Ryan Retribution (New York Ruthless, #3)

by Sadie Kincaid

They will notice I’ve gone. They’ll be looking for me right now. And they will come get me and take me home. And if they don’t, I will haunt them for the rest of their goddamn lives.

“Let me do this for you, Jessie.” “Why? Do you think I’m weak?” “Weak? No. You are titanium. But I would die if anything happened to you.”

“Don’t cry, baby. I hate it when you cry. And I’m the happiest man in the world right now,” he smiles before he drifts back into unconsciousness.

The fact that she would give up her life and spend it with him to save the four of us, should make me proud of her. It should show me that she truly is one of us, willing to sacrifice her own happiness for ours. I would do the same for my brothers, and for her too, and I know that they would do the same for me. But she still doesn’t get that there is no happiness for any of them without her. I wonder if there is any for me without her either.

“Don’t ever apologize for coming down here,” he growls as he brushes the hair back from my face. “And don’t ever knock on my office door again and stand in the doorway like you don’t belong here.”

“You own every single part of me, Jessie Ryan, and you always have. I am completely and undeniably yours. But I’m done talking, sweetheart. We always seem to screw everything up when we talk. So, I just want to fuck you until the sun comes up tomorrow. Okay?”

“Those three words,” he breathes, and my racing heart stops beating. Please don’t fuck this up after what we just did, Shane! He brushes his fingertips over my cheeks. “They don’t feel like enough. For this. For you.” “But they are.” “Then I love you, Jessie Ryan,” he whispers.

“I’ve never been in love before now, but I don’t understand how once you’ve loved someone, you won’t always love them on some level. I can’t imagine ever not loving you. Even when I was desperate to hate you, I couldn’t.” He brushes my hair from my face. “I guess some people’s stories are only written in the sand. And some are written in the stars.”

I thought that the Wolf took everything from me, but he can’t take my present or my future. Not unless I allow him to. And I won’t. This life is mine and I will fight for it with every breath in my body. But perhaps it’s time to let the ghost of the Wolf go.