Chapter Thirty-six: Perfect Storm

Ryder

PERFECT STORM

Performed by Brad Paisley

As I started to come awakefrom a deeper sleep than I’d had in days, I registered the warm body curled up next to me in bed with a strange sort of peace. It belonged there. It felt like I’d always slept this way with Gia tucked up next to me and her scent surrounding me. Honeyed goodness I wanted to drown myself in. My eyes flickered open as my brain caught up to the reality.

We weren’t in my bed. We were at Phil’s house, and we weren’t going to get a lazy Saturday morning that we eased ourselves into by making love. Instead, we needed to move Addy to a safe house, I needed to pick up my tux, and then we had to head up to the Grand Laredo, where everything I loved would be at risk.

Gia shifted, rolling in my arms to face me with eyes that were wide awake.

“Did you sleep at all?” I asked her.

“A few hours.”

Her voice sounded a little better, but it wasn’t back to normal yet. I leaned in, capturing her lips. I’d meant it as nothing more than a sweet good morning, a declaration of the love I felt, but the moment our mouths joined, it was like an inferno erupted. Need slaking through me. Hunger.

Before I’d even registered it, I’d rolled her under me, pushed my tongue into the heaven of her mouth, and slid my hands under her shirt. She met every stroke with her own, palms skimming my back, hips slamming into me.

I broke away from those siren lips, trailing kisses down over the bruises on her throat, tugging the buttons on her flannel open, baring her sweet tips, and devouring them.

“Ryder, I can’t do this right—” A breathy little moan took over her words as I pulled her underwear aside, my tongue and fingers finding home.

Her nails dug into my scalp, and I wanted to bury myself in her. I wanted to be lost in the heaven she provided and cursed myself for not having more than one condom in my wallet. Instead, I found satisfaction by taking her up and over the edge, watching with delight as her lids grew heavy, and her body shivered and shook.

The smile that lit my face at watching her come apart felt like a stranger’s, larger than I’d given anyone in years.

I found my way back to her lips, kissing her. She cupped my jaw, stroking softly as she whispered a husky, “Good morning.”

I smiled against her lips. “Darlin’, that was more than just a good morning. That was, ‘Welcome to the gates of heaven.’”

She huffed out a little laugh, glanced toward the door, and then pushed me off her with a smile. When she disappeared into the bathroom, I followed, sliding up against her back, hands snaking into the opening of her shirt, pulling her into me, and kissing the side of her head.

“I wish this was all we had to do today. Lie in bed, naked, making love.”

She pulled away again, searching the cupboards and coming up with a brand-new toothbrush and toothpaste that might have been a decade old.

“I’ve never done that,” she said almost too casually.

“What?” I asked, trying not to react to the distance she was pushing between us. A distance that hadn’t been there since we’d made love, tapping at doubts I thought I’d put aside.

“I’ve never spent an entire day in bed, lost in someone.”

“Why not?”

She shrugged, looking like Addy when she was unsure. “I always had a million excuses. Even with my college boyfriend, I’d leave, saying I had a thousand things to do the next day. And ever since I joined the agency, I haven’t had the time for a serious relationship.” She was thoughtful, her hooded eyes taking in my reaction to her. “I don’t come to a full stop easily.”

She didn’t stay. That was what she was telling me, and it hurt my heart. Dug into the wounds I was trying hard to heal. Shook the edges of the trust I was trying to give.

As if reading where my mind had gone, she rose and kissed my cheek softly. “But I find myself wanting those overnights and lazy days for the first time ever. Wanting that and so much more. Wanting you and Addy and a life that means staying put in one spot for longer than a few days.”

“Yeah?” My heart slammed harder inside my chest.

She nodded, but then turned incredibly serious as she said, “But for the rest of today, I can’t let myself think about it, Ryder. I have to be the job today. Otherwise…” She shook her head, throat bobbing.

I wrapped my arms around her, squeezing her to me. I wished I could wave a wand and jump us a day or two into the future, when this was all over, and everyone was safe, and all we had to do was crawl back into bed and make love all over again.

“What do you need from me?”

“Can you go back to being an asshole? Say something that will really piss me off? That might help.”

I chuckled and then released her, but as I did, I slapped her on the ass. “Stop trying to seduce me, darlin’. We’ve got work to do and can’t afford to laze around in bed as if we’re royalty.”

A garbled choke of laughter and irritation broke from her.

“That’s a start.”

? ? ?

Maddox showed up with Gia’s bag that she’d requested from my house, along with breakfast burritos from Tilly’s café for us and the men outside. After we ate, I sent Addy upstairs to wash up, and we got my brother up to speed on Gia’s plan for the gala. As I’d suspected, he wasn’t pleased. “I can go in your place. I’m a Hatley. I’m part of the family and the ranch.”

“He doesn’t want you, Mads,” I told him. “And the truth is, I need someone I trust with Addy. She needs someone she knows with her today. You take her to the safe house.”

“Scully found a place over in—”

“Don’t tell us,” Gia cut him off. His eyes widened, and she just shook her head. “You know it’s better that way. If we don’t know, we can’t tell him.”

My gut rolled, the burrito I’d eaten trying to crawl back out as I thought of the ways the leader of a cartel might try to get a person to talk.

Addy came down the stairs with her purple backpack over her shoulder and her jaguar clutched in her hands. Her eyes were scared and sad, and I hated it. Hated that she was back to the frightened child I’d first seen in Maddox’s office.

I squatted down, hugging her to me, stroking her head. “Uncle Maddox is going to take you somewhere safe today. Gia and I need to go take care of things. I’m hoping that what we do today will make sure you’re safe forever. That the bad men won’t ever come for you again.”

She looked at me with fear growing in her eyes. “Bad men…hurt you? Hurt Gia?” Her gaze turned to Gia, who was standing by me.

Gia kneeled, wrapping her arms around us both. “I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure we’re all safe.”

I was overwhelmed by the feel of them tucked up against me—the family I’d thought I’d lost and that, somehow, Ravyn had brought back to me. It was shitty the way it had happened, but maybe this was what the universe had intended for me—for us—all along. Maybe Ravyn was supposed to come into my life, give me this beautiful child, and lead me to Gia. Maybe she’d had a purpose I hadn’t been able to see. I wasn’t the same doe-eyed twenty-something who’d fallen for Ravyn and thought I’d always have her. I’d learned how to appreciate what you were given, and I’d spend the rest of my life showing these two stunningly courageous women exactly just how much I loved them.

“You’re the bravest kid I’ve ever met,” I told Addy. “I just need you to be brave a little bit longer. Brave and smart, just like your mom.”

Her eyes widened at the mention of her mother, whom we’d mostly avoided.

“You liked Mama?” Addy asked.

“I loved her, but I won’t lie, she hurt me good by leaving and not telling me about you.” I shook my head to clear it of those last shreds of pain. They couldn’t hurt me anymore, not with Addy and Gia at my side. “But when I knew her, I was continually amazed by how smart she was. How beautiful. How courageous she was to start her life over from scratch. I see so much of her in you.”

“She didn’t like her old life,” Addy said, the full sentence twisting inside me. “It scared her. She was scared when people knew her real name.”

Gia and I shared a look, thinking of the encryption password and the name I was supposed to know.

“What name was that?” I asked quietly.

“Natalia. We always moved when anyone used it. They wanted her to go back to the ranch where bad things happened, but she promised I’d never have to go there,” her little voice cracked.

“You won’t have to, sweetheart. Not ever.”

“Did she have a name she liked best, Addy?” Gia probed gently.

“She said Papa and me were the only ones who knew her real name. That I should only tell my papa it.”

I swallowed, hope pounding inside my chest. I could feel it wafting off Gia as well.

“Ravyn. She loved Ravyn,” I said.

Addy nodded, a tiny smile appearing. “She said she’d promised to be Ravyn Eowyn Hatley. She said that was who she really was.”

The name hit me hard in the chest for multiple reasons. My past, present, and future all colliding.

I looked over at Gia, and our eyes locked. Was this the name we needed to break the encryption?

“It’s a good name,” I finally was able to say.

It was a name she should be buried with. I’d make it happen. I’d find out what they’d done with her body in Denver, and I’d have her brought here. I’d have her placed in our family plot in the far corner of the ranch with the rest of the Hatleys, and in that way, Addy would forever have her mom close by.

I cleared my throat and broke away, with reluctance, from the little haven the three of us had made with our tangled arms and joined souls. “She belonged here, sweetheart, and so do you.”

Addy looked up at me with so much trust in her eyes I wasn’t sure I could hold on to it without disappointing her. Wasn’t sure I’d earned it. But I would do my damnedest to do so.

“Okay, Addy, we need to head out,” Maddox said, his own throat thick with emotions, and when I looked up at my brother, his jaw was working as he blinked back tears. I couldn’t even bother to harass him about it because I felt the same. I felt about to break. As he held out his hand for my daughter, and she moved from me, sliding her hand in his, my entire being clenched.

When she glanced back at me with worry in her eyes, I said the only thing I wanted her to remember if things went sideways. “I love you, Addy. Know that I love you.”

She pulled away from my brother, ran back, and flung herself at me. I caught her, hugging her tight, kissing the side of her head, feeling so many emotions that I couldn’t quite catch up to them.

“Love you too, Papa.”

Tears hit my cheeks. Goddamn tears, but I let them be. I’d earned them, hadn’t I?

We stayed that way for a long time, then I set her down, and she went back to my brother.

As I watched them walk down the steps, I promised I’d do whatever it took so we’d be together again. Even if that meant breaking the promise I’d given Mila days ago to never kill another living thing. If it came down to me and Jaime Laredo, I’d be the one who came out on top because I had everything to live for.

? ? ?

Scully’s men dropped us a town over at the mall, where Gia picked up a pair of low-heeled sandals to go with Great-Granny’s dress, I picked up my tuxedo, and we snagged a rental car. Then, we headed an hour north to Corbin, which was the town nearest Laredo’s ranch. As I drove, Gia went online and rented a hotel room under an alias, secured a camera to the tiara, and talked with Rory multiple times. Gia gave her the name Addy had told us Ravyn had claimed was her real one, and then the two of them discussed strategies for breaking the encryption on the data from the Switch as well as plans for getting behind the scenes at Laredo’s.

No one had seen Enrique since he’d left my house the day before, after having wounded the sniper. The dead man from my living room had been identified as Jose Ruiz, and he’d worked for Jaime Laredo for over a decade. It tied Laredo to the attempted kidnapping, but defense lawyers would poke a million holes in that loose connection, as the dead man couldn’t confirm that Jaime had sent him to get Addy.

As we drove into the parking lot of the mediocre hotel Gia had booked, Rory called back yet again with excitement dripping from her voice. “It worked! We broke the encryption!”

The tension that had held Gia’s back stiff and straight all morning seemed to ease ever so slightly. I longed to make that tension disappear completely. I could do so easily with my mouth and hands, but Gia had asked for the space to do her job today, and I respected that. Needed that. Needed us both to stay focused on the endgame.

“What did you find?” Gia asked.

“More than enough to get a warrant for every place and device he owns. It lists shipping dates for guns and drugs, people working for him, and even hits he ordered. It also has every financial scheme he ran and the money he took. Ravyn had it all.” Rory’s voice was almost ecstatic.

“Does Leland know?” Gia asked, and the tension ramped back up in her shoulders.

“No. I figure we need to let our false-information campaign play out first so we know who we can trust.”

“I hate that you’re right.”

“There’s something else.” Rory was all eagerness again. “She left the final code for the Houdini box. Except, it’s not just the final code.”

“What do you mean?”

“I think…” Rory took a huge breath. “I think it’s a Trojan horse. If we give him this code, it installs correctly at first so he’ll believe it’s actually working because, well…it does. But then she delivers another little packet, and boom, the whole thing gets wiped.”

“She can tell that all by looking at some lines of code?” I asked doubtfully.

Rory heard me and laughed, but I heard the bit of offense in her response. “Do not doubt me, cowboy. I’ve spent my life swimming in code. I know what these strings mean.”

“Won’t he know as well?” I asked.

“Maybe.” Rory’s enthusiasm dimmed. “If he was coding along with her, maybe. But if he was just handing her the ideas, he might not understand the language itself. Plus, he’d really have to take the time to analyze it before he loaded it. If he thinks he’s broken you, if he thinks you’re giving it to him reluctantly, I’m hoping he just loads it, eager to finally have it complete.”

My heart pounded viciously. “What do you mean, ‘if he thinks he’s broken you’?”