Honeymoon To Die For (35 page)

What would happen when this mission ended and they found no evidence to give Murdock? Whether Ryder went back to his prison holding cell or not, Bianca would become a significant target. If she wasn’t one already.

Hubrecht would regret his decision to trust Ryder.

Would he retaliate?

Who would protect Bianca if Ryder wasn’t here to do it?

She had no idea how dangerous this op was. If someone hurt her he’d ... kill them.

He would hunt them down and ...

“Ryder, look at me.”  Bianca’s voice broke through the traffic jam in his mind. Her fingers grazed his skin with an ethereal lightness that pulled him back from the dark edge.   

Her touch tamed the beast that hovered inside and lived to strike back at any given moment.

How could she see past the darkness inside him to reach out and call him back to the surface?

Why wasn’t she backing away like any sane person would do?

She pulled his face down to hers and kissed him with her signature sweetness that set her apart from so many cynical women he’d dated.

He scooped her up and sat in her chair with Bianca in his lap before she could protest. His mouth sought out hers, daring her to sacrifice the kiss to complain.

Special Agent Brady might have, but not when Bianca was in charge.

She could ignite faster than a short dynamite fuse and touching her was just as explosive.

His hand went straight to her breast.

Her fingers gripped his hair, dragging his mouth harder against hers. “I loved it when you took me hard this morning.”

Damn it. His erection had shot up the minute he’d touched her. Another comment like that with her sliding her bottom against him and he’d shoot his wad right now.

“
Mr. Van Dyke?
” called out from the speaker on his phone.

Bianca froze as if someone had unplugged her.

Ryder cursed and reached over to press the button on his phone so he could answer Jenny. “Yes?”

“
There’s a delivery for your wife
.”

Suspicion raced up his spine. “What kind of delivery?”

“
A man with roses
.”

“What the f—”

Bianca slapped a hand over his mouth, stopping his angry outburst.

He glared at her. She lifted an eyebrow, daring him to snap at her, then gave him a have-no-idea lift of her shoulders. A gleam of humor entered her eyes.

Had he really just acted jealous? He pressed the button again. “I’ll be there in a moment.”

“
Yes, sir.”
 

Bianca jumped out of his lap and started straightening her blouse. He should be glad they’d missed out on the quickie at lunch since a snack wouldn’t have been nearly enough of her, but waiting sucked, too. He wanted her any time, any way.

“Wonder who it is?” Bianca whispered as she smoothed her hair back into place.

That’s right. He had someone suicidal outside his door, because any man who brought Ryder’s wife flowers had a death wish.

But Bianca isn’t your real wife.

Screw that. She was until this mission ended. Until then, she
was
his. Ryder cupped his eyes. He was losing his mind.

“What’s wrong?” Bianca asked.

What’s not wrong?
“Nothing.”  He took a minute to adjust his pants, thought about going back to prison and wham, instant limp dick. Not totally, since Bianca was still pulling and tugging at her clothes, which made him want to take them all off.

Ryder strode over to the door and shoved an intimidating glower into place before whipping it open, prepared to demand answers.

Jenny was quick to call out, “Sorry, Mr. Van Dyke. He told me I could only tell you it was a man with roses.”

A tall guy with coffee-brown skin in a business suit tailored to fit his lanky frame stood with a huge bouquet of roses. He took one look at Ryder’s face and roared with laughter.

Not the response Ryder had expected. “What’s your fu—”

“
Ryder!
” Bianca snapped from close behind. “You’re in an office.”

He swung his anger at her. “I know where I am.”

“Then don’t curse. Especially not in front of Jenny.”  Bianca had her hands on her hips, her jacket straight and was leaning toward him with one hell of a mean look of her own.

Ryder was O for two at intimidating anyone right now.

He ignored her and turned back to the loon who was still laughing until Ryder took a step toward him.

 Delivery guy backed up quick. “Hold it, mon,” he said with a Jamaican accent. “Just joking with ya.”  

“So those flowers are
not
for my wife, right?” Ryder suggested with enough menace to have made an enemy wet himself.

“Well, yes, they are. I just wanted to screw with you again.”  This time, the delivery guy spoke without the accent.

But Ryder had caught something in the Jamaican twist that made him look closer at the guy half hidden by a dozen roses. The brown eyes and long nose seemed familiar, too, but it was the crooked front tooth that brought his memory into sharp focus. “Larry?”

“Hell, yes. Now, can I give these to your lovely woman?”

Jenny tried to smother her laughter with her hand, but it didn’t work.

Bianca stepped past Ryder. “Yes, you can. Thank you. It’s Larry, right?”

“Yes, ma’am. Larry Morant.”

“You obviously know Ryder. Why don’t you come in?”

She took the vase and walked back into Ryder’s office.

Feeling as though he’d just stepped through a wormhole into another world, Ryder followed her, grumbling, “You don’t mind
him
cursing?”

“He was smiling when he cursed. You weren’t.”

Female logic. The perfect example of an oxymoron.

Larry walked in, pushing the door shut behind him. “I like this one, Ryder. Much better than those bobble heads you dated in school.”

Ryder was still getting over the shock of seeing Larry here. At Van Dyke Enterprises. Didn’t Larry hate Hubrecht?

When Bianca offered Larry a seat, he refused. “I can’t stay. I was downstairs when the flowers showed up and thought it’d be fun to yank Ryder’s chain.”

Just like Larry used to do when he and Ryder were best friends, before Hubrecht shipped Larry and his family to the other side of the country. Ryder couldn’t act like this was normal. “What are you doing
here
of all places?”

“I work here.”  Larry stopped smiling. He shoved his hands in his pants pockets and looked away then back at Ryder. “I would have come to see you, you know, at the prison, if I’d been in the country, but I was in England for the past year. Just got back yesterday in fact. I’m so sorry about what happened to you.”

“Thanks, but I still don’t understand how you could work for a man who ran you and your family out of town.”

“It wasn’t like that, Ryder.”  Larry lifted his skinny shoulders in a stiff shrug. “Your dad knew I was involved with a drug dealer.”

“You were?”

“Yep. I didn’t want you to find out, because I knew you wouldn’t approve. The money was better than anything I could make at a job back then. Your dad showed up at my house one night—”

“Over off Bankhead Highway?”

“Yep. That dump in the ghetto. Talk about shocked to see Mr. Van Dyke there.”  Larry paused as if in thought, then said, “I was pissed at him for a long time after we moved to Oregon. I mean, talk about being out of place. But my dad had a better job than he’d ever had and my mom was able to stay home, which helped because of her arthritis. And I got a degree.”

Ryder leaned back against the front of his desk, trying to shove this new information in around all the reasons he’d been angry with Hubrecht since high school. “Did you get a scholarship?”

“Sure did.”

“Good for you.”

“But I have Mr. Van Dyke to thank for my engineering degree. He picked up the difference in cost and that allowed me to finish faster.”

“He gave you the money for school?”

“Yes, but with a stipulation.”

That sounded more like the man Ryder knew. “Always strings attached with Hubrecht.”

“No, man, not like you think. VDE actually covered the difference and, in trade, I agreed to work at VDE for my first three years. So being sent away was the best thing that ever happened to me.”  Larry looked embarrassed. “Except for losing touch with you. Your father was afraid I’d be a bad influence on you and get you into drugs. I had to agree not to contact you or we’d lose everything he’d helped us get. By the time he believed I was a changed person, you were gone off to the military.”

What could Ryder say to that? He’d suspected something illegal when Larry showed up with a fat roll of cash one week. The following week Larry had disappeared.

Ryder had taken Larry camping a few times and had intended to plan a trip that week so they could talk, but now he doubted his words would’ve had as much effect on Larry’s future as Hubrecht’s actions.

Maybe sensing Ryder’s debate on what to say next, Larry went in another direction. “Remember that cabin we broke into up near Rabun Gap?”

Ryder cringed at having that brought up in front of Bianca and quickly amended, “It was empty and we were caught in a raging storm.”  He turned to Bianca. “We left it clean, and with money to replace the broken window.”

Larry turned to Bianca. “He was no hoodlum back then. Ryder here tried to keep me straight.” When Bianca gave him a smile a woman saved for stupid stunts boys pulled, he winked at her and turned back to Ryder. “Anyhow, I bought that cabin last year so we can go there without breaking the law.”

“You’re kidding me.”

“No. I’d just gotten the place set up so I could telecommute from there when Mr. Van Dyke needed me in England. We’re opening a partnership over there. Give me a week to catch up here and we’ll go camping in style.”  Larry cut a knowing look at Bianca. “Or you two can use it when you want.”

“Damn, man. That’s great. Thanks for the offer.”  Ryder wished he had the kind of life where he could actually accept Larry’s invitation, but Ryder’s future was one big black hole right now. “Success looks good on you.”

“Thanks.”  Larry gave Ryder a once over with those same friendly eyes Ryder remembered from school days. “Glad to see you back.”

Ryder wasn’t sure if Larry meant back in the States or back at VDE. A long time ago Ryder had told Larry there wasn’t enough money in the world to get him to work for Hubrecht. “For now.”

The cell phone clipped on Larry’s hip buzzed. He checked it then pressed a button and looked up. “Gotta run, mon.”  Grinning, he stuck his hand out. “Let’s grab some beers next week. I should be caught up by then.”

Ryder gripped his hand. “Love to.”  If he was a free man.

Larry held his gaze for a minute then grabbed him in a bear hug. “Missed the hell out of you.”

Emotion clogged Ryder’s throat.

Larry backed up, waved at Bianca and left, shutting the door quietly behind him.

Bianca asked, “Is that the boy you told me your father made disappear years ago?”

“Yes.”

“Not what you thought, huh?”

“Nope.”  Ryder didn’t want to think how else he might have misjudged Hubrecht back then, and didn’t want to talk about it. He turned to the roses. “Who sent them?”

“Aunt Nan congratulating me on our wedding. She didn’t have an address other than here.” The music was on as usual, but Bianca clearly wasn’t taking any chances. She mouthed the letters
F-B-I
.

Ryder went over and told Jenny to hold his calls. Not that he had anyone wanting to talk to him other than the press—and they couldn’t get past her even if they somehow, miraculously, got this far into the building—but it gave him the cover of locking his door when he closed it. He walked back over and dug through the roses even though that would be too obvious.

He cupped the entire bunch in his hands and lifted them out of the beautifully painted vase. The green foam brick the stems were stuck into came into view, and Bianca whispered, “Jackpot.”

Ryder held the flowers as Bianca grabbed scissors from his desk and started snipping the green florist tape wrapped around the foam.

Bianca pulled off all the tape from around the brick then gripped on each side of the thin cut line and pulled.

A USB flash drive sealed in a watertight plastic casing fell out.

Ryder shoved the foam brick and the flowers back into the vase.

Using the scissors, she freed the memory stick. “It appears we have a gift.”  Moving around the desk, she inserted the key into the USB port and a box appeared saying she was using an unsecured USB device that is not allowed. “Crap.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Your father has cyber security that prevents the use of memory sticks that aren’t white listed. Some companies used to block their USB ports, but that ended up being more headache than it was worth then software came along that prevented use of unauthorized USB devices.”  She ejected the memory stick. “That means VDE’s authorized USB devices are encrypted to fit their company policies.

“Hubrecht said nothing about that,” Ryder mused. “He wants us to find his leak, but that doesn’t mean he trusts me or you when it comes to downloading his company information. How are we going to get information out of here without leaving a trail?”

“I don’t need a flash drive to get information out of here without him knowing it,” she boasted more to herself than anything.

He touched her chin and turned her head to him. “Is that so?”

“Yes, but I didn’t mean to sound arrogant.”

“It ain’t braggin’ if you can do it. I think your badass side is sexy.”

Bianca rolled her eyes. “You think everything is sexy.”

“When it comes to you, yes.”

Her cheeks pinked adorably. Clearly ignoring him, she lifted the empty case she’d pulled the flash drive from and peered into it. She stuck her little finger inside and twisted, pulling out a small piece of paper that read, “Any and all info on shipments to Ukraine, Germany and Dubai.”

“Looks like Aunt Nan covered the possibility that you couldn’t get into the flash drive right away.”  He took the paper and blacked out the text, then flushed it in the bathroom connected to his office. He made a mental note to take the flowers with him when they left so no one would find that hollow foam.