Page 81 of The Last Promise You Made

We were halfway across the field when Addy pulled away to turn back and look at the snowman in the middle of the field. “Alone,” she said softly, mournfully.

My throat bobbed. Ryder squatted to look her straight in the eye. “Seems like it, doesn’t it? But all the snowpeople get together at night. They have a party out by the creek.” He pointed out past the pasture. “They use magic to turn snow into candies and rain into punch, and they dance to the beat of the storm. And if they’re really lucky, and the moon comes out, it’ll cover them in shimmering diamonds. Rosalinda will be all dressed up in jewels, and she’ll fill her tummy while having the time of her life with all her snowmen friends.”

Addy looked at him like he was a little bit off his rocker, but for me, the story he spun only made those feelings inside me bloom stronger, made me long to always have a person at my side who could turn loneliness and tragedy into joy and enchantment.

When she didn’t respond, his throat bobbed, and he tapped her on the nose, saying, “If there’s still snow tomorrow, we’ll come back and make her a friend. But we’re all frozen and need to get warm. I think Rosalinda understands humans are made of weaker stuff. Okay?”

She nodded, and he rose to his full height. Addy tucked one hand back into his and then surprised me by sliding her other one into mine. We finished walking across the field, looking like a single unit. It brought tears to my eyes, and that ache grew wider and more painful inside my chest.

We’d just made it back to the porch steps when Ryder’s phone squawked—an ungainly, sharp sound that broke the sweet moment. He yanked it out of his pocket, and his face turned dark. He opened the door for Addy. “Go on inside with Nana for a moment.” His voice was calm, but I heard the tension—the spark of fear in it that raised the hair on my neck.

As he shut the door behind her, he showed me his phone with a hand that shook. His voice was a low, animalistic growl as he said, “Someone’s breaking into my house.”

On the screen, the doorway to his house appeared and a wide-shouldered figure clad in black with his face obscured by a hoodie was fiddling with the handle. As I watched, his gloved hands picked the lock, and in a handful of seconds, he was inside.

I spun around, racing for the Escalade with Ryder on my heels. As I started the vehicle, he jumped in with his phone to his ear, explaining in a torn voice to Maddox what had happened. I wasn’t sure I wanted the sheriff’s office involved, but I just gritted my teeth and spun out of the driveway with snow flying around the tires as I headed for the gates. After he hung up with Maddox, he called Eva, telling his mother briefly what had happened and asking her to look after Addy.

My heart pounded with anger and frustration at having our beautiful moment torn asunder, but also a teeny bit of hope. If we could catch him, he might lead us to the Lovatos. We might finally find out who their leader was. We might be able to end this for Addy…and Ryder. Waves of mixed emotions flung through me.

“This is why you need cameras inside,” I told him.

“I shouldn’t need them!” he fired back. I rounded a corner a little too fast, and the car skidded on the icy roads before the four-wheel traction caught. “This is why I should be driving.”

I ignored his comment, calling Enrique. “Where are you?”

“I told you, following a lead.”

“Someone broke into Ryder’s house. He’s still there. We’re on our way.”

Enrique swore. “I’m almost back in town.”

The line went dead.

“They either think she has something like Ravyn’s letter insinuated, or they know she does,” I said more to myself than Ryder. “It’s clear no one is at the house. They risked the alarm and the police showing up for something specific, but we haven’t found anything. Just a damn backpack with a few clothes and toiletries.”

“And the Switch.” Ryder’s voice cut through my thoughts, drawing me back.

“Yeah, but it’s not like Ravyn hid anything there. It just had a few games and nothing else. I checked. And the coding you’d have to do to hide something else on it would be…” Fuck. Ravyn could do it. If she could create a Houdini box like Rory suspected, she could get around the coding on a damn gaming device. I’d meant to go back through it again, but I had let myself get sidetracked…to slip into the cocoon of ranch life and the sweetness of Ryder and his daughter.

“When Addy and I tried to load the games we bought,” Ryder said, “It kept saying it was out of room, which didn’t seem right because the terabyte drive was huge, and she only had four games on there to begin with. I thought it was broken.”

Shit. I’d had the data in my hands for days and missed it. I’d fucked up, just like Ryder had accused my brother of doing. Except, this was worse than Holden because there was no way he could have known the bracelet Leya had worn wasn’t really from her friend. Whereas I knew better than to trust anything in that hotel room—any technology an expert hacker had kept at their disposal, especially after she’d basically told us she’d left something behind.

I gritted my teeth, wanting to pound on the steering wheel and, instead, shoved my foot on the gas pedal.

Ryder’s alarm on his phone sounded again.

“He’s leaving!”

We were on the bridge when I stomped my foot on the brake. The Escalade slid to a stop with the front end outside the bridge and the back end still under the covered roof.

“What are you doing?” he demanded.

“Blocking his way out,” I said, leaping from the car and taking off at a sprint.

Ryder followed me, our heaving breaths the only sound as the snow cushioned our boots. When we reached the house, there was no vehicle in the driveway. Nothing but a gaping front door. I stopped, searching the snow for footprints.

“There,” I said, running in the direction of the prints as I pulled my gun from my back. I pointed it toward the trail the burglar had left and headed in that direction with Ryder still on my heels. One set of footprints went toward the house, and the same single set pointed in the opposite direction as he’d left. One perpetrator. After just a few feet, we entered the dark shadows of trees and brush that wound along the hillside on the edge of the Hatley property. I stopped, trying to get my breathing under control so I could listen. A branch cracked behind me as Ryder stepped closer. I put a finger to my lips, tilting my head.

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