Chapter Eleven
Eleven
Ryder tossed his uneaten supper in the sink.
The dish clanked, the sound jarring in his too-still, too-quiet home on Currin Ranch.
Damn it, he was tired of being ignored. He’d phoned Angela repeatedly since the meeting ended and she wasn’t answering. She hadn’t called back, much less sent a text in response to his voice mails.
Angela was going to have to talk to him eventually, so it might as well be now. The longer silence stretched between them, the tougher it would be to bridge that gap.
Sure, she’d sat at his side during the meeting, but other than that, she hadn’t spoken to him since he’d told her about Tatiana being Maya’s biological mother. Angela hadn’t even allowed him to apologize for keeping the secret from her. She’d just walked away, refusing to talk to him.
He could see how it would seem that he didn’t trust her not to tell Tatiana—her best friend—where her baby had gone. He couldn’t help but wonder if he’d kept the information from her because on some level, he had still been holding back from committing.
Whatever the reason, he owed her an apology. They had been engaged. He should have honored that commitment he’d made to Angela. It hadn’t been fair to expect her to build a relationship with Maya without all the facts.
He stalked to the foyer to snag his jacket and pluck his keys out of the carved wood bowl in the entryway. He pulled open the door and stopped short. Maya stood on the other side, her keys in hand.
Given how upset she’d been, he hadn’t expected to see her so soon. Except she didn’t look at all distressed. In fact, she had a hopeful gleam in her tired eyes. All that emotion in a short time must have been draining.
She pushed past him into the house, turning back to him, tentative but with a growing excitement building. “Guess what?”
Shrugging, he tried to imagine. A boy, maybe? Final grades were posted and she made the president’s list? Anything was possible. “I haven’t a clue.”
“I went to see my birth mother,” she blurted. “I told her I’m her daughter.”
He went cold inside. He’d figured she would want to meet Tatiana, but he hadn’t thought it would happen this soon, before she really had the chance to think through all the implications of the meeting.
To prepare herself for her birth mother’s potential reactions.
He wanted Maya to be happy, but he also wanted to protect her from hurt.
What if Tatiana didn’t want Maya in her life?
Although based on the happiness on his daughter’s face, it seemed the meeting had gone well. “What did Tatiana say?”
“She was so shocked.” Maya’s hands moved a million miles a minute as she spoke. “She definitely had no idea that you were raising her biological daughter.”
It had been her own family’s stipulation. Ryder had kept it a secret for good reason.
“And?” Questions piled up inside him, blanketed with a deep sense of foreboding. He could never place his concern, but something about Tatiana had always sent his senses skidding.
“She was glad to meet me. She said she’d never stopped loving me.
She cried.” Maya swiped away a fresh stream of tears rolling down her cheeks.
“She seemed happy, but something in her face made me really believe she regretted the decision, too, you know? Like maybe she’d begged her dad not to send me away?
She seemed so overwhelmed, I decided to give her some space to digest.”
Thinking of Tatiana’s pain sent his thoughts spiraling.
His daughter continued to share information about the meeting, but Ryder lost track of her words as bits and pieces of what had happened over the past several months swirled through his head.
Vincent Hamm’s death. His employee Willem Inwood going to prison for his role in a Ponzi scheme, a scheme he’d attempted to blame on Sterling Perry.
Decades of controversy over that one damn piece of land Harrington York had willed to Ryder, but both Sterling Perry and Sam Havery thought was rightfully theirs. The land had proved to be rich in oil, stoking the bitterness Perry and Havery harbored.
And the oddest piece in this whole puzzle. Inwood was Tatiana’s half brother. Ryder had thought it strange Inwood would do something that could jeopardize Tatiana’s position at Perry Holdings. But what if they had been colluding to get back at both Ryder and Sterling because of that land?
He could feel the blood drain from his face as he wrapped his brain around the possibility—probability—that Tatiana could have orchestrated those rumors to avenge what happened to her father. For having to give up her baby since she couldn’t offer her a future.
An even more horrifying prospect occurred to him. Could she have even killed Vincent?
No. That was a stretch. This was Angela’s best friend he was talking about…
Oh God. Angela.
He focused on his daughter again. “Maya, kiddo, I am so glad you’re happy.
” He didn’t even want to think of what it would do to his daughter if it turned out her newly found biological mother was a criminal.
“I want to hear all about it. But I need to take care of some quick business. Will you wait for me here?”
“Sure, Dad.” She backed away, smiling. “It’s okay, really. I have tons of things I want to write in my diary so I don’t forget anything about this day.”
She faded from sight in a flurry of teenage energy and red hair. A surge of protectiveness shot through him. For her. For Angela.
Heaven help anyone who tried to harm his family.
Gathering his keys and wallet, he tried to call Angela again. It went straight to voice mail. He tried Melinda’s number, willing her to pick up.
“Hello?” she said, her voice so like Angela’s, a shared twin timbre. “What’s going on, Ryder?”
His boots ate up the space to the garage. “Is Angela with you? She’s not answering her cell and I need to talk to her.”
“No, she’s not, but I’m at my condo with Slade packing up a few last things before I sell the place.” Melinda’s condo was in the same building as Angela’s. “Do you want me to go check on her?”
“Yes, please.”
“I’ll call you back from her place if she’s not there.”
“Thank you.” He didn’t want to worry Melinda, given her pregnancy, but he also didn’t want to waste a minute more.
Waiting for her to phone back felt like an eternity. He threw open the door of his truck and settled behind the wheel, ready to tear out of there if he needed to start a search.
His cell rang from where he’d placed it on the dash. Melinda. He jabbed the screen before the second tone could chime.
“Did you find her?” he asked without preamble.
“She’s not here, Ryder.” Melinda’s answer ramped up his concern. “But I found a note she left behind about some kind of meeting? It says, ‘T at the TCC building at 8 p.m.’ Does that make any sense to you?”
His grip tightened on the steering wheel. He didn’t want to believe the worst. But he knew in his gut, Angela was in grave danger. “Thank you, Melinda. You’ve been a big help.”
Without a second to waste, he peeled out of the garage. Plowing down the drive, he called for backup to meet him at the club.
Houston police detective Zoe Warren.
Royal sheriff Nathan Battle, who, thank God, was still in town.
Ryder knew they wouldn’t question him or write off his suspicions the way someone on the other end of a 911 call might. And sure enough, they agreed without hesitation. Zoe had been with Cord and Jesse, who were coming, as well.
The drive felt like an eternity even though he knew he’d made it in half the usual time. Pulling up behind the TCC building, Ryder didn’t know whether to be relieved or horrified to find Angela’s car parked beside another vehicle. Tatiana Havery’s?
Two more cars swept in, doors opening, as his backup arrived. Sheriff Battle raised a finger to his mouth for silence, then motioned for them to follow him.
Ryder’s heart raced as they entered the building, fast and silent, everything inside him telling him he needed to get to Angela. Now.
Muffled voices echoed down the corridor, female voices. Coming from the parlor.
Ryder bit back bile while the group crept closer. He kept his footfalls quiet as he picked his way forward, praying there wouldn’t be a squeaky floorboard. The voices grew louder, more distinctive.
Tatiana.
Angela.
And Esme?
Nothing about this scene made sense to him. How had it gotten to this point? How had Angela found herself in the crosshairs?
Another rolling wave of protective urges washed over his body. He needed to make sure Angela—and Esme—made it out alive. And in one piece.
Ryder shot a quick look at Jesse Stevens, the Royal rancher who was Cord’s close friend. His face was pale, his jaw flexing.
But he looked every bit as hell-bent on getting to the women as Ryder.
The door had a vintage stained glass inset. Shadows moved on the other side, muffled sounds seeping through…
“The Perrys and Currins have to pay for what they did to my father. To me. To my child.”
Tatiana.
Every muscle in Ryder tensed for action. He burned to push through that door now and to hell with caution.
Zoe paused, holding up a hand for them to wait. Nathan Battle nodded. This was Zoe’s jurisdiction. Her case. Her bust. But Ryder intended to be right on her heels.
Nathan’s lips thinned as he checked his weapon. Tension was so thick that it was tangible in the air.
Withdrawing her weapon, Zoe mouthed silently, “One, two…three.”
They moved as one, bursting into the room. Ryder’s hungry gaze devoured the sight of Angela. Alive.
And held at gunpoint.
“Tatiana,” Ryder called, distracting her for a split second, willing to risk taking a shot without hesitation. Angela’s life was at stake.
That second’s distraction was all it took for Zoe and Nathan to tackle Tatiana while Jesse pushed the two sisters out of the way of any potential gunfire. A single shot went wild and shattered the stained glass.
Then silence.
Sulfur from the gunfire tinged the air.