RYDER: A Standalone Military Romance (Blake Security Book 1)

by Celina McKane

  Matt Branson gave his wife another dirty look and then said, “I had an affair. I was in California on business and I met a young lady…”

  “A tramp,” Julia corrected. “A slut who goes from one married man to the next.” That netted her another dirty look.

  “She and I had a brief affair. I left California believing I would never see her again. She showed up on our doorstep three months later, claiming to be pregnant with my child. My wife…has been hesitant to have a baby and I’ve wanted one for the entire thirteen years that we’ve been married. We worked out a compromise.” Julia made a huffing noise that said that her husband might be playing fast and loose with the word, “compromise.”

  “I need this woman’s name and contact information.”

  “She signed the adoption papers and a confidentiality agreement,” Matt said. “It was all on the up and up and perfectly legal.”

  “I’m not disputing any of that,” Blake said. “But surely when someone attempted to kidnap your daughter, the thought that her biological mother might have reason to be involved must have crossed your mind.”

  “No, it didn’t,” he said.

  “She’s nineteen years old,” Julia said with disgust in her voice.

  She got another dirty look from her husband, he was sobering quickly. He got up and went over to pour himself another bourbon. His hand was shaking, and I had the feeling that had Blake not forced this, the truth would have never come out. I didn’t feel sorry for him however. Matt Branson was thirty-four years old. I’m not usually one to judge, but first of all he was married and second of all he had no business messing with a girl who at that time would have been eighteen years old.

  “She’s a barista at Starbucks and an aspiring actress. She wanted to have an abortion in the first place. She doesn’t want a child, and even if she did, she’d never have the resources to hire someone to help her kidnap Celia.”

  “Neither did I…” Julia said, defiantly.

  “So help me God, Julia, unless you want to pack a bag and get the hell out of here tonight, you need to shut your mouth!”

  Julia laughed. “Really? How would you like the publicity?”

  “Enough!” Blake ended that argument. “Listen carefully,” he said, “I’m walking out of here in five minutes and taking my men and your deposit with me unless one of you start talking to me about who this woman is and where I can find her. Whatever you two want to do about your train wreck of a marriage can be decided on your own time.”

  Statements like that were why Blake’s business nearly went under. I tried to keep my smile under wraps. I loved watching him in action—even if I did usually have to clean up his messes afterwards.

  Before Matt could open his mouth and say something else stupid I said, “Listen, this is a very emotional issue for you both all the way around, we get that. But your child’s safety is at stake here, and we are genuinely concerned about her. But as Blake has said, we can’t do our job with only half of the information. We will keep your private life confidential. The only people we will talk about it with—other than the two of you—are the police.”

  Matt brought his eyes back up to Blake’s face and said, “Her name is Belinda Garner. I will text you her address and phone number as soon as I get up to my office.”

  “Thank you,” Blake said. He was the only person in the world that I knew that could issue a thank you and make it sound more like an “F” you.

  The Bransons left the room separately. I was glad that I wouldn’t have to be any part of what was probably going to happen between them tonight. Knowing how Celia came into the world explained Julia’s lack of maternal warmth. I didn’t know if that excused it or not, but since I didn’t know anything about marriage or having a child, I would do my best to reserve judgement on that one.

  “You good to stay?” Blake asked. It was after three in the morning. I was sure Blake wouldn’t be sleeping at all today. He’d head into the office and start a background on Belinda Garner as soon as he left here.

  “I’m good,” I told him. “You go home and get some rest.”

  “I think I’ll stop by the office and see if I can find anything on this girl first.” I tried not to roll my eyes. I knew a lot of my buddies from the service with severe PTSD. They hated to go to bed at night because all they had to look forward to were nightmares. I had a fair amount of bad nights myself. I wondered if that was Blake’s problem. I wished like hell he’d talk to me about it. I knew it wouldn’t do any good to argue with him either way.

  “Okay, man. By the way, Granny wants you to stop by and see her when you have time.”

  That got another one of his rare smiles. Granny has that effect on everyone who knows her. “I just might do that,” he said as he left.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  RYDER

  “Alicia, do you know the circumstances of Celia’s birth?” A few hours later, after I’d spoken with the police and Vince and the property had been searched once more, I found Alicia feeding the baby her breakfast in the kitchen. I’m not sure what was in the bowl she was spooning into the baby’s mouth, but it looked almost identical to the goo that was in her diaper the day before. Maybe we'd found the problem. Alicia glanced nervously at me and then back at the baby. She smiled at Celia, and once again I was jealous of a six month old. When she looked back at me, she wasn’t smiling.

  “I can’t talk about it. I hope you understand. I never should have said anything before. Mr. Branson is going to be so angry. I signed a confidentiality agreement. I was never supposed to talk about it. I can lose my job. If I lose my job, I will be deported. I’m here on a visa.” She sounded like she was about to panic, and I felt badly about pushing her, but I didn’t stop.

  “You’re not going to lose your job.”

  “You can’t guarantee me that,” she said. She was right. Knowing Branson, he probably would fire her. I would do everything I could to prevent that, but I couldn’t guarantee it—just as I’d found out when I spoke to Vince Carter that I wouldn’t be able to do much for the young security officer from the night before. Vince seemed to be more concerned with kissing Branson’s butt than standing up for his own.

  I sighed. “You’re right; I can’t promise you that. I can promise you that the Bransons won’t know where I got any of this information. But Alicia, I can see by the way you are with that baby that you care about her. I know that you don’t want anything to happen to her. We can’t protect her if we don’t have all the facts.”

  The baby was squirming in her high chair. Alicia stood up and used a baby wipe to clean the goo off of her face and hands before lifting her out of the chair. Then she did something that completely freaked me out. She turned and held the baby out in my direction. I’m sure the look on my face was similar to the one I’d have if she suddenly grew another head on her shoulders. “Will you hold her for just a second?”

  “Um…no. What do you need?”

  “I was going to wipe up her chair before her parents come down.”

  “I’ll do that.”

  Alicia’s lips twitched. “Surely a big, strong guy like you is not afraid of a baby.”

  “I’m not afraid of her,” I protested.

  Her lips curled further. She was trying not to laugh at me, but she was losing the battle. “You are so. She’s not going to hurt you.”

  “I’m not afraid of her hurting me. Look at me. One of my hands is as big as her head.” Celia was actually reaching her little arms out to me. I felt like an ass not taking her, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. “I don’t want to break her.”

  She actually did laugh then. “You’re not going to break her. Look, she wants you.” She put the baby against the crook of my arm, and I had no choice but to take her. I put one of my big hands against her back, and I had the other arm underneath her little bottom. I held her a few inches away from me and looked down at her. She smiled a little toothless grin and reached up with one of her slobber-covered hands and touche
d my chin. I made a face, involuntarily, and she giggled. I felt her little body shake in my arms as she laughed. The sound of it was adorable, and her little face dimpled along the sides of her wide smile. It was too cute, and I had to smile back at her. When I looked up, Alicia was watching us with a gentle smile on her face. “See, there’s nothing to it. She likes you. She has good taste,” Alicia said with a wink.

  I felt my blood run hot. She thinks the baby has good taste because she likes me. That means she likes me too…right? Alicia turned her back on us then went to get the dishrag to wash off the high chair. I looked at Celia again. She babbled something, and then once again began to giggle. Against my better judgement, I was beginning to like the little minion. I sat down with her and bounced her up and down on my knee, making her giggle hysterically until Alicia was done. When she came over and took the baby back, neither Celia nor I were ready to be separated. Celia began to cry, and I immediately held my arms back out to her.

  “You want her back?”

  “She wants me. Like you said, the kid has good taste.”

  Alicia laughed. “Someone thinks highly of himself.”

  I shrugged and said, “I was only repeating what you said. I was wondering if it meant you thought highly of me.”

  She rolled her eyes and said, “My English is not so good, but I didn’t fall off of the grape basket yesterday.”

  “The apple cart.”

  “What?”

  “Never mind,” I told her with a smile. “Give the baby back, and we’ll talk more about how hot you think I am.”

  She handed Celia to me and laughed. “If you want a few minutes alone with yourself, I’ll take Celia and you can gaze into the stainless steel appliances.”

  I had to smile at that. “No thanks. I’d rather look at you.” Her pale skin flushed, and she quickly turned her back to me. She made a play of wiping part of the counter she’d already wiped down.

  “Alicia, tell me about Celia’s birth, please.”

  She turned back toward me. I was still bouncing my knee and Celia was thoroughly enjoying it, judging by the sounds she was making. Alicia leaned back into the counter and twisted the rag in her hands as she said, “There was a lot of arguing when I first came here. My understanding was that they were having a baby through a surrogate, but neither of them seemed happy about it at all. Then one day I made the mistake of sitting on the sun porch to read my book. The Bransons didn’t know I was there, and they had one of their arguments in the sitting room. I heard Mrs. Branson say she didn’t want to raise his love child. Mr. Branson told her that she was welcome to leave, and she told him she would take as many of his assets with her as she could if she did. I could tell by his voice that he was worried about that. He started talking calmer and telling her how bad all of the publicity of an ugly divorce would be for business. She said something like, ‘Fine, I’ll stay with your cheating butt, but I won’t raise the tramp’s kid.’ They argued a little more…mostly he was trying to calm her down at that point. The voices stopped, and I listened for footsteps. I thought I heard them both leave. When I finally went out, Mr. Branson was still in the sitting room. He looked angry when he saw me and asked what I heard. I told him the truth that I’d heard most of it, but I’d never talk about it to anyone. He was angry and called me an eavesdropper and wanted to know how much money it would take to keep me silent. I told him over and over that I didn’t want money, I wouldn’t tell. He didn’t believe me. In the end, I signed a confidentiality agreement that says if I ever talked about it, I’d lose my job and my wages for that month.”

  She looked so anxious, and it made me feel really bad. “I won’t tell them you talked to me, Alicia.”

  She shrugged sadly and said, “He’ll know.”

  “You know what else he knows?”

  “What’s that?”

  “His wife doesn’t want to take care of this baby. I’m sitting here holding her and having a hard time believing it, but it’s true. This baby loves you, and Mr. Branson seems to be crazy about her, but his wife absolutely does not feel that same bond. He needs you, and I’m sure he knows that.”

  She didn’t look completely convinced, but she let that go and said, “Do you know yet who the man was from last night?”

  “No. Last night he refused to say anything to anyone. The police took him down and booked him for trespassing. They gave us his name once they got him fingerprinted. He doesn’t have a record, at least here in the U.S. He’s not a citizen though, so he’ll be turned over to the immigration authorities.”

  “So he was Russian?”

  “Yes. He’s from Georgia, and here on a visa. He works for a textile company, but that is really all we know.”

  She made a face at that. I wondered if she was thinking about her job and being deported again. “Alicia, you don’t know anyone from home that might want to do this, do you?”

  “Because I’m Russian too, you think I have something to do with this? I’m from Moscow anyways. Moscow is far from Georgia.”

  “I didn’t say that. What I asked was if there was anyone you knew who might want to do something like this? Maybe someone who knows you’re here working for these rich people.”

  “No. I don’t know anyone who would be a kidnapper.” She was obviously offended. I wasn’t sure why.

  “Alicia, why did you come to the United States in the first place?”

  “For a better life. Have you ever been to my country?”

  “Yes.” I’d been there on more than one mission while I was with the Seals. There were parts of it that were so beautiful they took your breath away and other parts where your heart broke for the people who had to live there. In a lot of ways, it was like the beautiful country we lived in. My guess, however, was that Alicia came from one of those places that broke your heart.

  In a quiet voice and without making eye contact with me, she said, “I was raised by a single mother with five kids. I was the only girl. It’s a miracle that I became a nanny and not a prostitute as well.”

  “Who did you know in the US before you came here?”

  “I have a friend that came here to be a nanny four years ago. We kept in touch, and when she heard about a job, she recommended me to the couple. The husband was in Moscow at the time on business. He interviewed me, and after he got home and spoke to his wife, they hired me and helped me with the arrangements to come here.”

  “What exactly happened at that job? You never said why you had to leave.”

  “That’s confidential, too,” she said.

  “Again, this is all just about keeping Celia safe. I’m not going to go around announcing that you gave me confidential information. I have my own reputation and the reputation of my company to be concerned with.”

  She sighed and said, “The husband couldn’t keep his hands to himself. The fact that I didn’t like that didn’t seem to bother him, but his wife didn’t like it either, so I was let go, quietly. I was recommended to the Bransons and given a bonus after I signed a confidentiality agreement.” I felt an unexplained surge of anger in my chest that she would have to deal with that.

  Tamping that down I said, “Has Mr. Branson ever made advances toward you?”

  Celia made another noise. It sounded like a happy one to me. Alicia suddenly stood up straight and said, “I should go change her.” She held out her arms, and I gave her the baby. She didn’t answer my question or say another word. She carried the baby over to the back stairs and disappeared in a few steps. I had to assume the answer to that question was yes, and once again, I was angry.

  “Hey!” The sound of Leif’s voice behind me caused me to jump. I turned and looked at him and he said, “Did I scare you?” with a chuckle.

  I rolled my eyes at him and stood up. I’m at least eight inches taller than he is. He looked up at me and grinned. “Go ahead and puff out that big ol’ chest. I saw ya jump. Sorry I scared you. I shoulda known how jumpy you Seals are.” He wasn’t a huge guy, but he was a Green Beret an
d he’d done four tours of duty. I knew he was a tough S.O.B. as soon as I met him.

  I gestured at him with my middle finger, but I smiled. “Are you here for your shift, or just to give me a hard time?”

  He was smiling that big goofy country boy smile of his. “I’m here for the shift and to give you a hard time. The boss wants you to go by the shop on your way home.” Like Granny, Leif sometimes makes up his own words for things. I guess Oklahoma and the bayou aren’t so far apart.

  “All right, stick close to the nanny and the baby.”

  He nodded, and as I started to walk out, he said, “I wouldn’t mind sticking up against that nanny, she’s hot.”

  I didn’t even think about it. I spun around, and I was actually ready to fight my friend over a woman that I barely knew. What the hell is wrong with me? Leif was laughing, and that snapped me out of it. “What are you laughing at?”

  “You,” he said. “I saw the way you were looking at her last night, and from the green stuff you’ve got all over your shirt, I’d guess you’re gettin’ close to the baby, too.” I looked down and saw that Celia had left green slobber all down the front of me. Shaking my head at Leif, I turned and left to the sound of him laughing.

  CHAPTER SIX

  RYDER

  I was fading fast from not having any sleep from the past twenty-four hours. I was hoping whatever Blake wanted wouldn’t take too long. I parked next to a shiny black Mercedes in front of the office and went inside. Blake’s door was closed, and Lucy was at her desk. “Well, hello beautiful.”

  She beamed up at me with a pair of dark blue eyes from underneath wild red curls that hung down in front of them. “Hey there yourself, gorgeous. How are you?”

  “I’m wiped out. How’s the bear in there today?”

  She wrinkled her nose. “He’s a wild one. Before that man came in, he was slamming things around in there so loud I thought he was tearing the place down.”