Chapter Forty-one: The Champion

Gia

THE CHAMPION

Performed by Carrie Underwood

Pain tore through me at thesight of Addy’s stuffed animal lying next to a blanket-covered heap on a cot. Her backpack was next to her on the floor of the cell. Somehow, some way, Laredo had gotten to her. I’d promised Ryder she wouldn’t be hurt. I’d sworn she’d be safe.

What the hell had happened to Maddox? To the deputies guarding her?

Nausea twisted through me.

Ryder! God. Ryder would never survive this. And even if he did, he’d never forgive me.

I’d never forgive myself.

Laredo’s face was dark and gratified as he took in my stunned expression. I had to pull myself together. Had to continue the play. Had to find a way to get her to safety. She wasn’t harmed. I didn’t think he would hurt her. What had he said? He wanted her to love him more than she loved Ryder and Ravyn. He wanted to have her at his side where he could get his revenge every day for the rest of Addy’s life.

I buried my emotions, finding that calm I’d been taught to show in the worst of situations.

Summoning the strength of every fictional spy character I’d ever loved, I gave Laredo a careless shrug. “I liked the kid. It’ll be nice to have her here. But she doesn’t know the code.”

Something flickered through his eyes. The first sign of uncertainty.

“You don’t believe me?” I asked. “Bring her here, ask her. Even if you can get her to talk—because she doesn’t really talk to anyone—she still won’t know the answer.”

Irritation rushed over his face, and he yanked me to him with a brutality that had me slamming one hip into the desk. He put his hands around my neck and squeezed. The bruises that were already there, the wounded windpipe, screamed at the touch.

“Tell me. Tell me the code, and I promise not to destroy the Hatleys, your family, and anyone you care about when I’m done with you.”

“That’s hardly a promise I can believe in,” I choked out.

He let me go, and air rushed into my lungs. I forced myself not to clutch at my neck, to act as if he hadn’t just tried to strangle me.

He stepped away, reasserting a terrifying calm. “Reacting in anger is never the right answer.” He looked down at his hands. “I will burn my father’s responses from my body.” He glanced up at me, tilting his head as if finding something curious. “Maybe you are the answer. Maybe your defiance will be the way I learn to control it.”

My pulse was pounding, my breath hissing out in sharp puffs. Every nerve was on alert. Fight-or-flight instincts screamed at me to do both. I rammed those reflexes down, knowing I couldn’t do either. I had to stay the course. I still had a chance to get Addy out of this. To get Ryder and Addy to safety. If I were truly turning traitor to join Laredo, what would I demand from him? What kind of assurance for my safety would I request in trade for the code?

“Give me the key code,” he commanded.

“I need some assurance you won’t kill me once I’ve given it to you. Some assurance you’ll keep me at your side like I want.”

He chuckled. A dark sound that made me believe in the demons Natalia had run from. “There are no assurances you would believe. I will always be able to kill you if I choose. You can die now, without having given me the code, and I’ll set my people on it and figure it out eventually anyway, or you can risk giving it to me, knowing that, at the moment, I’m fascinated with you, and my reaction to you is enough to keep you. Perhaps, if you always entertain me, if you continue to surprise me, I will always want you at my side. It will fall on you to make it so. That is the best I can offer you.”

Our gazes locked. I battled those flight instincts more as my veins pounded with fear and heartache. Would a woman who wanted to rule the world accept these terms? Would a cornered animal relent so easily?

“I can see you are running through all your options,” he said, a hint of pride there that made my stomach curl. “Unfortunately for you, there is only one door open. You closed the rest when you showed your hand.”

“I want Addy to travel with me. Wherever I go, she goes with me.”

His mouth tightened, and his fingers curled into his arms, but he smirked. “You will both go where I go. I learned my lesson with Natalia. From now on, I keep the people who belong to me close. There will be no escape. Be warned, you are giving up your freedom in order to get what you want.”

Was he delusional enough to believe anyone would accept these terms?

Maybe he was. Maybe he believed the temptation of having the world at your feet was enough.

It didn’t matter. I only needed him to think I was agreeing long enough for Ravyn’s virus to take effect.

I released a long exhale and said, “Fine, but don’t hate me for the code she chose.” I waited a beat and then shrugged, saying, “It’s Ravyn Eowyn Hatley.

His eyes narrowed, and he swore in Spanish under his breath but typed it into the screen. When the passcode was accepted, and the encryption started to clear, he smiled and did the worst thing he could possibly do—he forgot about me.

I backed away as he concentrated on the screen, fingers moving, doing exactly what Ravyn had thought he would by logging into a critical system to ensure the code worked. The one he chose was the FAA, where it would now be easy for him to bring down a plane. I sank onto one of the armchairs, and he must have caught the movement in the screen’s reflection, because he glanced back at me.

I purposefully dropped my shoulder so the strap of the dress slipped down and the neckline of the gown with it, revealing the tops of my breasts. I acted like I didn’t feel it, like I didn’t notice even as his eyes skimmed over me.

“Take it off,” he demanded.

“What?”

“You heard me. Take the gown off. Get on the bed. When I’m done running this little check to ensure my sister didn’t betray me once more, I’ll expect you to be ready for me.”

“How on earth can I keep you entertained if I acquiesce so easily to every command?”

Heat flared. “I punish those who don’t listen.”

“Promises. Promises.”

He took a step away from the laptop. A step toward me. I slid out of my sandals. Easier to run barefoot than in those low heels. My hand slid the hem of the dress up, baring my ankle and calf, but not quite far enough that he would see my gun strapped to my knee.

He eased toward me, undoing his belt buckle and sliding it off.

My stomach rolled. It was a deadly dance I’d engaged in, and for the second time tonight, I realized how much I didn’t like it. I didn’t want to engage in hand-to-hand combat I wasn’t adequately trained to win like Jason Bourne. I didn’t want to face a gun or a knife or a computer code that could ruin the world. I wanted the excitement of a puzzle and finding the answers, but I no longer wanted to have my life or the lives of people I loved on the line to do so.

I did my best to keep my emotions from showing, forcing my eyes to remain on his face and not the screen glowing behind him. How long would it take for the Trojan horse to be unleashed? How long did I have before I wound up dead?

When he reached me, his hand landed in my hair, jerking my head back with a brutalness that brought tears to my eyes, and I slid my hand farther up the dress until it collided with my holster.

“Just remember, you asked for this,” he purred, an ugly sound of a predator who’d captured his prey.

I closed my fingers around the grip of my gun and slid it slowly and quietly out. I reached for his arm as if to caress it, and then I shoved the barrel of my Glock into his stomach.

“Remember that you asked for it too,” I hissed back.

He glanced down, and a surprised huff of laughter escaped him. Not the reaction I was expecting. A playfulness took over his face. A cat batting at a mouse.

“This is exactly the reason you’ve lived as long as you have tonight.”

He yanked me to my feet by my hair, pivoting to the side just as my finger pulled the trigger. The gunshot echoed through the room, but the bullet went wide, hitting the door behind us.

It was then that I heard it. Ryder’s desperate voice calling Addy’s name. Calling mine.

Any playfulness Laredo had exhibited disappeared into a cold, dark wall of hatred.

He twisted my wrist holding the gun in one quick movement. Bones cracked, sharp pain sliced through me, and I cried out. The gun hit the floor, but he didn’t even bother to pick it up. Instead, he dragged me with him to the door by my hair. When I tried to resist, he put pressure on my broken bone, and I gasped, air rushing out of my lungs as the pain spiraled through me.

“With such a low tolerance for pain, you never would have been able to please me.”

He twisted my broken wrist again. The agony would have knocked me to my knees if Laredo hadn’t hauled me to his chest as he yanked me into the hallway.

“Let her go!” Ryder’s furious snarl drew my eyes down the dark corridor, settling on the gun he held in his hand.

Love and hope twined with fear inside me. I barely bit back a scream, telling him to run, to find Addy and get the hell out of the devil’s house.

Laredo still held my wrist in one hand, and he barely had to put any pressure on it for me to cry out. Concern skated over Ryder’s face as he aimed his gun, trying to get a clear shot at the man using me as a shield. With his free hand, Laredo pulled a switchblade from his pocket, flicking it open and placing it on my already bruised neck.

“It’s over, Jaime,” Ryder said, continuing toward us slowly but surely. “Everything you thought you were getting tonight is gone. Ravyn got in the last word. She’s destroying you even as we speak with that flash drive you installed. You have no one coming to save you, because your giant is dead. The world will know exactly what you are and any respect you might have garnered will disappear.”

The tip of the knife pierced me. I bit my cheek, refusing to cry out again, as I felt blood drip down my neck, staining the beautiful gown Ryder’s family had lovingly preserved.

“What did you do to Julio?” Laredo demanded.

“Shot him. Just like I’m going to shoot you for marking her.”

“You lie.”

“Unfortunately for me, lying is not a skill I learned,” Ryder said, stalking closer. “While you and Ravyn excelled at it. Fooled the hell out of me and everyone around you. But it seems like she was even better at it than you are. I guess she’ll have the last laugh.”

“He has Addy,” I gasped out and was punished by the tip digging farther into my neck.

Ryder shook his head. “No. He has a stuffed animal and a backpack that looks like hers. There’s no one in that room.”

Laredo pushed harder on both my wrist and the point of the knife. My eyes watered, and the inside of my cheek bled as I tried desperately not to scream.

A voice from behind us said calmly, “What’s that line? About bringing a knife to a gunfight?”

Laredo jerked, pulling us so his back was against the wall, but it also caused the knife tip to slide farther in. I choked, a garbled noise escaping me as I registered Enrique limping down the hall, bloodied and battered.

I did the only thing I could, flinging the elbow on my good arm back into Laredo’s stomach, tearing hair from my head as I attempted to pull away. The moves barely budged him, but the miniscule space I’d created was all I needed. Two suppressed shots rang out, the air by my ear burning before both bullets struck Laredo. One to his head, the other to his left shoulder.

He sagged, his body taking me and the knife in my neck with him.

I tried to catch myself, tried to find the hilt, but I was already tumbling.

And then, warm arms caught me. Ryder’s strength surrounded me.

And every nerve in my body surrendered.

I’d finally found something worth staying for.

? ? ?

Six hours later, I had a bandage on my neck, a temporary wrap holding my wrist, and a cowboy who wouldn’t leave my side as we finished up at the Grand Laredo. Once it was clear Laredo was dead, and with the FBI, DEA, and local cops invading the place, Laredo’s staff at the ranch either took off or surrendered. Those who escaped wouldn’t get far, because Ravyn had given us a complete list of every person who worked for the organization. They’d be hunted down one at a time. There was no way any of them could pick up where Laredo had left off because Ravyn had destroyed it all. She’d given all the money away, uncovered every single trafficking lane they’d used, and handed over every contact who’d ever helped them.

Her work would do more than just end the Lovato cartel, as it also gave up resources used by other cartels as well. It was a true shake-up in the criminal world.

The minute Ryder was sure I wasn’t going to bleed out, he’d called Maddox. Addy was secure, tucked in a bed at the safe house, surrounded by officers. If he hadn’t already been tortured, I would have wanted to bust Enrique in the face several times for giving Laredo the idea to make Ryder and me think he’d taken her in.

After the EMTs loaded Enrique onto a gurney, I walked with them toward the waiting ambulance. “I’m mad as hell that you offered Addy to Laredo, but I also have to thank you for saving my ass.”

His dark-brown eyes were a mix of sadness and relief. “I would never have let him have her. But for the first time, I knew what he wanted and could use it to get to him. He had to be stopped, Kent. For ten years, I’ve been searching for the bastard who slaughtered my brother. I wasn’t going to let him get away once we’d found him.”

Would Enrique have killed Laredo even if he hadn’t had a knife to my throat? In the end, it didn’t matter. The man was gone. He couldn’t hurt Addy or Ryder or any of my family again—a family that included every single one of the Hatleys.

As we reached the ambulance, the reporter who’d been covering the gala shoved a microphone toward Enrique and me, demanding answers about what had gone down and why. After, “No comment,” ripped from both our throats in a similar growl, the woman backed away. But it wouldn’t be long before more news crews showed up, camping out along the edge of the drive and attempting to get statements from guests as they were released.

“You’re going to be feeling the aftereffects of tonight for a long time,” I told Enrique. We both knew I didn’t just mean the physical healing. I wasn’t sure he’d be able to go back to the DEA after he’d gone dark, even if he’d done so to bring Laredo down. I wasn’t sure anyone would trust him again.

He glanced over my shoulder, and I didn’t have to look to know who’d caught his eye. I could feel Ryder’s heat as he made his way toward me, the tether of the bond that joined us reaching out like its own embrace.

“I think we’ll both be feeling the ramifications for the rest of our lives,” he said, but there was a smirk on his lips that had mine twitching up in return.

The EMTs lifted the gurney inside and shut the door just as strong arms surrounded me. I eased back into him, and Ryder growled, “He used my daughter as bait. He’s lucky I didn’t shoot him when I had a chance.”

I turned to face him. “He never would have given her up.”

Ryder’s jaw worked. “I’m not sure I agree.”

“Did you see the state of him? If he was going to give her up, it would have been while they were torturing him.”

“Nothing you say will make me like or trust the man.”

I didn’t want to argue with him about it. Enrique would have to remain one of the things we disagreed on, and I wasn’t sure it mattered. With the task force disbanded, I wasn’t sure I’d ever see the DEA agent again.

As the ambulance pulled away, Ryder ran a hand along my jaw in a tender caress, leaned in and placed a tender kiss on my forehead, and asked, “Can we go home now?”

Home. Willow Creek. The glass house that he’d built because of his love for another woman that had somehow become a haven in the last few days for me.

Before I could respond, I caught sight of a disappointed face weaving through the sea of vehicles on the drive. My heart fell as Leland reached me.

“G.”

“Leland.”

We stared at each other for a long moment before my boss’s gaze flicked to Ryder, whose arms had tightened protectively.

“How’d you get here so quickly?” I asked.

“Once Rory came clean about what you’d been hiding, I commandeered a company jet and landed outside Corbin in under two hours.” His eyes were sad as he shook his head. “After all we’ve been through, I have to say, it stings that you doubted me.”

My throat bobbed, emotional pain joining the physical ones, both sure to scar me. I hadn’t just respected Leland, I liked him as a human being and thought of him as a friend as well as a boss. It had taken a lot to doubt him, but I didn’t say any of that because, in the end, it didn’t matter. I had doubted him. Instead, I asked, “Did we find the mole?”

“Tech analyst with the DEA.”

“Enrique’s going to destroy him.”

My boss didn’t respond immediately. When he did, he looked Ryder straight in the eye and said, “I need a moment with G.”

Ryder wasn’t happy. I could feel it vibrating from him, but I squeezed his hand and said, “Give me another ten minutes. Then, I’ll let you take me home. I want to hug Addy, and I want to fall in bed and sleep for a day at least.”

His eyes lit up at me saying home and Addy in practically the same sentence. Or maybe it was the idea of staying in bed for a day in that way we’d both wanted to do this morning. He kissed me on the forehead and stepped away, pulling out his burner phone and texting someone while he waited.

“The virus destroyed everything he had online?” Leland asked.

After Ryder had ripped his tuxedo shirt up and tied it around my neck to stop the bleeding, I’d insisted on searching for the Houdini box. I’d brought Laredo’s laptop with me as we hunted, shooting our way through locked doors and watching as Natalia’s virus ate its way through the Lovato businesses before destroying itself as well.

Once we’d found the safe in Laredo’s office, we’d hauled Laredo’s body into the room to unlock it with his eyes and his fingers. Inside was an Art Deco ring and two gold-encrusted external drives. Ryder had gasped at the ring, fisting it and closing his eyes as if he’d found the Holy Grail.

I hadn’t had time to ask him about it, but I suspected it was the ring he’d given Ravyn. I turned my attention to the drives, called Rory, and used the key code to unlock them. The Houdini boxes were missing the final string of code Rory had found on the Switch, but it too was gone now into the etherland of ones and zeroes that Ravyn had burned up. Even knowing the last piece was missing, Rory and I had still made the executive decision to smash the drives to pieces. No one should have the power that code would have given.

I nodded at Leland. “Yes. The virus did its job, but Ravyn left us enough evidence to dismantle what’s left of the Lovatos’ physical business.”

“The bigwigs won’t be happy to not have the Houdini box in custody. They’ll want to know how those drives got destroyed.”

“I made the decision. If they want a badge for it, they can have mine. Leave Rory out of it.”

“Or maybe Laredo destroyed those drives in a hissy fit before he was shot. You know, if he couldn’t have them, no one would?”

My chest squeezed tight. Even after I’d doubted him and hid things from him, my boss still had my back. I didn’t respond, because if I did, I might start crying, and I’d be damned if I’d do that in front of the range of law enforcement crawling over the ranch.

“I’m thinking you need to use up some of that vacation time you’ve accrued,” my boss said. “Maybe in two months, things will have died down enough for you to come back in.” His eyes darted over to Ryder and back, and his lips twitched. “Unless you’ve got other plans.”

“I honestly don’t have an answer for you today, Leland.”

“We’ll figure something out, G. We need you.”

I didn’t tell him the truth. How, in those minutes when I’d thought I might die at Laredo’s hands, all I cared about was telling Ryder I loved him and making sure I saw Addy and my family again. This job wasn’t worth me risking any of them.

“Get the hell out of here,” he said with no heat. “If the task force needs an update from you, I’ll reach out. Otherwise, we’ll talk in a few months.”

He walked away, and the moment he did, Ryder was at my side.

I put my arms around him, my wrist screaming and my body shivering as the icy January air finally registered through the thin fabric of the satin evening gown. I reached up with my good hand, brushing at a lock of hair that had drifted over his forehead. Blue eyes seared into me. Concern. Love. A hint of doubt that I hated to see.

“We need to get that wrist set,” he said gently.

I nodded. “There’s something I need to say.”

His throat bobbed. “Okay.”

“I love you.”

A smile emerged for the first time since we’d teased each other in the hotel room. It was a stunning smile that made me feel like I’d stepped into a spotlight. I was on a stage with an audience of one, but it felt better than having the entire world watching.

“That’s it?” he teased. “No reasons. No grand gesture. Just three words said like you were ordering a steak?”

I huffed out a laugh. “Those three words have changed my life, even if they haven’t changed yours.”

“It wasn’t the words that changed me, darlin’. It was you.”

He leaned in and kissed me softly, and even tired, stabbed, and broken, I felt the spark of it in every piece of me. All the way down to my soul.

He drew back, put his forehead to mine, and said, “Just in case it wasn’t clear when I was talking about soulmates, you’re it for me. The true love I thought I’d never have. I love you. I love you, and I’ll do anything to make your world whole.”

The fact that he thought my world wasn’t whole slid through me almost as painfully as Laredo’s knife, even as joy flooded my veins at his sweet promise. I had to make sure he understood, that he truly heard the truth and felt it deep inside, just like I’d felt it with the honesty of words.

So, I put every ounce of love I had into every syllable as I said, “All I need is you and Addy.”