“So did Zara. Did you see her swing the skillet? Went right for the knockout shot to the head.” Greg grinned through bruised lips.
Yeah. Ryker’s chest swelled. She was one tough woman when necessary. He crouched down and dragged the bound man up and over his shoulder. He let out a groan. The guy weighed a ton. “Here’s the plan. I’ll get this guy and Zara into the truck while you follow. Try to get the front door as closed as possible.”
Greg looked around. “The shades are drawn, so nobody can see the mess.”
“We’ll come back and clean it up later. Right now we need to get Zara to a secure location and then figure out who this guy is and who he’s working for.” Ryker turned and kicked a bowl out of his way.
Zara emerged from the bedroom. She’d changed into dark jeans and a blue sweater that matched her eyes. Her skin was so pale as to be luminescent, and her eyes were wide like a doe’s. She had a duffel bag over one shoulder, and she didn’t quite meet his gaze. “What are you doing with that guy?” she whispered.
“He’s coming with us.” Ryker headed for the door. “Come on, Zara.” He kept a low thread of command in his voice. For now, he needed her strong and quick. The woman could fall apart later, and he’d be there for her. “Move.”
She followed him out to the truck in her driveway, wincing when he tossed the bound man into the backseat. Darkness shrouded them, but dawn would be breaking soon, and they needed to be out of sight by then.
Ryker opened the passenger side door and lifted her in. He turned and watched Greg finish setting the front door to rights. It looked okay and not like it had been busted open. Good. The kid hustled down the walk and reached the car. Ryker handed him the gun. “Do you mind sitting in back with this guy?”
“Nope.” Greg slid into the backseat and shoved the bound man over to the other side. “Not a problem.”
Everything in Ryker wanted to find the mysterious commander and beat the ever livin’ shit out of him. No preteen should be okay with holding a gun on a hostage. “Thanks,” Ryker said, shutting the door.
He got into the driver’s seat and started the engine, quickly pulling out into the street.
Zara sat next to him, her teeth worrying her bottom lip. “I still think we should call the police.”
“We still might,” Ryker said, keeping just under the speed limit while dialing Denver.
“What?” Denver growled into the phone.
Ryker paused at a stop sign. “I need the boiler room prepared for a guest.” He clicked off.
“Boiler room?” Zara asked.
“When we get to my place, I need you to go up to the apartment and wait for me,” Ryker said, looking into the backseat. “You too, kid.”
Greg didn’t answer and kept his gaze level.
Snow fell around them, soft and drifting. Ryker made tracks through town and pulled into the underground garage, where Denver and Heath were already waiting by the boiler room. He pulled Zara his way and helped her out his door. “Upstairs, sweetheart. If you can get some sleep, do it.”
She looked at Denver and Heath and then swung around to face him. “This is a bad idea.”
He ran a knuckle down the newest bruise on her face. So far, he was doing a piss-poor job of protecting her. The idea that somebody had infiltrated her home and put his hands on her threatened to steal Ryker’s self-control. The pressure of possible failure was nothing compared to the reality of the outcome. She couldn’t be one more person he’d lost. Thank God Greg had been there. Ryker owed the kid now, for sure. “Go. Now.”
She rolled her eyes and turned on her heel, heading for the stairwell.
Ryker opened the back door, and Greg jumped out. “I need you to cover her,” Ryker whispered. “Until we figure out if this guy was after her or not, she needs to stay in my apartment.”
Greg paused, looked at the door Zara had disappeared through and then back at Ryker. “I can get the guy to talk.”
Ryker blanched. “Give me something, kid. I can’t live with having you a part of this.” It was as honest as he could get with the twelve-year-old.
Greg tucked the gun into the back waistband of his pants. “Fair enough. If you need help, just holler.” He headed for the stairs.
Ryker watched him go, his chest actually hurting. Then he reached into the truck and hauled the bound man out by the armpits.
“Holy shit,” Heath said, moving forward to grab the guy’s knees and lift. “Who the hell?”
“He and two of his buddies broke into Zara’s tonight.” Ryker pivoted and headed for the boiler room.
Denver opened the heavy metal door, silent as usual.
“Do you think he’s one of Sheriff Cobb’s men?” A muscle ticked in Heath’s jaw, and his gaze hardened on the guy in black. “If so, he’s still working with Sylvia—I mean, Isobel Madison.”
“Dunno. We’re about to find out.” Ryker carried the guy inside the cinder-block room and shoved him onto the one metal chair.
Heath cut the duct tape and fastened shackles in the same places. “He’s out cold.”
Denver shut the door and grabbed a bucket of cold water from the floor. “We can fix that.”
Chapter
22
Zara finished dishing another waffle onto Greg’s plate as he sat on the floor. The kid ate hungrily, seeming completely unaffected by what was probably happening down in the boiler room.
He glanced up. “It’s okay. Ryker won’t kill the guy.”
Zara blinked. “How are you so knowledgeable about this kind of thing?”
Greg pushed his shaggy hair away from his face. “I was trained from day one as a soldier. So were my brothers. This is no big deal.”
Yet it was. It truly was. “We’re supposed to be the good guys.”
Greg lifted an eyebrow. “We are, I think. The good guys have to be able to use bad methods in order to win. You get that, right?”
She shook her head, everything in her wanted to soothe the boy, who was so familiar with violence. Ryker and Greg were cut from the same cloth, without a doubt. “I’m a paralegal, and I chose the law on purpose. We need to follow it.”
Greg snorted and shoveled in more waffle. He swallowed the entire chunk. “Your man doesn’t care about rules or law right now. A guy broke into your place and put his hands on you.” Greg shook his head. “Forget what I said. Maybe Ryker will kill him.”
The door opened, and Ryker strode in. Blood marred his torn shirt, and his jeans were wet.
Zara pushed away from the counter. Fine tremors attacked her nervous system. “Well?”
“The guy’s name is Jonny Reese, and he’s a thug out of Denver.” Ryker stretched bruised knuckles. “He and his buddies were hired to kidnap you, Zara.”
Pins pricked down her back. She believed in law and the rules. The idea that some thugs would just break into her safe home to take her made her knees weak. She looked at Ryker with new eyes. He didn’t believe in law or any rules. Nausea boiled in her stomach, and her breath quickened. “Why would they want me?” She tried to keep the fear out of her voice, but her voice trembled.
Ryker shook his head. “I don’t know yet.”
The world seemed darker somehow. A shadowed place where guys like Ryker moved freely. If he hadn’t been there, it was doubtful she and Greg would’ve won the fight. He’d saved her. She could’ve been the person in a boiler room.
Why? Why would anybody want to hurt her? “I don’t understand,” she whispered, her voice thick with tears.
Ryker’s gaze softened on her. “You have my word. Nobody will hurt you, baby.”
She nodded and swallowed several times. Ryker would kill to keep her safe, but what about him? What if he sacrificed his life for hers? She couldn’t let him do it. “I’m not scared.”
His lip twitched. “It’s okay to be scared. Means you have a brain.”
Oh. Okay. So she wasn’t weak. Time to think. She needed to copy how Ryker handled danger and think clearly without the fear.
“Who hired that guy?” she asked, her mind spinning.
“Unfortunately, Jonny didn’t know that tidbit,” Ryker growled. “Only one of the guys was in contact with whoever hired them.”
Greg stretched to his feet, carrying his empty plate, shaking his head. “And you let him get away.”
“Yep,” Ryker snapped.
“What about Jonny?” Zara whispered, her body preparing to flee even while her mind wanted to fight.
Ryker turned and strode toward the bedroom. “Denver is dropping him off at the hospital. He might need stitches.” Anger he was failing to mask trailed in his wake, and he disappeared into the bedroom.
Greg threw his paper plate away. “See? Nobody got killed this time.”
This time. “If you want more orange juice, it’s in the fridge.” Zara hustled after Ryker. None of this made any sense. How could it? She swallowed and opened the bedroom door. Clothes littered the floor to the bathroom, and the sound of the shower being turned on filled the morning.
The last time she’d followed Ryker into a bathroom, she’d ended up on her back, moaning his name. Was that only a night ago? So much had happened, she just couldn’t grasp a thought. Who would want to kidnap her? It was good that it was okay to be afraid, because she was terrified. She stepped gingerly over his discarded clothing, not sure how much of the wetness was actually Jonny’s blood. “Ryker?” she pushed open the bathroom door.
Dark tile and chrome fixtures made up the bathroom with its double vanity and three-sided glass shower stall. A toilet was in a side room. Ryker stood under the spray with steam billowing all around. His head was down, and the water sluiced over his muscled back and down to the tile, spreading over his bird tattoo like it was dancing along the fire.
She hesitated to go inside, and that just pissed her off. “Hey. The guy had no clue why somebody wanted to take me?” The very thought made her stomach hurt. Her nicely routine life, the one from a week ago, seemed far out of reach.
She wasn’t sure she could survive in this reality without a safe routine.
Ryker looked up and allowed water to stream over his face. Then he turned away from the spray and grabbed soap off the ledge. “The guy knew only about the job and not where they were supposed to take you.” Anger vibrated through the steam.
Her breath quickened, and she kept her distance, leaning back against the door. Ryker in a furious mood didn’t bode well, and she wasn’t sure how to handle him. If she could handle him. “The failed kidnapping has to have something to do with Julie’s murder, right?” Finally, her brain was kicking into gear.
His eyes flared a hard bluish green. “That’s the most likely scenario. Either the person who killed her thought you saw something that day or maybe they think Julie told you something.” Ryker lathered up his hands. “I’m not sure, but I do have a line on Jonny’s buddy—the one who hired him for the job. As soon as I get my hands on him, we’ll get the name of the guy who hired him.”
“More torture,” she hissed.
He turned then, his gaze harsh. “I’ll do what I have to do, Zara. Nobody is going to get to you. I promise.”
She recognized a vow when she heard one. This one made her shiver. There had to be something she could do to figure out this mess and get back to her ordered life. “I want to go into work today. See if I can find out anything about Julie or her case. See what kind of connection I may have to the case.” Figure out why somebody had tried to kidnap her.
Ryker nodded. “I agree. We have to act as normal as we can, and I’ve been hired by your firm, too. I can cover you all day as we read the files.” He soaped his chest, and his chin lowered. The anger turned into a smoldering tension…one with a dark promise. “You should probably shower before going into work.”
Tingles exploded beneath her skin. Even pissed and way too dangerous, the guy was insatiable. His mood intrigued her when it should warn her. She’d been nearly kidnapped, Ryker had tortured a guy in the boiler room, and now he wanted to have sex? How was any of this her part of reality? “With everything going on right now, I’m just not sure where we stand.”
“We stand together. Take off your clothes.” He stopped moving beneath the water. Vulnerability flashed across his face for the briefest of seconds.
She paused as realization hit her. The man felt responsible for everyone and everything, now, didn’t he? “This isn’t your fault.”
His jaw hardened. “Three men broke into your house, and one put his hands on you.”
She blinked. He was blaming himself? Oh, that wouldn’t work. Everything in her wanted to ease his fury and help him find peace. Right or wrong, she wanted to help him. To be the one woman in the world who could. So she dropped her jeans to the floor.
He opened the door for her with a muscled arm after she’d ditched her sweater.
Warmth and the scent of soapy male filled her world.
He drew her under the spray, letting it wash down her back. “So long as we keep working with each other, we’ll figure us out.” He reached for shampoo to lather through her hair, his big hands caressing her scalp, his gentleness in direct conflict with the turmoil in his eyes.
She closed her eyes and tipped back her head, allowing pleasure to wash down her entire back. “I don’t want you to get in trouble because of me.” The idea of a man like Ryker ending up behind bars hurt her chest. He was wild and free…and he’d die in containment. “You can’t take risks like the one you took tonight.” No more torturing people.
He chuckled and rinsed the suds from her hair. “The guy broke the law by hitting your house, so there’s no way he’d go to the cops. My detaining him wasn’t the risk that you think.” He tugged on her hair, and she opened her eyes.
The water had slicked his dark hair back from his face, highlighting the strong angles. “Are you scared?” he asked.
She paused and let the question sink in. “A little.” Somebody had entered her house with the intention of kidnapping her. Three men, actually. If Ryker and Greg hadn’t been there, she wouldn’t have been able to fight all three of them off. “I just don’t know what’s going to happen next, you know?” On so many fronts.
The safest place for her was with him, yet it was also the most dangerous to her heart.
He nodded, looking imposing and so damn determined through the mist. “Two things. First, there’s no need for you to be frightened. You’re smart, and you need to be alert, but I’ll stand between you and danger every time. You’re safe. And second? I’ll show you exactly what’s going to happen next.” He pulled her to him, and his mouth descended on hers.
* * *
Ryker kept to Zara’s six as she climbed the stairs of her law firm, truly appreciating her lush ass in the black pencil skirt. She wore a frilly pink shirt on top that made him want to unbutton its tiny pearl buttons to get to the beige cotton bra beneath. Although it wasn’t as skimpy as some of her bras, there was something hot about it. Maybe because it cupped her full tits perfectly.
Yeah. That was it.
He discreetly adjusted his jeans and tried to force his brain to focus somewhere other than on Zara’s nude body. He’d just taken her in the shower, for pete’s sake, and he wanted her again right now. Wanted to feel her around him and know she was safe.
Needed to know she was safe.
There was a moment during the fight in her house that he realized if he lost, they’d get her. He’d lose her. Everything in him had rioted and then calmed in a deadly way that now freaked him out a little. There was nothing he wouldn’t do to protect her.
He didn’t want to return to those cold days when she wasn’t brightening the world with a simple smile. God, he was getting maudlin.
She pushed open the wide wooden door and smiled at the receptionist, an older lady with wild gray hair and sharp blue eyes. “Hi, Mrs. Thomson.”
Mrs. Thomson pushed green spectacles up her nose. “Morning, Zara. And it’s Mr. Jones. Back on a case, are you?”
Ryker nodde
d. “Yes, ma’am. Brock hired me this weekend.”
Mrs. Thomson snapped her gum. “I assume it’s the Pentley case. So sad. Such a terrible outcome to a divorce.” She shivered.
Ryker took a quick inventory of any possible attack points in the reception area. They should get a couple more bookcases to provide cover. “Have a nice day, Mrs. T.”
She winked at him and turned to answer the phone.
Zara tripped ahead of him and regained her balance, winding through desks to reach her office toward the back. “What’s your plan, Ryker?”
To bend her over the desk and fuck her hard and make sure danger never came within a mile of her again? Ryker cleared his throat. “I plan to have a quick meeting with Brock and then set up in either an open office or the conference room like last time.” In the meanwhile, Heath was checking in on the Copper Killer case, and Denver was tracing Julie’s movements for the last two months. “Do you have any contacts at the police department?”
She shook her head. “Not really. Brock usually works on civil cases, not criminal, so we don’t have a lot of work with the police. In fact, if this ends up being a criminal case, Brock will pass it off to the criminal litigation department.”
“No problem. I think Heath knows a couple of cops, so we’ll see what we can find out.” Ryker stretched his still-sore knuckles. That Jonny had had a hard jaw. “In fact, if I remember right, Heath may have dated a cop last time we were here.” Man, he had to call Heath. The time was definitely ticking down for another victim to be taken, and none of them could face another dead girl. Failure was weighing on them already.
Zara moved around her desk and sat. “Heath dated a police officer when you worked the last case for us?”
Ryker brought himself back to the most immediate problems. “Yeah.” An accountant had fled with his client’s money, and the firm had represented the client. They’d hired Lost Bastards to track the accountant down, and Ryker had found him in Mexico, having a really good time on a white sandy beach. “I’m pretty sure Heath and a cop named Bernadette got together.”
Deadly Silence Page 19
