Filed to story: The LORDS Series Free PDF by Shantel Tessier
“So, you will risk your wife?” My father shouts in his face.
Ryat’s chest rises as he sucks in a deep breath. “No.” He shakes his head, lowering his voice, and my father smiles, satisfied with his answer. “I won’t be like you.” His words make the smile fall from Dad’s face. “You were the one who chose to keep secrets from Blake. You were the one who chose to risk her life by allowing Valerie to continue with the arranged marriage.” He looks him up and down with his lips pulled back. “That woman treated her like shit! And you couldn’t be a damn man and stand up for your daughter!” Ryat snorts. “And you call yourself a Lord?”
“Listen here!” He gets in Ryat’s face, but my husband doesn’t back down. “You don’t know what I did for my family!”
“I don’t have to.” Ryat takes a step back and points at me, sitting up in bed. “I know what you didn’t do.” His green eyes find mine. “I’m sorry, Blake.” My pulse races at the sincerity of his voice. Ryat never apologizes. “But your father has been lying to you all your life. Valerie isn’t your mother.”
“What?” I ask, my eyes going back and forth between my husband and my father. “Ryat?” I whisper. “Why … why would you say that?” The room falls silent, and Mr. Archer runs a hand down his face. “Daddy?” My eyes shoot to his. “Tell him he’s wrong.” My chest tightens as the silence lingers. As much as I hate my mother on most days, they wouldn’t lie about that. Would they?
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
RYAT
I SHOULD HAVE fucking known! I should have demanded to know more. The fucking Lords kept me from getting all the information. You can’t question them.
I know you killed an important bitch! Is what Lincoln had yelled at Matt afterward before putting him on probation and throwing him out of his office. LeAnne was important because Phil Anderson made her important. Mr. Mayes wasn’t that high up on the Lords ladder. That’s why I never questioned why he needed to die. He betrayed his oath. It was simple.
“Why would you say that?” Blake asks me, her bottom lip quivering. “I … I don’t understand.”
I run a hand down my unshaven face. “When I threw Valerie out of your apartment, I ripped a piece of her hair out and had it tested with yours.” I received the results when I was sitting in her father’s office downtown Dallas after she ran from me. I haven’t had the time or concern to dig into who her biological mother is.
Her wide eyes stare up at me, unblinking. “No …” she whispers.
“I knew about the arranged marriage. It’s just par for the course of being a Lord,” I add quickly. “I had a hunch.” Surprise, surprise, they weren’t a match, but I had no idea her biological mother was LeAnne until now. After Phil said her name, it took me a couple of minutes for my mind to put it all together.
“Blake.” I walk over to her bed, and she pulls her knees up to her chest, her eyes now on her father, pleading with him to explain everything to her. I’ll fucking do it! “Blake?” I sit on the side of her bed and pull on her arms, unwrapping them from around her knees to take her hands in mine. Slowly, her watery eyes find mine. “Junior year, Matt and I were partners for an assignment. It was our initiation. We were handed a name and a location. To take out a Lord who had betrayed his oath.”
“I don’t …” she whispers, swallowing. “What does this have to do with … my mom-LeAnne?”
“Something …” I’m not going to give them the benefit to hear me tell them what exactly happened. “Went wrong and his wife was also killed.”
Her eyes go to her father, but he’s too big of a coward to face her. Instead, he’s staring at the floor, rubbing his neck. “When we got back from the assignment, Matt was put on probation. Then come the following year, two weeks before classes started, I had just taken my oath, your father called me to meet him and told me I had to choose you.”
“I was trying to save you from Matt.” Her father’s voice breaks as he speaks up. “We knew he killed LeAnne.” He pauses. “And needed time to prove it.”
I can feel his eyes drilling holes in the back of my head as I sit facing my wife. They thought they could talk me down, break me into giving him up, but it wasn’t going to happen. Not then and not now. That is what confession is for. When I string Matt up like Tyson suggested at the cathedral, Matt will not only spill blood, but all of his secrets to a room full of Lords. He will be the one who tells everyone what he did that night.
“So”-her brows scrunch together-“Matt killed the Lord’s wife?”
“Yes,” her father growls. “She was my chosen … and your mother. I loved her.” His voice drops to a whisper. “Still do.”
I almost feel sorry for the bastard. Silence falls over the room again, and the first tear rolls down her bruised cheek.
I hear her father sigh. “Blakely, you have to understand-“
“Please leave,” she whispers, interrupting him.
He comes around to the opposite side of her. “I know you’re upset …”
“Please.” She ignores him, her pretty blue eyes meeting mine. “Please make them leave.”
I release her hand and stand, facing her father. “Do I need to show you the way out?” I arch a brow at him.
He straightens his shoulders and grabs his suit jacket and tie off the back of the chair and storms out. My father goes along with him.
Leaning down, I kiss her forehead. “I’ll be right back.”
Rushing down the hallway, I come to the nurses’ station to see them spot me.
Her father sighs. “Ryat, when you’re a father, you’ll understand.”
I step into him, my chest hitting his. “You need to understand the next time I have a meeting with you in downtown Dallas at two o’clock in the morning, I’m going to knock you the fuck out.”
“Ryat,” my father hisses.
Like I give a fuck what he has to say. I don’t. He knew all this time why Mr. Anderson wanted me to choose his daughter. My father never questioned that. He even called me after the ceremony to make sure it was Blake. When in New York, he asked me how much I would offer for her … and I’d bet my life that’s why he didn’t force me to marry Cindy. This was their plan.
My hands fist, and I think about just doing it right now. Why the fuck wait until God knows when? But I catch sight of Miss Bleach Blond behind the nurses’ station with the phone up to her ear and her wide eyes on me. She’s probably already got security on speed dial. The bitch has been staring me down since I broke the vending machine a couple of days ago. So, instead I step away. “I want these men removed from the list of visitors for my wife’s room. They’re no longer allowed.”
“Ryat,” her father growls. “You can’t keep me from her.”
“Watch me.” Then I turn around and go back to her room. Entering, I find her on her side in the fetal position with her back to me, crying. I turn off the main light and go over to her bed. When I crawl into it with her, she turns over and snuggles into me, crying harder.
“Shh.” I try to calm her by rubbing her back. Knowing if she cries too hard, she’s going to give herself another headache
BLAKELY
WALKING INTO THE cabin feels … different. There are black curtains up that hang from the ceiling, covering all the floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook the woods. It makes the place look darker. Reminds me of Blackout.
“When did you put these up?” I ask.
He places my bag that Sarah had brought to the hospital for me down on the coffee table. “I had Gunner and Prickett do it while we were staying at the club.”
“Why?”
“Because I thought maybe Matt was hanging out around here, and I didn’t want him seeing inside the house.”
I nod in understanding.
Sighing, he comes over to me and kisses my hair. “They won’t be here forever,” he promises as if he can tell that I hate them.
He walks into the kitchen, and I make my way to the bathroom, wanting to take a hot bath. I’m mentally and physically drained. Getting undressed, I remove my shirt, then shove my shorts down my legs along with my underwear. I turn and stand in front of the mirror. I haven’t looked at myself since Matt slammed my face into the steering wheel. I didn’t want to have to see what I already knew-he made me ugly.
This was his goal. To make Ryat see me as repulsive. Matt wants Ryat to throw me away. It’s no longer that Matt wants me. No. He couldn’t beat Ryat, so now he’s going to turn him against me. It’s the only angle he has left to play.
Ryat enters the bathroom, and I drop my head, unable to meet his eyes in the mirror.
“Hey.” Feeling the tips of his fingers on my neck, he pulls my hair off my face with one hand while the other pulls me from the counter to face him. “Blake, look at me.”
Feeling defeated, I lift my head.
“Are you hurting?” he asks, concerned the moment he sees me fighting back the tears.
“No,” I whisper.
He gives me an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry about your dad.”