Chapter Fifteen Ryder
Chapter Fifteen
Ryder
“You were in there for a long time.” Alex wasted no time in giving me shit when I joined him in the kitchen after Seraphina had finished crying.
She’d decided she needed a shower to pull herself together before facing the three of us and our questions, and I had hesitantly let go of her when all I wanted to do was never stop holding her.
“Breakfast is cold.” Reed offered me a plate of bacon and eggs, and I declined, shaking my head while slipping my solid-black ball cap on backward.
“I’m not hungry.” I ignored Alex’s side-eye and went over to the Nespresso machine to make myself coffee instead.
“You good?” Alex and his constant concern for me, dammit.
I secretly appreciated it but would never admit it. “Nope.”
“Want to talk about it?” Of course he’d press.
“Also no.” Because I lost control. I didn’t trust myself. I thought last night was a one-off. I’d been wound up from the fight, so I’d been out of my head.
But being alone with her in my bedroom proved this thing between us wasn’t an isolated incident. It was going to be something I had to navigate and work around if I wanted to keep her safe.
I ignored the fact my cup was now full and planted my hands on the counter, hanging my head.
“Lainey’s resorted to blowing up our phones since you’ve clearly been snubbing her,” Alex said when I remained quiet, stewing in my confusing thoughts about this woman I barely knew yet felt like I’d known forever.
“You answer her?”
“No, so Director Hernandez called.” Reed laid the bad news on me. “He knows we’re in Mexico. Tracked our flight. We didn’t tell him we found her yet.”
“No escaping Big Brother, you know that,” Alex commented, his tone joking even if his remark was true.
“So I take it you’ve decided our mission is to help her, not to turn her over to DHS?” Reed asked.
“I’m not turning her over. But that doesn’t mean you have to come along for the ride.
” I stared down at my hands on the white marble, remembering where they were minutes ago.
On her. Holding her. Craving to touch more of her, and had I not switched back to mission talk, that may have happened.
My tongue would’ve wound up in her mouth, too.
“Up to you both if you want to stay or not.”
“We’ll follow your lead on this. We’ve got your back.” At Alex’s words, I looked up to see Reed nodding in agreement.
I pushed away from the counter and snatched my coffee. “Yeah, well, if you change your minds, you can say so.”
“Do you think Martín Gabriel will also be a problem for us?” Reed asked as I finally drank my coffee. “Do we need to add him to our list of people to keep an eye on?”
“No, I spoke with Carter before my shower. He gave Martín the heads-up that we were in town and not a threat.”
Carter had managed to track Seraphina to a family friend in Mexico, discovering he was the one who’d hooked her up with an alias and transport out of the United States. It was by sheer luck (or an act of God) that Martín happened to be a friend of Carter’s, too.
While Martín wouldn’t tell Carter where she was in Mexico, it didn’t take him long to track her down for us, finding her a day or two faster than we would’ve been able to. He had a lot more money, contacts, and resources than I did.
“Martín’s probably part of Seraphina’s plan, which means she’s not as reckless with her safety as I first thought. But I still think she wants to use herself as bait to draw Ezra to Mexico, and I refuse to let her do that.”
“She doesn’t seem like a woman who will take no for an answer,” Alex said, pointing out what was already fairly obvious, given everything she’d accomplished since her family was murdered.
“Well, she won’t have a choice in the matter if I think her plan could get her harmed or killed.” And she’d have to deal with it. I wouldn’t bend when it came to my stance on that.
Alex’s smirk had me rolling my eyes.
He was going to accuse me of being obsessed again—and he was right. But it was more than that. It was something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Something I didn’t yet understand.
“You have a chance to look into the club owner yet? Confirm if she was right about him?” I asked Reed since I’d tasked him with researching ángel Morales last night after I’d become a bit unhinged, nearly sleeping in a chair in front of her bedroom door to ensure she didn’t escape.
“From what I can tell, he left the family business, but that doesn’t mean they still don’t have their claws in him, you know?” Reed shared. “I’m guessing it was Martín who gave her the lead, since he’s made quite the name for himself down here for going after the cartels.”
“And he wouldn’t risk her life by sending her into that club unless he was certain she’d be safe with ángel.” That was my hope, at least. But my leash of trust was short when it came to almost everyone.
“I guess we hear her out and see what she has to say, then we go from there on what to do next,” Alex proposed, dropping his empty plate into the sink. “Your buddy reach out again? The one you have watching Ezra?”
“No movement yet. Ezra’s still in Miami.
Sent my contact a text to locate his wife, though.
” I explained why I had concerns about Nina Sokolov, then let them know, “She’s not in Miami.
So he’s looking into it. I take it there still haven’t been any hits placed on Seraphina, or you’d have told me that.
” I set aside my mug, eyeing Reed as I waited for confirmation.
“Not yet,” he answered. “If Ezra does work for someone else like we suspect, it’s possible he doesn’t want them to know there’s a woman out there with knowledge of their operation. He’d be blamed for allowing that to happen.”
“She’s probably counting on that, and she’s going to dangle herself as the carrot, hoping he’ll come himself, especially if Ezra learns she’s hanging out with one of their main competitors.
” The idea made me physically sick, but I shouldn’t have been surprised she’d purposefully go to the cartel to place a bull’s-eye on her head, not after she’d been beyond gutsy to work for a man like Ezra in the first place.
“Hell, ángel could even stab her in the back and offer her up to Ezra for the right price if he finds out she worked for him, and she’d be okay with that, as long as she draws Ezra down here. ”
“Right. Lovely fucking idea,” Alex said both bitterly and sarcastically. “So, is the plan now for us to grab Ezra since we’re here? Question him ourselves?”
I picked up my coffee and parked myself at the kitchen table in front of my laptop. “Let’s first see what Seraphina has to say before we talk next steps.”
After a few minutes of staring at my screen, I looked up to see her in the doorway.
Her hair was wet and wavy, framing her face. She had on a white tee and short gray shorts that showed off her long legs.
It’d taken all my willpower not to get hard as steel in that bedroom with her while wearing only a towel, and I had a feeling each passing hour around her would become increasingly more difficult to keep my thoughts in check.
“Your food is cold.” Reed spoke first, and I turned to see him already on the move, preparing to heat up her breakfast.
“No longer hungry. Thank you.” She gave him a small smile. “I’ll take a new cup of coffee, though.”
“On it.” Alex was going to trip over Reed trying to please this woman.
I told myself not to be jealous. They were only being polite, and they also had eyes. They could see she was the most beautiful woman on God’s green earth.
While she wasn’t mine and probably never could be, I also knew they’d never make a move on her, because they weren’t Jeff.
“Thank you.” Still barefoot, she slowly walked over. Instead of joining me at the table, she went into the living room open to the kitchen area and took a seat on the couch.
I assumed she was ready to talk, so I closed my laptop to join her. I circled the couch and sat across from her in one of the two leather armchairs.
She had one leg tucked under her with a pillow on her lap, and she was staring at it instead of me.
“You okay?” I couldn’t help but ask.
“I’m fine.” Giving me back the same answer I’d given her about my bruises.
And was I sore? A little. Did I care? Absolutely not. I’d have gone in that ring over and over again for her.
“Sera.” Alex offered her the coffee, and she smiled and nodded her thanks.
“Sera, huh?” I side-eyed Alex, and he lifted his palms.
“What?” He frowned. “She told me to call her that.” He dropped down into the other armchair, and Reed hung back at the breakfast bar with his laptop open.
Seraphina shot me a coy look, raising one shoulder while bringing the cup to her full lips.
I held on to the chair’s arms as her eyes flew over my body. From my bare feet to my jeans, up to the black T-shirt, and lastly, to my face. Reading my thoughts, or more than likely the tight line of my lips, she said, “Seraphina to you.”
Sarah-feen-ah. That was how it sounded when her name rolled from her lips, and I could listen to her repeat it again and again, especially when she threw in a sexy accent that time.
I buried my fingertips in the leather, wishing I was holding on to her instead. The fact she’d told me she hadn’t been touched in over a year was a good reminder of why I needed to behave. She’d been through a lot and made sacrifices to get to where she was now.
I’d yet to make up my mind if “behave” meant go slow and take my time with her ... or abstain from touching her at all. I knew what I needed to do, but it wasn’t what I wanted to do.
Alex fake-coughed. Real subtle, man.
“I suppose you’d like me to explain?” She leaned forward and set her mug on the glass table in front of her before resting both hands on the pillow, wringing her fingers together.
“Maybe start from the beginning,” Reed suggested. “We read your file, but I’d like to hear the full story from you.”
She looked back and forth between me and Alex before once again staring at her hands.
“I’ll do my best.” Her strained voice killed me, and after she’d already cried in my arms, was it fair to make her relive the nightmare of what happened with us? “It’s okay.” She gave me a little nod, somehow reading my mind again.
“Take your time,” I told her, loosening my grip on the chair’s arms.
“Rather pull the Band-Aid off fast.”
I understood that feeling all too well.
Coffee mug back in hand as if it anchored her to the moment instead of to the past, she shared, “My brother had just graduated from the Air Force Academy, and to celebrate, my parents wanted to take us all on vacation. As much as I wanted to join them, I was worried about all of us leaving when we had so much work at the office. My family owned an accounting firm. Just the three of us worked there. I put up a fight, telling them one of us should stay and keep up with business so we didn’t fall too far behind.
I promised I’d join them on the weekend, though. ”
Survivor’s guilt because you stayed back. There it was. I fucking hated that for her.
“We weren’t exactly rich. But one of my father’s clients was, and he had to postpone his vacation.
He told my dad to stay at the place he’d rented in Cabo since it was paid for and he couldn’t get a refund.
My father couldn’t turn down that generous offer.
” She closed her eyes. “I never had a chance to meet up with them, because they were killed. An explosion. The whole house and ...”
I’d already read those details in her file, but hearing them from her lips did a motherfucking number on me. I wanted to go to her, but we weren’t alone, and I knew her well enough to know she wouldn’t want me holding her in front of them. She’d been resistant to cry in my arms even alone.
“First, the authorities tried to write it off as a gas leak,” she continued. “But then they discovered evidence of C-4. They blamed the cartel, saying they probably hit the wrong house, but there was nothing they could do for me.”
I was surprised what happened hadn’t been all over the national news. According to the file Lainey had given me, her family’s death had been shared only on the local news in San Diego. That felt like a red flag in itself.
“I identified what was left of ...” She visibly trembled—and fuck it, I stood and went over to her.
I ignored Alex’s and Reed’s eyes on me as I sat next to her. I didn’t want to crowd her personal space. More like suffocate it. But I held back. Behaved. Just sat alongside her like an obedient Doberman ready to provide protection and comfort if she needed it.
I glued my hands to my jeans so I wouldn’t touch her. “Take your time.” Now I wished we were alone, also as far away from here as possible. The other side of the world from Ezra and the cartel would be preferable.
“I, um ...” Eyes open now, she slipped a finger along the words tattooed on the inside of her forearm as if drawing the strength I wished I could give her. “It was the right house. Wrong people, though.”
“They were after your father’s client,” Reed spoke up. “He was supposed to be in the house that week.”
She slowly looked up, her hand falling to her lap, and she turned her head in his direction, catching my eyes in the process since I was now right there.
“Yes, and a day later, he was found murdered in Costa Rica. He must’ve gone into hiding, assuming he’d been the original target, but he was clearly found anyway. ”
“I’m guessing this client wasn’t just an attorney like the file said?” Alex asked, drawing her attention back around, and she paused on me for a brief moment, brows drawing tight, before peering at him.
“Not just an attorney, no,” she whispered. “He was Ezra’s brother-in-law.”