Addiction

Chapter 48.

It wasn't until Geoff ran into the room with his gun drawn pointing it at the man with his large hands around Hayden's neck that my mind began to register what I just walked into.

Someone is choking Hayden, someone is in his house trying to kill him. All I can think in this moment is where is Wade or even Tanner? Tanner stays outside watching who comes in and out of Hayden's house, while Wade takes care of Hayden. They were supposed to be here. Unless Hayden knew and invited the person into—

My blood runs cold as the hooded man stands to his feet, his hands up in surrender, the hood falling from his head revealing his face. I lock eyes with those familiar brown eyes, "Ryder?" My voice was so quiet I didn't think he heard me.

He looks down at Hayden, looks at me, and then to the gun pointed straight at his face. "Step away from him." Geoff orders Ryder and he quickly obliges stepping away from a coughing Hayden.

I run to his side kneeling down beside him, helping him sit up. I'm so confused. Why is Ryder trying to kill Hayden?

I was so focused on Hayden I hadn't realized Geoff and Ryder had left the room. There are so many things that I want to ask Hayden but I know I won't be getting any answers. The most I'll get from him is to stop sticking my nose in places it doesn't belong, or not to worry about it.

But this is something I will worry about. This is something that will threaten to keep me up at night. My ex best friend tried to choke my boyfriend to death. Why would he do something like this? Surely, it is something more than Hayden sleeping with his mother and sister. That happened so long ago, they were in their teenage years.

I take his face in my hands once he had calmed down and his face returned to its original color. "Hayden are you okay?"

"Am I okay?" Swiping my hands from his face, he stands to his feet leaving me staring up at him from the floor. "If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have almost lost my life!" He yells at me and storms out of the room.

What?

If it weren't for me? What the hell did I do? Is he trying to stay Ryder was here because of me?

Standing from the floor I try to go after Hayden. I look around the entire downstairs for him but it wasn't until I made it into the garage that it registered in my mind that Hayden had left. I go back to the kitchen where Geoff was interrogating Ryder and found that Wade had since joined them. "You're not going to tell us anything?"

"I have nothing to say." Ryder shrugs, eyeing me standing a few feet away from them. Wade and Geoff follow his eyes to me but I couldn't seem to look at anyone besides Ryder.

I thought if I looked into his eyes long enough or if stared at him hard enough, I would be able to make up something in my mind about how this happened. Why he would do this to Hayden. My mind can't even begin to fathom what went through his mind before he showed up here. Did he plan this? Did this happen on a whim?

"I'm sorry Alice." I think I hear him say. When water dropped to the palm of my hand it was then I recognized I was crying.

"Why?" Is all I can make out with the huge lump growing even larger in my throat. No amount of water would allow me to swallow that down.

"I can't tell you, all I can say now is I'm doing this for us."

My head jerks back at his response while my face twist with an angry, disgusted, and slightly confused emotion. "Us? There is no us. There will never be an us. Hayden and I are an us. You and I are nothing. You are dead to me, Ryder. And that's not because you just tried to kill my fucking boyfriend, but because I don't want to be friends with someone who can't allow themselves to love a man as great as him. He means everything to me and you just tried to take that away from me. Do you really think I want anything to do with you?!"