Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Four days later, the plan to piss off Harold Lodge was working well. Extremely well. Ryleigh had kept her promise to not engage with her father, and she let Tiny do all the communicating with him.
The man wasn’t happy.
Tiny winced every time Ryleigh passed her laptop over to him, but he didn’t hesitate to take it. Her father was beyond angry. His messages were mostly swear words and threats. Tiny would’ve been amused if the situation wasn’t so volatile.
The last thing he’d heard from the man was that Ryleigh would be sorry she’d messed with him. That they’d all be sorry.
It had been a full day since he’d last messaged, and even Ryleigh stealing everything but six dollars and sixty-six cents from one of his accounts hadn’t made him message her again.
But he clearly wasn’t sitting on his thumbs. Brick had just called an emergency meeting up at the lodge, and he wanted everyone to attend. By everyone, he meant all the women as well, and every employee who was currently on site.
Something had happened. Something bad.
As he walked toward the lodge with Ryleigh, Tiny’s stomach churned. He looked at the woman at his side, and saw she was frowning as well. The stress of the last few days hadn’t been good to her. She hadn’t eaten much and wasn’t sleeping well. He should know. He’d held her in his arms for the last four nights.
She’d agreed to sleep in his bed, and he wasn’t ever going to let her go now, not if he could help it. Tiny had thought being in his bed with her might trigger some nightmares, but amazingly, it hadn’t. He’d spent more time concerned about her than thinking about what had happened the last time he’d fallen asleep next to a woman.
Ryleigh tossed and turned, and she was the one suffering nightmares…and it sucked that Tiny couldn’t do a damn thing about it. Her fucking father had a lot to answer for, and he prayed that everything would be over and done soon. That Brick’s plan would actually work and they’d be able to flush the man out of whatever hole he’d been hiding in, so everything could go back to normal.
They entered the lodge and went straight to the conference room. Most everyone was already there. The women were all sitting at the table, and the guys were either pacing or leaning against walls. Everyone looked tense and unsure.
Brick didn’t waste time telling them why they were there. “When Alaska logged in this morning, all the reservations for the next month had been canceled. Emails had been sent informing the guests, telling them they wouldn’t get refunds, as per our cancelation policy.”
“What? That’s bullshit!”
“Oh my God.”
“I’m sure there were a ton of complaints sent back in return.”
“What are we going to do?”
Brick held up his hands to silence everyone. The room was so quiet, you could’ve heard a pin drop.
Tiny felt Ryleigh’s hand tighten around his own. She hadn’t sat at the table, but clung to her laptop with one hand and held onto him almost desperately with the other.
“She’s already emailed everyone back, telling them there’s been a computer error. That of course they’ll get a refund, plus another 35 percent added on top of that. More importantly, we’re going to have to deal with the fallout from this. Bad reviews are going to come in, and some people are going to have lost confidence in us, just as I feared would happen. We can rebound, we’re just going to have to work harder.”
“Are we rebooking them?” Luna asked.
“Yes,” Brick said. “We’ve already rebooked those who still wanted their reservations. But after our current remaining guests leave—and the last is scheduled to be gone in two days—the following week is entirely unbooked. So…I think it’s a perfect time to execute a plan to end this harassment once and for all. Without guests here, it’ll be safer for everyone. Which means that anyone who doesn’t live here will need to stay away too. Savannah, Carly, Jess, Luna, Robert, Joshua, Jason…that means all of you.”
When the employees started arguing, saying they could help with whatever plan was in motion, Brick stopped them. “I appreciate you wanting to help, but rest assured, if I could send everyone else away too, I would. But the asshole threatening our livelihood knows who our women are, how important they are to each of us, and I have a feeling he’d just go after them wherever they happen to be. So they’re actually safer here than if we sent them to Los Alamos or somewhere else. I don’t think he’ll come after any of you, but you need to stay on your toes. Stay safe and smart until this is done.”
He waited until everyone agreed.
Tiny had no problem with anything Brick decided. The man didn’t need to consult with him or any of the other guys about this. He always had The Refuge’s best interests at heart, this situation was no different.
“Also, if we can successfully execute Operation End This Shit, and if Harold Lodge is locked away where he belongs…I thought we could take the opportunity while there are no guests, and it’s only family here at The Refuge, to have a wedding next weekend.”
He turned to Alaska—and went down on one knee in front of the chair where she was sitting.
“I know I’ve already asked you to marry me, and you agreed to something small, but I was thinking maybe we could have our wedding here…and make it the celebration you’ve always wanted. Since we have the room, I thought we could invite some of our friends. My mom, maybe Reese’s brother and wife, a few others. Let’s make this a party…that is, if you still want one.”
“Yes! I want!” Alaska almost screamed. “And yes! Invite everyone ! All our friends. I want everyone to have someone here they love, not just us! ”
It was weird to be both happy and pissed off at the same time. Ryleigh obviously felt the same, because after she hugged and congratulated both Brick and Alaska, she asked Tiny if they could go back to the cabin.
Once inside, she sat at the table and sighed. “This has to stop,” she whispered.
“I agree. What do you want me to do?”
“Do?” she asked.
“Yeah. What should I tell your father to get him to agree to meet with you?”
Ryleigh sat up straighter. “It would be easier if I just did it.”
“Not happening, hon. I don’t want you to see one word of his venom aimed at you.”
“I’m used to it,” she said in a small voice.
“Don’t care. And it’s so damn wrong that you’re used to it. No man should speak to anyone the way he has to you. Much less his own daughter.”
“Okay. Let me just get this set up,” Ryleigh said, pulling the laptop toward her and opening it.
But Tiny wasn’t quite done with their conversation. He sat beside her, turned her chair around, and put his hand on her nape.
She stared up at him, looking exhausted.
“I appreciate you trusting me to talk to him and pass along what he says.”
“It’s okay.”
“I don’t know how you did it.”
“Did what?” she asked.
“Survived living with that asshole for so long.”
Ryleigh closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them as she said, “There was a lot of justifying his actions. And I didn’t have any friends, Tiny. Not one. No one to talk to. No one to tell me to get the hell out. No one to insist what he was doing was whacked. Most of the time he left me alone. I could surf the web, pretend my life was normal.”
“Until he ordered you to steal someone’s money.”
“Yeah,” Ryleigh agreed sadly. “I know I stayed too long. That someone looking in at my situation would be disgusted. Say that I was a grown woman, and that I must have enjoyed what I was doing at least a little, since I stayed as long as I did. But that wasn’t the case. Not at all.”
“I know. And everyone here knows it too. Has someone said something to you?” Tiny asked, getting irritated at just the thought of anyone belittling Ryleigh in that way. Especially when they knew nothing about her situation.
“No!” she exclaimed forcefully. “I just…sometimes I think this is all a dream. That I’m going to wake up and I’ll be back in some dingy apartment, hiding from my father.”
“You aren’t. You’re here, and you’re so loved by everyone. Just yesterday, Lara came up to me and wanted to know what she could to do help you. She feels bad because you’re taking the brunt of the shit from your father.”
“It’s okay,” Ryleigh said.
“It’s not okay. And we’re going to stop him, but it’s clear we’ll have to force his hand. Tell me the truth, though—do you really think he’s crazy enough to want to meet you in person? I mean, we probably need to come up with a secondary plan.”
But Ryleigh was already shaking her head. “He’ll do it. He’s conceited enough to think he can outsmart me. All of us. I’m sure he’s aware that you guys are going to be around when we meet, but he thinks he’s smarter than everyone. But…what if we make him think he’s already won? That he’s broken us? Me ?”
“What do you mean?” Tiny asked.
“What if we tell him that I’ll give him his money back if he agrees to meet with me? Like…maybe I want to beg him in person to leave me and all of my friends alone?”
“And?” Tiny asked, thinking that she was on to something.
“We’ll tell him that he can pick the meeting place. He’ll love that. Again, because he’ll think he can outsmart us. He’ll assume we’ll call the cops and FBI and whoever else, but he’ll still think he’s able to win—and my dad’s all about winning. I just worry about any innocent people who might get caught up in all this.”
“You’re an innocent person too, you know,” Tiny said.
In response, Ryleigh shrugged.
“You are,” he insisted.
“I’m really not. I stole a lot of that money I ended up giving away. I was old enough to know better, and I did it anyway. Then I took it from my dad knowing he’d be pissed. That he’d want it back. And look what that led to. Tiny?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m scared.”
“Of your father?”
“Yes, but also scared of what he might do to you. To The Refuge. To our friends.”
“We aren’t going to let anything happen,” he said firmly. “If seven former special forces operatives can’t protect one of their family members, there’s something really wrong.”
That earned Tiny a small chuckle. He was so proud of this woman. She’d had a hell of a life so far, and he was determined to make it better from here on out. He squeezed her nape, then leaned forward, resting his forehead on hers.
“Tiny?”
He smiled a bit as he lifted his head so he could look into her eyes. “Yeah?”
“I want you.”
He blinked in surprise. But she didn’t give him a chance to speak before she went on.
“I’m probably not going to be very good at first, but I’m a fast learner. The other day, when I told you that I was helping Tonka at the barn…I wasn’t. I went to town. To the women’s clinic. I’m sorry I lied to you but I was embarrassed to tell you what I was really doing, which is stupid because I’m an adult, but still.”
She was babbling, and Tiny thought it was adorable.
“They gave me one of those birth control things they put under your skin. An implant. I’m nervous about having sex, but I want to try. With you. You won’t hurt me, and I think you’ll make it okay. Even my first time. As I said, I’ll probably suck at it, but if you teach me what to do, I’ll get better.”
“Breathe, Ryleigh,” Tiny ordered, even as every inch of his skin tingled with electricity. He was ready right this second to take her by the hand and drag her to his bed. But she was obviously nervous, and he hated that. “You’re damn right I won’t hurt you, and I have no doubt you’ll be just as amazing in bed as you are with everything else you do. We can wait until all this crap with your dad is over and?—”
“No!” she said with a frantic shake of her head. “I don’t want to wait. We have no idea what he’s got up his sleeve, and there’s a chance he’ll do something to mess this up too. He’s already taken too much from me. I don’t want him to take away the opportunity to show you how much you mean to me as well.”
“We don’t have to make love for me to know how much you care,” he said gently.
“You…you don’t want to?” Ryleigh asked uncertainly.
The fingers that were still wrapped around the back of her neck tightened. “I want to,” he told her, his voice raw with desire. “There’s nothing I want more. But you’ve waited a long time, I don’t want you to rush into something that you might regret later.”
“I won’t ever regret letting you be my first,” she said, honestly and firmly.
She humbled him. Tiny wasn’t sure he deserved to be her first. He was sure he didn’t deserve her , full stop. He’d been a dick to her, had mistrusted her, had actually been downright mean. And yet she still forgave him.
“I’d be honored to be the first man you make love to,” he managed to say.
Ryleigh smiled. It was almost blinding. “When? Tonight?”
Tiny wanted to laugh. It was so like Ryleigh to want to schedule when she would lose her virginity. “Maybe,” he told her. “Let’s see how today goes. I want to make sure the mood is right. And if you’re stressed out over whatever your father says, it won’t be. ”
“I thought guys always wanted sex,” Ryleigh said with a frown.
“Some do. But I’m not one of them. I want to make sure it’s perfect for you. You’ll only have one first time, and I want it to be a positive experience for you.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?” he asked, wanting to be sure they were on the same page.
“Yeah. But you should know, my dad has taken so much from me…a normal childhood, my mom, friends, a life…he’s not going to take this as well.”
She was so strong. Tiny admired her so much. “All right. How about a kiss to seal the deal?” he asked. He’d been staring at her lips for the last five minutes, and it was all he could do not to fall on her. Thinking about Ryleigh giving her virginity to him, being the first man, the only man, to see her naked, to get inside her…he was hanging on to his control by a thread.
“Yes. Please,” she said with a smile, then she was leaning toward him. One of her hands landed on his thigh to brace herself as she lifted her head to his.
Their lips met, and this kiss felt different to Tiny for some reason. It felt like a promise of things to come.
His other hand came up to rest on the side of her head as he speared his fingers into her hair. He tilted her head slightly, so he could get deeper inside her mouth, and he showed her exactly what his cock was going to do when they got around to making love.
She moaned low in her throat, and her fingers dug into his thigh, making his cock press against his jeans painfully. All she’d have to do is move her hand a little to the left and she’d feel for herself how badly he wanted her .
Tiny lifted his head, and he loved the dazed look in her eyes. Her cheeks were flushed, her lips plumped from his kiss. She was as aroused as he was, from a simple kiss, and he could hardly believe she was willing to trust him with the gift of her body.
“You good?” he whispered, running his hand over her mussed hair.
“Yeah. You?”
He grinned. “I’m more than good.”
She returned his smile.
They stared at each other for a beat before Tiny took a deep breath. “Let’s get this over with, huh?”
Ryleigh nodded.
Tiny forced himself to drop his hands, but after she turned her chair back toward the table and had pulled the laptop closer, he put one hand on her thigh. He needed to touch her. Needed to stay close. He’d never felt this kind of need before. Not for sex. But to be as close as possible to another human being. Had he ever felt this way toward Sonja? The woman he thought he loved and was going to marry? No, definitely not.
Ryleigh’s brow furrowed as she concentrated on logging into the dark web and pulling up the chat area she and her father had been using to communicate.
“Okay, it’s ready,” she said, pushing the computer toward him. Once more, Tiny was awed by the trust she showed him.
you bitch!
The two words seemed stark on the screen. Tiny had gotten used to the old-school look of the messages. He was relieved he didn’t have to actually use html to communicate. The amount of other code around the messages that came in was jarring at first, but now he barely noticed.
i want my money
And I want you to leave me and my friends alone, Tiny typed as he pretended to be Ryleigh. If I give it back, you have to promise to go away and stop harassing us.
It was a ridiculous request. One that any battle-hardened soldier would never make. But at the moment, that wasn’t who he was. He was pretending to be an exhausted daughter who wanted her dad to leave her alone.
give me my money, all of it, and i’ll leave you alone
Tiny wanted to snort. As if he believed this asshole. But this was the first time in days he’d done anything but scream and curse at them in digital form. Time to put their plan into motion.
Fine. I’ll transfer it and we can be done.
its not that easy, daughter dear. you owe me
I said I’d give the money back.
you owe me years of service. you agree to come with me, work with me like we used to, for say 10 years, then i’ll call us even
Tiny’s jaws were clenched together so hard, it would be a miracle if he didn’t break a tooth. This fucking asshole thought Ryleigh would agree to go with him? To work with him for ten years ? He was delusional. He took a deep breath to calm himself and typed out a response. Time to make this work in their favor. Clearly she wouldn’t have to “beg” to meet with him. Not if Harold Lodge actually wanted his daughter back.
No way.
you want me to leave that pathetic motel you love so much alone you’ll do it
Five
7
Five or nothing, dad.
fine. you agree to stay with me and work for me for 5 years, i’ll leave your precious friends alone
Tiny’s stomach hurt. The thought of Ryleigh going with this asshole made him want to puke. But he was doing exactly what Ryleigh thought he would. Agreeing to meet in person. Now to finish setting up the trap.
I agree. But if you do one thing against The Refuge, our deal is off. And you know I’ll know, because let’s face it…I’m the better hacker.
you’ve always thought you were so much smarter than you are. theres a green chile festival in los alamos tonight. meet me there and if i see one cop or anyone who looks like they are fbi, the deal is off and i’ll take down the refuge for good
Tiny’s heart was beating out of his chest. This was happening much faster than expected. Her dad had to be close by if he wanted to meet tonight. He could’ve been watching Ryleigh and The Refuge for days…or longer.
Deal.
and leave those special forces assholes home too
I don’t know if I can get away without them wanting to know where I’m going.
figure it out. don’t fuck me, daughter dear. you won’t like the consequences if you do
The screen flickered and their conversation disappeared, just as it had every other time. No record of their messages ever remained.
“Well? What’d he say?” Ryleigh asked impatiently.
Tiny turned to her. He had things to do, details that had to be arranged immediately, but first he needed to make sure Ryleigh was aware of how much she meant to him. He took her face in his hands and kissed her. Hard. It wasn’t nearly as long as he wanted it to be, because the clock was ticking.
“Tiny?” she asked nervously when he pulled back.
“He agreed to the meet. Tonight. In town at the green chile festival. We have shit we need to get done. Fast .”
Her eyes widened, and Tiny saw the moment panic struck.
“Tonight? Holy crap, we can’t set this up that fast!”
“Yes, we can. It’s not ideal, but we have no choice. You were right. He wants his money, but he’s more concerned about getting you back under his thumb.”
“What’d he say?”
“That if you agreed to work with him again for five years, he’d back off and leave us alone.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m never, ever going to work with or for him again. No way in hell!” Ryleigh spat.
“Shhhh, I know. And I have an idea he’d make you disappear for good if you did go with him. Not gonna happen. Meeting in town isn’t ideal, as there will be a lot of civilians around, but he probably thinks you’ll be more compliant in a crowd, that you won’t want to cause a scene or get anyone else hurt. I’m also sure he thinks he can slip away easier with a lot of people about…but that also means the guys and I can blend in. Not sure we have time to get the FBI here, but we’ll get with the cops in Los Alamos. Set up some cameras. We’re going to get him, Ryleigh.”
He saw her swallow hard, then nod. Tiny still had his hands on her face, and he said in a gentler tone, “We can still call this off if you want. I can message him back and say that you changed your mind. We can figure something else out.”
Her shoulders straightened, even as her hands shook. “And have him cancel a year’s worth of reservations? No. This needs to end. I need to see him. Need to watch him go down. He is going down, right?” she asked in a softer tone.
“He’s going down,” Tiny assured her.
“Okay, if you’re sure.”
“The one thing I’m absolutely sure about is that we’re going to get this asshole. He won’t be able to steal anyone else’s money or ruin anyone else’s life.”
“He’ll be watching for cops,” Ryleigh warned.
Tiny was once more very impressed with this woman. She had to be stressed to the max, and yet she was still able to think like a soldier.
“I know. But the question is…will he be watching the skies?”
Tiny saw the moment it dawned on her what his plan was.
“No, I don’t think he will be. But…crap, Tiny, we don’t have much time.”
“Right,” he said. “Call Alaska, let her know what’s happening. I’ll get with the others. This is gonna be over tonight, sweetheart.”
“I hope so,” Ryleigh whispered.