Chapter Twenty-One Alejandro
Chapter Twenty-One
Alejandro
“Leverage. Yeah, that’s what I’m saying. I don’t give a damn how many people you have to pull in to—” Ryder stopped talking over the phone, shoulders falling. Rage still simmering, same as me. “Everyone, yes. I don’t care if they’re second or fifth cousins. I mean every-damn-one.”
I sat back in the seat, glancing at Audrey, who was quiet next to me. Hands wrung together. Eyes out the side window. Fragile, but not broken.
“He knows our names. He has photos of us—including my fiancée—he took at my mother’s house at Christmas.
Mentioned Alex is Delta. So, yeah, everyone close to us, too, not just Audrey and Trevor.
” Ryder paused, a low hiss leaving his lips.
He wasn’t hearing what he wanted to. “Well then, find the resources. I don’t give a flying fuck if you have to shake a tree on the White House lawn and make it rain cash.
Make it happen. Everyone gets protection.
” Ryder ended the call, not taking shit from anyone, and dropped his phone onto the center console between the front seats.
“Go that well, huh?” I muttered, doing my best not to reach over to Audrey again. Let her hold my hand instead of squeezing hers together like she was both praying and trying to break something between her palms.
“That was President Bennett’s guy, the one he sent to Wyoming.” Ryder twisted around to look at me. “He thinks asking for protection for all of our families is overkill, and all I’m trying to do is keep everyone from getting killed.”
Audrey spoke up for the first time in thirty minutes. “Used as leverage to get to me.”
Ryder’s gaze dipped to her palms, and he shifted his seat belt aside, stretched out his arm, and placed a hand on top of both of hers. “We won’t let that happen.”
“But if Mitch is capable of having a drone that went unnoticed up over Trevor’s lodge to take photos, and he can find out Alex is Delta, then does that mean he has someone on the inside?” she asked as I swapped a quick look with Ryder.
He sent me a concerned expression back that read This isn’t good.
“We may need to call in a favor. Who do we know and trust who can protect our people?” Reed quickly added, “I might not like my parents, but I’d prefer for them to continue breathing.
” One of these days, maybe the man would tell us more about himself other than slipping in clues that didn’t bode well for his upbringing.
“We already have Hudson and the Costas keeping an eye on Seraphina in New York. I don’t want to ask them to do more.” Ryder let go of Audrey and faced forward.
“Don’t those SEALs that work for POTUS run a security company as a cover story?” I asked at the memory. “They take on legit jobs on the side as well, right? They have retired SEALs working for them in a couple locations.”
“If POTUS won’t pull protection in for everyone, then I’ll make the call. I can see what Gray and his people can do for us, too. They might already be stretched thin, but it’s worth a shot.” Ryder grabbed his phone and wasted no time in sending texts.
I checked on Audrey, finding her hands no longer clenched together but now gripping her legs. “You okay?” I asked her, not sure what answer I expected to hear other than no.
“Trying to be,” she said softly. “I’m so sorry I’ve pulled you all into this mess.”
“We’re family. Don’t apologize,” Ryder responded. “By the way, that friend of yours, Hollis . . . she’s something else, huh? She demanded I send her updates three times a day about your safety, but she doesn’t seem to be concerned about her own.”
“Yeah, well, that’s Hollis for ya.” Something told me there was more to her best friend’s story than that, but no one in the vehicle pressed since we’d made it to our destination.
Once Reed parked inside the garage, I opened the door to get out. For the first time in my life, I wanted to be cold. I needed to put out the fire burning beneath my skin and extinguish the fury flying through me that Mitch had created.
“I’ll do a perimeter check,” I offered.
Ryder shut his door, standing in front of me while shaking his head. “No, you need to get inside and change your bandage. Reed will do it.” The man morphed into Delta One, going so far as to block my path. “Don’t argue with me. I’m not in the mood.”
I knew better than to fight fire with fire. So I soldiered forward, grabbed as many bags from the trunk as I could carry, then followed him and Audrey through the interior door after he’d unlocked it with the security code.
The cabin was quiet but prepared. Someone had been there ahead of time to set things up for us. The heat was even running. Kitchen probably stocked, too.
“Wyatt said there are three bedrooms upstairs. Primary downstairs,” Ryder said as I dumped the bags in the kitchen.
Audrey wandered off, her phone in hand, probably texting Trevor that we’d arrived and anxious to talk to Chase again.
“You take the room down here. I’ll stay upstairs next to her.
” Ryder picked up her bags, prepared to bring them to Audrey’s new quarters.
“Not that any of us will do much sleeping tonight.” He lifted his chin since his hands were full.
“Grab the medkit. Check your wound. Take more antibiotics if you have to. Need you in top shape.”
I nodded my roger that at his orders.
“Natasha and Wyatt should be calling soon. I’ll get the laptop set up in the living room in a minute,” he said before taking off.
Once I was alone, I braced my hands on the counter.
But before I let myself go off the deep end, thinking up a bunch of negative shit that didn’t belong in my head, my body went still.
Is that music? I followed the melodic and resonant notes as they became louder, more powerful.
If pain were ever to be described as a sound, that’s what it was. But it was also oddly peaceful.
I rounded the corner, surprised to find a doorless open space with a Yamaha, and Audrey parked behind it—playing.
Her eyes were shut as her fingers gracefully moved.
I leaned against the wall, mesmerized by the music. Well, by her.
One tear trailed down the length of her cheek as she played, and my hand climbed up my chest as I followed her fingers over the keys.
When her fingers came to a stop, she lifted her head and opened her eyes. She startled at the sight of me and hurried to stand. “I couldn’t help myself. I left my piano in storage in Virginia. I was worried it’d get damaged in the move. I’ll get it one day.”
“I, uh, had no idea you even played.”
“You didn’t ask,” she said, repeating what I’d said to her the other night about my Vegas-childhood question.
“What was that piece called? It was sad.”
She picked up her phone and headed my way. “It’s by Jurrivh. Called ‘Crying Alone.’”
“It was . . . well, you were incredible.” I wanted to reach for her. Be the one to take away her pain so she wouldn’t need to cry.
She stopped in front of me, tucking her hand into the collar of her protective vest as if uneasy wearing it.
“Let me get that off you,” I offered, and quickly went to work removing it so I wasn’t touching her too damn long. I tossed the vest off to the side. “Where’d you learn to play, and why’d you stop?”
I had a million more questions for her, and I knew now I’d need every single answer. I had to know everything about her.
“New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.” She gave me a small smile, letting her free hand fall to her side.
“I was part of an orchestra after college. We traveled. Performed.” She lowered her head, losing my gaze when she added, “That’s how I met Trevor.
Military ball in DC. He approached me after the performance. ”
Trevor. The roadblock between us, not Mitch. Not the man she was still technically married to.
“I apparently met Mitch that night at the ball, too. And we bumped into each other at another ball a few years later that I was attending as a guest, not performer. I’d been pregnant with Chase then and kind of dismissed him.
” Her shoulders fell with a sigh. “Our paths wound up crossing again after Trevor and I were divorced, and he said it was fate that we kept bumping into each other, so we should date.”
She visibly cringed, and I clocked every tremble of her body while taking a beat and a breath to recalibrate from the mere mention of that man’s name.
“Anyway, um . . . being pregnant, though, that’s why I stopped performing. That’s why I started this story, right?”
I gave her a small smile, nodding, when in reality the mere idea Mitch had ever been near her in the past had me wanting to swallow cyanide.
Or maybe forcing Mitch to take it. No, shit, what am I thinking?
Reed’s right, that’s too humane. Mitch needed a much uglier and more painful death for his third and final time dying.
“I told myself it’d be temporary until Chase was two or three, but then life happened and I just never went back. But maybe one day I’ll play again. That’s why I have so many, um—”
“Everything okay?” Ryder cut her off, killing my chance at learning why she had so many of something.
My guess? Lace. But how that related to playing the piano, I had no clue.
“You haven’t done what I told you,” Ryder grunted before we could answer him, pointing to my side as if I didn’t know my left from my right.
“You’re starting to love this Delta One thing a little too much.” I tried to pull off my typical joking tone, but to be honest, I was pissed.
Pissed at Ryder for coming in and interrupting us.
Pissed at Mitch for hurting her.
And pissed at myself, knowing that even if I kept letting my guard down around her, it’d never stay down for good.