Page 10 of Redemption

“No, I’m fine.” Panic colored her words. “I’ll just head out.”

“Easy.”

“I—”

“Give me a minute. Would ya, please?” He tilted his head, dropping his chin. “You don’t know where you are. You have no money, no ID. What are you going to do?”

“I…” She glanced about the generic safe house’s nondescript room. It held no answers.

“You’re going to walk to wherever you came from?”

“Maybe.”

“We’re in Virginia.”

“Virginia,” she repeated, obviously not excited that she wasn’t able to walk home.

“Let us help you out. At least, hear me out. I have another option.”

Her head dropped into the pile of blankets and pillows in front of her, and she mumbled, “I want to sleep until I don’t feel this anymore.”

Would that ever happen? He didn’t know if people recovered from what she’d gone through. Her words pierced the invisible layer of armor he kept around himself to keep people at bay and dug tiny spikes into in his chest.

The beautiful woman before him with tired bags under her eyes was unwaveringly strong in the face of what terrified so many. He’d heard about it, seen her face her monster. Victoria simply needed to recoup.

Buthowhe understood that about her, barely knowing her, blew his mind. It had to be that first fierce encounter with her in that basement in Russia. Living, breathing fire—and he’d had to calculate quickly what the odds were that she’d pull the trigger and decide how to talk her down. Psychoanalyzing someone on the fly was never easy, and she was fascinating. Life wasn’t fair, and she had been through the worst.

“Can you give me your eyes?”

Tired but trusting eyes met his, and he wanted to promise she’d feel life would be okay, back to whatever it had been soon enough. But… maybe those weren’t the right words for someone who wouldn’t share her last name or hometown.

“I want you to meet Winters.”

“Is that his real name?”

“Is that snark?”

“No.”

“Too bad. I was hoping you’d have a little attitude to toss my way.” He grinned. “He works on a different team and has a place not too far from here. He and his wife, their kids, have a ton of room, spare rooms.”

“Why would they do that?”

“That’s what they do.”

Victoria smirked, and it wasn’t the kind of attitude he was hoping for. No, it was the kind that hated on herself, and he wanted to shut down her words before she even spoke.

“They take the leftovers from your jobs? The people you can’t place in a good home, like a rescue dog? No thank you. Like I said, I’ll head out—”

“Would you cut that crap!” Ryder snapped.

Surprised, she inched back and her mouth formed an O, but her pale complexion grew the slightest shade pink, as though the blood finally found the ability to flow faster than a step above living dead.

“I’ll put up with a lot of stuff, and you need me to. But that bullshit?” He shook his head. “No. I don’t know the right thing or the wrong thing in situations like this.” Ryder stepped forward. “But I know what you just said was wrong. Don’t talk about yourself that way, Victoria.”

“I wasn’t.” She rubbed her face. “I was, I guess. I don’t normally.”

He stepped to the couch, leaving enough room between them. “Can I sit with you?”

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