Chapter 6
The next hour is hectic. Ryker speaks on the phone to several people. He downloads the documents onto his machine and gets them to someone at his headquarters.
There's movement around the house as well.
His team is preparing to leave for a night mission.
I miss him already.
How ridiculous is that? He's got a job to do. I'm not it.
"Allison and Camile are going to be here the entire time I'm gone," Ryker says as he closes his laptop, sliding it into a tactical gear bag. "Security team stays posted. You don't go outside."
"I'll be fine," I reply, trying to sound brighter than I actually feel. "It will be nice to have some female company."
When he looks unhappy, I feel guilty. "Not that I mind your company," I add, "but you know what I mean."
His expression softens a fraction. Not that he ever really softens. That seems impossible for him.
"I'm not happy about leaving you here. I'd rather keep you close."
I'm sure he catches my quick intake of breath. "You go do your job."
"Like I said before, you're my job now too."
He did say that and I still can't really process those words.
"Be careful out there." I rise from the desk chair where I've been while he worked, and stretch my back. "I'll hold down the fort."
He gives me a look. A long one. "Stay out of trouble."
"Aye-aye captain."
This nearly makes him smile, but there's a single knock on the door.
"We're rolling," a male voice says from the hallway.
"Copy." Ryker doesn't look away from me. "Jade, don't go outside. Stay inside the house. Listen to the others, whatever they tell you to do."
"Wouldn't think of going outside and I'll be sure to do what they say. Promise."
With a tip of his chin he opens the door and vanishes.
Oh. Heavens.
I sag a little. Why does he make me feel like this?
I'm jittery, and warm, and there's a pain in my heart.
"Helllllooooo."
Two women fill the doorway, catching me staring blindly at the floor.
"Oh, hi."
"Oh, she's pretty," one of them murmurs.
The other grins, lifting her brows. "No wonder Ryker's acting like he's about to have an aneurysm."
I wince, not knowing what to do with my hands other than twist them together. "I probably give him heartburn."
The one with dark hair and a cute smile shakes her head. "He's burning alright, but not his stomach."
They swarm me, picking at the tray of food. "Don't worry, there's more where this came from."
Before I have time to blink, one of them has their elbow linked with mine. "Come on. Girl-time in the kitchen now that the guys are gone. We can make cocoa."
I'm speeding down the hallway, my bare feet on the wooden floor a second later.
They're like two bees. Pulling out mugs, reassembling a snack tray, one of them getting out the ingredients for cocoa.
"This place is well stocked. It's not what I pictured a safe house to be like."
"Oh, some of them are rough," the blonde woman says as she pulls a giant spoon from the drawer. "I'm Allison by the way. But generally, Agile has freaking amazing safe houses. We've even got a cave."
"A cave? As in Batman?"
"Oh no," the redhead says, "the cave is a five star resort. I'm sure Ryker will take you there."
"Uh---"
They both grin at me at once. "We both felt like deer in headlights at first."
"He's just. We just. It's really not like that."
Allison settles on the stool beside me. "There's something you should probably know about former SEALs."
I'm staring at her when she pats my wrist. "They don't know how to stop."
"Good god, you can say that. And I'm Camile, by the way." She's adorable. Red hair, bright eyes, confidence exuding from her pores.
"Nice to meet you, Camile and Allison. I'm Jade."
"We know," they say at once.
"That's not creepy," Allison says, returning to her cocoa making operations.
The conversation bounces around for another ten minutes until they wrap up preparations and declare that the party is moving to the living room.
They don't ask me questions. They don't even seem to notice my bruises. Or they're too polite to bring it up.
For the first few moments, I can't even think of joining the conversation. My throat is burning with tears.
Please don't let them notice.
"Great cocoa, don't you think?" Camile asks me.
I nod, wrapping my hands tighter around the warm mug. These women have no idea how foreign this feels. Sitting somewhere comfortable. Warm drinks. Easy laughter. No dread creeping up my spine.
Except it is.
Because even as they entertain me with stories of how they met their guys and a few stories about the Agile Security team parties, the files I showed Ryker keep flashing behind my eyes.
Those names. Those ages. Confirmed. Placement.
Real people. Some of them probably not much older than me.
I take a sip of cocoa and the sweetness tastes wrong against the acid in my stomach.
What if my father knows exactly what's happening to them? What if it's not just negligence—not just a lazy sheriff closing cases? What if he's part of it?
The mug trembles in my hands and I set it down before anyone notices.
Don't go there. Not right now.
I force myself back to the conversation, catching the tail end of Camile describing how Beast apparently showed up to a formal event in tactical pants.
"In his defense," Allison says, "Truck wore his combat boots to our first dinner together."
“That's... oddly charming," I say, and they both look at me like I've passed some kind of test.
Allison gets a text message that makes her scramble off the floor. "Girls, Truck wants us to go to the safe room. Now."
No explanation. No context. Just now.
The temperature in my blood drops ten degrees.
Camile's already moving, taking my arm and pulling me from the couch. "It's okay. This happens sometimes. It's precautionary."
But her grip is tighter than her voice is calm.
We move fast through a hallway I haven't been in before. Allison punches a code into a panel and a heavy door swings open, revealing a windowless room with reinforced walls, monitors, and enough supplies to stay for days.
"Inside," Allison says, pulling the door shut behind us. The lock engages with a heavy thud that rattles through my chest.
The monitors flicker to life—security feeds showing the perimeter, the driveway, the tree line beyond.
Nobody says anything. We watch the screens.
My eyes burn from not blinking. Every shadow on those feeds looks like a man. Every flicker of branch movement looks like someone approaching.
Trevor's face keeps surfacing in my mind. The casual way he merged into traffic after hitting me. Like it was nothing.
He found me once. He'll find me again.
A half-hour later, we get the all clear. Allison's phone buzzes with a message that makes her exhale and press a hand to her chest.
"We're good. False alarm on one of the perimeter sensors."
Camile squeezes my hand. "See? No big deal."
But the damage is done.
I smile at them both because they've been nothing but kind, but there won't be any sleep for me tonight.
When I finally settle back into the twin bed in the room Ryker put me in, I pull the blankets to my chin and stare at the ceiling.
The stuffed frog from my car is on the nightstand. Someone brought it in.
Ryker.
My eyes sting as I reach over and tuck it under my arm.
The only question left is whether this feeling in my chest—this terrifying, gravitational pull toward a man I met hours ago—is the safest or the most dangerous thing that's ever happened to me.