“I don’t even want to know what you’re sorry for,” Ryder said as Reed, Gray, and Hollis met us outside by our two parked SUVs. “And for the record, you only owe me an apology if you ever break her heart.” He slipped on his Ray-Bans, only to pull them down to steal a look at me. “That better never happen.”
He handed the flash drive off to Gray, who had a laptop open, ready to confirm the contents.
“So, what song was it?” I deflected.
“‘River Flows in You’ by Yiruma. Only song I figured Mitch might be able to play the first few notes of. He used to whistle along, but only stayed in sync for the first few seconds. It was his favorite, though.”
“Music?” Hollis swooped in and pulled Audrey off for a sidebar conversation, asking her, “What happened in there?”
I joined the guys as Ryder removed a letter from the envelope.
He quietly read it over, his chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm, unease settling on his face. “An ‘if anything happens to me’ letter from Mitch.” He removed his sunglasses and shook his head, then motioned for Audrey to rejoin us. “There’s a note for you at the end.” He handed her the letter.
I folded my arms and closed my eyes, not sure I wanted to know what his parting words to her were. Not after everything he’d put her through.
Audrey’s voice was shaky as she read out loud: “If you’re reading this without me, that means I didn’t make it. I’m sorry. I didn’t want to pull you into this, but I knew I could only protect you by keeping you in the dark while also requiring Rhett to need you if he were to ever find out what I knew. I didn’t know who to trust, but I hope you finished what I tried to start.”
At her pause to take a breath, I opened my eyes, needing to take a deep one myself.
“I know I’ve been acting weird lately. Drinking too much. Stressed. I hope it all makes sense now. I’m still sorry, though. But in truth? I haven’t been the best husband anyway, have I? Not sure if a dead man’s sorry isworth anything, but if it is? I am. Hope you find someone who actually deserves you. I know I never did. Take care, Audi.” She looked up from the letter at me. “Signed it with his usual em dash andHell.” She handed the letter back to Ryder.
“He was right about one thing: He didn’t deserve you,” Ryder said under his breath as he folded the letter. “So, we good?” he asked Gray.
“He didn’t have evidence on POTUS’s SEAL teams, either. Just Stratos. But it’s all here. Everything my dad will need to take them off the map for good,” Gray confirmed before closing the laptop.
“We’d assumed Mitch might have intel on the teams because of that lie Beth had originally fed us. Since it wasn’t him behind this, looks like the only one who had any evidence on the teams—”
“Already handed it over to us by Beth,” I finished for Ryder. And that reminded me, would I still be keeping up my end of the deal by visiting her in person? One thing at a time.
“What do we do now?” Audrey circled her brother to get back to me, looping her arm around my back, pinning herself to my side.
“We take you to Chase, and we put all this behind us,” Ryder told her. “And then I pick up the love of my life in New York.”
I turned toward Audrey and leaned in to set my mouth to her ear. “And I also tell you what I said to you in Spanish last night.”
I ignored the eyes and awkward throat-clears around me, prepared to translate, but she beat me to it.
“I remembered some of it.” She pulled back to tilt her chin up at me, smiling. “I looked it up on the way here.”
“Oh, did you?”
“Curiosity got the best of me.” Hand to my chest, she whispered back what I’d said in Spanish, but added one word at the end: “Crazy or not, I’m falling in love with you,too.”
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Audrey
Fort Collins, Colorado
“Coffee?”
I looked over at my future sister-in-law, who was nudging an oversize mug my way. I must’ve been in a daze—and I was also burning the eggs, wasn’t I?
Lowering the heat on the stove, I accepted the java with a quiet “Thank you.”
Seraphina didn’t say anything right away, just took a sip of her own and watched me, the way people do when they’re making sure you’re still breathing.
We hadn’t originally come to this place by choice, but now that we were being told we could leave tomorrow, I found myself not wanting to go.
