Page 9 of The Wayward Sons & The Vampires of Fortune (The Wayward Sons #4)

T he stupid mart was out of Twizzlers. Correction: they never sold Twizzlers.

That single fact was the cherry on top of my crappy fucking day.

I was on edge, my nerves tingling and my skin suffocating.

I didn’t like big cities. No fresh air, no breathing room, and too many people.

Sure, a good tourist stop was fun from time to time, but we weren’t here looking at the world’s largest mailbox or some shit.

I was too busy trying to hide the man I loved from bounty hunters with audacity.

The same man who was striding down the sidewalk toward me after I told him to keep his sexy ass in our room. He listened so goddamn well. The look of determination on his face bothered me. It hadn’t been there when I left.

I shifted the groceries to one hand as he approached in case I needed the other.

“What—”

His mouth crashed into mine as he grabbed my face in his hands. His kiss was hot and demanding, desperate and full of something I couldn’t quite put a word to. He kissed me like it was the last time he’d ever do so. The intensity was overwhelming.

“Tell me you love me,” Ryder whispered against my mouth. Alarms went off in my head.

“Y’know I love you, baby,” I said. “There ain’t no question about that.”

“Good,” he replied. “Then I need you to let me go.”

I fucking what?

“What?” I pulled back from him, frowning. “I ain’t—”

“For your own sake, let me go, Gray,” he told me. Let him go? What the hell was he talking about? Before I could say a word, he backed away from me. “I love you. Just remember that, but don’t come after me.”

Oh, this goddamn man.

My temper spiked.

He was planning to run. Without me. He was going to leave me behind.

“Ryder!” I yelled after him, but he ignored me.

Instead, he walked right into oncoming traffic. Horns honked as someone flew past him, making my heart lurch into my chest. A police car rolled to a stop in front of him, and Ryder kicked the bumper.

My world fell off-center as I watched the first police officer get out, followed quickly by the second. What the fuck was he doing?

When they got close, Ryder knocked the first officer on his ass with one punch to the jaw. They reacted fast, but he was faster as he dropped to his knees with his hands behind his head.

He did nothing as they put him in handcuffs, pissed off to no end with him. Why the hell was he trying to get himself arrested? He had to know we’d figure this out together. We always did.

Those baby blue eyes found mine. Stay. It was the only word he mouthed as they hauled him off his knees and loaded him into the car.

Stay . If he truly wanted me to fucking stay, he had another thing coming. I wasn’t about to sit on my ass and let him go to jail. I didn’t have a clue what was going on or what I was going to do, but it sure as hell wasn’t nothing. I wasn’t built for that crap. Not where Ryder was concerned.