Chapter 28
RYDER
Michael practically stumbled out of the house with Blake, his eyes wide and frantic as I approached with the family lawyer I’d spent all day trying to convince to take the emergency hearing.
“What is this?” Michael snapped. “We still have the hearing! You’re not taking him!”
Stepping in front of him, I pressed my hand against his chest before he did something stupid. “This is Marie Jacobs. She’s a family lawyer, and she’s agreed take your case.”
“What? No, I told you I wanted you!”
“I’m not versed in family law,” I emphasized, hoping he’d calm his shit down and listen. “There are procedures and so much other shit that I can’t possibly learn in a day. I’ll be there with you at the hearing, but Marie can effectively argue your case.”
“Parker,” Blake said quietly, placing her hand on his arm. Slowly, he backed off, the muscles in his body loosening just a little. “Let’s hear her out.”
“Marie is going to stay with you and get up to speed on the case.”
“Wait, you’re leaving?” Michael said, suddenly worked up again.
“I have other cases I need to deal with, and a secretary who arrived early this morning for her first day on the job. I wasn’t there, and I’m not even sure if she’s still there. Trust me, Marie is very good.”
It didn’t matter how much I told him everything would be fine. He was on edge and would be until this whole thing was over.
“Can you drive her back to town when she’s done interviewing you?”
“Yeah,” he nodded.
But it was Blake who guided Marie into the house while Parker stood outside, trying to regain his composure.
“I’m not just shoving this off on another person. This is the best route.”
“I know that,” he croaked out. “I’m just…”
Shoving his fingers through his tousled hair, he paced away from me.
“Your devotion to Wes is a positive thing, but if you go into that courtroom and look like you want to murder someone, you’ll only lose. Listen to Marie and give her everything she needs. Don’t hide a damn thing from her. Any surprises will only hurt your case.”
He nodded. “What about…the dishonorable discharge?”
“You have the letter from the president. Make sure you give that to Marie. Explain the entire situation, how you came to have the charges overturned, and the heroic actions that earned you the right to have your case reviewed. I know you see that DD as a stain on your reputation, but you saved the whole fucking world. Any judge will see that and know what a true hero you are.”
“Or they’ll see me as reckless.”
I clapped him on the shoulder and gave a squeeze, hoping to reassure him. “Like I said, Marie will know how to handle this. Trust her.”
Sighing, he finally agreed and headed inside. Checking my watch, I cursed myself in the fading sunlight. This day had turned out to be nothing like I had planned, and instead of breaking in a new secretary, I’d left her alone at the office. I wasn’t even sure if she’d waited for me.
Getting back into my car, I headed back to the office, wishing I could just drive across the property and lay my head down for a few minutes in my bed. Hell, I’d take the couch right now, even if it was too damn small.
Pulling up to my office, I was more than a little concerned when I saw not only police tape around my office door, but Mav, Remi, and his brother Wayne all standing on the sidewalk.
All in their uniforms.
“Fuck,” I whispered to myself, wondering what the hell happened now.
I shoved the door open and barely had a foot out the door when I was attacked by a weeping Ellie, who wrapped her body around mine, squeezing the life out of me.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” I asked, rubbing her back as I tried to extract myself from my vehicle without hurting her.
Tears streamed from her eyes, trailing over my neck as her whole body shook against mine. Worry began to creep into every pore of my body at her reaction. This was worse than when her shop had been destroyed, and suddenly, the thought that someone had died shot through me.
“Hey, tell me what happened, Ellie,” I said, prying her out of my arms.
Her bloodshot eyes sent a stab of pain right through my chest. And even as she tried to collect herself, it was clear that she was too distressed to talk.
Tugging her back into my arms, I ran my hand up and down her back, hoping to give her any comfort I could. It took five damn minutes for her to finally calm down, and when she did, she looked embarrassed as hell.
Bending over to meet her downcast eyes, I lifted her chin, forcing her to meet my gaze. “Do you want to tell me what this is about?”
Sniffling, she swiped at her nose. “You didn’t come home last night.”
Confusion wrapped a tight band around my chest. “I know. It was late and I didn’t want to wake you.”
“And then this morning…I texted you, I called you…The secretary said the door was open when she got here.”
The sadness in her voice suddenly turned to rage. “She didn’t know where you were. I called you! I texted you!”
“I was working,” I huffed out a laugh, a little surprised by the anger in her voice.
“So busy you couldn’t send off a message to let me know you were okay?”
“Ellie, it was a time-sensitive situation. I haven’t checked my phone all day. I’m sorry you were upset, but I was working.”
She scoffed, spinning out of my arms. “You should have fucking called!”
My mouth opened to respond, but I never got the chance. She turned on me, the anger in her eyes reaching volcanic levels.
“I called your parents! I went to your house and searched through every possible thing that might give me some clue as to where you were! I called your fiancée!”
The hilarity of the situation suddenly wasn’t so funny. “You did what?”
“Yeah, I called her. Bianca,” she bit out.
“What the fuck were you thinking?”
“I was thinking that I couldn’t find you!
I was thinking that something had happened to you.
There was no sign of your car. No one around town had seen you all day.
You didn’t stop for food. You didn’t grab a coffee.
You had literally vanished from the town!
And all I could think of was that you had been kidnapped or crashed outside of town somewhere!
It was an insane hope of mine that you had headed back to New York in some desperate attempt to get your fiancée back! ”
I was still stuck on the fact that she now knew I had a fiancée—that she had called her.
“Where the fuck were you?” she shouted.
“You called Bianca?” I bit out.
“That’s all you have to say?” she laughed. “You went missing! I was ready to call the FBI!”
And that would have been sweet of her if not for the fact that she went behind my back and called my ex-fiancée. The slow simmer that started in my gut the moment she mentioned Bianca was now working its way up to a steady boil.
I did not need this right now. I didn’t need to think about the woman I left behind or be reminded of why I never wanted to go back to New York. I had work to do, but now all this shit was surging through my head, reminding me of feelings I’d rather have left behind.
But they were on the surface now, bubbling up and threatening to boil over. Spinning away from her, I pinched the bridge of my nose and tried to push the negative thoughts from my head.
“Ryder—”
“Just fucking stay out of my business!” I shouted, losing my shit the more she pressed. “I didn’t fucking ask you to call Bianca, and I sure as shit didn’t need you to get the whole goddamn town in an uproar because I was working and didn’t check in with you.”
“I was worried,” she argued, not backing down.
Narrowing my eyes at her, the words left my mouth before I could think better of it. “And when did we ever say anything about you hounding me because I didn’t come to your place and fuck you for one night?”
She flinched back, hurt slashing across her face as Remi let out a low whistle behind her.
This whole thing was a fucking spectacle that I didn’t need. I was just trying to do my job, and in one day, my life had gone up in flames around town, all because I didn’t check in with my mistress.
I internally flinched at the thought, but didn’t bother to correct myself. She was nothing more than a woman I was sleeping with. That was the negotiation we’d agreed upon when we started sleeping together. If she started to think it was something more, that was on her.
“You’re an ass,” she seethed.
“Yeah, I’ve been called worse!” I called out as she turned and stormed away.
Remi strode up to me, scratching his jaw as he did his best not to laugh at me. “So, uh…I guess I can call off the search party.”
I rolled my eyes. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
“The lady was worried about you—thought you’d been kidnapped.”
“That’s just ridiculous.”
“Yeah, maybe. Then again, your stuff was in your office, the door was unlocked, and you weren’t answering your phone for anyone. Maybe she was getting carried away. Then again, even Mav thought it was a good idea to start investigating.”
I was tired as hell, not at all in the mood to deal with this, but maybe he was right. “It wasn’t intentional. I was just busy.”
“Next time, don’t leave a terrified secretary to answer your questions. Pretty sure she won’t show up again tomorrow after half the department stormed your office.”
Just one more fucking thing to deal with. “Thanks, Remi.”
“Don’t thank me. I just work here.”
Chuckling, I stepped over the caution tape and looked around my office. Things were slightly messed up, but that was probably normal, considering they were looking for proof that I had been taken hostage. My secretary was long gone, but there was a pot of coffee.
Snagging a mug, I poured myself a cup, then grimaced. Cold. It had probably been sitting there all day. Well, that was just fucking perfect.
“You know, you have the temper of a bulldozer,” Mav said, walking into the office.
“Not sure inanimate objects can have tempers.”
“She was just worried about you.”
“Well, she shouldn’t have been. I was working.”