Chapter 19

CHAPTERNINETEEN

Ryan paced back and forth next to her Ford Explorer. She bit her thumbnail as she argued with herself about what she should do. Doing what was right would mean exposing herself. Revealing who she really was. And that was the last thing she wanted. She loved her job here at The Refuge, and she had no doubt that speaking up would mean losing it.

Not only that, but she’d lose the best friends she’d ever had. The people who lived and worked here had embraced her. Had treated her like she was family…and not a freak. Someone to be wary of. Ryan had done her best to protect her new friends from afar, but this was…

She needed help.

Taking a deep breath, and ignoring the nausea in her belly, Ryan jogged toward the main lodge. Brick and the others were having a staff meeting. Jess, Carly, and Ryan were supposed to be there a little later to give them an update on the housekeeping. That was one thing Ryan loved about working here, the men who owned the place welcomed everyone’s input. They were genuinely interested in how every part of the operation was running, and that meant hearing straight from the people who worked there.

But she needed to talk to Brick, Tonka, Spike, Pipe, and Tiny—now. It couldn’t wait.

Ryan gave Alaska, who was sitting behind the registration desk inside the lodge, a distracted wave as she headed for the conference room. She vaguely heard her friend ask why she was so early for the meeting, but she didn’t stop to explain. It was likely this was the last time Alaska would ever talk to her in a friendly manner. The information she was about to reveal would change everything. And not for the better, as far as Ryan was concerned.

She pushed open the door, then made sure to close it behind her as she stared at the five men sitting at the long rectangular table. Ryan had gotten to know them all fairly well over the last year or so, and she’d shared both highs and lows with the staff.

For a second, she wavered. She could keep quiet and not lose the best thing that had ever happened to her.

But her conscience got the better of her. She needed to speak up. It was the right thing to do. She’d deal with the fallout like she always did—alone.

She’d find somewhere else to hide.

“What’s wrong?” Brick asked when Ryan didn’t immediately speak.

She figured she must look freaked out for the unflappable Brick to sound so concerned.

“Owl, Stone, and Lara are in trouble,” she blurted—then winced. That wasn’t exactly how she’d wanted to start this conversation.

To her surprise, the men didn’t immediately shout or demand answers. It was Tiny, of all people, who pushed his chair back and approached. He took her arm and gently led her to a chair at the table.

Ryan wanted to cry. He was being so nice…but she knew it wouldn’t last.

Out of all the men at this table, Tiny was the one Ryan had been drawn to the most. He reminded her of the hero in one of her favorite movies, Sixteen Candles. Everyone joked with him about that, and it was obvious he hated the comparison.

And while the movie had gotten some slack in recent years for being racist and sexist, and Ryan couldn’t deny there were parts of it that were definitely insensitive at the very least, she’d still always been drawn to the hero. Her very favorite part was the end. When the hero showed up for the heroine, and that kiss over her birthday cake…it was enough to make Ryan swoon every time.

Seeing Tiny day in and day out gave her those same tingly feelings. But Spencer Denny, otherwise known as Tiny, was nothing like the kid in the movie. He was twice as alpha and twice as broody, though always considerate of everyone at The Refuge. There were times she caught him looking at her in a way that seemed more than friendly, but otherwise, he never did or said anything else to give Ryan the impression he might want to be more than her employer.

She’d heard through The Refuge grapevine that he had some serious trust issues, and because she had enough issues of her own to deal with, she hadn’t ever tried to see where any mutual interest might go. Especially when they both went to great lengths to ignore said interest.

And now, Ryan knew as soon as she told these men why she was there and what she knew, any kind of trust Tiny may have eventually given her would be gone in a puff of smoke. And the kicker was, she couldn’t even blame him.

“Talk to us, Ryan,” Tiny ordered. “Why do you think our friends are in trouble? Did Lara call or text?”

Taking a deep breath, Ryan did her best to turn off her feelings. Keep to the facts. That would make this go faster. Then she could pack her things and disappear again.

“My name isn’t Ryan. It’s not Samantha, Julie, Riley, Rebecca, or Maryann either. Those are all names I’ve used in the last few years. I came here on false pretenses. I researched The Refuge and decided it would be the perfect place to lay low. Alexis…the housekeeper who left? The one who got that sudden inheritance? It wasn’t from a long-lost relative. It was me. I did that. I arranged for her to get that money so she’d quit, and I could take the job.”

“What the hell?” Spike said under his breath.

Ryan didn’t stop. She’d come this far, she had to keep going.

“I’m good at computer stuff.” That was the understatement of the century, but explaining just how good she was right now would be a waste of time.

Instead, she met Tonka’s gaze. “When Jasna was kidnapped, I tracked Christian. I was in the car when Henley found out about her daughter missing, and who she suspected. The cops getting a search warrant would’ve taken too long, and it was a simple thing for me to track his phone. I went to the house where his phone pinged and saw Christian leaving. I peeked in the window and spotted Jas. I tracked Christian to a fast-food place, then I went and got Jas out. I called the police and gave them the tip about where to find Christian, and about the cabin. Then I left Jasna where I knew you’d find her.”

“You’re Anonymous? The mystery person who texted me?” Tonka asked incredulously.

Ryan nodded. Then she turned to Spike. “And it was me who tracked Reese’s tile.”

“Holy shit!” he swore.

“And you texted Stone in Arizona,” Pipe said. It wasn’t a question. “And unblocked those jammers Grant had at the house, allowing me to talk to him.”

Ryan nodded.

“How’d you know about the bunkers?” Brick asked.

Ryan shook her head. “It’s not important right now.”

“The hell it’s not,” Tiny said in a low, hard voice.

She’d been avoiding looking at the man next to her, but now, Ryan turned and saw he’d leaned back in his chair, as far away from her as he could get, his arms crossed over his chest. He was as closed off from her as possible while still being in the room.

It shouldn’t have hurt, she knew exactly what his reaction to her deception would be, and yet it was still a blow.

“I was worried about Lara. About her leaving The Refuge. I put an alert on her phone to let me know her whereabouts. And I knew this morning was when they were going to pick up the chopper. I wasn’t going to pry, I swear…I know it’s wrong, but…I was curious about how things were going. I hacked into the microphone on her cell and listened in.”

“Is that even a thing?” Pipe asked.

Ryan glanced at her hands. “It is if you know how. All phones have microphones. And computers. And tablets. And those gadgets you can buy that will run your house and answer your questions when you ask? Those really are listening to everything you say and do. Companies use the info to market useless crap to people. And don’t get me started on how easy it is to be a spy these days. Everyone has electronics around them, at all times.”

“Get on with it,” Tiny growled.

Ryan swallowed hard, even as she shriveled a little more inside. She hated when people were mad at her. When they yelled. She’d spent most of her life being treated like shit, being screamed at, being told she was nothing but a worthless piece of shit…so much so that she had her own PTSD when it came to others being angry.

“Right. So I was listening to their banter on the way to the airport. All three were happy and excited to be heading home today. I heard the seller greet them. But when they entered what I assume was the hangar where the helicopter was located…shit hit the fan.”

Everyone, except Tiny, was leaning forward now.

“What happened?” Brick asked urgently.

Ryan quickly told them everything she’d overheard. “Then the Ricky guy must’ve smashed Lara’s phone—I heard it hit something, most likely the floor in the hangar. And by the time I was able to hack into Owl’s, I’d missed a lot of stuff. But he was bragging about what he was going to do—and it definitely involved flying Lara to an island where Carter Grant would be waiting for her. He told her that Carter would kill Owl and dump his body in the ocean.”

“And Stone? Where is he?” Tiny asked.

“I don’t know. Ricky said he sold him to some guy. But he didn’t say where he was going or what the buyer wanted him for.”

“Bloody hell!” Pipe swore.

The others muttered much worse swear words under their breaths.

“I can’t track Stone. The guy who took him must’ve taken his phone and either smashed it or turned it off. And Lara’s is surely broken.”

She felt Tiny stir next to her. “And Owl’s?”

“It’s still on,” Ryan said.

“Are you still listening?” Tonka asked.

She nodded.

Brick opened the laptop in front of him and shoved it almost violently across the table toward Ryan. “Use that to let us listen too.”

Ryan stared at the computer in dismay. She should’ve thought this through a little better. “I can’t,” she said softly. “I mean, I need to use mine.”

“You’re telling me a hacker can’t use any old computer to ply her trade?” Tiny asked roughly. “I’m not buying it. If you’re as good as you say you are, and if you’re telling the truth, you’ll pull that shit up. Right. Now.”

Ryan folded in on herself at the hostility in Tiny’s voice. It wasn’t that she couldn’t use Brick’s computer…it was that if she did, if she used any unsecure device, she could be found. It would only be a matter of time before she was tracked.

But that was also her fault. She should’ve brought her own computer with her. She’d been so freaked out, so worried about Owl, Stone, and Lara, that she’d left her apartment quickly, her only goal to get to The Refuge as fast as she could and let the others know their friends were in danger.

Her timetable for leaving just got moved up, but so be it. If sacrificing her personal safety meant she might be able to save the others, she’d do it.

Besides…she’d betrayed these people. She owed them this much.

She pulled Brick’s computer closer and her fingers raced over the keys as she went to the dark web and pulled up the program she’d designed and hidden amongst thousands of other homemade spying programs, all available for a price to thieves and others who used them for nefarious purposes. She’d purposely made hers inoperable…unless you were as good as she was, or knew exactly what commands to type in.

It took less than two minutes to access the microphone in Owl’s cell phone, but the tension in the room was as thick as a mountain snowstorm. The hostility coming from Tiny felt like tiny knives digging into her skin.

Finally, she pushed play on the program and winced as the only sound that came through the speakers was an extremely loud hum.

“What the fuck is that? I thought you were good at this shit?” Tiny grumbled.

“Chopper,” Brick said almost calmly.

“Can you trace it?” Pipe asked.

Ryan kept the mic open and opened a new tab and once again began typing furiously. She pressed her lips together and sighed as she turned the laptop around to show the others a map. “I don’t have an exact location, only where the phone last pinged.” There was a red dot on the map in the middle of a swath of blue off the West Coast.

“Ricky said there was an island,” she said.

“Shit, there are what, hundreds of islands out that way?” Tonka asked.

“Probably thousands,” Spike said grimly.

“I’m calling Tex. Maybe he has some ideas,” Brick said.

Ryan involuntarily winced.

“You know him?” Pipe asked, seeing her expression.

“Personally? No. But I may have hacked into his databases in order to find info he couldn’t…to feed to you guys,” Ryan admitted.

Surprisingly, Brick smiled. “Oh, he’s gonna want to hear all about you. What was it he said when he was trying to help us find Jas?”

“That whoever Anonymous was, he was better than him,” Tonka replied.

Ryan’s belly churned. She wasn’t sure she wanted to talk to Tex face-to-face…or phone-to-phone. He wasn’t the kind of man who would take kindly to someone else hacking into his stuff. She’d feel exactly the same.

“If we’re looking for an island, we need to get the Coast Guard involved,” Tonka said. “I still have some connections. I’ll make some calls, see what I can get rolling.”

“I’ll call the FBI. Let them know about Carter, and that Stone’s been kidnapped,” Spike said.

“And I’ll get in touch with Homeland Security. They should have the capability to track that chopper,” Pipe said.

Ryan swallowed hard as all the men around her picked up their phones and began to do what they could to find their friends. She peeked over at Tiny, only to find him glaring at her.

“What’s your name?”

“What?” she asked, surprised at the question. With everything else she’d just told them, that was what he wanted to know?

“Your name. The one you were born with. I want to know what it is. Now.”

“Why?” she whispered.

Tiny leaned forward, and it felt as if they were the only two people in the room. She was frozen by his icy turquoise eyes as he stared as if he could read her mind.

“Because.”

That wasn’t an answer, and they both knew it. Ryan could make up a name, she’d been doing it for years now. But for some reason, she blurted a name she hadn’t dared even think since the day she’d fled…much less said out loud. “Ryleigh. Ryleigh Lodge.”

Tiny leaned back and nodded. “Smart to keep your current name as close as possible to your real one…Ryleigh.”

That was pretty much the main reason she’d chosen Ryan. It wasn’t a typical female name, but it was as close to Ryleigh as she could get. She’d had too many close calls when she hadn’t answered to the other names she’d made up in the past.

Feeling uncomfortable, and needing some space, Ryan pushed her chair back and started to stand.

Tiny’s hand shot forward and grasped her arm. Not hard enough to hurt, but enough that if she wanted to pull away from him, it would take a bit of force. “Where are you going?”

“To pack,” she said, the words coming out a lot weaker than the firm declaration she’d intended.

“Oh, you aren’t going anywhere,” Tiny growled. “We need you to find Owl and Lara…and that asshole Grant. And then we’re obviously going to need you to track down Stone to get his ass back here. And you have a lot more questions to answer before you’re allowed to leave.”

She didn’t like the glint in Tiny’s eye as he said that last part, but she wasn’t going to walk away if these men wanted her help. She should’ve tried harder to find Carter Grant before now. That was on her. She’d have to shoulder that guilt…along with all the guilt she already carried.

She nodded slowly, and Tiny let go of her arm. But even after he’d sat back in his seat, her arm tingled where he’d touched her. It wasn’t a good sign. How could she still be so attracted to this man, when it was obvious he hated her?

Pushing her worries aside, Ryan took a deep breath. She needed to use everything she’d ever learned when it came to computers to help Lara and Owl. Nothing else mattered right now.