Page 1

Chapter One
“Wait, Rylie, Rylie?” Jynx asks.
“The Rylie that said she couldn’t be friends with you because it was too dangerous for her?” Lyric adds, her tone sharp.
I can’t reply; I’m still staring blankly at the image of Rylie on Peter’s screen. There’s no doubt that it’s her, she’s older obviously, but she looks exactly the same.
“Sweetheart?” Trick says gently, “Are you okay?”
Swallowing thickly, I reply honestly, “I don’t know.”
Jynx stands up and rounds the table, “Let me get a look at this, Rylie. It would be nice to put a face to the name.”
“Yeah, we’ve heard a lot about her,” Mal adds, getting up as well.
As soon as Jynx sees the screen, her eyes go wide with shock and, if I’m not mistaken, recognition as well.
“Fucking hell. I don’t fucking believe it. That’s R.” She exclaims before I can ask her.
“It’s definitely her,” Mason adds, leaning closer to the screen to get a better look, “she looks older, obviously, but then she would. The last time we saw her, she was only fifteen, maybe sixteen.”
“Who?” Atty asks, confused.
Jynx focuses back on the rest of us as she starts to explain, “When I was kidnapped by Ever’s father, I was held in a human trafficking facility for a bit, and I met R. She always had such fucking fire in her despite the fact that she was stuck there and we clicked immediately.”
“No fucking way,” I gape.
She nods, “That’s not all. Do you remember the first time you met the guys?”
“Yeah, you came to Fresno, and we took out the head of the Ravens,” I reply.
“You what?” Rage asks while sounds of shock go around the room.
“Did she just say she helped take out the head of the Raven crime organisation?” Atlas asks, sounding incredulous.
Rome smirks, “Yep, she and Jynx were fucking spectacular, we were only there as backup, really.” Luc frowns, “I’ve heard of them. Don’t they have some rule about whoever kills the head of the Ravens then has to take over?”
The guys all share a look, and Jynx nods, so Rip says, “You’re right; Jynx took over, hence why we need to stay away from the organisation and Mr R. Even though he is aware.”
The whole room stares at Jynx in shock before devolving into a million questions; Jynx ignores them entirely, “We can get back to that at a later date; it’s not important right now or relevant to what I’m trying to explain.
“She’s right,” I reply, “we can ask about that later, and trust me, I’m going to. What I want to know is what you were going to say about Rylie?”
The guys all stop with the questions, realising that Rylie is the more important issue that we need to be dealing with right now.
“Just say the word, and I’ll fill you in. It’s about time I did anyway. Back to Rylie, though, when we got back after taking him out, we got hired by Mona Romano because someone had been stealing information from her, and then her daughter got kidnapped. I was shocked as shit to realise that the R I’d met over a year before was actually Rylie and the daughter of a prominent crime boss.”
Jensen shakes his head, “It can’t be the same Rylie, though. The Romanos weren’t in our hometown. We would’ve known.”
Rafe nods in agreement, “He’s right; we made sure we knew who the big hitters in town were. The Romano name never even got mentioned.”
Rome replies this time as he explains, “Mona sent Rylie away with her father to keep her safe and at the request of Rylie, who just wanted to be a normal teenager. It was the second time that she had been kidnapped, and Mona didn’t want to risk it happening again.”
“Holy fuck,” I mutter as I blindly sit down, and Rafe catches me before I fall on the floor. Wincing, I add, “She just wanted to be a normal teenager, and then boom, I come along with all my drama and end up dragging her back into a life that she never wanted to be a part of. You know it makes a lot more sense why she wanted to cut communications after the Blake thing.”
“It’s not your fault. Up until that point, she chose to be involved with you. To be your friend, and she was obviously fine with it, up until what happened with Blake; that obviously pushed her a bit too far,” Riot replies, trying to reassure me and only kind of succeeding.
“Plus, look at her now. She’s a ghost agent in one of the most dangerous and highly skilled agencies in the world; she obviously decided she wanted back in at some point,” Jensen points out.