Chapter Twenty-Seven Ryder
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Ryder
While in our new command center, which was the office, I reread ángel’s response that had just come in.
Seraphina was off exploring the villa, so I’d have to find her and fill her in.
I’d demanded she sleep in the only bedroom with bulletproof windows. I did my best not to go as far as offering my body next to hers as an additional shield.
“Five hours until he wants to meet,” I let Alex and Reed know. “He’ll text the location thirty minutes beforehand, but he didn’t say she had to come alone.” Not that I was sure any of us would be going at all.
Alex checked his watch. “So he wants this to be a zero dark thirty meeting?”
Yeah, timing-wise, that placed us just a half hour after midnight. Not that it’d be ideal to send Seraphina to a meeting with a former cartel member at any time of day. The fact she’d gone solo to that club the other night would forever haunt me.
“Is this a meeting or mission?” Reed raised a valid point. We had no clue what we were actually getting ourselves into if we did go, because what if tonight was a trap?
“Yeah, that question doesn’t do wonders for my mood.” Or my heart rate.
“Thirty minutes won’t give us enough time to scout out the place to ensure it’s safe,” Alex said, voicing what the three of us were all well aware of, and that fact made my skin itch, right along with my trigger finger.
“No movement from Ezra. He’s still in Miami. He could make it in time if he were to board a plane now. We’ll have a heads-up if he goes to the airport, though,” I shared. “No location for Nina yet. Something doesn’t add up. We should’ve found her by now.”
“We’ve been a bit preoccupied here. She was less of a priority,” Reed reminded me. “I’ll switch gears and work on tracking her down if you want?”
“You’re the boss right now,” I said to Alex. “You decide what to do.”
He settled his hands on his hips, staring at the tiled floor. “Where are we at with that other friend of yours you reached out to before we flew here?”
“If Hudson can help, he will.” I’d had Reed encrypt Seraphina’s files and send them over to him earlier today, and he promised he’d assist. Between him and Carter, I felt good about our odds of getting to the bottom of this situation much faster than we could solo.
“So what’s your take on this, and what we should do?” Reed asked Alex since I’d deferred to him.
“I don’t know.” Alex bowed his head. It was never easy being the one in charge with lives on the line.
“Part of me thinks we should focus on figuring out if Nina’s brother was in Costa Rica for a reason other than hiding out.
And if he was, maybe that reason will help us understand why we’re here now. ”
“So, focus on Nina’s brother,” Reed said with a nod, and I did my best to bite my tongue and get settled into the position of Delta Two and accept orders instead of give them.
“You take Nina’s brother, and I’ll keep looking into ángel. I still have concerns he may be playing both sides and he’ll ultimately swing whichever way he decides works in his favor,” Alex concluded, and I was on the same page.
“I’ll take point on Nina, then,” I suggested. “Even if I have to reach out to Carter for another favor, which I hate doing, but—”
“Doesn’t he have one of the world’s best cyber experts on his team? Gwen someone-or-other?”
How’d Reed know about her? I didn’t remember ever mentioning Gwen to him.
At my confused look, Reed smiled and shrugged. “What? I’m an admirer of her work.”
“Yeah, well, have you heard about her dad?” I laughed. “Wyatt Pierson?”
“You’re serious? Wyatt’s Gwen’s father?” Reed swiped a hand through his hair. “The man’s a legend.”
“Leave it to one of the world’s best snipers to have one of the world’s best hackers as a kid,” I remarked. “But yeah, we may need Gwen to help us with this. She’s already juggling two cases for him, but I have a feeling she can handle three.”
“Is Carter still trying to scratch together more bodies to send us for help?” Alex asked.
“He’s working on it, yeah. But no one will get here in time tonight. So we need to ensure this meeting is just a fucking meeting and not an op.”
“That sounded awfully order-like.” Alex smirked. “You sure you don’t want the job back?”
I tossed Seraphina’s burner on the table alongside the leather couch. “No, I’m good.” I turned toward the door, curious what Seraphina was currently doing. “She doesn’t join this meeting tonight unless we can assure it’s not a trap.”
“Also, order-like.” Alex winked, and I rolled my eyes.
“Fuck off.” I lifted my chin his way. “And that is an order.” I motioned to the door. “I’m going to check on her and make some calls.” I extracted myself from the office, eager to go see what she was up to.
I found her in the kitchen before a cutting board, chopping a pepper. She had hockey on the TV, of all fucking things, but it was muted. Music played from the corner speakers, and she was swaying her hips to it while slicing and dicing.
I remained stuck in the entranceway, mesmerized by the scene, almost forgetting that the sport I despised with a passion was on the screen.
The music was in Spanish, and the way this woman moved her body ... God help me and the mission. Help save me from drawing her around into my arms. For her, I’d even embarrass myself and attempt to dance.
She set down the knife, no longer moving to the beat, then looked over her shoulder at me.
“Don’t stop on my behalf.” I folded my arms and leaned against the wall, crossing my ankle over my other boot.
“I, um ...” She locked eyes with me. “Dancing makes as much sense to me as math. It’s comforting.
The beats turn into numbers in my head.” She lightly chuckled, then faced the counter again and moved on from a pepper to a yellow onion.
“I thought I’d cook us dinner. It’s getting late, and none of us have eaten.
I’m not going to be of much use on the research end. ”
“The guys have the research covered, don’t worry.” And I should be making calls. “Dinner isn’t necessary, but it’s appreciated.”
“Nothing too fancy. Just arroz y frijoles . Rice and beans. Side of roasted peppers and some veggies.”
“Sounds perfect. Thank you.” My gaze casually drifted over to the TV on the other counter. It was wild how memories could create physical pain even so many years later, but now my chest hurt and my stomach turned.
Hockey. Fuck that sport.
“The season just started,” she said, somehow realizing my eyes weren’t on her but the game, despite the fact she wasn’t looking at me. “My brother liked to watch it, so it reminds me of him, and I tune in on occasion.”
I closed my eyes, needing to let go of the hurt inside me because her pain was much worse than mine.
“I know nothing about it. Sticks and pucks. And the players seem to do some erotic-looking stretches on the ice as a warm-up. That’s about it.”
Her last words made my lips slip into something shocking: a smile. I never smiled when it came to anything hockey related.
“Hip and groin stretch, I think,” she said while swiping away a tear. I wasn’t sure if it was an onion-related tear or from remembering her brother.
“Onions always make my mom cry.”
“Same.” Still holding the knife, she pivoted around to look at me. “Are you okay?”
“You’re the one with tears in your eyes, not me.” I set my other boot back to the floor and straightened my posture.
“Yeah, well, you look a little grouchy.”
Way to call me out on the truth. “I’m fine,” I lied, because hockey made her remember her brother, and her brother was dead when he should’ve been alive and thriving, so I had no plans to tell her I was grouchy because of a sport on TV.
So yeah, I’d be good. Fine. For her, I’d be anything and everything she needed me to be. I’d even help her cut onions and find out if they made me cry, too.
“Need a hand?” I deflected, even though I was supposed to be making calls.
“As much as I’d love to have an assist, I should probably brave these onions alone because you have more pressing things to do.”
Right, I should also tell you about that text. I shook off my thoughts, tucked away my hate for hockey, and pressed forward. I let her know everything discussed in the office with Alex and Reed.
Knife down again, she turned to the side, resting her hip against the counter.
She pointed her beautiful brown eyes on me, quietly waiting for me to get to what she assumed I’d soon say: the ultimatum that hell would have to freeze over before I let her meet with ángel, unless I was convinced it was safe for her.
“I need you to trust me,” she said, breaking the silence. “ángel will have our backs. He’s not like his family, okay? He won’t set us up.”
“But will he be okay with them dying? His uncle? Brother? Cousin?” From what I’d learned, his parents were long since gone, and his dad’s brother had taken over the business along with ángel’s older brother.
“Yes. Maybe.” She wrung her hands together. “Probably.”
Mm-hmm. Very confident. “Why does he want to meet so late, and why’s he waiting until the last minute to give us a heads-up as to where we’re going to chat?”
She opened her mouth as if ready to challenge me, but she must’ve changed her mind, because she resumed cutting the onion.
“Well, I need to go make some calls. We’ll talk about this later.”
I started to leave, but she called out, “Ryder?”
“Yeah?”
“Why do you hate hockey?” she whispered.
Not what I’d been expecting. I’d rather she press me about using herself as bait. An argument would be preferable to that topic.
“Who said I hated hockey?” I glanced back at her from over my shoulder.
“You looked like you couldn’t decide whether you wanted to cry or throw the TV out the window.”
To the point. I admired it. Even if I wouldn’t be telling her the truth.
I tore a hand through my hair, not exactly selling myself on being fine, but at least she couldn’t see my eyes. “I don’t cry,” was all I said; then I took the fuck off.