Page 129 of The Last Promise You Made

“I think we’ll both be feeling the ramifications for the rest of our lives,” he said, but there was a smirk on his lips that had mine twitching up in return.

The EMTs lifted the gurney inside and shut the door just as strong arms surrounded me. I eased back into him, and Ryder growled, “He used my daughter as bait. He’s lucky I didn’t shoot him when I had a chance.”

I turned to face him. “He never would have given her up.”

Ryder’s jaw worked. “I’m not sure I agree.”

“Did you see the state of him? If he was going to give her up, it would have been while they were torturing him.”

“Nothing you say will make me like or trust the man.”

I didn’t want to argue with him about it. Enrique would have to remain one of the things we disagreed on, and I wasn’t sure it mattered. With the task force disbanded, I wasn’t sure I’d ever see the DEA agent again.

As the ambulance pulled away, Ryder ran a hand along my jaw in a tender caress, leaned in and placed a tender kiss on my forehead, and asked, “Can we go home now?”

Home. Willow Creek. The glass house that he’d built because of his love for another woman that had somehow become a haven in the last few days for me.

Before I could respond, I caught sight of a disappointed face weaving through the sea of vehicles on the drive. My heart fell as Leland reached me.

“G.”

“Leland.”

We stared at each other for a long moment before my boss’s gaze flicked to Ryder, whose arms had tightened protectively.

“How’d you get here so quickly?” I asked.

“Once Rory came clean about what you’d been hiding, I commandeered a company jet and landed outside Corbin in under two hours.” His eyes were sad as he shook his head. “After all we’ve been through, I have to say, it stings that you doubted me.”

My throat bobbed, emotional pain joining the physical ones, both sure to scar me. I hadn’t just respected Leland, I liked him as a human being and thought of him as a friend as well as a boss. It had taken a lot to doubt him, but I didn’t say any of that because, in the end, it didn’t matter. I had doubted him. Instead, I asked, “Did we find the mole?”

“Tech analyst with the DEA.”

“Enrique’s going to destroy him.”

My boss didn’t respond immediately. When he did, he looked Ryder straight in the eye and said, “I need a moment with G.”

Ryder wasn’t happy. I could feel it vibrating from him, but I squeezed his hand and said, “Give me another ten minutes. Then, I’ll let you take me home. I want to hug Addy, and I want to fall in bed and sleep for a day at least.”

His eyes lit up at me saying home and Addy in practically the same sentence. Or maybe it was the idea of staying in bed for a day in that way we’d both wanted to do this morning. He kissed me on the forehead and stepped away, pulling out his burner phone and texting someone while he waited.

“The virus destroyed everything he had online?” Leland asked.

After Ryder had ripped his tuxedo shirt up and tied it around my neck to stop the bleeding, I’d insisted on searching for the Houdini box. I’d brought Laredo’s laptop with me as we hunted, shooting our way through locked doors and watching as Natalia’s virus ate its way through the Lovato businesses before destroying itself as well.

Once we’d found the safe in Laredo’s office, we’d hauled Laredo’s body into the room to unlock it with his eyes and his fingers. Inside was an Art Deco ring and two gold-encrusted external drives. Ryder had gasped at the ring, fisting it and closing his eyes as if he’d found the Holy Grail.

I hadn’t had time to ask him about it, but I suspected it was the ring he’d given Ravyn. I turned my attention to the drives, called Rory, and used the key code to unlock them. The Houdini boxes were missing the final string of code Rory had found on the Switch, but it too was gone now into the etherland of ones and zeroes that Ravyn had burned up. Even knowing the last piece was missing, Rory and I had still made the executive decision to smash the drives to pieces. No one should have the power that code would have given.

I nodded at Leland. “Yes. The virus did its job, but Ravyn left us enough evidence to dismantle what’s left of the Lovatos’ physical business.”

“The bigwigs won’t be happy to not have the Houdini box in custody. They’ll want to know how those drives got destroyed.”

“I made the decision. If they want a badge for it, they can have mine. Leave Rory out of it.”

“Or maybe Laredo destroyed those drives in a hissy fit before he was shot. You know, if he couldn’t have them, no one would?”

My chest squeezed tight. Even after I’d doubted him and hid things from him, my boss still had my back. I didn’t respond, because if I did, I might start crying, and I’d be damned if I’d do that in front of the range of law enforcement crawling over the ranch.

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