Page 44 of Redemption

His warm hand stilled. “Did that hurt?”

“No. Just cool.”

“All right.” He gently rubbed the aloe in and replaced the shirt strap, repeating the process. “You have fun today?”

She scrunched her face, looking over her shoulder. “Was there a question?”

“No. Just checking.”

Victoria dropped her head, sighing deeply as his thumb kneaded up onto her neck. Finally, his hand stilled. “Me too.”

He let go of her and closed the cap.

“Thanks,” she said.

Was she supposed to ask if he needed any? How did this work? When did she become so awkward around a guy? Probably the moment she began to have a crush on him and didn’t know what any of it meant.

“What’d Maddy want?”

Saved by the change in topics.Thank you, Ryder.Victoria tried in vain to stabilize her rioting insides. “Girl talk.”

He nodded, maybe wondering how they were supposed to act out of water and off the beach. They’d played a hell of a game of volleyball and crushed Grayson and Emma. Though Colby and Mia kicked their butts. Home team advantage, maybe. “I’m beat. You headed to bed?”

“Just about to change, and then yes.”

“Could just sleep naked,” he suggested with a wink.

She rolled her eyes. “All right. Good night, Ryder.”

“Night, love. Try not to dream about what I sleep in.”

“Out.” She gave his sinewy back a little push, but now that he’d said that, did Ryder sleep naked when alone?

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The dark hallway surrounded Ryder. The cold weighed down his arms, made his boots heavy as his mind searched for where he was. Traces of Zoe’s face seemed to flash in the dark, a transparent ghost of a whisper in his peripheral vision. But with his head on the pivot in the narrow passageway, he couldn’t catch her, couldn’t reach her, couldn’t save her…

“Zoe!”

Zoe. Zoe. Zoe.The echoes of voices tortured his mind, and Ryder clung to his weapon, perspiring as he tried to breathe through the mission.

He blinked. He breathed.

He was alone?

Ryder spun.

No team? No one, and no more apparitions of Zoe.Was she even there?

Night goggle green illuminated his vision. Ryder stopped abruptly, confused—but there was Trace, mirror and flashlight in hand at the corner. Ryder focused on the job as confusion made his temples pound. He was at work with Delta, at the Mikhailov compound, and there was Luke.

“The women are down here.” Luke beckoned Ryder to hurry even as every step seemed slowed by quicksand.

He couldn’t move fast enough to help. Ryder growled through the strangling efforts to keep him away from their targets.

Luke waved him closer. “One of them has a gun.”

A gun… Civilians. Victims.They were armed. Ryder blinked, and he was in front of Locke—and a woman with a gun trained on Ivan Mikhailov. “We’re here to help. Here to help. Don’t shoot. Here to help.”

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