Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
“Where are we?” she asked, staring up at the huge brick warehouse downtown.
“You’ll see.” He turned off the ignition and got out, and she was quick to follow.
She’d passed this building a million times before, but she had absolutely no idea what was inside.
There were no signs on the building, nothing to indicate what she was walking into.
Would they even find her dead body inside?
Ryker slid his key into the lock and punched some numbers on a security pad before he shut and locked the door again. “This is me.”
She glanced around the bottom floor of the empty industrial building. “Did you decorate yourself?”
A smile split his lips as he led her to the elevator and hit the button. “You’re the only person, besides Eve and my brother, that I’ve brought here.”
Harper stepped on the elevator and glanced up at the cameras in the corners.
This guy had security on steroids. Even those steroids had steroids.
Images of a movie she’d once seen drifted through her mind, where the woman was pinned to the elevator wall.
Her grin grew wider, unable to shake the naughty thoughts of being with the dangerous man.
“I’m guessing you’ve never had sex on this elevator. Because you know, that would just be…naughty.” Bend her over and slap her ass kinky.
“Are you offering?” He reached for the emergency button.
Yes. “No.” She stepped off of the elevator into a foyer.
A beautiful painting hung on the wall. The trees looked similar to the ones she’d drawn.
Only these were in sharp, vivid colors of greens and brown, and hers were in ink blue.
“You have a painting. I wouldn’t have ever guessed you had an eye for art. ”
He ran his hand over the dried paint. “I don’t. Eve painted this for me.”
“It’s beautiful.” Her heart clenched in sadness. Pain reflected in his eyes as he stared at the trees.
“Behind the trees,” she whispered.
“What did you say?” he asked.
“The memory stick Grant was looking for. I’d said it was behind the trees.” She slipped the folded picture out of her pocket and handed it to him. “Similar to these, but different. Did Eve paint more?”
He unfolded the picture and smiled at her makeshift drawing. “This is what you drew today?”
“Yeah. I’m no artist, but I was trying to recall what I saw when I said behind the trees.”
He grabbed Harper and swung her around, the smile on his face ginormous.
“Whoa there, big fella. I want off this merry-go-round.”
“I could kiss you.” He slowed and sat her down. “The picture you drew is one of her paintings.” He pointed to the lone flower behind the clump of trees. “She must have hidden it behind the painting.”
Okayyyy. She walked farther into his place. “Before we run off, will you at least tell me why you brought me to your secret bat-cave.”
“I’m no hero,” he said, walking past her.
“Villain lair? Do villains have lairs, or are they called hideouts?”
He turned and lifted his brow.
“What? You look like a guy who would know.” She followed him, gazing around the room, one side livable and the other looked like a picture straight out of spy novel.
There was a rack of guns and sharp, pointy things along one wall.
“That’s an accident waiting to happen. Or fate.
” She shrugged. “Haven’t you ever seen the movie Final Destination? ”
“No.”
“Not a big movie fan.” She pointed to the wall of monitors. The pictures on the screen were of inside her house and around her property. She felt violated and a little turned on. “You must be into reality TV. So, this is what you’ve been watching?”
“Don’t worry, you didn’t pick your nose.” He chuckled.
She shrugged. “Could be worse. I like to dance naked, and I have absolutely no rhythm.”
“I would have paid to see that.” He moved to the monitors and stroked a few more buttons, making the pictures on the screens change to the front of her office building.
He sat in the chair and rewound the video to the point he saw Harper locking the office door and pulling her suitcase. He stopped and hit Play.
“That’s Grant,” she said, gesturing to the man talking to her on the street.
“No, it’s not.” He clicked a few more buttons, and a face appeared on another screen that looked nothing like the man she’d spoken to. “That’s Grant.”
“Well, who the hell is that?” she asked pointing to the man showing her Ryker’s picture.
“My brother,” he said, pushing away from the computer. He turned in the chair and rested his hands on her hips. “He’s more dangerous than I am, Harper. I need to know if you told him about me or about giving Grant my sister in law’s location.”
“I said I don’t know you, and that I wouldn’t recognize you if I passed you on the street.” Her eyes searched his as a sinking feeling rested in the pit of her stomach. “Why?”
“He blames me for her death. The fact I encouraged her to use her abilities. He’ll do anything to get back at me, including killing you so that I will feel his pain.”
Talk about overkill, but she was sure grief made normal people do strange and deranged things.
“He had his chance.” She gestured to the screen. “Why didn’t he take it?”
Ryker shrugged. “I’m not sure what his plan is, unless he’s waiting to do it in front of me, or maybe he hasn’t put all the pieces together.”
“And I thought my family was nuts. I’m pretty sure yours takes first prize.”
“Yours is still nuts, in a dipped-in-sugar kind of way. Mine’s just dipped in arsenic instead. Let me just say that my family is the reason I’m good at my job. You come from a long line of psychics; I come from a long line of not-so-nice people, only I took the legal path.”
“I’ll bet you didn’t bring many girls home.”
He dropped his gaze. She could tell when he was keeping something from her. He was quiet without any quips. He looked like a boy who had lost his childhood dog.
“Eve was my best friend. I brought her home and introduced her to my brother. It was love at first sight and they married within 6 months. I was happy for them, you know. The women in our lives don’t tend to stick around long when they see the real us.
Eve was different. She was a sweet soul, trying to make us whole. ”
“She sounds like someone I would have instantly liked.” Harper gave him a sad smile. He rose from his spot and cupped her cheek. The electricity between them sizzled from his touch.
“She already liked you.” He smiled. “You’ve talked to her too.”
“I don’t understand.”
“My company was courting her, like Grant was using you. She had premonitions they were doing unethical things, and she couldn’t bring herself to commit.”
“Do you think they were doing anything unethical?”
He pinched his lips together. “Yeah, I do. I worked in security for them. I was trained to detect any outside threats, but I would have never guessed that the people I worked for were the dangerous ones. When she brought it up, I started paying closer attention and piecing things together, but we didn’t have enough to prove it.
” He cleared his throat. “Anyway, you told her you got a bad vibe from the offer and the location, so she declined, but couldn’t let things rest.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. She was stubborn, just like you.
She wanted my help proving what she’d seen, but knew no one would believe her, so I offered to help her find the evidence.
She was getting information from other sources too, but she wouldn’t tell me who.
I encouraged her. That was the first of a lot of bad ideas I’d given her, including coming clean with her family.
They practically disowned her. I guess you could say I started her on this path.
I promised to help her bring down the company I worked for, and when the dust settled, I told her I’d help her try and buy into yours.
She just wanted to be happy, Harper, and I wanted to be the one to give it to her since her own family turned out to be douche bags. ”
“How did Grant figure out she had a memory drive, and why does he want it?”
Ryker shrugged. “I’m not sure unless he was the other source she mentioned that was giving her information.
All I know is the guy claimed to be psychic when he was actually a fraud.
He used Eve and you to help get through his assignments.
Why he was there to begin with, is as much a mystery as to how he knew about the memory drive.
The day she called and claimed to have what we needed is the day she died and he went missing.
His fingerprints were found at Eve’s place. ”
Harper’s eyes searched his when he rested his hand on her hip. “And what about your brother?”
“My brother.” Ryker sighed. “I thought I was doing Eve a favor. I promised to protect her. He blames me for her death, and he should. I blame myself. I ruined her life in more ways than one. She lost her family and her life because of me.”
She wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head on his chest. “Families can suck. But you didn’t kill her any more than I did. We aren’t the monsters responsible, but I’m going to help you shine light into the darkness of the person who did.”
“If my brother doesn’t kill you first.” He kissed the top of her head.
“If your brother doesn’t kill me first.” She glanced up at him with a lopsided grin. “I know how to help.” Her smile grew as excitement coiled through her veins. “You want to know exactly what happened to your sister-in-law and who killed her? I can tell you. It’s just going to be a bit tricky.”
“I can do tricky, and I can keep you alive, if you just trust me.”
“I do,” she said, meaning it with every fiber of her being.
Ryker kissed her long and hard, lifting her into his arms. His tongue dove between her lips, tasting and teasing. Her legs straddled his waist as his hands cupped the globes of her ass.
“I have a few other tricks I’d like to show you first.”