Page 117 of The Last Promise You Made

“Did you send me the code?”

“Put a packet on the dark website we discussed.”

I logged into my computer, secured my location by bouncing it around the globe, and then found the website. Sure enough, she’d placed an encrypted file there. I downloaded it.

“You use the same password key as Ravyn?”

“Yep.”

I loaded it to a flash drive the size of a nickel.

“G?”

“Yeah?”

“I’ve been going through some of her files.”

“And?”

“It’s ugly. Really ugly. There’s a journal of sorts that she wrote, and it’s clear her dad abused both her and her brother. Savage beatings for the smallest of indiscretions, and after their mom died, I think he might have sexually abused her as well.”

My eyes shot over to Ryder, where he was hanging the evening wear in the closet. His hands stalled, turning to me with a look of abject sadness on his face.

“At first, the coding she created with Laredo was supposed to be used as a way to get even with their dad—take the ranch and their trust funds back. Then, Laredo convinced her they could be Robin Hoods, helping the poor, abused, and disenfranchised with it. But when she graduated from MIT and came home, she overheard a conversation between him and Julio and learned what he’d really been doing with her code. The Lovato name, the wolf name, had come from a game they’d played as kids with Julio and their other cousins in California. She dug into the cartel and found out Laredo was selling drugs and guns as well as running financial schemes. In retaliation, she moved some of the funds out of his main offshore account, hiding them. She was throwing it in his face when their father walked in. He demanded a cut, Laredo refused, and their dad drew his knife. Laredo overpowered their father, cutting him to pieces with his own knife while Ravyn screamed. That was why she ran away to begin with. She realized her brother had become an even worse monster than their father.”

Ryder sank onto the bed, rubbing a hand through his waves. I wanted to comfort him. To wrap my arms around him and make him forget everything he’d just heard. To retreat to the bubble that was waiting for us.

I forced myself to look away, to think about the information we’d been given and the next tasks that had to happen. “I thought their dad disappeared in a plane crash in South America?”

“Either they put his body on the plane and brought it down, or they just used Ravyn’s code to make it look like it happened. I’ll have to do some more digging. I’ll read more of her files, but my point is that Laredo…he’s going to be pissed he protected her, and she betrayed him by running away and then lying for seven years about her daughter.”

“He thinks I stole them from him,” Ryder said. This grimness in his words startled me. I hadn’t thought much about what role Ryder had in this, other than being Addy’s dad—the one keeping her from Laredo. With a sinking feeling, I knew he was right.

We’d been chasing the leader of the Lovatos for years, and what we’d found out was that he was savvy and smart and he used deadly force with ease. If he even suspected someone to have betrayed them, if they even screwed up in the slightest, they ended up like Ravyn. Knowing he’d suffered years of abuse may explain how he’d ended up without a soul, but it also shined a spotlight on just what he’d do when threatened.

Both Rory and Ryder were right. Laredo would feel betrayed by his sister, and he’d feel like Ryder had been the reason. I was surprised he hadn’t retaliated before now. That he’d kept up a friendship with Ryder even after Ravyn had disappeared. Maybe that was what Ravyn had meant by saying she’d negotiated to keep the Hatleys safe, but if so, that deal would be broken now that she was gone. It wasn’t just me who Laredo would want to torture tonight. In fact, if he didn’t know who I really was, he’d get great joy out of using me to get to Ryder.

I worked through an enormous lump in my throat to say, “You can’t go tonight.”

Ryder’s eyes darkened. “You go, I go.”

He’d said the same thing last night. It was both a soothing balm and a horrendous torment.

“What do we know about the false leads you planted?” I asked Rory.

“Nothing. No one has shown up at either of the locations. Not the hotel Leland thinks Addy’s at nor the safe house in Lexington that I dropped to the general task force.”

“And Enrique?”

“I haven’t heard from him at all, so I haven’t been able to give him the Knoxville lead.”

Ryder and I stared at each other. My heart slammed inside my chest. I didn’t want to put him at risk. I didn’t want one beautiful hair on his head to be hurt. Laredo would have a team tonight. An entire team of men at his beck and call. It was stupid to go in there with just the two of us.

For the first time since taking this job, since bringing to life my James Bond dreams of taking down the evil villain alone, I knew the truth. I needed more than just me on the case to protect those I loved. Not because I’d lose focus. Not because the feelings I had were too much. On the contrary, I would do anything to keep every hair on Ryder’s head right where they were at. This was simple math. The numbers were against me. Against us.

“If we tell Leland what’s been going on, what are the chances of him getting a team here in time to help?”

“In under two hours?” Rory asked with doubt in her voice. “If we can trust him to help, there’s a chance he might be able to motivate some local cops. But who knows if they’re already in Laredo’s pocket. There’s an FBI residence in Lexington and another in London—as in London, Kentucky. We might be able to mobilize them. But again, that’s if we think we can trust them. Just the paperwork to get them all on board might take longer than two hours.”

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