Page 70 of The Last Promise You Made

“I can’t protect her if I don’t know who is coming for her. Who do you have on your list? More of the West Gears?”

“No. They aren’t involved.”

“Then who?”

“No one locally. Whoever it is will stand out.”

“Like you and Enrique.”

“Enrique is not working for the Lovatos.”

“How do you know that for sure?”

“Because his brother was undercover when he was gutted by the cartel, just like Ravyn. No way in hell he’d work for them after that.”

Ryder’s jaw worked, and I could tell he didn’t agree with me, and the distrust in his eyes hurt worse than it should have. I thought we’d started to work past it, but I should’ve known better than to assume a heated kiss and a shopping spree would change the deep-seated mistrust Ryder felt for anyone who wasn’t his family.

He rubbed his beard, tucked his hands into his pockets, and let out a slow breath, as if trying to calm himself down. Then, he turned and opened the back door. Addy and Mila were in the kitchen with Rianne, elbows deep in brown cookie dough they were rolling in powdered sugar.

Addy’s eyes lit up on seeing us, and it landed in my heart.

“Hey,” Ryder said.

Addy full-on smiled. “We are making chocolate cookies.” The complete sentence dug further into my soul.

“Chocolate crinkles,” Mila corrected.

“Where’s Mama?” Ryder asked, looking around.

Rianne’s eyes turned sad, and she scooted around the counter, motioning us farther away. “Sadie called from the bar.” She lowered her voice to keep the girls from hearing. “It seems like your Uncle Phil had a heart attack. Your mama went to meet them at the hospital.”

My heart skipped a beat. Not even a minute ago, I’d been thinking about how this family had already been through too much. Now, they had one more family member to be concerned about. Ryder’s shoulders sagged slightly, and I had to fight the urge to wrap him in my arms and hold him tight.

He yanked out his phone and shot off a text before stuffing it back into his pocket.

“I need to get to the hospital. I’ll take Addy with me,” he said to Rianne.

When Rianne didn’t react to his possessive growl over a little girl who was supposedly attached to me and not him, my chest fell. Someone in the Hatley family had spilled the beans to her. It would be practically impossible to keep the truth hidden in this tiny town.

“I don’t think taking her to the hospital is a good idea,” I whispered, and he immediately scowled at me. “Ryder, think about how she reacted sitting in the car outside the mall. There’s no way she’s going to go into a hospital without freaking out.”

“I’m not leaving her.”

Rianne patted his arm. “Your mama has Sadie with her. McKenna was on call when they arrived in the ER. He’s in good hands, and there’s nothing you can do there. This is the last set of cookies to go in the oven. Let them finish, and then maybe you can take Mila home with you. Maddox and you can switch off at your house.”

“We’re all done!” Mila called. Rianne turned back to the girls, helping them add the tray of cookies to the oven and supervising them while they cleaned up.

The silence between Ryder and me continued, taut and full of tension that made me want to strangle him or kiss him or…I wasn’t sure what. Anything that would take the beast of an attitude Sadie had claimed he was carrying around and turn it into something different.

Outside, a dark-brown, 1970 Oldsmobile Toronado that was tricked out lowrider-style pulled up beside the Escalade. Enrique’s dark hair was visible in the driver’s seat. The car wasn’t meant to blend in like most undercover vehicles. No, this stood out in a way that would make him recognizable by the low-level street soldiers of the Lovatos he’d worked himself into in Lexington.

Ryder glared at the car and the outline of Enrique inside it.

I stepped closer to him, my hand settling on his arm where Rianne’s had been, and the zap of awareness wafting between us settled over me again. He looked down at where I was touching him, and his throat bobbed.

“Look, Rianne’s idea is a good one,” I said. “We’ll go back to your house with both girls. When you need to go to the hospital, Enrique and I will stay at the house. If you want Maddox to show up too, I’m fine with that, but Enrique and I have this covered. I swear on all I hold holy, I’m not letting anything happen to her.”

“What exactly is that?” he asked quietly, voice deep and raw as his gaze bored into my soul.

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