Page 128 of The Last Promise You Made

“Let her go!” Ryder’s furious snarl drew my eyes down the dark corridor, settling on the gun he held in his hand.

Love and hope twined with fear inside me. I barely bit back a scream, telling him to run, to find Addy and get the hell out of the devil’s house.

Laredo still held my wrist in one hand, and he barely had to put any pressure on it for me to cry out. Concern skated over Ryder’s face as he aimed his gun, trying to get a clear shot at the man using me as a shield. With his free hand, Laredo pulled a switchblade from his pocket, flicking it open and placing it on my already bruised neck.

“It’s over, Jaime,” Ryder said, continuing toward us slowly but surely. “Everything you thought you were getting tonight is gone. Ravyn got in the last word. She’s destroying you even as we speak with that flash drive you installed. You have no one coming to save you, because your giant is dead. The world will know exactly what you are and any respect you might have garnered will disappear.”

The tip of the knife pierced me. I bit my cheek, refusing to cry out again, as I felt blood drip down my neck, staining the beautiful gown Ryder’s family had lovingly preserved.

“What did you do to Julio?” Laredo demanded.

“Shot him. Just like I’m going to shoot you for marking her.”

“You lie.”

“Unfortunately for me, lying is not a skill I learned,” Ryder said, stalking closer. “While you and Ravyn excelled at it. Fooled the hell out of me and everyone around you. But it seems like she was even better at it than you are. I guess she’ll have the last laugh.”

“He has Addy,” I gasped out and was punished by the tip digging farther into my neck.

Ryder shook his head. “No. He has a stuffed animal and a backpack that looks like hers. There’s no one in that room.”

Laredo pushed harder on both my wrist and the point of the knife. My eyes watered, and the inside of my cheek bled as I tried desperately not to scream.

A voice from behind us said calmly, “What’s that line? About bringing a knife to a gunfight?”

Laredo jerked, pulling us so his back was against the wall, but it also caused the knife tip to slide farther in. I choked, a garbled noise escaping me as I registered Enrique limping down the hall, bloodied and battered.

I did the only thing I could, flinging the elbow on my good arm back into Laredo’s stomach, tearing hair from my head as I attempted to pull away. The moves barely budged him, but the miniscule space I’d created was all I needed. Two suppressed shots rang out, the air by my ear burning before both bullets struck Laredo. One to his head, the other to his left shoulder.

He sagged, his body taking me and the knife in my neck with him.

I tried to catch myself, tried to find the hilt, but I was already tumbling.

And then, warm arms caught me. Ryder’s strength surrounded me.

And every nerve in my body surrendered.

I’d finally found something worth staying for.

? ? ?

Six hours later, I had a bandage on my neck, a temporary wrap holding my wrist, and a cowboy who wouldn’t leave my side as we finished up at the Grand Laredo. Once it was clear Laredo was dead, and with the FBI, DEA, and local cops invading the place, Laredo’s staff at the ranch either took off or surrendered. Those who escaped wouldn’t get far, because Ravyn had given us a complete list of every person who worked for the organization. They’d be hunted down one at a time. There was no way any of them could pick up where Laredo had left off because Ravyn had destroyed it all. She’d given all the money away, uncovered every single trafficking lane they’d used, and handed over every contact who’d ever helped them.

Her work would do more than just end the Lovato cartel, as it also gave up resources used by other cartels as well. It was a true shake-up in the criminal world.

The minute Ryder was sure I wasn’t going to bleed out, he’d called Maddox. Addy was secure, tucked in a bed at the safe house, surrounded by officers. If he hadn’t already been tortured, I would have wanted to bust Enrique in the face several times for giving Laredo the idea to make Ryder and me think he’d taken her in.

After the EMTs loaded Enrique onto a gurney, I walked with them toward the waiting ambulance. “I’m mad as hell that you offered Addy to Laredo, but I also have to thank you for saving my ass.”

His dark-brown eyes were a mix of sadness and relief. “I would never have let him have her. But for the first time, I knew what he wanted and could use it to get to him. He had to be stopped, Kent. For ten years, I’ve been searching for the bastard who slaughtered my brother. I wasn’t going to let him get away once we’d found him.”

Would Enrique have killed Laredo even if he hadn’t had a knife to my throat? In the end, it didn’t matter. The man was gone. He couldn’t hurt Addy or Ryder or any of my family again—a family that included every single one of the Hatleys.

As we reached the ambulance, the reporter who’d been covering the gala shoved a microphone toward Enrique and me, demanding answers about what had gone down and why. After, “No comment,” ripped from both our throats in a similar growl, the woman backed away. But it wouldn’t be long before more news crews showed up, camping out along the edge of the drive and attempting to get statements from guests as they were released.

“You’re going to be feeling the aftereffects of tonight for a long time,” I told Enrique. We both knew I didn’t just mean the physical healing. I wasn’t sure he’d be able to go back to the DEA after he’d gone dark, even if he’d done so to bring Laredo down. I wasn’t sure anyone would trust him again.

He glanced over my shoulder, and I didn’t have to look to know who’d caught his eye. I could feel Ryder’s heat as he made his way toward me, the tether of the bond that joined us reaching out like its own embrace.

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