Thanks to The Boots

Chapter Nine

I scream, then whip around, ready to punch Ryan in the face. I fall backwards, in shock, when I see Ryder laughing at me.

"You jerk!" I yell.

He just keeps laughing.

"Take me home."

He stops laughing, "What?"

"I said, take me home."

"What do you mean?"

"Take me back to my house. Helen kidnapped me from my house and I want to go back. You had to have gotten here somehow and I want to go home."

He thinks about it, then says, "I'd have to ask."

"Are you her lapdog?" Figuring he meant Helen.

"Wha-"

"You do everything for her?"

"No, I just have to get permission to let you go home."

"Okay. And where will you take me if she says no?"

"You get to stay with me," he winks.

I gag, and then look down, he's only wearing a towel. "Y-You should probably go get dressed."

He laughs, and walks back to his locker. I sit on a bench near the door to the locker room.

"Hey," Ryder says.

"Hi?" I reply.

"Where are you?"

"The front of the locker room?"

"Can I take her home?"

"What?"

"One second. Brianna, I'm on the phone!" he yells.

I blush and look at my feet.

"Yeah, sorry. Okay, yeah I get it. Yeah, yes. Sorry. Yes. Yes. Okay," he walks around the lockers to me.

"Sorry 'bout that," I smile awkwardly.

He shrugs, then sits next to me.

I scoot a little away from him, and if he notices he doesn't say anything. "So?"

"I can't."

I jump up, "You can't?"

He stares ahead, "I can't take you home."

"You can't or you won't?" I yell.

He stands up and gets in my face, "I. Can't."

I raise a challenging eyebrow, "Because Helen said you can't take me back to my family? Did she tell you that they're worried about me? Did she tell you that they're not going to sleep tonight because I am not in bed in the room next to them? Do you know what the last thing I heard from my mother was?!"

He silently shakes his head.

"A sob. A sob because your master was taking me away from her."

Something snaps inside him and he gets mad. "Do you want to know what the last thing I heard from my mother was?! It was, 'Stay strong, Ryan'. And then the police drove off with her handcuffed in the backseat! She didn't mention me at all. I visit her every week in prison and she only talks about her oldest son!"

I stay quiet.

"So, your parents probably aren't staying up all night worrying about you, because they don't care. Who did they have with them when Helen took you away? Who was standing next to them and not tied up? They have your older and younger sister with them, so why worry about the middle child? She can handle herself, with all the gang/fighting training we gave her."