Page 83 of The Last Promise You Made

“Don’t know yet. I checked it out when I first saw it, and it looked like just your normal games. Nothing odd about the menus. Nothing odd about the storage, so I didn’t think much about it until Ryder told me on the way over here that it wouldn’t load any more games.”

“Think Anna was good enough to place information on it?”

“I do.”

His eyes turned hooded. We both wanted this. He’d been working on the Lovato case even longer than me. Since before the multi-agency task force had been created, and it had only been the DEA tracking them down. That was when his brother, also an undercover cop in Los Angeles, had been slaughtered and left on the LAPD’s doorstep.

I gripped the Switch tightly and jogged back upstairs. We’d just hit the entry when Maddox entered the house with a grim face.

“Nothing?” I asked.

He shook his head. “What happened here?”

Ryder stormed down the hall. “They tossed her room.”

“What were they looking for?”

I waved the Switch.

“What’s on it?” Maddox repeated the question of the day.

“I’m going to grab my computer from the car and see if I can figure it out,” I said. “He had gloves on, but there’s a chance we might catch something. A hair. Anything.”

“Crime scene techs are on the way,” the sheriff said with a curt nod.

The air was full of tension and frustration. The lighthearted sweetness from building the snowman in the field seemed like a dream now. I hated that it had disappeared almost as much as I hated the fact that Ryder’s home had been violated, and Addy’s beautiful room that had become a haven for her had been wrecked. I clenched my jaw, straightened my back, and slammed my way out of the house toward the Escalade.

A renewed determination filled me. I was going to find something. I’d find something and end this for all of us.

Chapter Twenty-five

Ryder

ON MY WAY

Performed by Restless Road

As I waited for the crime scene techs to finish dusting Addy’s room, I called my dad and explained what had happened, letting him know that Maddox was sending several officers their way for protection.

“How is Addy? We left so suddenly… Was she scared?” I asked.

“She asked what happened, and Eva said there’d been a water break. Said it happens sometimes in the snow and ice. They’re in the kitchen, making jam.”

“I’m sorry she’s stuck distracting Addy when she should be—”

“Should be doing exactly this. It helps keep her mind off Phil. Gives her a purpose.”

“We’ll be as quick as we can, but I want to fix her room after the techs leave. I don’t want her to see it this way. If at all possible, try to keep her from knowing Maddox’s men are there too.”

“You do what you need to there, Ryder. We’ve got Addy. Everything will be fine here.” His words were calm and steady like my father always was. Even when we’d been months away from losing everything, he’d still been cool and composed, positive we’d be okay, even if we had to sell our land. And after Ravyn had stolen from us, and we’d had to pay back the loans without the full income all the cabins would have generated, he’d still been calm while I’d fumed. Sometimes it was reassuring to be surrounded by his serenity, but it could also be frustrating.

“Everything isn’t fine, Dad,” I snapped.

“No one was hurt. Addy’s okay. You’re okay. This too shall pass, Son. It’ll pass, and you’ll have a little piece of you at your side for the rest of your life. That’s a blessing. You focus on that, you hear me? You focus on that little girl.”

My throat bobbed. “I gotta go.”

I hung up and headed toward Addy’s room. In mere days, it had become hers in my mind. No longer a guest room. But my daughter’s… My daughter.

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