🗝️Detective Ryker Viltarin must uncover dark secrets before he loses not only his heart but also his life.🗝️
You're on your own, far from home
The wind is blowing in the top of the pines
A gloomy sky where the sun never shines
Deep...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The two men stared at each other, overwhelmed by the same terrible feeling.
"I would never have done anything to that mutt! Shit, I'm here to straighten things out with Eve!" Dylan broke the brief but weighty silence.
"Straighten it out?" Ryker roared, his fuse understandably short, "You can't straighten out anything of what you have done! And yesterday you behaved-" he began, but Dylan interrupted him this time before he could explode any further.
"I know!" the Seal groaned breathlessly. "Shit!" His fingers, tanned from many missions under the hot sun, ran into his hair and ruffled the brown strands. "Shitshitshit! I fucking know!" Dylan pulled his face into a suffering grimace and slammed his fist on the table before him. Then his shoulders slumped as if he'd just been doused with ice-cold water. "Ray, listen, okay. I know it already. I know I messed up. I ... never wanted this. All of it. And I can't excuse it."
Ryker growled. " Indeed, you can't."
Dylan pressed his lips together, then lifted his chin slightly to look his former comrade straight in the face.
"I've lost control of my life.
I've tried to hide and drown my problems, worries, and everything else: my dreams and memories. And I didn't know what I had in Kaylen. I hurt her. And my son too," Dylan's voice, too smooth at first, stumbled more with each subsequent word. "I had ... I have a problem. I got it, and I ... looked for help." The broad shoulders sank down. "I know that probably sounds dull to your ears. Excuses, empty promises ... And shit - I get it. I promised Eve years ago that things would get better..." his voice broke, and he groaned, his chest aching under the strain. "When Liam got hurt and Eve ... so bad ... it woke me up. I couldn't think about anything but what I'd done and..." He broke off, then resumed, "I really want to change, Ryker."
"Sure. We saw that yesterday," Ryker groaned, dripping with sarcasm. "The way you tried to drag Eve up the stairs yesterday ... that absolutely convinces me of your good intentions!"
The accusation hit Dylan like a bullet in the chest, especially because Ryker was on the right.
"Yes, I... you're right," he groaned. "I was so happy to see Kaylen and Liam again ..."
