Epilogue 2

Ryker

Ryker glanced down at his ringing phone. He knew it wasn"t one of his friends. They knew after all these years what day it was and that he just needed to be left alone.

The screen read Monica.

He couldn"t ignore her. After she had been kidnapped under his watch, he swore any time she needed anything, he would be there.

Ryker answered just before it would"ve switched over to voicemail. "Does Luke know you"re missing me already?" It wasn"t his usual level of playfulness, but it was all he could muster.

"Ryker …"

Something about Monica"s tone put him on edge. "What"s wrong?"

"I"m so sorry to bother you, but it"s Amelia, my secretary."

He thought about the dirty-blonde mouse who could barely look him in the eyes any time he stopped at Monica"s office. Amelia was everything he avoided in a woman. She screamed the settling-down type, whereas he promised to never do such a thing.

"What about her?"

"She"s missing. She didn"t show up for work yesterday and she"s not here again today. I tried calling her but her phone is going straight to voicemail. This isn"t like her. Amelia never misses a day, and even if she were sick, she would"ve at least texted me."

Missing barely forty-eight hours meant Ryker couldn"t even call the police. They would say it hadn"t been enough time.

Ryker debated his options. He could spend this day like he has for the past twenty years. Alone and hiding from the world. Or he could take a few minutes and drive over to Amelia"s place to make sure nothing funny was going on. With any luck, Amelia would be sick and just forgot to notify her boss.

"Send me her address. I"ll take a drive over."

It was never really a choice. He promised to always be there for Monica and he refused to back out on that simply because she wasn"t aware what day it was.

"Thank you, Ryker. You have no idea how much this means to me."

He did know, which was why he would break his twenty-year anniversary to make her feel better.