“That bastard!” At Skye’s shout, everything goes quiet, “I’m going to kill him, how could I have been so stupid?”
“What’s going on Skye?” Oscar asks loud enough so that she can hear, I walk over to the sofa and show them all the tracker.
Skye comes over and sits beside me, taking my hand as she does. She looks so nervous. “When I got on the train when my train landed, someone helped me with my luggage. I’m so stupid; I should have been on the lookout.”
“Skye, it’s not your fault. Do you know who he is?” Soph asks her, and I know that even though we’ll tell her it’s not her fault; Skye will still think that it is. “Skye?” Soph asks her again.
“It was Callum; it had to be he was the only one that was close enough to me.” Her voice is hesitant, and she clasps my hand tighter, I’m not angry with her I’m mad that he used her vulnerability to get what he wanted.
“Where did you meet him?” Oscar asks, and I feel her tense, she doesn’t want everyone know that he flirted with her and played her. “I wonder if we can get a facial recognition from him?”
“We met him again today outside Tooting Broadway station; you should be able to get a hit from that.” I look to Henry as I know that he’ll be doing that as this call continues. “Has anyone else found anything useful?”
“Yeah, I spoke to Iain at Interpol, and he’s finally got back to me, although he knows about Mischa and as Maisey said the band of misfits. Interpol are more interested in Matija Subotić and Miroslav Petrović. They are the big names in an international smuggling ring. Not only are they gun smugglers and drug smugglers. It’s claimed that their empire is worth an estimated eighty-nine million pounds which equate to just over one hundred and twenty-six million dollars.” Sam informs us, and I let out a low whistle, damn that is a hell of a lot of money. I’m in the wrong business.
“Also, Matija Subotić owns a string of strip clubs around Europe. Iain said that all the surveillance of the one Matija owns in London shows that he has a favorite girl and uses her frequently. It could be worth talking to her.” Sam has given us a great lead to pursue.
“Ryder, I spoke to a contact at the FBI, and it seems that the band of misfits are well known. They have been trying to get a foot into the US smuggling, but so far, they haven’t been able to. Also, Subotić is wanted in the US for murder; the FBI has evidence that he’s the one that pulled the hit on ADA Johnson.” Nathan’s been busy; he used to be a member of the FBI but decided that it wasn’t for him and started his own business.
“Johnson was trying a case involving ex Russian Militias. They were accused of killing two informants, who had turned state witness against them for money laundering. I wonder if this Subotić had his hand in that business too?” Luke fills in the missing blanks for us.
“So, this fucker is a murdering scumbag. Just what we need right now, where is this strip club? Also, can you send us the images of this band of misfits, so we can keep an eye out?” Skye is finally back to herself, and she’s looking at her next step.
“Kingly Court in SoHo and I’ve sent you the images we have,” Henry tells her, and hopefully, he’s found out who the hell this Callum fucker is. “I found out that Callum Stanley is a thirty-two-year-old banker who by the looks of things has joined this band of misfits and it seems they’re siphoning money from the bank that Callum works at.”
“Any information you have, give it to both Maisey and Sam so they can give it to their contacts at M15 and Interpol, it’s not a fucking coincidence that the fucker was involved in the money laundering in the US and then siphoning money here in the UK. My guess, he’s done it elsewhere too.” I wait for the nods of agreement before I continue. “Oscar, can you get footage of the night that Addison was taken? Now we know that she was put into that fucking jeep we can follow it and see where they’ve got her held up.”
“I’m on it, do you need anything else?”
“Yes, where are Scott, Steven and Hailey?” I’ve seen all the weird looks, and both Sophia and Luke have been checking their cells every few minutes, something happened, and I want to know what it is.
It’s Morgan that speaks up, and I know whatever it is it’s bad. “Last night Hailey and Maddie moved into my old house, which was the same night Hailey managed to break things off with Eric. Eric broke in and beat both girls; thankfully one of the neighbors heard their screams and called the police.” Eric’s a dead man walking.
“Are they okay?” Skye asks with tears in her eyes.
Morgan shakes her head; she too is close to tears. “Not really, Hailey was unconscious when the police got to the scene. She has some swelling in her brain. Maddie, it seems tried to get in between Eric and Hailey and has suffered broken ribs and a broken arm. Luckily it was her screams that the neighbor heard.”
“Is Hailey awake?” Skye’s tears are free-flowing, and so are Sophia’s.
“Not yet, the doctors said that it’s her body’s way of healing.” The anger in Luke’s voice is exactly how we’re all feeling.
“What about the asshole? Is he finally behind bars?” He better be, if he isn’t, when I get home I’m going to kill him.
“He’s vanished; he heard the sirens and escaped out the back door. That house is fucking cursed!” Luke’s so angry that he’s shaking; he remembers when Morgan was shot in that house.
“Keep me updated. I know that you want to go and see Hailey and Maddie. Oscar, if you have any more information for me, call.” I shut the laptop and Skye starts laughing, I look up from the laptop and watch her. I fucking love when she’s happy and her eyes light up.
She reaches out and opens the laptop and hits a few buttons while she’s still laughing. I’m fixated on her, even though all this misery she can find some bit of happiness. “You didn’t end the call Ryder.” Every word is laced with humor.
“Oscar would have done it.” It’s not as if I give a shit if they hear anything we say. “How are you feeling?”
“My heads all over the place, one minute I’m hopeful we’ll find her the next I’m trying to stop myself from thinking she’s dead.” She brings her knees up onto the sofa, her feet bare and her toes curling under my leg. I reach out and place my hand on her leg, she’s feeling more comfortable around me, and I’m hoping that it means she forgives me and she’s ready for us to be – well us.
“Ryder, how did they know that I was going to be at that train station? How did they know what I look like?” Fuck how the hell did I miss that? “What do they want from me?”
I call Oscar, and he answers right away, “Miss me already?”
“How did they know that Skye was in London? How the hell did they know when her flight was landing?” With each word, I get angrier and angrier. How the hell did I miss this? I’m supposed to protect her, I’m supposed to keep her safe, and now there’s a group of bastards that are watching her every move.
“Shit, I don’t know. I’ll find out; we’ll find out.” He gets the urgency; no one comes after our team and gets away with it! He hangs up, and I know that he’ll do whatever he has to do to find out what they want with Skye.
“He’s going to find out okay?” She gives me a sad smile, “Nothing is going to happen to you, I promise.”
“I know you’ll do everything in your power to protect me, but bad things happen Ryder. Look at what happened to Sophia, she had all of us, and she still got hurt. Look at Winter, she was in a house with Steven, Luke, Scott, and Soph and she still got kidnapped. Morgan is a cop with a gun, and she still got hurt, no matter what we do Ryder no matter how hard we try bad things always happen. When they do, you’ve just got to adapt and adjust, and pray that you can kill the motherfucker that tries to bring you down.” That right there, that’s my wife. She may be scared, but she never gives in.
“If something happens, if you get taken, I’ll tear this motherfucking city apart to look for you.” That’s a fucking understatement. If something happens to her, I will lose my
damn mind.
“I know, but Ry…”
She’s cut off by my cell ringing, looking at the screen I see that Will’s calling me, what the fuck does he want? “Hello?”
“Hey Boss, I know that you’re a bit preoccupied, but I was wondering if I could have tomorrow off, I want to go home and see mom and visit Rachel's grave.”
“Want to tell me why you didn’t just ask Oscar? He’s in charge while I’m gone!” I don’t even want to think about him going back to Montana, hell just thinking about that fucking place has me in a bad mood.
“Um well, Boss I thought…”
“You didn’t fucking think, that’s your problem. You never think Will! So, ask Oscar as he may need you while I’m busy trying to make sure that these assholes who are tracking my wife don’t get her along with trying to find where my sister in law is.” I end the call and try to calm down, Skye’s feet are moving under my leg, and I know that she too is trying to calm me.
“You really do love that don’t you?” I turn to her, what the hell is she talking about? “Calling me your wife?”
I move her feet from underneath my leg and pull her towards me as I turn on the sofa, I move her, so her legs are wrapped around my waist, and she’s sitting on my lap. She smiles at me, and I feel it all the way in my dick, the past four months all I’ve thought about is that night in Vegas and how fucking good it felt to finally be inside of her. Feeling her hand caressing my face pulls me out of thoughts of Vegas.
“Ry, why do you hate Will so much? I’ve known you for a long time, and I’ve never seen you like this before.” The gentleness in her voice tells me that she’s been wanting to ask me for a while about this and has just been scared.
“Fuck, okay so I’ve known Will since I was in senior year, he and his family moved to Dillon. Anyway, he’d joined our senior year, and he seemed to get along with everyone, yeah me included. Graduation came, and Rachel and I went out to dinner with my family, I had signed up to join the army, and I was going to break up with her. We’d been dating since the beginning of Junior year, she was fun, but that was about it. She was an easy lay…”
She slaps my chest “Don’t say that!”
“I’m being truthful anyway I was sixteen and so was she, what do you expect?” She laughs and shakes her head. “So, dinner with my parents, they both loved her, and they thought that I loved her too. So midway through dinner, Rachel excused herself to use the bathroom, she’d been gone about ten maybe fifteen minutes when I went to use the men's room. As I walked toward the bathrooms I heard her talking; she was arranging to meet someone, that once she left me, she was spending the night with him.” I can’t hide the bitterness in my voice.
“She was cheating on you with Will?” Skye looks as mad as she sounds.
“Yeah, she was cheating on me with Will.”
“Where is she?” I have to hold onto her hips as she tries to get up from my lap.
“She died, and when she died, it came out that she was pregnant.” The look in Skye’s eyes is a wild look, and I know that she hates this, but I need to tell her. “It wasn’t mine; it was Will’s apparently they’d been fucking for a few months.”
“Oh wow. I’m sorry, and I understand why you hate Will, and I would too but don’t you feel a little bad for him? I mean he lost his baby?” Skye, always compassionate.
“I would if he wanted the baby, but he didn’t, and he was relieved that the baby was gone.” Even saying that makes me want to beat the fucker again.
Her gasp says it all, “He never! Oh wow, did Rachel know that he didn’t want the baby?”
“Yeah, they had spoken about it before, and he had told her that he didn’t want it and that she would have been better off having an abortion. She wasn’t going to get one; her sister told me she was going to pass the baby off as mine.”
“What a bitch! Who the hell does that?” Skye’s getting pretty worked up. “How did she die?”
“A car crash. What’s your plan of action for tonight?” I need to get away from this topic of conversation; nothing good can come of it.
Chapter Fourteen
Skye
Wow, he lost his mom and his girlfriend in car crashes, what are the odds? No wonder he wants to change the subject, it’s probably bringing up memories of his mom. So, I go along with his change in direction, what’s the plan of action for tonight? “I was going to go to the bar, but we may as well go to that strip club, see his favorite girl and find out as much as we can about him. I hate feeling as though I'm being watched; I want these fuckers on the back foot… not us!”
“Hell yeah, we’re going to make these fuckers pay! We'll find your sister and kill every fucker who stands in our way!” Ryder’s so adamant, and I love that he’s going all out to help me find Addi. “How about you get some rest first and then we will go to the strip club?”
I watch as his face tightens as he says the word strip club and I roll my eyes, he doesn’t want me to be in one and hell I don’t want to be in one either, but we do what we have to for those we love. “A nap sounds perfect right now. Will you be taking a nap too?” I go to the drawers and pull out a nightdress; my naps are usually more like other people’s slumbers, or comas whichever way you want to look at it. I quickly get changed into my nightdress with my back turned to Ryder, I hear his deep intake of breath, but I ignore it. Once I’m changed I get into the bed and lie on my side, I can hear Ryder moving around the room, so I close my eyes as he closes the curtains. Smiling because he’s being so sweet, I drift off to sleep.
I awaken with the pressing need to pee, as I come fully awake I realize that Ryder is lying beside me, and his hand is on my stomach. I try to remove his hand, but he doesn’t budge in fact he pulls me closer to him. “You’re awake! How long have you been creeping on me?”
“A few years. Feel refreshed?” He has a sexy grin on his face. My eyes travel downward to his naked chest, and I see that he’s got a new tattoo, up until this point he’s had five and I wondered why he’s never added to them, but now, he has one on his pec going around his nipple. It’s a date in Roman numerals: XXVII - VI - MMXVII. I don’t have a clue what date it is; I think it may be his mom’s death. I know that it hit him really hard when she died, he doesn’t really talk about it. It happened not long before he left for Basic Training.
“Yes! I feel so refreshed, did you sleep, or did you just perv on me the whole time?” I can’t stop staring at his tattoo, it’s amazing, and it looks sexy.
“I slept for about fifteen minutes, but you move around a lot in your sleep, and I had to pin you otherwise you’d have kicked me in my balls again.” He still has that sexy grin on his face, and it’s making me want to kiss him. “Did you want to go somewhere?”
“Yeah, your child is pushing down on my bladder, and I need to pee.” I push his hand away once again, and finally, he lets me go. I rush to the toilet, and he's still in the same position as when I left him. As I get closer, I see that he has a pale face and a shocked expression on his face, “Hey is everything okay?”
“You said, my child. I'm going to be a dad!” He's freaking out! What the heck, he's known for a few days and he chooses now to freak the hell out. He looks at me with wonder and excitement in his eyes, “I'm going to be a dad.”
“Yeah, you're going to be a dad, and I know you'll be the best dad there is.” That's one thing I don't doubt, Ryder comes across gruff and unapproachable, but deep down he's one of the nicest men you'll ever meet. He'd give you the shirt off his back if he thought you needed it.
“Get dressed, and I’ll take you to dinner before I have to be subjected to the torture of going to this strip club.” He lies on his back and stretches his feet out on the bed. “Wear something nice.” He winks, and I love this laid-back Ryder, he finally looks happy. “Hurry up; I need food.”
“God, Ryder, you always need food. Do I need to wear a dress?”
“Do you have a dress?” Why is he answ
ering a question with a question, that’s just suspicious?
“Yes, I have a dress; I bought a few today in Primark. So, is it fancy, casual or fancy casual?” I start looking through my suitcase and see my black ballet flats and my gold sandals; I pull them out and throw them to the floor. Shit, are my legs shaved? Damn it! I don’t think they are; I haven’t needed too. Ryder hasn’t answered me; I turn around to see that he has a weird expression on his face. “Hello? Fancy? Casual? Or fancy casual?”
His face contorts and looks confused, “What the hell is fancy casual? Does it really matter? No matter what you wear you’ll look beautiful.”
“Ry…” I say, and I try not to jump him, I really want to kiss him, and I know that he says he wants us to be together, but I still hesitate as I don’t want to be rejected again. “I need a shower; I’ll be ready in an hour.”
“Okay, I’ll meet you back here in an hour.” He’s not moving from the bed; in fact, he seems to settle into the bed even more. I don’t say anything; I rush into the shower as I’ll need to be ready in an hour.
I’m shaved and ready for this dinner that I’m slightly nervous about. The last time Ryder and I had a dinner date I ended up pregnant and married, what could happen this time? Once I was finished in the shower I went out into my room, so I could blow dry my hair and Ryder were gone, but while I was in the bathroom, so I could do my makeup, I heard him come back into the room.
I look into the mirror and look at myself, I look different, I don’t know how I look different, but I know that I do. My cream dress is slightly tight around my abdomen, but you can’t see anything, the bump that I do have isn’t that big, in fact, there may not even be one, and I just think there is. I hope that I’m not overdressed.
As soon as I enter my room, I see that I’m not overdressed in fact I feel slightly underdressed. Ryder’s in a full suit, I mean, shirt, tie and jacket, he looks so handsome right now. As soon as he sees me his eyes light up and he lets out a low whistle, “I was right, you look absolutely stunning. I’m one hell of a lucky sonofabitch, I don’t know what I did to deserve your forgiveness, but I’m grateful for it.” He’s breaking my heart, “Are you ready to go?”
Deadly Encounter Page 12
