thumbs to her cheeks to wipe the tears that had fallen. She was shaking, but otherwise didn’t seem injured. Thank God.

I glanced over at Brad, who was starting to stand, and this time, I walked toward him slowly. “How does it feel?” I asked him.

His lip turned up as he rubbed at his jaw. When he tried to laugh, it came out as a mouthful of blood.

“How does what feel?”

“Being powerless, helpless like you made Taylor feel for so long. You feel like a big fucking man now? Because from where I’m standing, you’re about a foot shorter than me, though that could just be because you’re still doubled over.”

“Listen—”

“No, you fucking listen! You’re gonna find your way out of this alley and this town, and I’m never gonna see or hear about you again. Taylor’s not gonna see or hear about you again. You disappear from her life, or I’ll make you disappear for good.”

Even in the dim light, I could see the rigidity in his jaw as I spoke. He wanted to say something back, but he knew better. I wondered if his eyes always looked this beady, or if it was because the flesh around them was already beginning to swell.

“I’m so sorry,” Taylor said, still sobbing. “I’m so sorry. I should’ve let you come with me.”

I turned enough that I could see her without taking my eyes off Brad. “Don’t apologize. It’s okay,” I said, pulling her into me. “We’re okay.”

I glanced over at Brad, who was still nursing his wounds and had all but given up. He spit a little blood in our direction, but he couldn’t even do that correctly.

“You know who’s not okay, though?” I said to Taylor. “Our boy Brad here could use some medical attention. Probably a good idea if you get yourself to a hospital. In another city, of course.”

“Fuck you!” He was sitting on an old crate with his back against the stone wall of the nail salon.

“No, Brad. It actually looks like this time you’re the one who’s fucked.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

T A Y L O R

I woke to Ransom’s hand running over my back gently, affectionately, but I could also recognize the cautiousness in