Page 77 of Without Fail

“Does he still have his hand in the Specialty Teams?”

The specialty teams were Phoenix and Pegasus. Plus, a shit ton more that even Marshal didn’t know about. He supposed that he could include Real’s unit, Genesis, in there, but they were more assassins than law enforcement. Plus, there was Erebus—those fuckers were dark assassins that lived on the fringes doing work that even Pegasus or Phoenix wouldn’t touch.

“Yeah, he still runs Pegasus, Phoenix, and Erebus. I know he’s getting tired though,” Real said, getting over into the fast lane.

“I can only imagine,” Marshal said. Dave had to be in his late fifties or early sixties by now.

“They told your boyfriend about your involvement,” Real said, effectively changing the subject.

“I figured they would.”

Having Ryker know about the setup would make it that much harder for the man to forgive him.

Marshal didn’t have any words planned because frankly, he didn’t know what the fuck hecouldsay. He swallowed down the sick feeling in his gut.

How do you make amends for a lie you’ve been living for years?

“We are your only hope,” Harold said with a haughty lift of his chin. “Marry Hailey and we can pull you from the gutter.”

The backdrop behind Harold showed the Baldwin estate with its snow-covered rolling hills and manicured trees. Pristine water that once filled a man-made pond was frozen over. The once bright blooming roses were nothing but spines of wood.

Everything outside looked cold and dead.

Just as his insides felt at the moment.

Ryker glanced around blankly at the room that was Harold’s study.

Syn was around there somewhere, but his friend had disappeared shortly after they had made the drive over.

The news vans had converged at the borders of the Brick Estate and Ryker had had to make a decision. It had been safer for him to be somewhere the paparazzi wouldn’t think of and Brick’s home was not it.

So, he’d come here to Hailey’s place. She had assured him they could be here and nobody would be the wiser.

On the drive over, Ryker had made the call to Jennifer and she was on her way.

Syn was probably out front waiting for her arrival.

Brandon stood leaning against one wall of the study. The bodyguard refused to let him out of his sight since his release from jail. And no matter how much he tried to get Brandon to relax, the man would not. They’d buried Chad a few days prior and everyone was feeling the impact.

Ryker knew Brandon missed Chad. Hell, they all missed Chad and right now, the FBI was interrogating criminals to find out who pulled the trigger.

When Jennifer got there, he would speak to both her and Syn and decide on his options.

If Syn could loan him money, then he could disappear for a while. Leaving the country sounded good to him.

He wanted to go somewhere and have a fresh start.

“Think about it. You have no other choice,” Harold cut into his thoughts.

Ryker gazed at Harold through burning eyes and clenched his fists. The man’s words rang true. But he did have a choice…right? Instead of being in debt to Syn, he could marry Hailey and resolve his financial issues. But wasn’t that the same thing?

Take advantage of Syn or take advantage of Hailey…

Fuck, he didn’t know what to do, but he did know that if he didn’t make some hard and fast decisions, then he and his mother were going to end up homeless like his criminal father.

And Robert Langston was fucking guilty as all hell. The man had kept the books for crime boss Kenneth Cramer, who was charged with hundreds of counts of child sexual exploitation offenses. When convicted, Cramer would spend the rest of his life in prison, and Ryker had no doubts that his father would be right there with the sick fucker.

As a result of pending charges, the government had frozen all of Langston’s assets. They had also locked up Belle Industries. Ryker was positive that he would need to liquidate his stock and file Chapter 13 or 11 or whatever the fuck number.

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