Page 116 of The Last Promise You Made

“Won’t he know as well?” I asked.

“Maybe.” Rory’s enthusiasm dimmed. “If he was coding along with her, maybe. But if he was just handing her the ideas, he might not understand the language itself. Plus, he’d really have to take the time to analyze it before he loaded it. If he thinks he’s broken you, if he thinks you’re giving it to him reluctantly, I’m hoping he just loads it, eager to finally have it complete.”

My heart pounded viciously. “What do you mean, ‘if he thinks he’s broken you’?”

Chapter Thirty-seven

Gia

BACKGROUND MUSIC

Performed by Maren Morris

Ryder’s voice was deep and angry. Rory and I had come up with that strategy on text. I’d told Ryder I needed Laredo to pull me into his private rooms at the ranch, but I hadn’t told him what I expected to happen once he did. If Laredo didn’t suspect me, he’d try to seduce me. If he knew I was with the task force, he’d likely torture me for information. In some ways, that was the better scenario because then I could do exactly what Rory had said—make it seem like he’d broken me and hand over the code.

“Send me what I need. I’ll download it to a flash drive and take it with me,” I told Rory.

“Gia,” Ryder’s voice was demanding, staking his objections but also staking a claim. The single word told me he had a right to have a say in what I did. Less than a week ago, that would have infuriated me. It would have had me slamming back at him and doing exactly what he’d tried to stop me from doing. Now…now I wanted to live through this because I wanted to know what it was like to be loved by this man so much that he’d break himself in half to give it to me. I wanted him and Addy, even if that meant walking away from everything I’d accomplished.

It stung. It still hurt, the idea of giving up the spy-like life I was proud to have created for myself, but I was tantalized by the life this man and his little girl could offer me even more.

The moment with Addy in the kitchen had wiped away the remaining doubts I’d had after making love to Ryder. I wanted them, no matter the cost.

“I’ll call you back,” I said to Rory and hung up. I turned fully to him in the tiny rental. “I thought you were starting to trust me?”

“This has nothing to do with trust and everything to do with the fact that I’m not sending you into Laredo’s knowing you’re going to be, what…tortured? No fucking way.”

“Do you want this to be over?”

He’s eyes were dark and broody. “You know I do.”

“Then trust me to do my job.”

“Fuck the job if it means you getting hurt.” He leaned toward me over the center console, fingers dancing along the bruise on my throat. “I can’t… When I saw you being dragged across my house… Jesus… I can’t do that again.”

“If you can’t, you need to stay at the hotel.”

“Darlin’…”

“I’m serious, Ryder. We’ve never been closer to bringing the Lovatos down than we are right now. This is how we end it for Addy and you. For all of us.”

“Can’t you use the information Ravyn left you to get a warrant and bring him down that way?”

“It would take time. Time we may not have. If Laredo gets even a whiff of this, he has the means to disappear, and who knows what the lawyers will do with it? They could say none of it is admissible. Plus, at this moment, I don’t even know who we can trust. What if we hand it all over and it just disappears? Rory planted some false leads, things we want to get back to Laredo so we know who’s been working for him. That has to happen before I hand over the data and trust the justice system to do its job.”

“Then we should wait. Let whatever you put in motion pan out and then get a warrant to take him down.”

“He’ll disappear, Ryder. What happens if all the evidence disappears, like everything on the Lovatos has up until now? This is our chance to make sure he never gets his hands on the final code for the Houdini box. If Rory is right, and Ravyn installed a virus that can cripple his business, don’t you think she deserves the chance to make that happen? He took everything from her, from you both. Let Ravyn’s work be the final blow.”

His jaw worked overtime. Teeth grinding. Fear and desperation in his eyes, but also hope.

I felt that hope deep inside me. Hope and anticipation.

After what felt like an endless minute, he reached for the door handle and got out of the car. He retrieved our shopping bags and the two garment bags from the back. I joined him, slinging my backpack over my shoulder and reaching over to squeeze his arm. When he looked down at me, I said, “Thank you for proving you trust me.”

His throat bobbed, but he didn’t say anything. He just led me into the hotel, where we checked in using one of my aliases, and headed upstairs to the room.

Once we were inside, I called Rory back.

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