Honeymoon To Die For (26 page)

Believing that in her heart was one thing.

Proving it to the FBI and the justice system was another.

She was saying nothing to anyone, including Ryder, until she had hard evidence. “I’ll wait.”

He squeezed her waist and pecked a kiss on her forehead. “Thank you. I’ll do what I can to come up with a plan today. Just be careful and don’t let your guard down.”  He glanced over at the Bose clock radio. “I’m going to head over and go in early before everyone shows up and I have to run the gauntlet. And for the record, I do know you can handle yourself or I wouldn’t leave you alone with Janeen.”

She rolled her eyes and muttered, “Now you’ve really insulted me.”

Ryder had started for the door but stepped back and kept his voice down. “No, I haven’t. At this point, I’m not sure who is behind killing Kearn and who wanted to see me spend my life in prison. I would never have expected that of someone in this household, but I’ve come to realize I never really knew everyone here. Janeen was angry with me when I left for the military and I can see it’s only worse now that I’m back.”

Bianca huffed at him. “How dangerous can the party girl of the household be?”

“You saw my marksmanship records from the military. You know I was a sniper.”

“Yes. Impressive.”

“Janeen taught me how to shoot and, as a target shooter, is every bit as good as I am,” he said. “I’ve seen her hit moving targets at eight hundred yards.”  Then he walked out.  

CHAPTER 24

Sabrina picked up her Starbucks coffee and moved to the condiment area. Someone entered her personal space.

She paused, putting the cup down, prepared for the threat in spite of people laughing and moving through the crowded area.

“It’s me,” a baritone said at her ear.

She cursed the sizzle of heat that raced along her skin and picked up her cup, turning to face Gage Laughton. “You, of all people, should know how dangerous it is to sneak up on me.”

“The last time I arranged for a lunch meeting you had a sniper in position with crosshairs on my head.”

As a CIA agent high on the food chain, he should have expected that after the CIA sent her team into a trap two years ago. He claimed no one at the agency was behind the busted mission, but someone had traded her entire team for the captured undercover agent they’d gone to rescue.

That agent and the person who’d picked him up had disappeared.

When someone bumped into Sabrina, Gage passed a dark look at the kid and suggested, “Let’s find a seat outside where it’s not so cramped.”

Sabrina kept stirring her coffee, but she narrowed her eyes, watching him. Let him think she was suspicious
of his motive
. She was.

She’d seen his brown hair in every length, but now he wore it cropped short. As if he didn’t already have rugged appeal, the
b
omber jacket, black T-shirt and worn jeans that showed off his muscular body took it to a deadly level. The beard shadow meant he was growing it for an upcoming mission.

That shouldn’t make her stomach clench, but it did.

Stupid emotions that she kept tucked away where they wouldn’t interfere with her life.

His gaze kept moving
around the room
as he said, “If I wanted you dropped, you wouldn’t be here now.”

Cold hard truth from a man who had claimed to love her at one time. Back when she’d said something equally stupid to him.

She led the way outside to where she could better appreciate her own leather jacket. The crisp air held enough chill to start turning leaves on trees in Atlanta.

After scoping out her options, she located a spot where a table and umbrella had been shoved into an alcove created by the shape of the building. She tilted the umbrella to block them and took a seat with her back to the bricked-in corner.

Gage took the other metal chair next to her.

Sabrina should have moved further away, because she could feel his presence—the energy around him.

That’s what had drawn her to Gage in the first place. He hadn’t inherited pretty boy genetics. Nothing about that face was magazine worthy, but put him in a room full of alphas and his sheer force of presence would mark him as the top of the pack.

“What do you want, Gage?”

He swung his hazel gaze to hers and she should have turned away before she saw the longing. “I want to see you again.”

Sabrina waited until she could answer with nothing in her voice that would betray how much she missed him. “Then you wasted your trip.”

“Why?”

“You don’t want to make me talk about the UK.”

“Are you going to hold me responsible for that forever?”

She didn’t want to have this conversation. “You were my handler. My entire team trusted you, because I did. If you don’t want the burden of blame, hand me the names of everyone in the CIA who knew about our mission. But someone has to answer for burning my team.”

Gage took a drink of his coffee. “There is a reason I came by.”

He was never going to give her those names. How could he expect her to spend a night making love with him ever again without thinking about what had happened to her team in the UK? If he could keep moving on, away from what they
’d
had, she could, too. “I’m listening.”

“What is one of your people doing inside VDE?”

She slowed her breathing in the same way she would if she was about to take a long range shot, because that was the last thing she’d expected him to ask. “
Whom
are you referencing?”

“You mean, there’s more than one?”

She closed her eyes then opened them again. “I don’t have an op going on.”

“So Ryder isn’t with you any longer?”

Fuck. “Don’t screw with this, Gage. It’s important.”

“That’s my point. We’re working on something major and I can’t have your man interfering.”

She waited for more, but Gage had said all he would until she gave him something. She’d trusted him with her life at one time, but could she trust him with Ryder’s?

“Talk to me, Sabrina, or I can’t help him. Whatever he’s up to can get him killed.”

She leaned toward him and quietly shared what had happened to Ryder and why he was in VDE. When she was finished, she sat back. If Gage didn’t give her something in return, the fragile truce they’d formed since he’d shared intel with her on an op last spring would take a huge step back.

He shifted his body toward her, turning so no one could read his lips. “We know about the illegal weapons exports, but not how they’re getting into the terrorist countries or who’s funding the operations. I need that information. Soon.”

Time to put the negotiations on the table. “I’ll share anything related to that if you will.”

“Agreed.”

He stood, but before he left, he leaned down, placing a hand on the arm of her chair so that he was only inches from her. There was a time when she wouldn’t have lasted ten seconds without kissing him when he was this close. He still used the same soap
,
and the s
cent
was going to stay with her after he left.

Meeting his unrelenting gaze, she asked, “What else?”

“I’m still turning over every rock to find out who screwed you. When I do, you’ll have your chance to exact justice, but holding me responsible is only hurting both of us. I won’t push, but I’m not giving up. I want to hold you so much its killing me not to touch you, but when I do it’ll be because you want me just as much. I’ll always love you.”

Then he straightened and walked away, leaving her heart in shreds again.   

CHAPTER 25

Ryder parked his
black
1968 Mustang in the covered corporate space in front of the sign with his name. Finding this car in the garage at the Van Dyke home had dragged emotions to the surface that confused and aggravated him. Edward had confided that when Lady Anne ordered the car sold, Hubrecht had overruled her, warning anyone against so much as scratching the car.

Then Hubrecht had it moved to a temperature-controlled storage space so nothing accidental happened to it.

Who was the Hubrecht Van Dyke who had saved one of Ryder’s two most cherished possessions?

Edward also shared that
he
was the one who
’d
arranged Ryder’s model car collection inside the antique cabinet, per Hubrecht’s orders.  

Ryder rode the elevator up the tower, feeling empty handed after seeing so many briefcases being toted through Buckhead, but he didn’t really know what his job description was or what he’d put in a briefcase at this point.

Ryder had
just
stepped into the receptionist’s lobby when Hubrecht’s assistant came around a corner and walked up with a genuine smile. “Mr. Van Dyke, nice to see you again so soon.”

“Good to see you, too, Adelaide.”

“Your office is ready. I’ll show you.”  How had this sweet grandmother stuck with Hubrecht for so many years?

The office she showed him was bigger than he’d expected, with a rosewood desk and matching credenza. A wall of glass offered an unobstructed view of Peachtree Street’s busy traffic bustling between Lenox Mall and Piedmont Road.

“Is there anything I can get you?” Adelaide asked.

A governor’s pardon would be nice
. “No, thank you.”

She smiled and withdrew.

He’d never anticipated what his shooting ability would one day cost him. If Hubrecht hadn’t forced
Larry’s family
to leave, Ryder might never have joined the Army. So determined to prove his value, he’d worked his ass off and finally been chosen for Special Forces, then his natural abilities got him into sniper school. He’d excelled at long range shooting as if he’d been born with a
rifle
in his hands.

All that because he refused to work for a man who would upend a family and send them across the country to get what he wanted.

The door opened. “Ryder.”  Hubrecht’s normal salutation never changed.

Ryder nodded, returning his standard greeting.

“Find everything acceptable?”

“Of course.”  Ryder’s life with his family had always been just that—acceptable. Not warm and loving, not a hellhole, but tolerable. “What am I supposed to do? I don’t see any files.”

Combative silence charged across the room. Bianca would be exasperated with him if she were present. But she didn’t understand the dynamics that had always percolated between him and Hubrecht.

Hubrecht strolled into the room, parking himself in front of the windows, a wall of dark clouds forming a backdrop. “We have an opportunity to pick up clients from a struggling company.”  

“Thought we agreed that I wasn’t a salesman.”

“Yes, but your knowledge of this particular client will be valuable so I want you to be familiar with the project. You’ll be given information pertinent to your specific role.” Hubrecht sent Ryder a pointed look. “The rest of the files will not be available.”

Ryder didn’t need a sledgehammer over the head. Hubrecht was making no bones about not trusting him with sensitive material.

“What struggling company?”  Ryder concealed his irritation. Not too tough. He’d learned how to mask his emotions from the very best—Hubrecht Van Dyke.

“Kearn.”

The son of a bitch was going to shove his face in it and put Ryder’s handprint all over picking up Kearn’s business. Had Hubrecht set him up to take the fall after all?

“Don’t you think these clients will be a little wary of the person charged with shooting Kearn?”

“Absolutely not. You’ve been cleared and released. I would think they’d be interested in meeting you.”  

So I’m to be a novelty?
Ryder clenched the arms of his chair, restraining his anger. He’d love to throw this back in Hubrecht’s face and walk out. Then what? Go to prison for the rest of his life while a murderer lived free?

He could do anything for six days. Besides, how much could really be expected of him?   

“What about Terrence? He might be a better choice.”

“Terrence now works for you.”

“That’s bullshit.”

Hubrecht turned to him. “I’ve kept Terrence on the payroll in deference to Lady Anne, but he’s gone more often than he’s here. And when he is here, he does little.”

“He’s sick.”

“I know. And I do sympathize with his struggle, but that doesn’t change the fact that we’re in a highly competitive business. I need people who can produce. You’d think it would be simple to find highly qualified individuals in this job market, but it’s not.”  

There was the opening Ryder had been hoping for to bring Bianca on. “If that’s the case, you should consider hiring my wife. She’s not just good with computers, she’s exceptional.”

“Bianca appears to be a nice girl, Ryder, but I didn’t make it to this point in business by being a fool. It’s going to take longer than a few days for me to trust someone from the FBI inside my company. Ask me after your first anniversary.”

Hubrecht walked out.

Ryder would argue that Hubrecht had led Bianca to believe she could come in once security cleared her in two weeks.

But two weeks might as well be a year from now on their supposed anniversary, because either would be too late.

CHAPTER 26

Bianca smoothed the front of her white-and-black pinstriped skirt suit. No more wrinkles there than the last ten times she’d checked.

She followed Terrence to a high-back booth the maître d’ selected specifically for Mr. Van Dyke, his favorite customer. Janeen had bailed on her, which had felt like a blessing until Terrence invited her to lunch. At least she could use this time to find out more on Terrence. Hushed conversations carried through the swanky restaurant doing a booming business at mid-afternoon hour. Terrence said it was his late day for work, but Bianca had a feeling any day could be his late day.

Several heads turned as they passed.

Bianca could imagine the Buckhead buzz above white linen tablecloths and china place settings.

“That’s her. She put Van Dyke away, then got his conviction overturned and married him.”

“And she’s with his brother. Wonder what that means?”