Saving Lawson (Loving Lawson Book 2) by R.J. Lewis Read Free Book Online

didn’t happen.
    Instead, the streets descended into chaos. Ryker’s gang had emerged and revealed themselves. The Syndicate, they called themselves, and they turned against the small gangs they supplied, knocking them out one after the other until shootings around Hedley were so commonplace, people stayed in their homes just to wait it out. The sound of police sirens became background noise for a long while after Ricardo’s death, and nobody understood what was going on. They didn’t know what the falling out between them was in regards to.
                  Except me.
                  I knew everything.
                  This was the chain reaction I’d hoped for. While the Syndicate tried to avenge Ricardo’s death by going against others, I lurked in the shadows, completely untraceable.
                  Nobody came for me. I’d probably been shelved. An unimportant debt that didn’t need tending to until they got to the bottom of what happened. They probably cared about the money more than Ricardo beaten to death. After all, it was over a hundred thousand dollars. A hundred thousand dollars I’d buried away next to a marked tree in the middle of the bush forty minutes outside of Hedley.
                  It was money that couldn’t be touched. I needed to lay low, not flaunt my sudden wealth to people. I had to make do without it and continue living and providing by my own means. It was harder than I thought it would be. That temptation to not fight grew every day that passed with Kayden. I didn’t want to come home with bruises and have to lie to a little boy about where they came from. I wanted to be better than that. I wanted to be someone he could look up to. Being a street fighter just wasn’t enough anymore, and the money buried away became all the more alluring.
                  I couldn’t explore options or get it off my chest by bringing it to Allie. I couldn’t tell her about the money because I couldn’t endanger her life if they sniffed around here and demanded answers. At times, truth was a burden, and telling it meant someone else had to carry it with you. Allie didn’t deserve to know. She needed to focus on her education and her little boy. She needed to trust that I would take care of it all.
                  But I had a plan. It was dangerous, it was crazy, and it warranted help from someone equally as fucked up as me. It was the only way to get to my goal of ensuring a good life for the ones I loved – something I’d obsessed about for a very long time.
                  And as always, when I thought of everything that happened, I reflected on seeing Ryker after Kayden had been born. I wanted peace. I wanted him to tell me everything, but fuck, that guy was stubborn.
                  When I saw his face, I knew he wanted nothing more than to kill me. He dragged his feet, apprehensive about getting any closer to me, all the while frowning like h e had a reason to be angry.
                  My entire body was tense and wound up tight by the time he sat on the bolted down chair. We said nothing for a while. The silence was loud somehow, drowning out my riotous heart beats. We were hardly even breathing.
                  Ryker looked older by some means. His cheeks were covered in stubble, his hair a little longer than he’d ever let it grow before. I wondered what he saw when he looked at me. His eyes wandered about my face, and for a moment it was like he was staring at someone unfamiliar to him. I knew I was different. I felt different. Ever since I killed a man, I’d lost a part of my identity, and I wasn’t sure it could be reclaimed.
                  “Are we just going to sit here and stare at each other all day?” I said, breaking the silence.
                  He didn’t respond. He continued staring at me, barely