Favors for a Friend
Maddox
I tossed my cell onto the desk. I'd just gotten off the phone with Cal, and I wasn't happy.
Then again, I'd been unhappy for the past week-and-a-half, ever since Delaney had gone ballistic on me for no good reason.
I still didn't get it.
Normally, I was a decent judge of character. Even with Sloane, I'd known what to expect before agreeing to walk down that aisle.
Except I hadn't walked – or at least, not in the way everyone wanted. Who knows? Maybe the financial stuff was just the excuse I'd needed to tell my family to finally fuck off.
But it wasn't Sloane who had me frowning as I reached once again for my cell and pulled up Ryder's name.
I considered him a friend. He'd asked for a favor.
Find Delaney Sinclair.
I'd done it.
And then, I'd kept it to myself. Even worse, I was still keeping it for reasons I didn't care to analyze.
Outside my office windows, Chicago glittered against the darkness, with headlights and skyscrapers and people with places to be. But up here, it was dead silent.
It should've felt peaceful.
Instead, it just felt empty – but not nearly as empty as the place I called home. I'd been actively avoiding it ever since that blowup with Delaney.
The avoidance was ridiculous.
I'd known her for what? Two days?
More to the point, she had never set foot in the place where I actually lived.
Fuck.
But she might've, if things had turned out differently.
As far as the other penthouse – where we'd spent a deceptively happy afternoon – that place was a hard no-go.
Call me stubborn, but I wouldn't be setting foot in that building again.
I was still staring at my phone, wondering how to tell Ryder what I'd just learned from Cal.
It was related to Ryder's other favor – keeping eyes on Evan Carver, the guy who'd been giving Delaney's sister some trouble.
Just a week ago, I'd tipped Ryder off about an odd CPR mannequin that looked like Tessa and sent him a video of Tessa that maybe a month ago had been making the rounds.
Neither nugget had made him happy.
And this time, the news was worse.
Ryder needed to know – and sooner rather than later.
With a sigh, I pressed the number to dial. When Ryder picked up, I just laid it out there. "Bad news."
After a beat of silence, he asked, "What?"
I leaned back in my chair. "I lost him." Technically, my people had lost him, but that didn't change the facts.
"You mean Carver?" Ryder sounded incredulous. "Are you fucking serious?"
The guy had no idea. "What, you think I'm joking?"
"I hope you're joking."
I bit back a curse. "Yeah, well I'm not."
Twenty-four hours ago, I'd increased the surveillance on Carver from three people to five. It wasn't because the guy was clever. It was because the douchebag never seemed to sleep.
Plus, Ryder had been sending me so many texts, you'd think someone was stalking his wife.
Except he had no wife.
Instead, he was losing his mind over Tessa Sinclair. This wasn't like him.
Sounding dumbfounded, he asked, "So how'd you lose him?"
I let out a humorless laugh. "You're gonna love this. Someone nabbed him right off the street."
"Wait…nabbed him?"
I hadn't seen it personally, but I'd heard plenty from Cal. "Yeah. Dragged him into a big, black SUV. Could've been the feds, but I doubt it."
"Why do you say that?"
"Just a hunch." I considered Cal's latest report. "Word is, he owes a lot of money to the wrong people, so there's that."
From Ryder, there was utter silence.
I knew exactly what he was thinking.
Hell, I'd thought the same thing myself.
Maybe this wasn't a loss.
Maybe Carver disappearing solved more problems than it created.
Maybe the guy had finally run out of luck.
But that wasn't the point.
I kept quiet, giving Ryder time to think.
Finally, he asked the question I'd been waiting for. "Are you sure this is bad news?"
I let out a scoff. "It is to me. I promised to keep eyes on him."
"Yeah, so?"
"So, losing him wasn't part of the deal." What I didn't say was that the other part of the deal, finding Tessa's sister, had gone even more off the rails.
Yes, I'd found her.
And no, I hadn't told him.
But I had my reasons. Something still wasn't ringing true. For the thousandth time, I recalled Ryder's claim that Delaney had been missing.
She wasn't. Or at least, she hadn't been missing in the way Ryder had described.
Until I knew what that meant, I wasn't so eager to show my hand.
Did this make me a shitty friend?
Maybe.
Maybe not.
I was still trying to decide when Ryder asked, "So, what's next?"
I forced my attention back to where it belonged. "We'll continue to track it, watch his place in Chicago and other places he hangs out. Unless he's Hoffa, he'll surface eventually."
Alive, dead, or somewhere in between, he'd turn up one way or another.
The situation was ironic, really, considering that Carver had originally asked for my help in finding Tessa. Instead, I'd been helping Ryder keep Tessa safe.
Ryder was a friend. Carver wasn't. Simple as that.
On the phone, Ryder scoffed. "If you ask me, the Hoffa thing doesn't sound so bad."
No shit. Still, I wondered if he'd say it. "Meaning?"
Ryder paused for a long moment. "I'm just saying, I wouldn't be too disappointed if Carver never shows up."
Was that a hint?
Even without the Sloane thing, my reputation was dark enough that the comment sounded suspiciously like a request.
I stared out the window. The city stretched beneath me as I considered the benefits of solving the problem permanently. With my contacts, it would be laughably easy – a fact that wasn't exactly comforting.
Fuck Ryder Vaughn.
Favor or not, it wasn't my job to make his problems go away. But would he actually say it?
I didn't laugh as I said, "I can make that happen."
The line went quiet.
I'd intended it as a joke – or hell, maybe a test – but the thought still lingered. What would I do if someone I cared about were threatened?
Nothing good, that's for sure.
But then, Ryder laughed, breaking the spell. It wasn't his normal laugh. It was hard at the edges, like none of this was funny.
On that, I could relate.
And it wasn't until we'd gotten off the phone that I realized something. He hadn't once asked about Delaney.
And me?
Once again, I hadn't volunteered.