“I’m keeping her safe for now because you have got to lie low,” he reiterated to Ryder.
“I don’t give a fuck about lying low. I’ve got shit to do,” Ryder snapped, trying to remove his IV.
Jake grabbed his wrist in warning.
“I get that you want heads to roll for what they’ve done,” Aidan began. “But your best move here is to go silent, go underground. Are you alive, or are you dead? Are you talking? Those questions will scare the shit out of Fuller way more than if you announce your every move to him. This is a game now, Ryder. We’ve got to play our cards right.”
Ryder tried to formulate words. Intelligence officers were charming, easy to like, and they talked a good talk. But what was the man’s motive? Ryder wouldn’t even consider trust until he knew that.
“I don’t like this, and I don’t know you.” Ryder clenched his jaw. “Get me the fuck out of here.”
“Dude, you are in no state…” Jake tried to explain, but he stopped as Ryder began coughing harder, blood trickling out of his mouth.
“I am not fucking staying here.” Ryder fought back against his friends and Aidan. He couldn’t sit back and do nothing. And he couldn’t stay put, knowing that Olivia was vulnerable.
Could he trust her again? No. But he still loved her, and he needed to do what he was born to do: protect.
“What’s your stake in all of this?” Ryder challenged the CIA officer.
Realizing the conversation had gone sideways, the clever intel officer wasted no time. And his perseverance was something Ryder appreciated.
It reminded Ryder of someone else he knew.
“Master Chief, I have sources in Mali,” Aidan began. “Far-reaching counterterrorism sources. People are talking about war crimes and SEALs in the Sahel. People are naming names. That’s what brought me to Mason, and now you.”
At memories of executing detained rebels, Ryder felt his muscles tense. His machines started beeping again.
“Easy, man.” Jake put his hand out. “Relax.”
“So you rescued me from a burning pile of shit?” Ryder asked, trying to relax himself.
Aidan adjusted the buttons on his suit jacket, trying to stifle a grin. “I won’t get into how or why, but we found you bleeding out. Alone. In the middle of nowhere,” Aidan explained. “You were in pretty bad shape.”
“Who fucking picked you up?” Jake asked Ryder.
“Team Seven,” Ryder choked out.
“I didn’t know they were in the area,” Mason said thoughtfully.
“They aren’t,” Aidan said. “But I pulled some strings.”
Ryder couldn’t believe it. Then again, SEAL Team Seven wouldn’t miss an opportunity to pick up a broken fellow comrade, especially if that gave them bragging rights over Development Group.
No doubt rumors were already flying at the troop commander, along with accusations and questions. Was that part of Aidan’s plan too?
“The intel against your commander hit a tipping point this winter.” Aidan held Ryder’s gaze. “It’s not my job to do something about this—I’m just a collector. But, just like you, I’ve reached a point where I have to do something. I have to get this into the right hands.”
“And whose hands are those?” Ryder’s eyes narrowed at the long, dark rabbit hole they were looking down.
“I’ll tell you the same thing that I told Olivia,” Aidan answered. “We’ve got to play this right and get raw evidence to NCIS if we want your boss to get a court martial.”
Aidan grew silent as his eyes locked with Ryder’s. He wasn’t gaining traction with the stubborn SEAL. His first mistake was talking about spending time alone with Ryder’s girl. The mere mention of it sent a shock of anger and jealousy through Ryder’s veins.
Ryder felt all the emotion that he’d bottled up begin to boil. He wanted Olivia to be the one helping him. Where was she?
She’s made her choice.
“Fuck all the way off,” Ryder sneered at him. Machines started beeping wildly as he held the intel officer’s gaze.
Jake and Mason swooped in, checking him for vital signs and pushing Aidan back.
Phil rushed in and started hitting keys. “You need to keep him calm.”
“What the fuck is wrong with me?” Ryder asked as he stifled another coughing fit. His lungs felt weak and shaken, just like the rest of him.
“No one can answer that one, brother,” Jake said, taking the cheap shot.
Phil rolled his eyes. “You are not brothers.” Ryder formulated a biting response but withheld it. “You sustained serious lacerations, bruising, some broken bones, at least one concussion, blood loss, minor organ damage, and you’ll probably never be as smart again.”
Mason snorted from the foot of the bed.
“But you are going to be okay—if you rest and do as I say.” Phil frowned at him. “Now, relax!”
Ryder and Mason exchanged looks. There was nothing relaxing about this medical professional.
“Man, why’d you get the man nurse from hell?” Jake laughed.
Phil sneered and spun around, heading out the door and closing it again behind him.
Once they were alone again, Aidan took a step back. “I have to go.”
“In and out, then.” Ryder narrowed his eyes. “No surprise.”
Aidan shot Ryder a serious, unamused look. “Stay here. Don’t talk to anyone. Don’t do anything. Just stay here. I’ll be back.” He left swiftly, leaving more questions than answers. Ryder snorted. What a joke. King was dead wrong if he thought he was in a position to issue orders.
Once King was gone, Jake broke the silence. “Is that guy for real?”
“Guys, I’m telling you: trust him,” Mason said. “He’s the first spy I’ve ever liked.”
“He’s a spy, man,” Jake scoffed. “You’re supposed to like him. They are trained to be likeable.”
“I don’t fucking like him,” Ryder growled, fiddling with the IV. He ripped monitors off his arms and tried throwing them aside. The cords coming off his body were creating a clusterfuck in the bed. He was wrapped in them. It was a spider web. How the hell was he supposed to get up?
“Dude. Lie down,” Jake ordered him.
“I have to piss,” Ryder said. “And then you have to help me get the fuck out of here.”
Mason and Jake jumped forward and tried to hold Ryder in places that didn’t hurt, to help him up. Between grunts of pain, the men managed to get Ryder into a sitting position.
“Don’t they have bed pans? Catheters?” Mason grumbled.
“Guess my dick is too big for that shit,” Ryder deadpanned.
“Fucking idiot.” Jake unwrapped the cords from Ryder’s legs and stacked them neatly in one pile in his hand. “It’s not.”
“On the count of three,” Ryder groaned.
On three, the men worked together to get Ryder on his feet, bare-assed, with only the flimsy hospital gown over him. He walked toward the small bathroom, leaning on Jake.
“Glad the civilian life hasn’t made you soft.” Ryder winced through the pain. Jake had been working in private security since he had left the SEALs.
“It’s only been a year,” Jake grumbled. “I still work out.”
“Holy fuck, man,” Mason said breathlessly as he watched Ryder walk in front of him.
“What?” Jake asked as he chaperoned Ryder to the toilet.
“Your back,” Mason choked, like he couldn’t quite put words together.
Ryder stood in front of the bathroom mirror. His body was broken. The fact that he was standing was amazing. Hospital-grade gauze bandages lined his extremities. His face was bruised. Long lacerations, sutured up, lined his back.
“Well, that’s going to leave a mark.”
“Chicks dig scars,” Jake assured him. “Don’t worry.”
Ryder leaned against Jake for balance as he fumbled to get his dick in hand. His aim for the toilet wasn’t great, but the steady stream mostly got in the bowl.
�
��I met someone,” Ryder said absently.
Jake snorted. “That much is clear.”
“She’s American. She was with us on a contract to clean us up.” Ryder fumbled again for balance as finished up and washed.
Jake and Mason stepped in to steady him. The pain of cobbling around was great, but he knew it would feel even worse to lie in bed. This wasn’t his first rodeo. Ryder turned around, leaning on Jake.
“What happened?” Jake asked carefully.
“It doesn’t matter.” Ryder quickly shut down the line of questioning. “It’s over.”
Mason and Jake looked at each other disapprovingly. “Well, fucking hell. Let’s get her over here.” Mason flipped out his phone.
Ryder shook his head. “I don’t have her number. I don’t know where she lives.”
“We can find her. Your boy, the international man of mystery, said she’s home.” Jake stepped forward, bringing Ryder back into the private room.
Ryder shook his head again, now feeling Phil’s warning about the concussion. The rest of the pain in his body had masked the pain in his head. Now, he wasn’t sure what hurt the most. Some of his ribs were broken, that was for sure.
“Just drop it,” Ryder said to the guys. “I’m done with her.”
“Like hell you are.” Jake was relentless. “I see that look in your eye.”
With the help of his friends, Ryder made to sit back down on the bed again, but yelled out as blood started trailing from the corner of his mouth.
He coughed. “Forget I said anything.”
“Why the fuck do you want to escape so bad if you aren’t planning on going to her?” Jake demanded.
“I don’t have to see her to protect her. I’m going after Fuller for the last time—and I’m going to be damned sure he’s never going to fuck with anyone ever…”
He trailed off as something gurgled up from his lungs. A metallic taste flushed his mouth. Ryder found himself in an uncontrollable coughing fit, spraying blood everywhere.
On the upside, it served as a short reprieve from his friends’ constant nagging about Olivia.
“Jesus,” Mason said, hitting the nurse request button. “Why does the nurse button have a skirt when the nurse is a man?”
As Phil stormed into the room and the friends stabilized Ryder, they agreed that Jake and Mason could wholly ignore the visitor’s policy and go in and out as they needed to. Like parents watching over their sick child, neither man left Ryder’s side that night, paying him back for every sacrifice he’d ever made for them.
34
The sweet song of a bird on Olivia’s window ledge woke her. She rolled over in bed, rubbing her eyes.
It was barely seven in the morning.
She had tossed and turned all night, despite being tired, and despite taking every cold medicine she could think of. It was par for the course since she’d been home.
Her mind wasn’t allowing her body the chance to recover. She was too tired to get up but too restless to lay in bed. She felt nauseated, just thinking about where Ryder might be.
Down the thin staircase to the second floor of her three-story townhome, she entered her kitchen and grabbed the phone off the charger. Nothing from Bruce. The number of times she had refreshed her inbox, waiting for word, was unfathomable. She had been home for three days and hadn’t left her house. She was sick with worry.
And still fucking nothing.
And where was Aidan King in all of this? She hadn’t heard from him since he’d picked her up from the airport.
Olivia stared at the kitchen. Her fridge was empty, obviously, as she had cleaned it out for her trip. She still hadn’t gone out for groceries, feeling too depressed to do anything. She could whip together some dry food for breakfast, but the thought made her feel ill.
She looked down at the kitchen counter and saw the used pregnancy test she’d taken the first day she’d been home.
It was a relief.
Before she could think further, a knock came at her front door. Unfortunately she couldn’t see the person standing under the awning from the second floor. She shuffled the pregnancy test under some papers and headed for the door. A blanket of warmth and comfort wrapped around her when she laid eyes on her guest.
Whipping open the door as quickly as she could, she cried out, “Dad!”
A man with a full head of thick gray hair stepped into the entranceway, carrying brown paper bags of food. Her tummy grumbled.
He took her in his left arm and gave her a close hug. “Olivia,” he said to her in his calming way. “How are you?”
He pulled back, and Olivia watched her kind old dad searching her for clues.
She had messaged her parents the day she got home, informing them of her sudden return. Her succinct tone and refusal to video call had driven her mom into a tizzy. Her mom always knew when something was wrong. But Olivia was adamant she needed time to recover from her trip. Recover from the jet lag.
She really just hadn’t been ready to face anyone.
“Mom would be here if she weren’t sick in bed with the flu,” her dad explained. “We are so worried about you. Are you okay?”
He peppered her with questions as she hung up his winter jacket and warm gear in the closet. The snow wasn’t too bad outside, but it was cold. Very cold.
Olivia was glad he’d shown up. As she brought him upstairs, carrying the bags with her, she wished she’d had him over sooner. He was a source of comfort even where there was none.
“How did you know I would be up so early?” Olivia asked as they stood by the kitchen counter.
“A hunch. I know my daughter.” Her dad pressed on, worry filling his gray eyes. “You seem distraught. What happened?”
Olivia stared out the window. “Dad, I don’t even know where to begin.”
He listened quietly, busying himself in her kitchen. A companion in solidarity, he was always a shoulder for her when she needed it. And Olivia gravitated toward stand-up, honorable men like her father.
Like Ryder.
“Dad, I met someone.” She looked back at her aging dad. “But I’m not ready to talk about it.” Just thinking about it made tears burn behind her eyes.
“Did he hurt you?” Her dad shot her an apprehensive look. “You’ve got such a big heart. He better not have taken advantage of you.” Her dad was an ex-Ranger and would pummel anyone who so much as made her cry.
“No.” She shook her head, looking down at the counter. “I hurt myself.” She had to keep her cards close to her chest, and that meant she couldn’t even confide in her nearest and dearest. Not until she knew Ryder was… alive, she assured herself. Alive.
“He isn’t Navy, is he?” Dad scoffed, organizing perishables in her barren fridge. “Don’t tell me he’s a sailor.”
Olivia’s eyes snapped to her dad. “Dad…”
He nearly dropped the milk. “Don’t say it.” His mouth dropped.
“He’s a SEAL,” she squeaked. “The master chief.”
Her dad blew out a breath. “Oh, that’s fine. That’s different.” And he kept putting things in the fridge like nothing had happened. Olivia’s eyebrow rose. A sailor was bad, but a SEAL was okay?
“Dad, why is that—” she began to ask, but she was stymied at the knock on her front door.
“Still haven’t installed the doorbell I bought you?” Dad grinned. “I told you I would install it for you.”
She shook her head with a warm smile. “Oh, dad, I was going to just pay someone to do that.” She went for the stairs. “You already do so much for me.”
Olivia already had more visitors than expected. She wondered who the hell else could be there. Looking through the peephole again, she saw the familiar face of Aidan King.
“Where have you been?” she asked as she opened the door, an edge in her voice.
He nodded politely. “My apologies for calling on you so early. I have news. May I come in?” His manners were always impeccable, and he had such an easy demeanor tha
t anyone would like him. Naturally, that’s why the CIA had hired him.
She opened the door wider, nearly jumping at the prospect of news. “Is he alive?” she asked as Aidan stepped inside.
He reached into his jacket and pulled out a black-and-tan keffiyeh-style scarf. She grabbed it. It was Ryder’s. He always wore it.
“They found this on him…” Aidan said softly as she clutched it close.
It was bloodstained and torn. Like the shirt she had pilfered, the scarf carried his scent.
Her heart broke. Olivia felt her body crash backward against the wall as she clutched Ryder’s keffiyeh.
Somewhere, Aidan’s voice had carried on, though her brain barely registered it.
“…when they rescued him.”
Her eyes snapped up. “What?”
“He’s alive.” Aidan grinned, and Olivia slid down the wall with her face in her hands. Tears came quickly. Tears of relief. Tears of worry. Tears of love.
Her loud sobs, even partially muffled by the scarf, could be heard throughout the house, which was why her dad came crashing quickly down the stairs.
“Are you okay?” He ran to her side and shot a glare at Aidan. “What the fuck did you do to her?”
She tilted her head up, nodding, feeling a grin cross her lips for the first time. He’s alive. Her dad’s fists unclenched.
“I have a lot to tell you,” Aidan said gently, urging her up. “Can we sit?”
Olivia nodded, and with the help of her dad, she was back on her feet and dabbing the tears from her eyes with the bloodstained scarf. She was never going to let it go.
After she brought her new guest upstairs, she introduced Aidan to her dad.
Aidan nodded politely, shaking his hand and assessing his physique. “Ex-military?”
“Retired,” her dad said. “Rangers.”
Aidan shot Olivia a knowing glance, but she narrowed her eyes at him threateningly. “Is Ryder okay?” she asked him immediately.
“He’s okay.” Aidan gave her another warm smile. “For the most part. For now.”
The qualifications were alarming, but overall the news was good, and Olivia felt a loosening in her chest.
“Coffee?” Her dad nodded to Aidan, sensing that his daughter needed some time alone.
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