Page 33 of The Last Promise You Made

He startled, whirling around, spatula in hand. His eyes narrowed on me. “Done what?”

“Told your mom.”

Instead of replying, he slid the plates onto the island across from the tall barstools. “Do you want to get Addy? She seems to react better to you right now.”

“You’re not going to respond?”

“I don’t believe in repeating arguments, especially when they won’t end any different. I won’t lie to my family. That’s all there is to say.”

“You’re putting her at risk to soothe your conscience. What I just learned…” I shook my head, trailing off. I couldn’t talk to him about the case.

“What you just learned?” he asked, crossing his arms over his enormous chest, the flannel working double-time to contain the muscles beneath it. Muscles I knew were rock solid from the one time I’d been pressed up tight against them. I swallowed hard and looked away.

“That little insurance policy Ravyn left behind? If it’s what we think it is, it won’t just be the Lovatos who come looking. It’ll be every criminal organization and government in the world.”

His jaw worked, hands digging into his arms. “What is it?”

I shook my head. “Not going there. But I think this was a bad idea. I think I should take Addy somewhere we can have a full team protecting her.”

“Unless we can figure out what she has and hand it off to you and your pals at the NSA. Then she won’t be in any danger, right?”

“They might not know we found it and still come looking.”

“I’m sure you and your cronies can find a way to leak it so they know you have it instead of her.”

If Rory was right, and Ravyn had been working on a Houdini box, and Addy had the key, we could absolutely drop hints that we’d found it. But it meant figuring out whether Addy really had it before they came looking. I wasn’t sure how to do that when all I’d gotten from the little girl was a handful of words.

“We need to get her to trust us,” I said softly.

He gave a curt nod, gaze drifting over to the entryway and the stairs that led down into the game room before they came back to lock on me.

The air shifted between us—the same enticing spark I’d felt last year and in every touch today. It was laced with danger and mistrust but also a passion I’d never experienced except in that singular angry kiss we’d shared. My eyes fell to his mouth, and when I jerked them back up, I swore his lips twitched.

I whirled around, heading for the stairs, saying, “I’ll go get her.”

I slid quietly into the basement, immediately searching the far corner where the video game machines were. My heart skittered around in my chest when she wasn’t there. I scoured the room. “Addy?” I called. “Dónde estás?”

Nothing.

I tried not to panic. There were no outside doors in the basement. No windows were open.

I called her name again.

Ryder’s booted feet hit the stairs, and I met his gaze.

“Where is she?” he asked.

I didn’t answer. I started for the hall and the unfinished rooms he’d mentioned. We both called her name only to get nothing in response. The three rooms along the hallway were hung with sheetrock but no tape or texture. Empty spaces that felt sad now I knew why they’d been left this way. As I came out of one room, Ryder came out of the last.

His eyes reflected the same panic I felt welling inside me.

We raced back down the hall where he pulled open the closet he’d gotten the step stool from, but she wasn’t there. Where the hell was she? The image of how I’d found her, hidden under the bed in the motel room, hit me. She’d been taught to squeeze into small spaces. I ran to the entertainment center, opening cabinet doors as Ryder went behind the bar.

“Gia,” his voice was barely a whisper, and I slowly closed the cupboard and turned to him. He closed his eyes, as if in pain, before opening them and meeting mine across the distance. He nodded down at something. I jogged over to see she’d tucked herself onto an open shelf. I didn’t know if it had been empty before or if she’d moved everything, but she’d curled herself into the space, knees to her chest, just like I’d found her under the bed. Her chest was moving in a slow rhythm, dark lashes standing out against pale skin.

Tears pricked my eyes, and when I met Ryder’s, I could tell he was fighting back his own.

It was all so wrong. So horribly wrong for her to have to hide like this to feel safe.

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