Chapter Thirty-seven: Background Music

Gia

BACKGROUND MUSIC

Performed by Maren Morris

Ryder’s voice was deep and angry. Rory and I had come up with that strategy on text. I’d told Ryder I needed Laredo to pull me into his private rooms at the ranch, but I hadn’t told him what I expected to happen once he did. If Laredo didn’t suspect me, he’d try to seduce me. If he knew I was with the task force, he’d likely torture me for information. In some ways, that was the better scenario because then I could do exactly what Rory had said—make it seem like he’d broken me and hand over the code.

“Send me what I need. I’ll download it to a flash drive and take it with me,” I told Rory.

“Gia,” Ryder’s voice was demanding, staking his objections but also staking a claim. The single word told me he had a right to have a say in what I did. Less than a week ago, that would have infuriated me. It would have had me slamming back at him and doing exactly what he’d tried to stop me from doing. Now…now I wanted to live through this because I wanted to know what it was like to be loved by this man so much that he’d break himself in half to give it to me. I wanted him and Addy, even if that meant walking away from everything I’d accomplished.

It stung. It still hurt, the idea of giving up the spy-like life I was proud to have created for myself, but I was tantalized by the life this man and his little girl could offer me even more.

The moment with Addy in the kitchen had wiped away the remaining doubts I’d had after making love to Ryder. I wanted them, no matter the cost.

“I’ll call you back,” I said to Rory and hung up. I turned fully to him in the tiny rental. “I thought you were starting to trust me?”

“This has nothing to do with trust and everything to do with the fact that I’m not sending you into Laredo’s knowing you’re going to be, what…tortured? No fucking way.”

“Do you want this to be over?”

He’s eyes were dark and broody. “You know I do.”

“Then trust me to do my job.”

“Fuck the job if it means you getting hurt.” He leaned toward me over the center console, fingers dancing along the bruise on my throat. “I can’t… When I saw you being dragged across my house… Jesus… I can’t do that again.”

“If you can’t, you need to stay at the hotel.”

“Darlin’…”

“I’m serious, Ryder. We’ve never been closer to bringing the Lovatos down than we are right now. This is how we end it for Addy and you. For all of us.”

“Can’t you use the information Ravyn left you to get a warrant and bring him down that way?”

“It would take time. Time we may not have. If Laredo gets even a whiff of this, he has the means to disappear, and who knows what the lawyers will do with it? They could say none of it is admissible. Plus, at this moment, I don’t even know who we can trust. What if we hand it all over and it just disappears? Rory planted some false leads, things we want to get back to Laredo so we know who’s been working for him. That has to happen before I hand over the data and trust the justice system to do its job.”

“Then we should wait. Let whatever you put in motion pan out and then get a warrant to take him down.”

“He’ll disappear, Ryder. What happens if all the evidence disappears, like everything on the Lovatos has up until now? This is our chance to make sure he never gets his hands on the final code for the Houdini box. If Rory is right, and Ravyn installed a virus that can cripple his business, don’t you think she deserves the chance to make that happen? He took everything from her, from you both. Let Ravyn’s work be the final blow.”

His jaw worked overtime. Teeth grinding. Fear and desperation in his eyes, but also hope.

I felt that hope deep inside me. Hope and anticipation.

After what felt like an endless minute, he reached for the door handle and got out of the car. He retrieved our shopping bags and the two garment bags from the back. I joined him, slinging my backpack over my shoulder and reaching over to squeeze his arm. When he looked down at me, I said, “Thank you for proving you trust me.”

His throat bobbed, but he didn’t say anything. He just led me into the hotel, where we checked in using one of my aliases, and headed upstairs to the room.

Once we were inside, I called Rory back.

“Did you send me the code?”

“Put a packet on the dark website we discussed.”

I logged into my computer, secured my location by bouncing it around the globe, and then found the website. Sure enough, she’d placed an encrypted file there. I downloaded it.

“You use the same password key as Ravyn?”

“Yep.”

I loaded it to a flash drive the size of a nickel.

“G?”

“Yeah?”

“I’ve been going through some of her files.”

“And?”

“It’s ugly. Really ugly. There’s a journal of sorts that she wrote, and it’s clear her dad abused both her and her brother. Savage beatings for the smallest of indiscretions, and after their mom died, I think he might have sexually abused her as well.”

My eyes shot over to Ryder, where he was hanging the evening wear in the closet. His hands stalled, turning to me with a look of abject sadness on his face.

“At first, the coding she created with Laredo was supposed to be used as a way to get even with their dad—take the ranch and their trust funds back. Then, Laredo convinced her they could be Robin Hoods, helping the poor, abused, and disenfranchised with it. But when she graduated from MIT and came home, she overheard a conversation between him and Julio and learned what he’d really been doing with her code. The Lovato name, the wolf name, had come from a game they’d played as kids with Julio and their other cousins in California. She dug into the cartel and found out Laredo was selling drugs and guns as well as running financial schemes. In retaliation, she moved some of the funds out of his main offshore account, hiding them. She was throwing it in his face when their father walked in. He demanded a cut, Laredo refused, and their dad drew his knife. Laredo overpowered their father, cutting him to pieces with his own knife while Ravyn screamed. That was why she ran away to begin with. She realized her brother had become an even worse monster than their father.”

Ryder sank onto the bed, rubbing a hand through his waves. I wanted to comfort him. To wrap my arms around him and make him forget everything he’d just heard. To retreat to the bubble that was waiting for us.

I forced myself to look away, to think about the information we’d been given and the next tasks that had to happen. “I thought their dad disappeared in a plane crash in South America?”

“Either they put his body on the plane and brought it down, or they just used Ravyn’s code to make it look like it happened. I’ll have to do some more digging. I’ll read more of her files, but my point is that Laredo…he’s going to be pissed he protected her, and she betrayed him by running away and then lying for seven years about her daughter.”

“He thinks I stole them from him,” Ryder said. This grimness in his words startled me. I hadn’t thought much about what role Ryder had in this, other than being Addy’s dad—the one keeping her from Laredo. With a sinking feeling, I knew he was right.

We’d been chasing the leader of the Lovatos for years, and what we’d found out was that he was savvy and smart and he used deadly force with ease. If he even suspected someone to have betrayed them, if they even screwed up in the slightest, they ended up like Ravyn. Knowing he’d suffered years of abuse may explain how he’d ended up without a soul, but it also shined a spotlight on just what he’d do when threatened.

Both Rory and Ryder were right. Laredo would feel betrayed by his sister, and he’d feel like Ryder had been the reason. I was surprised he hadn’t retaliated before now. That he’d kept up a friendship with Ryder even after Ravyn had disappeared. Maybe that was what Ravyn had meant by saying she’d negotiated to keep the Hatleys safe, but if so, that deal would be broken now that she was gone. It wasn’t just me who Laredo would want to torture tonight. In fact, if he didn’t know who I really was, he’d get great joy out of using me to get to Ryder.

I worked through an enormous lump in my throat to say, “You can’t go tonight.”

Ryder’s eyes darkened. “You go, I go.”

He’d said the same thing last night. It was both a soothing balm and a horrendous torment.

“What do we know about the false leads you planted?” I asked Rory.

“Nothing. No one has shown up at either of the locations. Not the hotel Leland thinks Addy’s at nor the safe house in Lexington that I dropped to the general task force.”

“And Enrique?”

“I haven’t heard from him at all, so I haven’t been able to give him the Knoxville lead.”

Ryder and I stared at each other. My heart slammed inside my chest. I didn’t want to put him at risk. I didn’t want one beautiful hair on his head to be hurt. Laredo would have a team tonight. An entire team of men at his beck and call. It was stupid to go in there with just the two of us.

For the first time since taking this job, since bringing to life my James Bond dreams of taking down the evil villain alone, I knew the truth. I needed more than just me on the case to protect those I loved. Not because I’d lose focus. Not because the feelings I had were too much. On the contrary, I would do anything to keep every hair on Ryder’s head right where they were at. This was simple math. The numbers were against me. Against us.

“If we tell Leland what’s been going on, what are the chances of him getting a team here in time to help?”

“In under two hours?” Rory asked with doubt in her voice. “If we can trust him to help, there’s a chance he might be able to motivate some local cops. But who knows if they’re already in Laredo’s pocket. There’s an FBI residence in Lexington and another in London—as in London, Kentucky. We might be able to mobilize them. But again, that’s if we think we can trust them. Just the paperwork to get them all on board might take longer than two hours.”

I moved to Ryder, pulling his hands into mine and setting them both on my chest. “What do you want to do?”

He stared at me for a long time, finger trailing over my cheek. “I can’t live with a threat hovering over us, and I sure as hell am not letting you go in there alone. We promised Addy we’d try to finish this. I don’t want to break that promise to her.”

I swallowed hard, hoping—now that he’d given me the trust I’d asked for—that I didn’t let him down. That I didn’t let any of them down. The weight of it fell heavier than normal on my shoulders. I lifted my phone and said, “Find Enrique, Rory. We need eyes on him. Then, talk to Leland and see what boots we can get on the ground quickly. If you don’t hear from me by midnight, send in whatever cavalry you can pull together.”

“Okay, Cinderella. Midnight it is.”

She clicked off, and I wrapped my arms around Ryder, setting my head on his chest. The thud of his heart pounded against my ear, echoing my rapid pulse. I wasn’t sure we’d walk out of this unscathed tonight. I wasn’t sure what would happen to either of us. But if I could plant Ravyn’s Trojan horse, and if we could get authorities not in Laredo’s pocket to show up, we’d bring down the entire cartel. Addy would be safe, even if the worst happened to Ryder and me.

I wished I’d called my parents and told them I loved them. But if I did it now, Dad would hear my fear, and even Mom would know something was wrong. They’d worry, and their worry wouldn’t change the outcome. It was better this way. Better they didn’t know until it was over—whatever that ended up looking like.

? ? ?

Even though I was covered, I still felt naked after I’d zipped up the dress from Ryder’s grandmother’s attic. There was no way I could wear a bra with the back dropping down to practically my ass cheeks and nothing more than a scrap of tiny beads holding up the scooped neck. I had nothing on beneath the satin except a thong. And once I’d added the gaudy, thirties-style jewelry, it felt like I was wearing more gems than I was clothing.

The lack of color in the dress had put the bruising on my neck on display. I”d had a hard time covering it with makeup and then decided to let the necklace do the bulk of the work, wrapping it close before leaving a long loop to dangle between my breasts.

I turned, catching sight of myself in the full-length mirror behind the bathroom door, and my feet stalled in the kitten heels I’d bought at the mall. With the gems and the champagne-colored gown, I almost looked bride-like. If I’d ever considered getting married, I would have picked a dress like this. Simple and elegant without all the frills and lace. The thought of wearing this today, walking alongside Ryder in a tuxedo, made my pulse beat erratically. It made visions of a candlelit room and families standing by while whispered promises were made seem suddenly possible.

Tomorrow. If we made it out of this, I’d think about it all then. I’d tell Ryder I loved him, and we’d figure our future out. Something we could both live with.

As I stepped out of the bathroom, Ryder had his back to me, looking out the window. The black tux fit him perfectly, even though it was rented. It hugged his broad shoulders and tapered over his trim waist, making him much more a James Bond image than I’d ever been. As if he felt me watching, he turned from the hotel window, and my breath caught at the beauty of him. His hair was slicked back, putting on display the strong, square lines of his clean-shaven face. I hadn’t seen him without his scruffy beard since I’d arrived in Willow Creek days ago. While I missed it, I also found myself desperate to explore all that smooth skin with my lips and tongue.

His gaze slid down me slowly, taking his time. When his eyes finally returned to mine, the longing, the utter fire I’d seen in them since the moment he’d caged me in his office last summer, burned even brighter, like a solar flare ready to leap out and scorch me.

Losing ourselves in each other last night hadn’t done one damn thing to tame those flames. It had only added fuel to the already existing pyre.

I couldn’t pull my eyes from his. Could barely breathe. Certainly couldn’t move. It was Ryder who closed the distance between us, voice dropping as he said, “You’re even more stunning than normal. Resplendent.”

“Resplendent?” The word jerked me out of my stupor with a laugh, and his lips quirked.

“I hate that he’s going to see you this way. That he’s going to think about touching you. I don’t like the idea of any man touching you, but especially not him.” The darkness in his tone wound through me. It wasn’t just the possessiveness of it. It was protectiveness too, and it made me want to curl into him when normally it would make me toss my fist and shout my independence.

“You’ll have plenty of beautiful women eating you up with their eyes tonight. You think I’ll enjoy that? You think I enjoy knowing you’ve had a sea of women in your bed?”

Jealousy seared me, and he saw it. Instead of making him unhappy, it made his lips curl upward ever so slightly.

“I’m not going to lie to you, darlin’. For a long time after Ravyn left, I tried to scrub the hurt away with sex. But I never brought any woman home. Not a single female besides my family ever crossed my doorstep. The ladies I was with always knew exactly what I was offering, and it was never what I’m offering you.”

My pulse skittered around, that love I was feeling bouncing back to the forefront of my mind. But it was the last thing I needed to be thinking about at the moment. I needed to think about Laredo. How to get him alone and how I would make him believe what I had on the flash drive was legit before he did something permanent to Ryder. But still, I let myself savor this one last moment when a man I loved was offering me a future. I leaned in, kissing him slowly, languidly, as if we had all the time in the world, before pulling back and swiping my lipstick from his mouth.

He caught my hand, turned it over, kissing the palm, and I could practically feel the worry vibrating off him.

I swallowed hard. “It’s going to be fine,” I told him. “You know how to work the camera app. You’ll be able to see what’s going on with me. You’ve got a GPS tracker in your pocket, so I’ll know where you’re at. And if something goes wrong…” I lifted my dress so he caught sight of the gun I’d strapped around my knee where the dress flared out so it wouldn’t show. “I have this to help us.”

“That’s not the comfort you think it is,” he said quietly. He reached up to stroke a path from my jawline down to the gem-covered strap at my shoulder. My skin prickled at the fiery trail. He bent and kissed my shoulder softly. More goosebumps broke out, and my nipples hardened, clear as day in the thin material of the dress.

When he lifted his head, there was a pleased look in his eye at my physical reaction to him. I inhaled the heady masculine scent of him, suddenly wishing we were going to a real party. That he was in the handsome tuxedo and I was in an elegant ball gown, attending an event where we’d spend the night brushing fingers, dancing tantalizingly slow, and drinking just enough to enhance the yearning until we could do nothing more than rush back to our room, shed our clothes, and lose ourselves in each other.

My eyes fluttered closed, letting myself enjoy the mirage for one long heartbeat before purposefully brushing it aside once more.

It wasn’t just Ryder’s or Addy’s life at stake. It was our entire civilization. If the Lovato cartel got its hands on a working Houdini box, the destruction would be almost as large as a nuclear bomb. It would change our future.

I couldn’t fail. I wouldn’t.

I stepped away from the warmth of Ryder’s arms, picked up my clutch with the flash drive and my phone, and headed for the door.

He met me there, took my hand in his, and rested it on his arm. Then, he looked down with a smile and a wink, saying, “Out of all the ranches, in all the world, you sneaked into mine. Let’s not ruin it by ending tonight with some cliché gun battle, shall we? Let’s get in, get out, and go make some movie-worthy memories.”

“Wouldn’t that be like Frodo tossing the ring into the fire without the torture that came before it?” I teased.

“I was trying to be romantic. I’ve been told Lord of the Rings doesn’t cut it.”

“I don’t know, that moment at Minas Tirith when Arwen marries Aragorn and gives up her Elfin immortality…that seems pretty romantic.”

He drew me to a stop, a look of awe on his face. “I don’t want you to do that, you know.” My heart skipped a beat. “I don’t want you to give up your life and everything you love to take a place at my side. But—”

I kissed him. And there was nothing slow and languid about this. It was fierce and strong, and it demanded he shut the hell up, because if he didn’t, if he kept going, I’d be back to thinking about tomorrow instead of all the things we had to get through tonight.

“One step at a time, cowboy. Let’s live through this evening, and then we can talk about what comes next.”